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Hello everyone and greetings from Germany! Been a member here for a few months, but never introduced my car on here, so I thought I'd do it today.
It's a 2005 E55 in 960 Alabaster white which was build in 12/2004 for the Japanese market. The car was imported to Germany in 2018 and was sitting on a lot till January 2020, when I got it. Since then I've put days of work into the car. It started with maintenance, replacing all fluids, filters and worn items, like brakes, bushings and the usual. I wanted to keep the car pretty much stock exterior wise, but wanted sportier looking rims, so I got a set of Grey BBS CH-R in 19". My plans to keep the E55 stock didn't last long, after meeting a friend who had a nicely built m113k. So over the time I made some adjustments to the car. First thing I addressed, was the intercooler pump. I took the Pierburg CWA100 of the W212 E63s and wired it to run with ignition on. My second change was to the exhaust system. I made it easier for the engine to breathe by installing Renntech mid tube headers along with an oem stock w211 E63 exhaust. I got the cooling system a bit more tweaked, by splitting the intercooler system. Again used w212 parts and used the M157 water reservoir. I like it, when you open the hood and the car looks stock. Additionally I got a bigger heat exchanger. Throttlebody was replaced with a 80mm unit from the clk dtm with no bypass valve and for the pulley I use the stock pulley shaved off a few mm. The ecu mapping isn't done 100% yet, but it should be good, once properly mapped.
Since the car was made for the Japanese market, it had a Japanese infotainment. I went ahead and installed a factory German spec w211 comand system in the car and removed all Japanese electronics and cables. Dismantling the whole interior I removed all dead Japanese cables, which I weighed at 8kg. I continued with changing the interior by installing a CLK63 BS steering wheel, which is absolutely gorgeous. To finish of the look, I went ahead and replaced the silver shifter covering with the wood one from the facelift along with a E63 gear shifter.
The most significant change was the one I finished doing last week. I removed the stock seats and airmatic suspension and replaced them with a H&R Monotube coilover suspension and Recaro Sportster CS Sport seats. I did all the research on this one myself. Looked at the parts catalog and wiring diagram and changed everything accordingly. The xenon height level needed some rewiring and coding but everything works with no errors or whatsoever. Best thing is, it's a blast to drive now. It's noticeably firmer and more direct but corners are way more fun now.
Apart from the throttlebody and split cooling, I did everything myself with a good friend on my car. I'm really happy how it turned out and thought I'd share it here.
This was how I picked up the car.
1st day I got this car Stripped to clean everything up. No half assed work here Harman Kardon amplifier and ECE sat nav CD Player installing Rewired and Headunit installed. Everything works All the old airmatic parts removed. In with the sexy H&R suspension. Hello new coilover. Recaro Sportster CS, very good for spirited driving. Looks very good in the W211 as well. Recaro and CLK 63BS steering wheel. Car feels completely different to before.
I really like how everything turned out and hope you enjoyed the read!
Congrats, nice car and thanks for sharing. I too own a Japanese spec and still stock with just wheels changed. What interested me most is the CLK DTM throttle body. This has been in my wishlist but I’ve been concerned on how it would work without the byepass valve without programming. To my knowledge, only German tuner MKB offers this in their M113k packages. Any information you can share in this would be of great help. Please do share the part number.
How much weight did you save by replacing the seats, sure it must be substantial.
Like many Japan spec car owners, I feel the audio head unit is a sore point. I’d love to shave a few kilos of the wiring as I plan to upgrade to a unit with apple CarPlay. Any tip here would be great!
The CLK DTM tb has a HWA part number, but is basically the same as the 80mm throttlebody used in the SL55 2002 and EVO with the 0080 Kompressor. That's one of the few things i got done, cause i didn't know how to program it. For the bypass delete you'd need a 2001-2002 SL55 base software or CLK DTM base software, since those cars came without a bypass.
The seats are about 5kg less per seat measured on a body scale. The coilovers are lighter by about 15kg compared to the airmatic system.
If you go with a android headunit, you don't need the HK amplifier and save even more weight. I went with the oem ECE spec one, mostly because of aesthetics. I hardly use the comand in the E55, but knowing it works with no issues is neat.
Last edited by UncleBenz55; Aug 30, 2021 at 03:34 AM.
Nice car, love the wheels. I also have a JDM car. I took out the stock command and put a pioneer touch screen in with a small aftermarket amp in the stock location, works great.
Do all E55's have that loud/pronounced whine from the blower?
My pulley is a tad smaller than stock, but driving the car, you almost don't hear it. It's that loud in the video, because i wanted to try something and put the mic in the engine bay.
Small update on my E55. I got a pair of 6 piston W212 E63 calipers, which i got powder coated in the same colour as the oem calipers. Did a bunch of research and ordered all the parts to rebuild these calipers. There's a shop here that sells adapters, so the caliper fits the W211. Along with those i installed them yesterday in combination with the two piece 390mm Brembo rotors. It looks stunning and the brake perfomance is on a whole different level to the stock brakes. I need to brake them in properly now, so the pads will fit the rotors perfectly and smooth.
Those white cars look really good. I wanted a white one and did find a low mileage one that was in good shape but the guy who owned it smoked cigars. Car was clean but couldn't get over the cigar smell.
Small update on my E55. I got a pair of 6 piston W212 E63 calipers, which i got powder coated in the same colour as the oem calipers. Did a bunch of research and ordered all the parts to rebuild these calipers. There's a shop here that sells adapters, so the caliper fits the W211. Along with those i installed them yesterday in combination with the two piece 390mm Brembo rotors. It looks stunning and the brake perfomance is on a whole different level to the stock brakes. I need to brake them in properly now, so the pads will fit the rotors perfectly and smooth.
I appreciate the brake upgrade. If you don't mind, a couple of questions: Why did you use the W212 calipers vs the W211 E63 six piston caliper? What color did you use for the powder coat (MB 775U)? And, where did you source and would your recommend the AMG decals you used on the calipers? Thanks!
I appreciate the brake upgrade. If you don't mind, a couple of questions: Why did you use the W212 calipers vs the W211 E63 six piston caliper? What color did you use for the powder coat (MB 775U)? And, where did you source and would your recommend the AMG decals you used on the calipers? Thanks!
The W211 E63 caliper would have worked as well. However I got the W212 caliper for a very good price, so I went with those. The powder coater said it's the standard amg silver paint and knew what colour code it was, I don't know what the exact number was though. He also had a source for the amg stickers.
The W211 E63 caliper would have worked as well. However I got the W212 caliper for a very good price, so I went with those. The powder coater said it's the standard amg silver paint and knew what colour code it was, I don't know what the exact number was though. He also had a source for the amg stickers.
Ah, the benefits of being located in the mother land. Thanks!
Has anyone got experience with sway bars for these cars? The front feels a bit mushy and understeery in corners. I wonder if a Eibach swaybar would be better than the stock amg one.
Has anyone got experience with sway bars for these cars? The front feels a bit mushy and understeery in corners. I wonder if a Eibach swaybar would be better than the stock amg one.
EDIT: Nevermind. I see that you've already converted to coilovers. So, you are ahead of the game.
I've found every car with air suspension to have lackluster feel. I think some of the feedback from the road is muted by the air bladders. Yeah, it provides a softer ride, but the micro feedback is also lost.
I've even experienced this in "apples to apples" comparisons when I test drove two LS460s, one with air suspension and one without. The cars were otherwise identical. The one with standard springs felt much more nimble and sporty.
The suspension is the major thing that's lacking with my E55. I can't plow it into corners with confidence like I could any car that I've had coilovers on. My car also needs a refresh of several suspension bushings, so that needs to be done whether I get coilovers or not. So, I'm gonna take car of that and see how the stock air suspension feels then.
Has anyone got experience with sway bars for these cars? The front feels a bit mushy and understeery in corners. I wonder if a Eibach swaybar would be better than the stock amg one.
Small update on my E55. I got a pair of 6 piston W212 E63 calipers, which i got powder coated in the same colour as the oem calipers. Did a bunch of research and ordered all the parts to rebuild these calipers. There's a shop here that sells adapters, so the caliper fits the W211. Along with those i installed them yesterday in combination with the two piece 390mm Brembo rotors. It looks stunning and the brake perfomance is on a whole different level to the stock brakes. I need to brake them in properly now, so the pads will fit the rotors perfectly and smooth.
could you share which shop you purchased the 390mm adapters from?
There are five possible rear bars ranging from 17mm to 21mm in 1mm increments. The E55 has 17, 19 and 21 listed as possibles. It would take your VIN to identify the rear bar used on your car.
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