feeshta

Hello all. I'm a relatively new owner of a 2006 E55 AMG Kombi. I've had it for about 6 months now. It's a pretty low mileage(kilometerage?) example, at 118,000 KM so far. which translates to just over 73,000 miles for those not familiar. It has one lone performance modification, which is a chip tune done by a company called AMS Hanover, but I am not 100% sure if they designed the tune, or simply installed it. Otherwise, the previous owner claims it is bone stock. and it appears to be the truth from my experience so far.

I really love this car so far, but it has one issue that is a real let down, especially here in Germany where you can still let the beast off it's chain out on the autobahn. The issue is one that these cars seem to be well known for, which is heat soak and lost power after a full throttle pull. The problem for me is that it's not just a bit of power lost, it's MASSIVE power loss. As in power output feels like it drops at least in half, possibly more, after a single full throttle pull on the autobahn, and the car practically refuses to accelerate at all, even from relatively low speeds. I suspect that the ECU is refusing to engage the supercharger and pulling timing due to high intake temps. After a few minutes, the car does recover, but it is rather frustrating. The car has never thrown a CEL at me at all though.

What I'm looking for is a little help in correcting this shortcoming without spending a fortune. I unfortunately can't bring the car with me when my time here in Germany comes to an end in a few years, so I don't want to sink too much money into it if I can avoid it.

So, are there any common failures that don't throw a CEL than might cause this type of issue? Any simple upgrades you could suggest I look into to sort the issue if it is simply the nature of the car in factory state, or with a tune and now cooling upgrades? I am pretty handy, and do most of the work on my own cars. I also have access to a shop with a lift and a full suite of tools, so as long as it's not tearing into the engine block or messing with coding, I can probably handle the work myself.

Any thoughts?

SICAMG

Make sure your IC pump is working at the very least. Than an up front inter cooler and thats it. Cheap and easy and should take care of your issue.
Do a search on this subject as it has been addressed many, many times.

stroock6394

sounds 100% like a bad intercooler pump, i had the exact same thing and putting in a new pump solved it completely and made it even faster than before in every regard

it's actually a pretty straightforward repair, shouldn't be much more than $250-$300 at a shop including the part (make sure the pump part# ends in 010)

feeshta

Thanks for the input so far guys, aside from the requisite "do a search" comment. Honestly, I don't come to forums to weed through hundreds of past comments looking for the needle in the haystack that actually fits. I come here to tap into the vast pool of knowledge long term members have a accumulated, and are obviously happy to share. Terms are different for every model and brand, and I don't know what you guys might be calling this issue. I did a search, but didn't find any mention of power dropping as severely as it does on my car, so I thought it better to ask rather than waste any more time.

The thing I don't get is how the car would not throw a CEL if the intercooler pump wasn't working correctly? Maybe coming from BMW world things are different? Past BMWs (and current Porsche) would throw a code for anything and everything under the sun, most of it completely unimportant, so it's a little bizarre to me for there to be a relatively major issue and no warning from the car.

As far as the pump itself, are kits like the VRP Stage one kit worth it, or would I be better off just going with only the pump from FCP or the like?

stroock6394

the oem bosch pump or the johnson CM30 are the only pumps you'll need if all you have is a tune, i say just get the bosch one

and yea my experience with the 'do a search' is it's almost never helpful, and those who comment saying to just do a search could've probably just spent that time saying what's actually the issue... having said that the bad IC pump is probably the most common thing that needs to be addressed on these cars lol

KAMG

A dead intercooler pump will not trigger a CEL, at least my car didn't. Quick way to test is to check your IATs with a cheap bluetooth OBDII adapter

Fountain35

fazxs

I'm facing the exact same issue, I drive every week between Oman and UAE and just can't get the full potential of the car as the supercharger shuts down after one pull. Moreover, the weather here is another bummer as its extreme during summers. My car is bone stock.

As other members say, must be a bad pump. I would suggest to upgrade the pump along with a bigger heat exchanger which will really help on the Autobahn. I suggest you to go with the best pump available

https://tecomotive.com/store/en/wate...0-2-water-pump - the best price fro the Pierburg CWA 100.

Tip: for members ordering from outside EU you'll get a 19% off as they remove the VAT and I think its a great buy! The price displayed in the link is inclusive of the VAT.

For the heat exchanger, all the German tuners charge a lot for one (have checked with MKB, Vath), get one from the Americas. PLM or PLM XL would be great as it will be a direct bolt on. There are some other good ones from Eurocharged, VRP but require a bit additional work to fit.

tw2

Not to be a dick but SICAMG did provide you with the answer. I also hate forums where every single thread says do a search (hondatech) but you also have to put a tiny amount of effort in yourself. Put "heatsoak E55" into google and the second link just happens to be from mbworld and has the exact answer:
Hardly a haystack. I would also recommend the bosch 010 pump for anything but heavy mods and PLM is an easy install that can be easily reversed for whatever reason.

stroock6394

yea if you're gonna own any car out of warranty i say it's basically a necessity to have like an elm327 or something equivalent, the ability to check codes and other things yourself without relying on a shop is so valuable

before replacing my pump the intake temps would shoot up quickly every time you stepped on it and never really cool down all that much, with the new pump they increase much more slowly and then quickly return to basically just above ambient... much better in every regard now, especially at the top of 2nd and 3rd where the real fun happens

kiluminati616

as others have said, this is very likely a bad ic pump. i had the exact same symptoms and changing in the bosch 010 fixed it.

@tw2 did a very nice DIY. start there and let us know how it goes

https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...-pictures.html

Fantomas

I'll chime in with my own anecdotal evidence. Shortly after I bought my E55 from the previous owner I did a freeway pull up to 140mph at which point I experienced a substantial power loss. Later that day I was driving on some back roads where I was getting on the gas after each corner exit I lost the supercharger again.

Changed the intercooler pump and it hasn't happened since.

Actual heat soak on the E55 makes the car just a bit slower, instead of running low twelves you'll be running high 12s in the quarter mile. This happens because the intercooler liquid heats up to under hood temperatures and has no way of cooling down until the car starts moving again. No fan over the heat exchanger.

feeshta

I did do a search before posting. Several actually, over the course of several months. I never found anything that matched the extent of the issue with my car. I kept reading about the car "pulling timing", but never found anything like what I was actually experiencing, which is a drastic reduction in power rather than what you would expect with a timing adjustment. It feels like the engine suddenly drops to 2 cylinders or something.

If I had known to search for something along the lines of supercharger deactivating, I probably could have found it, but I honestly didn't know that was possible. The issue with forums like this is that they all have their own distinct vocabulary, often full of acronyms, that is helpful to experienced members, but nearly impenetrable to new members without help from the experienced ones. Especially with cars that have been around for a while like the 211. As such, I feel that comments along the likes of "do a search" are not helpful. The only purpose they seem to serve is to drive thin skinned newbies away, which isn't in the spirit of a place like this.

I ordered the 010 pump, and hope to have it sometime this week. Will report back whether it fixes the issue or not.

feeshta

Did the swap today, and initial impressions are extremely impressive. It was raining a bit today, so I couldn't really do intense autobahn runs safely, but overall the car seems up on power pretty noticeably. Like, REALLY noticeably. At one point I was at around 110 mph, and traffic finally cleared. I put my foot down, the car downshifted, and broke the back tires loose, engaging traction control. I was a bit shocked. The roads were really slick today, but still. The car just seems to have tons more torque now. Very glad I did the job.

On a side note, I was a bit worried that something was wrong, as the bleeding procedure didn't really work as I have seen in several videos. I hooked up the bleed line, jumped the pump to 12 volt, and could hear it working and fluid circulating, but it simply wasn't pumping anything out of the bleed line. At least not enough force to push fluid back around into the expansion tank. Seems the pump is actually working though, as the jump in power is rather massive. I always felts like the car was fast, but not quite 500 HP fast. Now it feels every bit of that,

usc96

Glad the fix worked.

I too hate "do a search" type comments, but in rereading SICAMG's response, I would not categorize it as the traditional offensive "do a search" comment that we all dislike. Rather, he told you the suspected cause (check IC pump then an up front inter cooler), and then suggested you search those items for more information.

Anyway, glad you are back on the road and enjoying your ride. ��

tw2

Did you pinch off the intercooler return line? You should see coolant and bubbles travelling along it. There are pictures in the link in my signature.

stroock6394

sounds about right lol... it's crazy what an immediate and noticeable difference just a little $120 pump makes for every acceleration condition, like you said with the bad pump it feels fast but not literally the once fastest sedan in the world fast

my car is totally stock and even with relatively new pilot sport a/s 3+ i've seen the traction light start blinking at highway speeds in dry weather once ambient temperatures start to drop a bit

fazxs

Good to hear that the problem has been fixed. I'm also due to replace the pump soon as I'm waiting for a few more parts which require replacing during my next service. For me, I'm sure I will have to upgrade the Heat Exchanger too due to the extreme heat here though the car is stock. I'm hoping to really feel the change in performance.

Enjoy the Autobahn, we are living in an ever increasing infestation of speed cameras.

feeshta

Oh, the speed cameras are everywhere over here as well. Thankfully there is an app for that, called Blitzer.de, and the fines are reasonable as well. I've gotten one ticket so far, and the fine was 15 Euros. Was flashed another two times but that was like 5 months ago and no ticket. One was valid, but the other time I think they forgot to change the speed on a mobile one when they moved it. It was flashing everyone, as we all went past at 15 kph under the limit due to traffic.