CLK63 AMG Coupe

[mwstewart]

Thanks all!

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

That's a
Lovely thing, well done!

 

[leef44]

That looks gorgeous, I'm looking at those pictures and wondering whether I made the wrong choice.
I love my two seater but the OH would like more space.

 

[AMGClub]

thats lovely. Rare to see CLK63's on the road, and that must be one of the best example on the roads.

 

[Storminnorm]

Beautiful car, good luck with it !

 

[Rashman]

Lovely car mate.
Cracking condition too
It’s great to see another one on the forum.

Keeper, for sure

 

[Shakey60]

Very nice, love that shape and amazing condition!

 

[C43AMG]

Thanks all!

You must speak to Rash ( Rashman ) our CLK 63 AMG Coupe expert

 

[Rashman]

You must speak to Rash ( Rashman ) our CLK 63 AMG Coupe expert

Expert?

lol
Na... Just a CLK63 owner with a microfibre fetish


Hope you are well, Pete, and hope to see you soon

 

[C43AMG]

Hi Rash, good to hear from you. I'm fine, you and your lovely lady too, i hope Your too modest, how many years have you had your CLK ?

I suppose it will be at Olly's GTG in May

 

[mwstewart]

Eleven days in and I've had opportunity to drive the car for 1,000 miles on various roads. Granted, it is still early days, but I really look forward to driving it in a way I haven't for another car in a long time. That I think is what its all about!

It feels special even before the engine is started, but then of course when it is the sound is incredible - arguably the stand-out feature. It is certainly one of my memorable car experiences. The exhaust note is smoother more cultured than some of the later models with the M156 engine, which suits me, and volume-wise it good: more audible inside and outside than some of the AMG models that came before it - my W209 CLK55 included - but quiet enough to mooch around without drawing undue attention. In spite of these features I like that this model is - by and large - free from any particular image, and to most people/the untrained eye it looks like a diesel with the sport pack. I think it looks great and the interior in particular is beautiful, more so with the large glass sunroof which lets in a lot of light.

Performance is good and never feels too much for the chassis which admittedly was one of my slight concerns - the package is far more capable on the performance driving front than I expected. I wouldn't say it feels like nearly 500hp in a regular car may lead to believe, but I have been spoiled a bit by the 430! I think the important point with the CLK is not to judge it as a sports car because it absolutely isn't: it's a GT.

Driving has been a bit of a surprise with throttle and torque converter response being sharp, and combined with the large amount of torque available meant I had a few miles to adjustment to achieve the lowest RPM take-off! AMG developed bespoke gearbox calibration for all three modes; Comfort, Sport, and Manual. Changes in manual are brisk though block changes confuse the TCU, but it must be said it really isn't that type of car anyway. I now avoid Sport as kick down with the level of available torque is brutal on prop shaft isolators and CV joints, and often results in the rear wheels spinning at anything up to 80. At other times I find Sport holds on to revs when unlike the 350 really it isn't required with the level of torque available, so Comfort has become my preferred choice for regular driving and Manual for when I want to push on.

I touched on it above, but with this model it is most noticeable that AMG have designed and calibrated everything to be much more driver focused than what has gone before. The difference to my 2006 facelift CLK55 for example is marked. The 7G with AMG calibration is one obvious difference, the exhaust note and noise are ramped up a couple of notches, but other differences include firmer engine mounts which let a subtle amount of low-RPM rumble into the cabin to make the engines presence felt. I love that.

Another marked change is the suspension; damping is firmer but more noticeable are increased spring rates and harder top mounts which equate to a fairly stout ride over poor surfaces. I haven't checked parts diagrams yet but I suspect the control arm bushings are also 63 specific, or at least the steering rack bushes are, because feedback is high for a CLK with road surface changes and minor imperfections felt through the wheel.

The benefits in terms of handling are significant because it handles much more responsively than I thought the chassis was capable of - it drives much more like a sports car than the CLKs I've owned before - but nevertheless I'm not completely sold on the suspension calibration and in the future I may look to change springs and top mounts to something softer. It's more of a niggle than a real dislike.

One interesting change is a reduction of road noise which makes it an even more relaxing motorway drive, Tyre sizes are the same as the non-AMG sport pack at 225/40 up front and 255/35 at the rear, but a quick check in the boot revealed sound deadening that weighed in approximately twice that of my last CLK!

There are some things I don't like about the car: The Harman/Kardon system brings with it an annoying rattle on the parcel shelf, regardless of whether the system is on or not (interestingly a flaw carried over to the newer C Class!), and the electric window and boot release switch bank in the drivers door rattles with certain bass frequencies.

My other gripe is the sound system itself. There are two issues:

1) The upgraded speakers are capable of high fidelity sound but I find the Logic7 processing at times introduces a very synthetic element to music, and furthermore because of the amount of processing involved the system is extremely sensitive to music source and quality; where a solid performing non-DSP system can make even low bit rate MP3 sound acceptable, on the HK system anything not 320kbps, CD, or radio just sounds dire. 2) When listening to even a high quality recording the bass response is not adequate. The system makes uses of a microphone in the overhead lighting binnacle to make adjustments to the sound based on road noise and frequency response of the speakers, and because the rear sub is somewhat feeble, it is often turned right down at moderate volumes.

I have come up with an initial solution to the sound problem.

With the facelift W209 CLK Mercedes started to use the MOST fibre optic interface for in-car entertainment, and obviously the HK amp is part of that. My requirements are to retain the OEM COMAND Sat Nav and associated sound control, and the 12 or so upgraded main HK speakers. It was looking like my option was to retain the HK amp but use its speaker-level outputs with an adapter to drive an intermediate device/amp. I don't like the idea of that from a sound quality perspective. It was then I found the Audison bit DMI:

I can use the bit DMI to plug in the fibre optic MOST ring in place of the HK amp, and from it use a TOSLINK fibre optic cable to connect a DSP and amplifier of my choice, to drive the original speakers.

For the amplifier I've chosen the Audison Prima 8.9 eight channel:

It has a nice built in DSP so I can configure the sound just how I want it: eight channel stero rather than the pseudo-surround LOGIC7.

In addition to the above I'm going to address the parcel shelf and switch rattle by applying Silent Coat vibration damping material to the rear shelf and front door speaker areas. I may decide to add a better sub if I'm still not happy with the performance of the HK sub driven by the Prima.

 

[C43AMG]

You must try and bring it to a GTG. We are having a MB Brooklands GTG on the 25th February. Its in the Events section, some of us are having lunch, locally. Be good to see the CLK and you as well

 

[mwstewart]

I've fitted some genuine mats but in black - they are a bit more serviceable in the winter than the original (as new!) cream 'Stone' mats.

Another little job was to clean the rear speaker grilles. These always appear dirty on light coloured CLKs - I think because the interior is sealed and deadened that well a lot of airflow to the rear of the car ends up via the speaker grilles, thus they pick up a lot of dust.

The grilles just pop off so I put them in the washing machine wrapped in a light coloured towel. They are now on a par with the rest of the interior - the dark spots are the grille holes in the plastic underneath.

Harman/Kardon Parcel Shelf Rattle - Fixed
The engine provides its own music but the squeak from the parcel shelf makes itself heard regardless of whether the stereo is on or not. I plan to keep the car for a while so I had to address it, and for me the only way to do that properly was to remove the parcel shelf and speakers.

To withdraw the parcel shelf the bottom half of the C pillars are removed, and three nuts in the boot area that secure the electric blind to the chassis, and finally a couple of push in clips before the shelf can be removed. Next the large sound-insulation mat can be lifted out. What I found underneath surprised me: the rear speakers are not actually screwed into place but clipped in with plastic barbed tangs! Not great and no doubt something that contributes to the noise - bear in mind one side is actually the relatively heavy subwoofer assembly.

To resolve the issue I decided to apply Silent Coat 2mm Damping Mat material to majority of the rear shelf area. This doesn't need to cover every square inch but provide sufficient additional mass to change the resonant frequency of the thin panel.
I used Silent Coat Noise Isolator 4 between the speakers and the rear shelf, and the speaker location tangs and the car body. I also removed the electric blind from the parcel shelf and applied Isolator 4 to any contact areas, including sandwiching the mounting points. It makes reassembly a little tricky but provides a much firmer location of the blind.
I finished by applying felt tape to every contact point between the C pillars and the parcel shelf.

The rear of the car is now silent. There were obviously a few sources of noise back there as more difference has been made than simply removing the obvious squeak...The only problem with a quiet car is very small things become obvious: I now notice a very slightly shuffling of the door cards over bad road surfaces. We are talking very minor here. I will address another time it when I remove the door cards to apply 2mm Damping Mat around the speakers.

 

[ChrisCLS55]

That Sir is a beautiful car, I love the interior and clean lines of the body itself.

 

[mwstewart]

That Sir is a beautiful car, I love the interior and clean lines of the body itself.

Thank you. I am really happy with it.

 

[RSTurbo50]

Fantastic looking car, dare I asked how much you paid? I have been looking for one to buy but are very rare indeed.

 

[mwstewart]

We plan to keep this car long term so I've started to sort out the little niggles.

First, the CD changer doesn't work, well, it does sort of operate but it doesn't scan discs. Earlier cars used a proprietary D2B fibre optic bus for media but the facelift cars use a MOST based bus like pretty much everything else does now, and the CD changer is part of that. I do have a lot of old CDs but I'd much rather have iPod, USB, and SD card etc. capability. The car does have an aux in port in the glove box, but that's over relatively poor quality cable and goes through the COMAND/Sat Nav ADC converter and then the DAC at the Logic7 amplifier, so given a line out stereo jack is rarely a good source to begin with (if not a line out then headphone amplifiers are rarely any good!) the sound quality is dire.

Rather than replace the CD changer for the same thing I've gone with a Dension Gateway; it is a MOST fibre based device that replaces the CD changer and provides digital in from various formats direct to the MOST bus.

From the Dension site:
* Menu based control and browsing;
* Music playback from iPod (iPhone) or USB drive with text display (music information);
* Control through steering wheel buttons (if available) or the head unit buttons;
* USB drive connection is added to your car;
* AUX-in adds the possibility to connect external sound sources to your radio;
* Android devices can be connected via USB if ’Mass Storage Mode’ is available;
* Depending on the car and audio system (radio) specification the Gateway 500 can display all song related information on the car radio or cluster display and allows iPod menu browsing, too.

I've also replaced the passenger side luggage net which is a common issue on CLKs - either passengers catch it with their feet or if the handbook pack is stored within it, then it stretches and becomes useless.

I have also found a black ash (wood) gearknob and have started to gather the parts required for the US centre console.

 

[C43AMG]

Great choice, looks like a lovely example, and so rare you aren’t likely to see another on the road.

72 Registered 9 on SORN

 

[PaulXC]

Rather than replace the CD changer for the same thing I've gone with a Dension Gateway; it is a MOST fibre based device that replaces the CD changer and provides digital in from various formats direct to the MOST bus.
.

I've got one of those in my E320 cdi - being only an Audio 20 unit it doesn't display track details on the screen though. I've got Dension Bluetooth dongle that plus into it as well so you can stream from iPhone/Android devices. You can use the BT module for telephone as well buts it's a bit temperamental.

 

[mwstewart]

I've got one of those in my E320 cdi - being only an Audio 20 unit it doesn't display track details on the screen though. I've got Dension Bluetooth dongle that plus into it as well so you can stream from iPhone/Android devices. You can use the BT module for telephone as well buts it's a bit temperamental.

I've seen screen shots of the Dension display on the COMAND, so I'm, hopeful it will work OK. I will look into the Bluetooth option - it would be handy.