Sullii

Hey guys. I’m brand new to the world of Mercedes. Picked up an 04 E55 AMG last month. Bought a bunch of parts and had a shop install them all for me. HE and pump. VRP pulleys. BWK. 72mm SC pulley. ECU tune. And water methanol injection for extra cooling. After test driving the car when they were finished the car falls right on it’s face at WOT. It doesn’t go anywhere. Goes to downshift and then NOTHING. At quarter, half or three quarters throttle the car runs beautifully. Only at WOT is there an issue. Feels like you’re hitting a wall. And then after it’s smacks itself the idle will go up and down while stopped but after turning the car off and back on it’s fine again.

The shop is saying it could be the throttle body or possibly fuel cut due to maxing out the stock injectors? I’m not tuned for the water meth so the only power mods I have are the SC pulley and race iq tune. Before the mods the car had zero issues. Is there a common issue with the stock TB’s after power mods? are these mods enough to need bigger injectors?

ive read countless threads and can’t find anything of any help. Please help the noob out :/

nova_e55

I think 13-14 psi (or some say 500rwhp) of boost is when you want to start looking at moving up to 550 injectors and possibly a looped rail. A 72mm pulley is probably pushing out 17-18 psi. Regardless of whether it's that or possibly the fuel pump or something else, I think you'll need new injectors anyways, which will of course mean you'll have to get tuned again. I'll let people smarter than me on the cars say for sure though.

PieRat

My monies on the tune being the issue. Do you have any way to check the long term fuel trims (LTFT), perhaps the torque app with an obd 2 adapter?

What's your peak boost at I imagine ~14 psi? I doubt your injectors are maxed yet, and your TB is stock did it have any issues prior to these mods?


I'd reccomend switching to eurocharged. Raceiq tunes seem to have a lot of fueling issues and other problems cropping up on the forums. I personally gave them a try and their tunes removed my rev limiter and they couldnt figure out how to bring it back so the car would drop out of gear during WOT shifts to save itself. They also couldnt dial in the fueling at all, I pissed around with like 4 tune file attempts with them. Reverting back to Eurocharged I returned to problem free tunes.

Sullii

I’ve been reading on these forums since I bought the car and it seems pretty agreed on that race iq is definitely one of the best? And boost is higher than 14psi with the 72mm pulley. Do you actually know what you’re talking about?

PieRat

Only trying to help mate, I don't know why you are so defensive. People take time out of their lives to respond and help you with your car problem, maybe show a little bit of respect or gratitude?

Since you have an 04 so the first generation supercharger (gears underdriven by 5%~ compared to newer model years with 2nd generation supercharger), I have a 77 and see 13.7 psi peaks with a free flowing exhaust. 77/72 = 1.069, so 7% more drive from your pulley but less 5% drive from the older supercharger you have. Give you an extra psi for the restricted stock exhaust and we're in 14-15 psi range, far from boost cut and needing a map clamp. All cars are a bit different so perhaps you can monitor your boost and report back?

RaceIQ have many happy customers but I have also seen some unhappy customers on these forums, AMG facebook pages etc with fueling issues in particular. I gave you my first hand example of gearshift and top-end over rev issues, along with fuel MAP issues on their tune which were completely software related, as when I used another tuner all the problems disappeared. I do not go out of my way to throw shade on RaceIQ but I do want to give honest reviews of my experience with them to the forum community. If

You need to scan the ECU for codes (Star diagnostic preferably) or monitor the engine management inputs, timing, knock, AFR, IAT, boost to identify what is going wrong with your vehicle. You may have a large boost leak from the water meth install, or perhaps the water-meth kit is not operating correctly, as your problem is during WOT and I assume the water-meth kit you have is boost triggered. Or perhaps the tune is not right, have you spoken to your tuner? Check for a bunch of belt dust, maybe something went wrong with your BWK/Pulley installs and it slips like crazy at WOT?

Its hard to diagnose these problems remotely, so the more information you can provide the better. When you say the car falls on its face I assume it is still in drive but is in limp mode with the supercharger disengaged, does it still shift through gears or is it locked in a single one? Does the car ever recover on its own or do you have to power-cycle it?

A tip if you are using a less intensive OBD scanner, sometimes the codes are in the system but not check engine light is showing. Also, some codes will only remain in the system to low end OBD scanners until the car is switched off, so if you powercycle the car the code goes away.

tw2

Wow the charisma is strong in this one. Try loading your tune again, they don't take 100% of the time. Also do a standard STAR scan, it is possible the extra torque is unearthing other issues such as a failing transmission. Pierat has been at this a lot longer than you have.

equitiesguy

I try not to comment on these types of threads, but... have you done anything else to the car besides the tune? Air filters, plugs, CPS, charge air sensor, new fuel pumps, etc? What's the error code readout look like from STAR after this WOT failure? There will be codes if the car is in limp mode, and the idle is "going up and down" while stopped.

The more information you provide, the easier it is to assist.

CFD

I chased this exact same issue for probably 10 months. Ended up being the silicone couplers that merge the intake pipes to the core support. Try taking your entire intake off. If the problem goes away, start piecing it back together until the problem comes back. Then you know what the issue was.

This was so damn frustrating for me. Hopefully this is your problem and I've saved you some headache.

Amir_AMG

I had this issue with my SL55, if it isnt related at all to your mods- I would check the Pedal assembly. Every time I hit WOT car would immediately go into limp mode with ESP light. Turning car on and off again fixed it. This would throw a code that can be read with a scanner, but no CEL

SICAMG

Anyone who mods these cars with no way to "see" into the engine is asking for trouble.
You NEED a wide band.
You NEED a fuel pressure gauge.
These are extremely critical pieces that are a must to know where you are at with the tuning. I remember my first tune test drive doing almost the same thing and the wide band told me what was going on.
Come to find out my tuner mistakeingly set the tune for 550 injectors , not stock ones so could have been a costly situation had the wide band not been there.

Sullii

you’re right man. I apologize for the way I responded to you.

my car was at the shop “Overkill Performance” here in Sacramento. Before I brought the car to them it was unmolested and ran perfect. I brought the car in for water methanol injection, heat exchanger and pump, new idle pullies, SC pulley, 3” intake, belt wrap and the raceiq tune. After 3 months of being there I finally towed the car home and I’m just now starting to gather information and trying to make the car right. I have an appointment at a place called ASP in the Bay Area next week with guys named Vlad and Kevin so hopefully they’ll be able to make it right. I couldn’t be any more disappointed how thing worked out with the shop here. The owner even acted like I was wrong for wanted my car back after exactly 101 days and sitting on the side of the shop untouched for 46 days. They are really nice and cool people but they way to run their shop is bogus.



the codes coming on are for the throttle actuator control and then misfires on 3 cylinders. I currently have the water meth turned off. Car hasn’t actually ever ran with any methanol spraying. And then after removing the intake I found two things are not connected and I’m pretty sure they should be🤦🏻*♂️ One is the hose going from the valve cover to the intake but the aftermarket intake doesn’t have the bung for the hose to attach to. And the other is a metal line that runs down the back of the motor somewhere.

I uploaded the stock file and nothing changed. Put the new tune back on and nothing.

Sullii

I was wrong on the throttle position and the issue occurring. It’ll happen passed a certain rpm in any gear. But yeah when it goes into limp mode the ESP light does come on. Then the car idles will bounce up and down and restarting the car takes the limp mode and idle issues away.

Sullii

can you safely drive the car without the intake on?

05-E55

Can you tell me what I should see on LTFT? I have Torque app. Thanks

PieRat

All g man, must have been frustrating dealing with that shop. I've had a similiar issue with a fuel pump replacement in the past..

First photo you posted of the valve cover breather needs a catch can or to be connected to the intake post air filters. But that is not causing your problem.

Second pic of the lose hose needs to go into the intake post supercharger there is a hole for it. Take off that surge tank and you'll be able to see where it goes its between the intake and the supercharger. That will be a massive boost and vaccum leak.

PieRat

Ltft should be as close to 0 on both banks with a 5 tolerance positive or negative. If the difference between the banks is more than 7% total I'd be suspicious of a problem.

Also you can put the stock intake back on until you have a bung on the intake or a catch can sorted if you want to drive the car in the meantime.

Sullii

appreciate the understand man. Your comments are much appreciated.

do you think with that boost/vacuum leak like that it could be the source of my issue? Would be nice if it was something small like that.

would I only have to remove the surge tank on the driver side that get that back in?

PieRat

Yeah youd just have to remove the surge tank, push it into the hole. There is a bracket on the valve cover that the pipe connects to which is meant to hold it in place to keep it from falling out again.

It might get rid of the hunting at idle and coild be contributing to a larger leak problem. Im not so sure about it putting the car into limp mode. Generally this leak causes trouble in low throttle applications.

Did you try scanning the car for codes before restarting it while it is in limp mode?

I think you need the cars intake smoke tested, that shop removed the supercharger to put in watermeth which worries me for more leaks looking at their work..

If the intake is leak free youve probably got a transmission issue? Perhaps just low oil maybe time to invest in a trans dipstick if your planning to service the car yourself you'll want one anyway.

Sullii

a few comments above I posted what codes are popping up. I’m playing with the car right now and finding where that pipe went took me a second lol I didn’t realize it was that simple. But idk if this was the shops wrong doing or what but There is no bolt where it’s supposed to be mounted. Any idea what size that one is?

as far as the transmission.. wouldn’t I be able to feel some type of issue if it was on its way out? I bought the dipstick for it several months ago. I was already planning to get the upgraded valve body, Solenoids and pan. Just wasn’t planning on it being so soon. Even with these parts installed the car has never seen more power than when it was just stock so hopefully it’s still good. Before this headache the car was always full beast mode with no issues.

as far as the intake smoke test.. how would you go about doing that? I did a search of couldn’t find anything that helped me very much.

PieRat

Try reset your throttlebody.

1. Turn the key to ON position. Position II that is. Don’t start the car.
2. Press and hold the gas pedal for at least five seconds. Keep the pedal pressed.
3. Turn ignition off but do not remove the key. Now release the gas pedal.
4. Remove key. Wait a minute before you restart your Mercedes.

Also make sure the rubber vaccum hoses from the valve cover that meet in a T beneath the throttlebody is properly seated in the TB.

What's the situation of the throttlebody plug, usually they are glued in. does yours look like they removed it and unplugged it.

Try removing the aftermarket intake and putting the new one back on those aftermarket ones have been known to not hold up and the silicon succumbs to the intake vaccum and falls in on itself or maybe interferes with TB.

I see your spraying pre supercharger, do you have one post intercooler too?

Check the connections for all ignition wires make sure they're seated on the spark plug and connected well to he ignition coils. When is this misfire occurring?

Smoke test requires a smoke tester machine so maybe needs a shop to do. You can get brake cleaner and spray it around the intake while the car is running and see if the idle hesitates as it sucks in the brake cleaner through any vaccum leaks.

Sullii

i tried that reset the other day and then earlier today I did another sequence I found on another thread. The car seems to be running a bit smoother but is still hitting that limp mode.

the plug for the tb is not glued together and it has been unplugged before. I unplug it earlier as well. Is the tb typically pretty noisy when the key is on position 2? Mine definitely makes a noise and it stops as soon as I unplug it.

I do have a weird feeling about the intake. I’m running the stock tb with VRPs 3” intake. And to get the coupler to attack to the tb you have to use a small piece of extra coupler to go on the tb and then you put the intake coupler over that 1” layer on the tb. I wouldn’t have bought the intake if I knew I should really upgrade to the 82” tb. and the piece I need to get the stock intake onto the tb is at the shop who had my car and the last thing I want to do is go back there ever again. VRP is willing to sell me a used tb to swap out and test. Almost would rather just upgrade to the 82” at that point.

And yes, water/meth is sprayed at the TB and post inter cooler. Currently have it turned off until this issue is fixed.

05-E55

Can you help me make any sense of this fuel log? Thanks

SICAMG

It is not your throttle body. After 3/4 your ECU programming changes ...from what I have seen my self.
So now the ECU is seeing something it does not like and is responding the way it does.
Do you know what the fuel pressure is?
Do you know what code is the first in line when you have the issue?

Dont swap to an 82 throttle body as you could start new problems on top of what you have.

Also do this....take the supercharger belt off and drive it just like you do when there is a problem and report back to us.

05-E55

I'll respond to myself! After reading a bunch of old posts it seems +/- 5% is normal.

StarvingArtist

Sounds like a massive vacuum leak to me, I would buy some new gaskets, pull the S/C, and put the entire intake back together carefully and correctly. Including new silicone between the intercooler and suprecharger