A45 AMG Project Thread: One step at a time

[John Jones Jr]

Shaunee, how well do expect the drivetrain to hold up with further gains in both power & torque?

 

[Shaunee]

JJJ,
Not sure, but assuming we're on about real torque, rather than over exaggerated torque ........

I know someone who has already reached a level (but it never went on a dyno to ascertain) where the clutch packs were overheating. He has since gone back to just a tuning box (he had fitted a MOTEC ecu and effectively wound it up).

I believe that one of the technical partners, whom work with the company I am personally working with, already have suitably uprated clutch packs ready. This is the route I'll go down, as and when that moment approaches. Got plenty more to get through until that happens though, I suspect.

The other option is to reprogram the box (I suspect), to increase the pressure on the standard plates. That's not my favoured option..... it needs doing right from the get go really.

My remit is the car needs to take the power level.... come road or track use.

 

[John Jones Jr]

Yeah, real torque...

Do you think the clutch packs will be the only issue? Sorry, don't want to sound like a doom merchant, just interested.

 

[Shaunee]

Who knows.... Whatever breaks will need to be modified.

No pain. No gain.

 

[Shaunee]

Right, it appears I'm delving into the next area a bit quicker than I'd previously thought.

Next up will be to fabricate an exhaust system and look at inlet changes, together with mapping the OEM ECU.

The "box" required to program the ECU is in hand, and a base map / configuration file is being developed.

Depending upon which elements get to a state to test first, will dictate which part will be shared first.

More news as soon as I have some.

 

[mattk1]

I've got a headache but thanks, makes an interesting read

Matt

 

[Shaunee]

Imagine what I went through compiling it!

 

[c63chris]

Amazing detail and just shows the gap between what you are doing and where I am with mine. I drive mine, fast, add its great fun. All these extras just pass me by. Good luck to you though, interesting reading.

 

[SquabzZz]

These 45 AMG are street weapons and I hear where your coming from I used to chase bhp in my MR2 Turbo

Did really want a a45 and cla45 but was a bit pricey still secretly want one

Subscribed

 

[Shaunee]

Hi SquabzZz,
BHP chasing is the root of all evil... been there and done it.

Yes, the 45's certainly are pricey....... it's only a 2ltr hatchback, regardless of what "badge" it has. However, it really is a fantastic package, even without further mods. IMO if Subaru had taken a similar approach in it's engine development (which is sadly lacking at the moment), the Impreza would still be one of the top runners in this sector.

For MB to do this on their first 2ltr outing is nothing short of amazing. Imagine what future revisions will be like!

 

[Shaunee]

Firstly apologies for the lack of updates, and secondly apologies for this specific update not being about any power enhancing modifications. I’m still planning on progressing with power based mods.

Functional interior and exterior mods
I’m not normally one for interior or exterior mods, but I think I have found a few items that not only look good, but also have a worthwhile function/purpose.

Front Stone Deflectors
Pretty much as soon as I bought my A45 a fellow community member started producing stone deflectors that sit at the rear of the front arches. This neat little product was to reduce the debris from the wheel that tends to pepper the lower front arches (rear of) and lower door sections. In my opinion this is a bit of a design fault by MB, but at least we have products like this that can alleviate the problem.

With my car being black, the damage to the lower portions of the arch and door panels is clearly evident….. I’m sure we’ve all seen it. If you haven’t noticed it, get down close and have a look….. you’ll soon see the rashing and probably start to cry that your new pride and joy is being abused on a daily basis!

These stone deflectors are cheap, well made and easy to fit. Whilst they don’t remove the problem entirely, they greatly reduce the issue.

If you look at the image below, you’ll see the white rashing evident on the lower panel. This was in place prior to the deflectors fitted, with the car only having around 2500 miles on the clock at the time. Imagine what it would look like after 25,000 miles!



To fit the deflector you only need to remove the lower OEM trim fitments, which is done by pulling out the centre pin and then extracting the outer sleeve.



You then clean up the facings on the outer arch, as you need to 3M tape the deflector in place. You then pop the trim fittings (in reverse) back in (with the deflector in place). Job done in about 15 mins.





Aluminium Footrest
Something else that AMG should have sorted from the off, is the lack of a left footrest. If they go to the trouble of creating nice pedals, why not throw another couple of pound at an alloy footrest to stop the carpet version getting marked and worn over time?! Thankfully a company on eBay has come up with the answer….. an alloy footrest that looks exactly as you’d expect an OEM product to look like!

This specific footrest is crafted out of alloy, with a rubber membrane protruding through the alloy (so looks the same as the OEM pedals). The footrest attaches in seconds, with a velcro back which sticks to the carpet already in place.







Here it is fitted in place:




Paddle Shift Extenders
These are without doubt a bit “marmite”. However, I’ve always felt that a lot of OEM shifters are ergonomically lacking…. mostly because they are too small and feel quite cheap. With the A45 set-up this is made even worse, by the fact that the paddles are part of the wheel, so end up being quite awkward to locate when on lock. I’d go as far to say that they are pretty useless on lock!

Now, the A45 can be spec’d with the Performance Wheel option, that has the larger paddles. To be honest they don’t actually look that much bigger to me. Luckily there are options out there to buy OEM paddle extenders. I’m not sure if any solutions are available to fit the larger OEM paddles, as the ones I have seen are for the smaller “normal” OEM paddles only.

I took the plunge and bought some from a company in China, which ended up costing me around £160 inc shipping and import taxes. Not specifically cheap for a bit of alloy, but getting on for half the price of some other versions available. You can buy a multitude of colours….. I went for the least “chav” looking ones, black.

Being from China you tend to think the quality may not be up to much, so let’s see how these turn out.





Not that you can probably tell from the pictures, but these paddles are of a very good quality.

Unfortunately, which I think is not great, the paddles did not come with any form of fixing tape. The paddles need to be stuck on to the back of the original paddles. I ended up getting some 3M VHB fixing tape (0.6mm), which is very very good stuff for this kind of thing. It costs a couple of pound off eBay, so no great expense.



The fitment of these is very straight forward as long as you take your time. Clean the faces you’re going to be fitting on to (both OEM paddles and extenders), and take your time fitting the tape to the extenders.



Here they are all fitted up:






Personally I think they look pretty smart, especially in black. However, I was more interested in how they feel.

Instantly I felt a difference with them being on. I like the fact that the back of the OEM paddle is now padded out with the extender in place. They feel much better than the OEM setup, as I always felt the OEM paddles felt a bit awkward to use and not very ergonomic (perhaps that’s down to my gangly fingers). The extra thickness the extenders provide, really does make the use of the paddles better for me. So even without taking advantage of the top and bottom extenders, the paddles already felt a lot better.

Taking the car out it was almost like I had a different set-up. The paddles felt much more mechanical, rather than plastic and numb (and cheap if I’m being honest). The added area that you can now utilise really does make the whole paddle setup so much more ergonomic….. way more than I had thought it would. You have a lot more surface area to press, which provides a lot more flexibility as to where your hands can be. The paddles should have been more like this from standard.

Personally I think they’re a great upgrade, that actually provide very good benefits.

Fuel consumption
Whilst I appreciate we don't buy these types of cars to scrimp on fuel, it continues to amaze me how fuel efficient the set-up can be.

I recently went to Birmingham which from me means I use the M1/M6 route into Brum, as the majority of the journey travelled. The M6 is pretty crap, being quite stop start around the city.

None of these figures were just off the motorway portions…. these were door to door.

This is what the car achieved on the way over, although traffic was quite bad so not high speed really:


This was once I got back home. With the return journey being much freer of traffic:


I then took a drive down to London last bank holiday. London is just over 70 miles from my door, so majority is motorway. This time though we went on a bit of a drive around / tour. First heading for Knightsbridge and then did the full tour of the city. We drove for over 30 miles off motorway and around the city. Proper town (city) driving.

I reset everything as soon as I left the house and this is what it was when I returned home:


I honestly never adjusted my driving to achieve good MPG (although the majority of the time was spent in C mode). I just drove sensibly. Going through the tunnels around London was pretty epic… manual mode, nail it!

Taking it easy and driving normally, I still can't believe how economical these cars can be.

ODB Data Logging
Not had any chance to play with this, but something I’ll go into greater detail soon.

 

[John Jones Jr]

Another excellent report, cheers. Will be watching with interest on your comments about the ELM as I've be tempted in the past to get one.

 

[mosescapetown]

Now My head is also spinning...

I wanted to start my own project thread and decided to read some of the existing threads to get an idea of how you guys approach this.

I am SUPER impressed with your project Shaunee...

It was allot to read but in no way did i get bored at all. I loved the info and more so i learned that MB can build a Quick smaller car and do it really well.

Will be following your progress... You set the bar nice and high so I will have to do a nice job of my own Project.

Thanx for a great informative read.

 

[acej]

Keep it coming really interesting.

 

[JBD]

Hi SquabzZz,
BHP chasing is the root of all evil... been there and done it.

Yes, the 45's certainly are pricey....... it's only a 2ltr hatchback, regardless of what "badge" it has. However, it really is a fantastic package, even without further mods. IMO if Subaru had taken a similar approach in it's engine development (which is sadly lacking at the moment), the Impreza would still be one of the top runners in this sector.

For MB to do this on their first 2ltr outing is nothing short of amazing. Imagine what future revisions will be like!

They're talking about adding around 20bhp when it's face lifted at the end of they year. It's bloody impressive power for a car that's not modified

 

[StuA45AMG]

Shaunee
Thanks for the post just bought the foot rest, to stop my carpet wearing even more

 

[Shaunee]

Thanks chaps!!

I've had a number of things in real life crop up over the past couple of months, so not had the time to progress any further with the engine/power mods. Starting to get back into that now.

 

[albroon]

Footrest looks great!

Do you have a link to the eBay seller? The link above takes me to the eBay homepage.

Cheers

 

[StuA45AMG]

[FONT=&quot]Got mine from here, excellent product and good delivery
Item ID: 161701456138
[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]Seller :[/FONT][FONT=&quot] bust_a_nut (905) [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Leonard Grey, 35 Bega Street, Grange, AU, Queensland, 4051 [/FONT]

 

[Shaunee]

Footrest looks great!

Do you have a link to the eBay seller? The link above takes me to the eBay homepage.

Cheers

Hi albroon,
As posted above..... it's from "bust a nut".