Esh

WAIT! You found a Lo Jack in your new car. That's insane, the dealers face may have been priceless, but did he have any explanation as to how it got there?

MBenzNL

wow - thanks for all the thumbs up...I should do a similar thread for my E220CDI (that came out way nicer then this E55 IMHO)

mail me or send me a PB

the interior motion sensor is a factory add-on to the towing alarm...it will trigger the alarm when it senses motion inside the car (when parked with an open window or roof for example)...the newstyle steering wheel requires a new steering column module (all stalks, cover, angle sensor and SRS ring on the steering column) and that steering column module requires a connectorchange

enough to know that I will be keeping it for a while

MBUSA and their dealers did...this was one of those introduction models at lowest possible selling price

I am fine with the front...the rear might need have to go a bit down in the future though...after my C270CDI I am kind of done with the slammed look

...well...that was probably caused by the fact that I have spend too much time in the US already...I am starting to get an "I-want-it-yesterday-and-not-tomorrow" kind of attitude

no wories thomas, we will get you at 100% somewhen in the future...hmmm, maybe I should not have given you my 55 as a lental car...

...this is nothing yet compared to what I did to my dutch E220CDI...
http://www.mbenznl.nl/index.php?opti...id=28&catid=13

yeah - right

easy - sell one of your planes and get it over with

having driven his E350 many times AND having driven many other gutted cars (like my old C250D, C270CDI, E220CDI, E55, my friends E500, C270CDI, my wifes A170CDI), I can honestly say NO
I changed the blue cloth no-nonsens interior from my 1993 C250D out for a full optioned gray leather interior and have driven almost 600.000km with the car after that...no problems, no rattles.

I haven't...I am still dutch

greetingz,

Ol'School

MBenzNL,

I can not tell you how much I enjoyed your thread, it's definately one of the most enjoyable ones. I always wanted to learn about all the options the car has, yet unfortunately was always too lazy to start searching. I like your passion for originality. However, I have a few questions about the whole retrofitting process:

1) Since you seem to have been doing this for a long time now, doesn't - like one of the guys up there mentioned - the interior start squeaking and rattling when you disassemble and reasseble it? on the long run perhaps.

2) Did you do the retrofitting at a dealership? Did it cost you as bad as I think it did?

Thanks again for sharing and I hope there's more to come.





am I the only one who thinks the CLS wheels looked great on the car ?

Edit: 1st Q anwered

RDSBENZ

WOW!

Maddic

Definitely one of a kind of car after ur transformation...great work and love ur work for originality...

MBenzNL

I did the work myself (obviously) and do this kind of work FOR dealerships as well (in the netherlands, germany and the US)...I am sure that it didn't cost me half as bad as you think and most probably not even half that.

and before anybody suggests it could/would/should have been cheaper to buy a fully loaded E55 to begin with... - ...probably not AND I do NOT like owning/driving a car "off the shelf"

greetingz,

MJ50

yup!
someone said "friends don't let friends drive stock

t-bone

I can always just let myself think I'm close to being done. It will happen one day.

But at least it's nice to know that even after all these years there is still some new stuff to do with the W211.

Oxygen

How long/costly of a task is to to retrofit 433/434 Drive Dynamic Seats?

MARK CUMMINS

Two options

Retrofit your seats with bladders and new seat covers New Pse and lines harness etc

or

Complete seats with Drivedynamic and any other options that you need

Contact Mbenznl.com for current prices

We replaced the front seats on our 211 with Full option seats Heated/Vented/Massage/Multicontour/Drive dynamic

Btw the OLD seats make great Office Chairs

The Godfather

ROTFL!!!! Freaking Steve

I honestly, don't know what I wanna get done next that's OEM that I would REALLY enjoy daily. Any suggestions?

The Godfather

Oh wait you can retroffit the current seats to get the dynamic option? **** I may do that then... Will my rolls interfere with their functionning though? LOL

MARK CUMMINS

DISTRONIC....Once you have it You WILL Understand why you NEED it

bobgodd

If you don't have Drive Dynamic heated/ventilated seats, I highly suggest it. I would honestly say that I use it daily; as soon as I step in the car even!

Surf Blau

From what I know it depends a lot on how lowered your car is and what tire size you are using. I currently have 18" CLS-wheels (non-AMG) on the winter tires of my 2005 E200CDI (Yeah, I live in Norway, we have snow here), and despite the ridicolously low ET of 28 up front and 18 in the rear, I've never experienced any rubbing. Mind you though, I only have 225-tires on those as I don't want too wide tires during winter. Here are a few pics;





Since my car has also been modified by MBenzNL, I might chip in on the rattling-issue as well; When I bought my car in December 2007 it had 318.000km (about 200.000miles) on the clock, and despite the high-mileage it was 100% rattle-free inside. During the modification performed by MBenzNL the whole interior was removed and replaced with new used parts - after everything had been put back together again, it was still 100% rattle-free. Having driven it for about 15.000miles since the modifications, it still is.


@Steve; Please let me know if you want me to remove the pictures I posted, after all this is a thread about your car - which looks great by the way, can't wait to see it in real life!

Marcus Frost

Steve,

Two comments...

Remember that "engineering with reason" also equates to "engineering with a budget". To assume that because Mercedes did it, it's always the best possible solution is being somewhat naive, IMO. Mercedes has many constraints when it engineers it's vehicles, including budget/government regulation/etc that we may not necessarily agree with, nor that are in the best interest of a perfectly performing vehicle.

AMG does not manufacture their own brakes, it contracts the work to Brembo. If you look at the GT kit and the OEM kit side to side it's easy to see the OEM kit is a cheaper, less modular version of the GT kit. AMG doesn't want you to have the rotor options from Brembo's full line, nor the pad options, so it changed a few things to keep you coming back to MB for their overpriced replacement parts.

I emailed you a while back about the OEM modifications for my R230, but didn't hear back.

-m

MARK CUMMINS

WOW..its still in one piece?

You will see it if you visit the US in April....Not Sure IF Steve will let you drive the fity fi with your track record one would understand why

Plan a few extra days...my garage floor is calling you


Back on track

Steve also gutted my W210 in 2001 and its still quiet NO Rattles/squeaks
all of his work is Top quality..Unlike dealers that reinstall parts WITH Broken Tabs and clips...Steve will spend the time to replace the damaged or broken items

The Godfather

I NEVER use cruise control though.... would it still be revolutionary to me? I need to take a ride in a distronic car to see what the fuss is all about then. My dad had the radar cruise in the Lexus and I never used it.

Again, something I'd have to experience to see if it's REALLY worth it to me. I tohught I was doing an expensive mod in two weeks, but turns out it got sold from under me, soooo..maybe I can do something afterall..we shall see..


Holy ****, Surf Blau! Where's the blue 190 at?!? haha This is Dr. ///AMG from benzsport btw

Tritech

My local MB dealer claimed distronic is impossible to add. Sad that I find this out now before I'm about to sell the car...

MARK CUMMINS

Yes Some dealers are clueless

A Neighbor works for MBUSA and He saw my cars before ..then After

Told Steve If he wanted a Job to let him know
Because of all the early 211s that MBUSA Bought back because of the Comand issue...They stated that Comand could NOT be retrofitted if the car was built without it..That was in 2003 we all now know that it is possible.....

Marcus Frost

I had Distronic on my '04 SL600. Worthless. Everytime someone says they can't live without it I just cannot comprehend why. MAYBE if you sit in traffic every day or take long road trips every other day it would be someone useful, but the idea that once you have it you can't live without it is a bit of a stretch.

I have no interest in adding it to any of my cars.

-m

aleksandar1099

I sit in traffic everyday

How useful is it in traffic....

Marcus Frost

Distronic allows you to control the distance between you and the car in front of you... so in traffic it allows for less driver input. To be honest I didn't daily drive my 600 so I rarely sat in traffic with it. I do see traffic occasionally with my 55 and GL, and still, I just don't really see the need for it. Maybe if I saw daily traffic of 60 minutes+ daily...

-m

bobgodd

What would happen if someone was blasting through traffic and cut in front of you; would the car slam on the brakes?

That would suck.

ChicagoX

Nice car, terribly chauvinistic comment.