Brabus D4 Fitment Instructions.

[Collydog]

That literally is the short story because the long story nearly broke me.

 

[Collydog]

Anyway, I have a short list of things on the engine than its time to look at the transmission.

Basically, EGR blank, pcv oil catch can, intake manifold clean and maybe swirl flap blank but will see how the egr pans out. Then finally, Brabus D4!!!

 

[Collydog]

OK so I had a bit of a set back. After the turbo change everything was much better but then I started getting a constant, albeit less prolific, grey/brown smoke. She also felt underpowered and kept getting a P1470 code.

This carried on for some time and things got worse. Till every trip resulted in limp mode and the smoke carried on until limp mode enabled.

After rechecking everything I started to question the vacuum transducers. I attempted to clean them and massively exacerbated the situation. In my mind adding more confirmation to my theory. I fortunately have a Buddy with a 430 000 mile ML270 and I have this evening swapped both transducers across... Voila!! Zero smoke power better but not as good as I have had it in the past but everything certainly better than its been lately. I am now going to replace the Turbo transducer only, as I hope to restore some bottom end power with the egr blank.
My question is has anyone had any joy with these non branded transducers on amazon and eBay if they are a fail what do the stealers charge for the same part? Thanks Guy's.

 

[Collydog]

Right,

I've had a massive fail which resulted in a big triumph.

Yesterday afternoon driving back from town with the whole Fam Damily in tow I lost the alternator & power steering in a second. You guessed it.... she threw a fanbelt or so I thought. Belt tensioner had sheared just below the pulley. First time for everything I guess. Anyway all the same shortcomings with no quick solution especially when I had a decent amount of tools in the boot.

 

[Collydog]

Anyway, I request no judgement be passed as I was no more than 7 minutes from home so I opted to drive til I hit a 100°C than pull over and let her cool off. I got 4 minutes in before achieving this and yes she was hot.

I did resort to borrowing a watering can to cool her down which was effective. Then hitchhiked home got the trusty Honda CRV and handed that over to the boss so she could take our spawn home.

I waited until she was below 70°C then went for the last 3 minute dash.

With a combination of student gear, turning the ignition off and a lot of maintaining momentum we coasted into the drive and I put her to bed.

Yes, I did say to myself I will pay for this cowboy behaviour but the dream and I have had quite a Journey together so far and before I finish the story and to calm anyone who is currently screaming at the screen right now, she is completely fine.

 

[Collydog]

So there we were, she feeling sorry for herself and me very jaded from staying up til 1am working on another 3 pointed star princess with my cousin the night before.

Fair one to ECP, parts were ordered at 08:05 and delivered free of charge by 10:30. Great service with no concern of the normal wrong part saga as in this case there was only one option. Hoorah!

Slightly discontented when I realised the tensioner was made by the same company "INA" as the part that had catapulted around my engine bay, only this time it was made in Slovakia, not Germany! I will say that the new part did look a bit more robust around where the previous one had failed. Me thinks this has happened a few times before.

The belt pleased me by being a Continental product rather than the expected Dayco. Purely a preference rather than any justified reason but happy nonetheless.

 

[Collydog]

A surprisingly tedious process for essentially a two bolts out, two bolts in, route the belt, take tension and release the holding pin task. An hour and a half later while swearing at the ridiculous designer that gave me no room to work I completed round one.

A test drive proved she was serviceable but I was still dealing with the sluggish pull away and poor power delivery. So, I kicked down a gear and opted to remove the intercooler, all pipes and sensors and clean everything before installing a PCV catch can.

 

[Collydog]

Now, I'm not sure what I'm going to do if I have a boost problem in the future as when I got to removing the turbo to intercooler hose there it was staring me in the face and pulling a massive brown eye!

Clearly, I had a boost leak as there was all this oil residue around the connection, a light attempt to remove the jubilee clip proved it was snug but certainly not tight. What muppet did this, who saw fit to do a half ****d attempt at maintenance. Oh yeah that was me... ****!!!

 

[Collydog]

So, with the new catch can and being completely isolated from the turbo intake, theoretically I never will find this leak again as I won't have any oil to give the game away. Guess I better get good at torqueing down jubilee clips.

Anyway, 2 liters of white spirits a whole lot of brake cleaner, contact cleaner, cloths and teeth brushes later, I nipped her up and turned the key. Obviously, I got a good second of diesel knock from the residual cleaning agents then she dropped into her poetic 270CDI Cluck.

Hands washed, dog on board, windows down and boy were we off. The Dream was back!!! Oh how I missed her. She was finally back and in my mind I had a little smile knowing that she'll be getting the EGR shunt and a Brabus D4 chip in the not so distant future. She is gonna Rip!!!

 

[gIzzE]

Just read through you posts, really enjoyed them!

Definitely worth deleting the EGR and removing the swirl flap motor. I did both on mine and it transformed the car, just felt more lively and my MPG increased considerably too which surprised me.
In fact on these you can 'simply' unplug the swirl flap motor and put a resistor across it. I say simply as you have to get to the plug.


Also, the gearbox on these is, imho, what lets the car down, well the way the software controls the torque convertor. It allows a hell of a lot of slip on the ML, too much imho. In fact it never locks up, it progressively reduces the amount of slip but never actually locks.
I noticed it more when I bought another one recently, as my other car, 5 Series, has the ZF 8 Speed it made it too noticeable to live with. I wish someone had done a map for it to get it to have less slip.
For me it feels like you are always giving so much power and efficiency away the way it is set up.

 

[gIzzE]

Here was 24 fill ups I did over the 9 months I recorded them on fuelly....

 

[Collydog]

Just read through you posts, really enjoyed them!

Definitely worth deleting the EGR and removing the swirl flap motor. I did both on mine and it transformed the car, just felt more lively and my MPG increased considerably too which surprised me.
In fact on these you can 'simply' unplug the swirl flap motor and put a resistor across it. I say simply as you have to get to the plug.


Also, the gearbox on these is, imho, what lets the car down, well the way the software controls the torque convertor. It allows a hell of a lot of slip on the ML, too much imho. In fact it never locks up, it progressively reduces the amount of slip but never actually locks.
I noticed it more when I bought another one recently, as my other car, 5 Series, has the ZF 8 Speed it made it too noticeable to live with. I wish someone had done a map for it to get it to have less slip.
For me it feels like you are always giving so much power and efficiency away the way it is set up.

Glzze,

It's like you're in my mind. The transmission was one of the first things I dug into. I read your post hoping you would say you had the TCU remapped and solved all issues.

People have posted that the tranny improves with a remap or chip of the engine . I guess I'll find out soon enough.

 

[Collydog]

Here was 24 fill ups I did over the 9 months I recorded them on fuelly....
View attachment 87997

That's interesting,

I've been roughly getting those numbers before my epic yesterday. I'm really hoping to improve on mine. I have a big run today but it will be towing so interesting to see how I get on.

 

[Collydog]

Here was 24 fill ups I did over the 9 months I recorded them on fuelly....
View attachment 87997

 

[Collydog]

The low figures were towing with a buggered turbo.

 

[Collydog]

These are shots of my catch can setup. Very much ver 1.0 but I'll see how it gets on then tidy her up further.

 

[Collydog]

Sorry the images are too large

 

[gIzzE]

Glzze,

It's like you're in my mind. The transmission was one of the first things I dug into. I read your post hoping you would say you had the TCU remapped and solved all issues.

People have posted that the tranny improves with a remap or chip of the engine . I guess I'll find out soon enough.

I had mine chipped. I wouldn't say the progressive slip improved at all, however, with more torque available it does simply feel more lively and hides it a bit.

I had an ML350 W163 as well, that was the same and if anything I noticed the torque slip even more.

 

[Collydog]

I got to be honest I went in an Ml320 W164 and was astounded as to how well she picked up. I think the extra torque from the V6 coupled with the updated 722.9 transmission filled the massive gap I'm experiencing low down on my Ml270.

I would go so far to say that the W164 felt better and more refined than the W163 in every department. But I bought mine for £350 as a non runner and have nursed her back to life. We've had our ups and downs but she has all the modern creature comforts bar reverse camera (future Rob's problems) and towing capability which would be tough to beat for any price.

 

[Collydog]

I had mine chipped. I wouldn't say the progressive slip improved at all, however, with more torque available it does simply feel more lively and hides it a bit.

I had an ML350 W163 as well, that was the same and if anything I noticed the torque slip even more.

Is it possible to remap the TCU on these cabs? There really isn't a lot of info available in this area. Specifically on the W163.

I have this same transmission on my smaller SLK230 and the experience is night and day different.