Brabus K1 Tuning

[flango]

Hi All

I'm finally getting around to the engine upgrades on my car and wonder if anyone can help me with this one. When I bought my 230 clk W208 it was a one owner car previously owned by a famous London restauranteur. It alledgedly has a Brabus K1 performance kit fitted and I want to confirm if this is correct or not as it is not mentioned in any of the literature that came with the car. Below is what I believe to be the Brabus K1 spec for a W208. I have contacted Brabus in Germany and they told me this upgrade would have been carried out by a MB Dealer. Unfortunately the supplying dealer went bust a good few years ago so I cannot contact them to confirm.

My car definitely has the Brabus / Remus exhaust and the supercharger pulley is around 91mm does anyone know what the standard diameter is?

Also K1s upgraded intercooler, how can I tell?

My car is booked into my local indie / motorsport dealer in September for the intermittant SC problem and some engine work to increase bhp, but no point in me doing a pulley upgrade if it already has one?


BRABUS K1 kit: Includes BRABUS exhaust (made by REMUS ) and smaller SC pulley (which consist of modified pulley itself, pulley bearing, plastic top friction plate, SC clutch and shorter belt) This kit is made from OEM mercedes parts (except exhaust, which is made by REMUS) .It produces 210 HPs according to BRABUS specs. That kit is the most mild supercharger overdrive kit of all tuning companies you can buy (because there is limit to what degree SC pulley can get smaller because of SC magnetic clutch inside the pulley itself).

BRABUS K1S kit on top of K1 kit also includes BRABUS InterCooler (which is also NOT made from BRABUS itself, but some company makes that coolers for BRABUS). K1S produces 220 HPs, according to BRABUS.

Any help most appreciated

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Which was the supplying dealer out of interest?

 

[Adam230K]

Oh wow, i wasn't even aware that brabus did a pulley kit! i might get myself one of those!

Is it giving you any problems with the S/c? what mileage you running at?

 

[flango]

Oh wow, i wasn't even aware that brabus did a pulley kit! i might get myself one of those!

Is it giving you any problems with the S/c? what mileage you running at?

I got a really good deal when I bought the car as it had an intermittent SC fault which the dealer had tried to cure by the usual routes of changing the MAF, Lambda sensors and Air bypass valve which did not cure the problem. So I suspect it is likely to be an ECU or magnetic clutch issue.

Mileage on the car is only 70K and 90% of the time it runs absolutely perfect but on occasions the SC simply drops out and I go down to standard power which is not nice.

As for pulley upgrades if mine turns out not to have the Brabus K1 then the most economical upgrade is to buy the pulley upgrade kit from the USA costs about $799 plus shipping for lightweight aircraft grade aluminium. It can also be sourced in south Africa for about the same money after currency conversion. This system also uses the standard belts which makes life easier.

Hope mine has the K1 Kit on and I suppose easiest way of telling is by SC pulley diameter but I dont know what the standard car SC pulley diameter in and searches on the net give differing diameters.

 

[flango]

Which was the supplying dealer out of interest?

The original supplying dealer was "Normand of Mayfair Ltd" Dealer No 077. MB confirmed that they no longer exist and in fact closed the premises about 1 year after the car was purchased. It was then transfered to their sister dealership "Normand city of London Ltd" Dealer no 071. This one also now does not exist. There is no record of my car having the upgrade either with MB in the UK or with Brabus. However Brabus were most helpful and were able to confirm that between 1997 - 1999 they shipped 6 x K1 tuning kits to Normand in Mayfair. My detective work goes on !

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

The original supplying dealer was "Normand of Mayfair Ltd" Dealer No 077. MB confirmed that they no longer exist and in fact closed the premises about 1 year after the car was purchased. It was then transfered to their sister dealership "Normand city of London Ltd" Dealer no 071. This one also now does not exist. There is no record of my car having the upgrade either with MB in the UK or with Brabus. However Brabus were most helpful and were able to confirm that between 1997 - 1999 they shipped 6 x K1 tuning kits to Normand in Mayfair. My detective work goes on !

A friend's family had a Brabus dealership for a short while - which is also no more. I thought there may have been a teeny weeny slim chance that it was from there, in whcih case there might have been an even teenier chance I could have helped.

Good luck with your detective work!!

 

[flango]

Latest update on this for those interested, I have now managed to find the address of the previous owners new restaurant and have written to him asking what the spec of the car was when he purchased it, hopefully he will reply and then I'll update you. Also now have a contact for Brabus technical in Germany so will call them tomorrow to see if they can tell me the standard and Brabus pulley diameters

 

[flango]

Result

As you will see from above I wrote to the cars previous owner who was absolutely brilliant he wrote back telling me the exact spec of the car he ordered fro MB which did indeed include a Brabus K1 tuning kit, not only this he sent me all the original bills agreements and a load of supporting documents that verify the cars history and mileage. Armed with this I contacted Brabus Technical services who were able to identify the exact car through the K1 kit order number. I then went through my problems regarding intermittent SC failure and told them we had changed the air bypass valve, lambda sensor and MAF sensor and this did not cure the problem, they then told me that the K1 kit had a minor modification from its original design as on the original design one of the wires could be exposed to wear which eventually wears through the wire causing total SC failure, they were confident this was the cause of my problem. They asked me to check some wiring details which my technician did and we reported back to Brabus they confirmed the car had not had the wiring upgrade and would send us the new wiring and shielding, 48 hours later this arrived and has been fitted, so far no problems and I'm hoping this has cured the problem but will report back.

But what about that for customer service from Brabus, 10 years later and they send FOC the upgrade part, what an outfit.

Heres hoping it's cured:bannana: