Remap vs Brabus d6 (III) CLK 320 cdi

[ajuj12]

What would be a better option?

I have discussed remaps here before but considering you can get these D6 chips online for the fraction of the price.

I was wondering what do you guys think?

Brabus does claim a good gain and as its an official company would it be safer and better?

 

[V6Matty]

depends if you want to keep any warrenty with Mercedes, if not then yes their a good thing but a map on a rolling road will be much better as it for your car and not generic.

 

[ajuj12]

depends if you want to keep any warrenty with Mercedes, if not then yes their a good thing but a map on a rolling road will be much better as it for your car and not generic.

I see so someone like acid would do a live and specific map for your car. Mine is a 2006 model so its outside warranty anyways.

However i always service is with official dealer would this cause an issue with the map being removed?

 

[V6Matty]

You would be better going and finding a trusted Indy to work on the car, cheeper and just as much knowlege and they use genuine parts so you have the gaurantee if they do fail within 2 years they get replaced FOC.

when Acid did mine the map was pulled and passed over to his "mapping guy" who bevered away for a couple of hours and returned it to my car, after running it now for 8 months i can say i've yet to find any flat spots or problems with the map, unfortunatly i didn't have the dyno runs at the same time which was a shame but had it on there at a later date and the difference could be seen live which was excellent.

 

[ajuj12]

What were the figures on the dyno? Resale value aint there with indies!! i find everyone including myself has asked if cars have dealer history

Plus you retain the MB rode side assistance!

 

[V6Matty]

personally i'd say if a car has been looked after by an indy its just as if not more reasuring than having dealer stamps, as for resale value, again i'd say thats subjective but over the lifetime what you would pay out in fees to the dealership vs gains on having FMBSH just wouldn't add up, Thats just my view on it and each to their own.

BPH was from 177 to 223 (approximatly) and as Acid forgot to print out the sheet for me that day (my fault not his) I can't remember what the tourque figures were but IIRC it went from 400nm to about 497nm, Next time I speak to Acid I will confirm those but I think its about right.

 

[Lit.91]

You would be better going and finding a trusted Indy to work on the car, cheeper and just as much knowlege and they use genuine parts so you have the gaurantee if they do fail within 2 years they get replaced FOC.

when Acid did mine the map was pulled and passed over to his "mapping guy" who bevered away for a couple of hours and returned it to my car, after running it now for 8 months i can say i've yet to find any flat spots or problems with the map, unfortunatly i didn't have the dyno runs at the same time which was a shame but had it on there at a later date and the difference could be seen live which was excellent.

So isn't this a generic map Matty? pretty sure if the car isn't on the rolling road, all they're doing is increasing boost/fueling/other values blindly to a figure that's known to work on this type of engine?

To date - I still haven't seen a company that is offering a rolling road written remap for the 320cdi, some say it cant be done with auto's - some offer a dyno on pre-written maps.

Surely a truly written rolling road map would involve the car running on the rolling road whilst figures are tweaked to measurable difference highlighted on the rolling road figures...

As far as I'm aware everything that is around is generic written, my only hope is that this generic version was developed on the specific engine that you're going to remap.

Ideally you'd want a map which has been written by a company which heavily invests into the R&D of the software by adequate testing of their product on the engine... I'm left with a dilemma here...

 

[V6Matty]

yes and no, from what i understand with how Acid does it (and i could be wrong) they take a map from the car and adjust the values to what they know are safe limits, and as a car learns and adapts every car is slightly different, so not generic but not full rolling remap/live data map kind of a in the middle thing. Acid will certainly do live data mapping but the only time i've seen it being done was on a CLS 55k with Wiestec on the other end of the computer.

 

[ajuj12]

personally i'd say if a car has been looked after by an indy its just as if not more reasuring than having dealer stamps, as for resale value, again i'd say thats subjective but over the lifetime what you would pay out in fees to the dealership vs gains on having FMBSH just wouldn't add up, Thats just my view on it and each to their own.

BPH was from 177 to 223 (approximatly) and as Acid forgot to print out the sheet for me that day (my fault not his) I can't remember what the tourque figures were but IIRC it went from 400nm to about 497nm, Next time I speak to Acid I will confirm those but I think its about right.

Is your 320cdi or 220?

Could you feel the difference in normal driving and the kick down?

 

[Lit.91]

As long as you're happy with the result I think that's all that matters Matty, I'd get it done no doubt if I knew it's was 100% safe, reliable & actually improved for a good cause. Ajuj - from initial power it sounds like Matty has the 280cdi - also a V6

 

[V6Matty]

Mine is a 270 so il5 surprises many people when I put my foot down.

Thanks lincat, yes I'm very happy with it and I do agree with you in some respects, it took 2 years of deciding exactly what I was going to have done and who would do it, Acid gave me the confidence to go ahead ave a power map and egr delete, month later I had the cats removed, I'm now thinking what my next mod will be, possible upgrade of the turbo and remap but that's probably a while away or possibly a LSD but we'll see on that one.

Ajuj, the feel of the car is very different now I feel the torque come in much lower down the rev range and from a stand still to a motorway cruise happens quickly and smoothly but gives you a wallop when first burying the peddle in the carpet, wheel spin is something I notice a lot more now as well, not just from standstill but while pottering the back end can shuffle a bit too. Hope this gives you an idea but if you have other questions feel free to ask.

 

[ajuj12]

Mine is a 270 so il5 surprises many people when I put my foot down.

Thanks lincat, yes I'm very happy with it and I do agree with you in some respects, it took 2 years of deciding exactly what I was going to have done and who would do it, Acid gave me the confidence to go ahead ave a power map and egr delete, month later I had the cats removed, I'm now thinking what my next mod will be, possible upgrade of the turbo and remap but that's probably a while away or possibly a LSD but we'll see on that one.

Ajuj, the feel of the car is very different now I feel the torque come in much lower down the rev range and from a stand still to a motorway cruise happens quickly and smoothly but gives you a wallop when first burying the peddle in the carpet, wheel spin is something I notice a lot more now as well, not just from standstill but while pottering the back end can shuffle a bit too. Hope this gives you an idea but if you have other questions feel free to ask.

Did removing the Cats make a difference in the sound and amount of smoke coming out of the car?

I hate black smoke coming from diesel cars, i wonder what causes it.

Even when i boot my car i get no smoke i can see

 

[DomCLK]

I've removed the large pre-cat on my CLK270 and with the windows open you can hear the turbo whistling and boosting more clearly, which I like.

Most diesels will puff a little black smoke on initial acceleration, it's often hard to see if your car is smoking, best way is to boot it at night and you'll be able to see if it smokes in the headlights of the poor bugger behind you.

Mine smokes constantly during heavy acceleration but less now I've changed the air filter and removed the cat as the old filter was knackered and there's one less thing in the exhaust to collect soot. I think my EGR valve may be faulty, staying open and letting evil exhaust gas back into the engine, reducing the amount of fuel that it can burn therefore causing the smoke.

In theory anyway.

 

[V6Matty]

sorry missed this, no, no difference in the amount of smoke at all, I'd actually say it was slightly better unless I've been pottering for many miles and give it a boot then yes I do see some but it wears off shortly after (Italian tune-up sort of thing), as for sound as DomCLK I certainly hear the turbo spool up more and the waste gate is more pronounced but not intrusive and the exhaust note hasn't changed at all, even when I got someone else to drive the car I couldn't tell the difference from the outside.

Black smoke is just unburned particles of fuel exiting through the exhaust, nothing really wrong as all cars do that unless it's got a DPF when does reduce these dramatically, I'm looking into how to get my car to burn cleaner under full acceleration and apart from changing injectors I can't really get round the smoke, it's not bad but certainly there.

 

[KeithJG]

If it helps?...Mine is the C320CDI V6 and supposedly 290bhp and a staggering 628 Nm of torque after the Celtic Map and all for £250.....Prices may differ from agent to agent!

I am not in denial about the figures as my last motor the Volvo V70 T5 was re- mapped at about 285bhp and this Merc is way better........fully usable power from the word go...

The remapping took about 2 1/2 hours as the original map was sent to Celtic and the time delay for the return of the map was about 2hrs while it was looked at what it consisted of and adjusted by them before return.

It cannot be detected by MB and will not be erased as it has to be replaced with a map of some sort otherwise no start!....only the Impron chip part is reprogrammed in the ECU so all the rest is untouched.

All loaded back and road tested but not a rolling road either that was all done in the testing of the original remap for my engine /model etc.

Try using 2T oil in the shell nitro fuel....i have used it for a few months now and swear by it ...much smoother engine with hardly any black smoke because of the cleaner burn....mpg is up slightly also.