I have been driving v-dubs all my life. Currently have a 1.8T stage III mk2 GTI. And dont get me wrong i love the 94 octane fumes, the 15 year old radio and speakers, the bumpy loud ride and 320 to the wheels in a tin can. But after getting one of these for a day from my buddy I fell in love.... v8 monster that you can take ur kid to the park in.

I have some money to spend on a car, and after being picky for a long time it let me afford this.

So I know how forums work so I will ask you a few questions I think you will easily have the answers to.

1. Suspension options? With all the options like comfort and sport what kind of suspension do i Need to retain all that.

2. what are some common problems?

3. how much does the chip cost (roughly)

4. rule of thumb on wheels? whats the ideal size for performance?

5. My plan was chip exhaust suspension and wheels right off the top... any other suggestions that arent too extensive?

6. can cd player go any louder??!! radio seems fine but its as if factory the audio level is lover on cds

heres my little beaner...

 

Haha, I know what you're saying, old cars are fun, and I bet your GTI is a blast to throw around some corners.

1. What do you mean with the suspension options? The E55 comes with Airmatic DC semi-active air suspension, it has 3 modes for operation, a super-comfort mode, an in-between setting, and a much more aggressive setting. You only need to press a button to choose what you want. There isn't much you can do to tune the suspension, other than lowering it. I think through the Star diagnostic system, you might be able to have someone tune the parameters of the system, not sure. Someone else chime in here.

2. Depending on what you're looking to get out of the car, you might want to make sure your S/C belt is ok, and that it is not slipping. Another big big thing is the intercooler pump. Just do a search on this, you'll see that almost everyone here has had an issue with this. The best thing to do is to get the upgrade kit to the Johnson pump. The stock one can shut down, and doesn't provide enough cooling sometimes. Others can speak to any other issues that crop up, overall these are pretty solid cars.

3. For this car, it's not a plug n play, it needs to be reflashed, and so the tuning needs to be done on site, a LET tune which most around here seem to love, is about $800, and to get the VRP package 1, which has a pulley and ECU, and filters, its about $2400 but you will gain more with the pulley.

4. Depends who you talk to. Are you looking to drag racing, or are you big on handling? Definitely don't go over 20", for decent acceleration and handling, I would stay at 18" or 19". Don't go with anything too heavy either, although lighter wheels cost more $$, so keep that in mind.

5. Well, like in 1, you can't do much to the suspension other than lower it, but it's pretty decent from stock, so I wouldn't worry about it, wheels will make a big difference, they can improve handling and acceleration. I would go with a combination ECU/pulley kit, you will get a lot more out of this, the pulley will allow more boost, and these are a couple hundred extra usually. Exhaust, just so you know, for these cars, is going to be more than normal, but you gain get some nice gains and amazing sound from a decent exhaust setup. There is a million ways to do this, others here can chime in on this. Air filters are a cheap way to get some HP too, so you can look into that as well.

6. Stereo can be upgraded, but it's hard. Btw, what kind of CDs were you playing? I do notice that in most cars, playing a CD with lower quality music or an MP3 CD or something does result in lower volume, at least in the cars I've seen. There have been some members here who have done extensive upgrades to their sound system, they could share some info on this.

Great choice to pick an E55, hope this helped, and good luck! You're gonna love it!

 

thanks for the lengthy reply. answered a few questions.

So using the system you can possibly lower it retaining the stock suspension?

also if you do lower it just springs and shocks? All my cars had coilovers but all this high tech stuff on the e55 suspension gives me a feeling that its not that simple.

also about the audio we tried 4 different cds... but they wer burnt so maybe your right about the quality. but at the same time it was wierd that the radio was so loud.

what kind of numbers do i see from each mod? (vauge newb sounding question i know but still..)

 

All suspension work is done electronically. No springs/coilovers etc.

Burnt cds will sound lower than a store bought cd.

 

It is even easier to lower this car than your GTI! Just a plug into Star Diagnostics and you can make the car sit on the floor!!

 

Most of these questions are easily answered via search...

The W211 has an airmatic suspension, meaning no coilovers, springs, etc... Star Diagnostics is a program that electronically checks and reads values for the car. Using this, the ride height can be set to whatever you want. The Star Diagnostics is expensive and 99.9% of owners don't have it, but I'm sure you could have an independent shop lower the car for you using their software.

HP gains from mods, easiest way is to do a search, or an even better idea, call the manufacturer. Questions like these are a dime a dozen around here and rather than answer them 10 different times, one quick call or search can answer them.

Wheels, quite simply, go lightweight 20" or smaller.

Be prepared to give your firstborn for maintenance unless you have a warranty. Run an advanced search on the W211 AMG forum using this phrase in quotes "common problems" and you will get 5 pages worth of threads just in the W211 AMG part of the forum. Also try searching the same advanced search, but with "common maintenance"

Good luck!