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Door handle is on the way. My local Mercedes dealer got within $20 of a price match MBDirectparts.com so I'll buy it locally. Won't hurt to get to know the parts counter guys at my local dealer anyway.
Believe me, you'll become good friends over time There's always some new part you'll want to replace, I think I'm at our parts counter pretty much every week lol. Also nice update list and it really makes me happy to see people who take care of their cars like you do. If you want to make your E55 look a few years younger, I'd polish the headlights and put on the facelift rear lights. It's a day and night difference.
Still APRIL
Thanks for the encouragement UncleBenz55! My motivation is to mint this thing out. I'm trying for everything 100% working perfectly and looking like it's brand new. I'll get there
I was probably polishing my headlights when you were typing your message. See the results below. You're right…night-and-day difference.
And facelift rear lights? What are these? I've never noticed rear light differences before…guess I'm not paying close enough attention. I'll keep an eye out to see if I can spot what you're talking about.
Headlights…weird streaks, splotches and an overall yellow tint.
Never mind the paintjob on the bumper, getting them re-sprayed is on my list! Before
After
I used:
800 grit - wet sand on a DA polisher
1500 grit - wet sand on a DA polisher
2000 grit sanding sponge - wet sand by hand
Medium grit buffing compound on regular foam for the DA polisher
Polishing compound on lighter foam for the DA polisher
Ceramic coating after the final polish to (hopefully) give them a fighting chance of staying this way
Last edited by MetalE55; Apr 10, 2022 at 08:14 PM.
Reason: formatting
Ahhhh yes UncleBenz55...now I see what you're talking about.
The more I look at that picture, the more I'm thinking those taillights would look pretty sweet on a silver car like mine. Hmmmmmmm.....
Looks great MetalE55! I also did the W211 facelift tail lights (per UncleBenzE55's recommendation) and indeed a night and day difference! Btw, could you tell me where you got the rubber mirror gaskets? Mind sharing a part number or a link?
Looks great MetalE55! I also did the W211 facelift tail lights (per UncleBenzE55's recommendation) and indeed a night and day difference! Btw, could you tell me where you got the rubber mirror gaskets? Mind sharing a part number or a link?
One of the things that’s been annoying since I acquired the Speed Sled has been the “Tele Aid malfunction” warnings that appear on the instrument cluster at each start-up. Every…time. So annoying.
I’ve read about people disabling Tele Aid by using a STAR system (setting it to ‘not present’) which supposedly stops the warnings. That would be fine, but I don’t have STAR. My local indy Mercedes mechanic does, but he’s super busy and wasn’t wiling to spend the time on it.
So, let’s fix it.
Many threads on many Mercedes forums talk about the GPS antenna splitter becoming corroded due to water intrusion over time. I didn’t have high hopes on this being the cause of my problem since this car has lived in a super dry climate it’s entire life, but it’s worth a shot.
After locating the GPS antenna splitter behind the driver’s side trunk paneling, what do you know…corrosion.
I removed the splitter from the body and cleaned off the input of the splitter after removing the lead from the GPS antenna the best I could. I also saw the inside of the connector at the end of the wire was also kind of gross, so I cleaned that too. I used a small amount of electric arts cleaner and some 2000 grit sandpaper to carefully scrape off as much of the ‘build-up” as I could.
Reassembled everything and now I no longer see the “Tele Aid malfunction” warnings at start up like I used to. SCHWEET! But I noticed that on the navigation screen, there aren’t any satellites detected by the GPS antenna. So….partial success. I’ve read that you’ve got to drive around for a while before the Nav starts picking up satellites, so maybe over time, I’ll start seeing a count here. Not really a deal-breaker if the Nav never really works right…but I’m trying my best to get everything 100% working.
Either way, the warnings on the cluster are gone, so I’ll take that as a win.
The pre facelift rear lights have two Grey streaks in them.
The facelift lights have one Grey area in the light and they look alot fresher.
Your headlights look better now, good job
Those white E55's are stunning. I found one when I was searching that was in great shape except the executive that owned it smoked, cigars and you could tell. It was a deal breaker.
I'm not sure how it is exactly on the US models, since mine was japanese spec and I converted it to ECE spec. The GPS antenna on my roof died at some point and I connected a universal GPS antenna to it. Even the plug was the same. I can't remember, if the GPS antenna connects to the Navi DVD Reader or AGW. I think it was the DVD reader, but I can't remember.
Since I adopted this car, I’ve had a problem with the passenger seat occupancy sensor thinking someone is in the passenger seat all the time. I have to drive around with the passenger seat belt fastened even when there’s nobody there to keep the chime form constantly blaring. I’ve got these silly little faux buckles (see the very first post in this thread) until I can figure out the seat sensor(s) issue.
Today, I figured it out!
With the help of a STAR system, I was able to determine that one of the four weight sensors in the passenger seat was sending a signal that it was detecting -4kg. That’s right…with nobody in the seat…NEGATIVE 4 kg. The live data view capabilities of STAR are really great. Being able to see the live data values of all four sensors (one in each corner of the seat) and watching the values change when pressing on the various corners with my hand confirmed to me that the sensors weren’t necessarily BAD…just one of them was out of calibration.
And of course, STAR to the rescue again. I ran through the procedure for calibrating the weight sensors in the seat. First you add 37.5 lbs, then you add another 40-50 lbs (forgot exactly how much) to complete the recalibration procedure. Here’s my seat ‘fully loaded’.
DON’T JUDGE ME!
So far, so good. The car no longer thinks someone is sitting in the passenger seat all the time and the seatbelt light on the cluster is not on all the time anymore.
YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!
Me and the Speed Sled did something a little crazy recently. I had the opportunity and I figured I'd regret it if I didn’t at least give it a try.
TRACK DAY Fast company Big brake workout Twisties Opened up The aftermath
Was the E55 the fastest car out there? No, not even close.
Was it a total blast to unleash the M113K on a Superspeedway? Hell yes!
I'm not aware of anyplace else where it's safe to reach these kinds of speeds. The E55 definitely isn't a track car, I get it…but I just couldn’t help myself.
These cars are so solid. So very well built. It has 150,000 miles on the odometer, and it did not even flinch. I did not take it easy (watch the videos) and the car simply did not even care. I drove to MY limits, but I think the Speed Sled had more.
Does any one else's E55 "chirp" like this? Is this some kind of stock supercharger pulley magnetic engagement/disengagement?
Welcome to the E55 family!
I'm a lurker 😎. But aaaanyhow, I have the same chirp on my E55. Is it normal? No. It is problematic? No. Is it somewhat annoying and can be remeeded? Yes.
What is actually causing this chirp is the absence of the "compound" (for the lack of better word) on a supercharger pulley that overtime rubs off due to engagement of the pulley with the supercharger. When it rubs off, the two connecting surfaces become metal-to-metal, and thus connection of the two surfaces creates a little chirp as there is a tiny slip of metal-on-metal before the pulley is fully engaged.
I've read that there is a simple fix to this, by putting a little of graphite paste between the pulley and the supercharger OR get a new MB supercharger pulley OR get a fixed pulley.
But you probably already knew all that. 👍
Mercedes SLR McLaren 722 S Is Extremely Rare Example Modified by McLaren
Slideshow: A one-of-one U.S.-spec Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster became even rarer after a factory-backed transformation at McLaren's headquarters.
There's always some new part you'll want to replace, I think I'm at our parts counter pretty much every week lol. Also nice update list and it really makes me happy to see people who take care of their cars like you do. If you want to make your E55 look a few years younger, I'd polish the headlights and put on the facelift rear lights. It's a day and night difference.
