Sprint Booster PROBLEMS W221 S Class

[S600 V12 W221]

HELP HELP HELP!!!!

I own a 2006 W221 LWB S Class S600 V12 BiTurbo, fully loaded with only 66k on the clock. Had the car just over a year. Only 3 days ago brought the Sprint Booster Generation 2, the new one with the LED lights and switchable modes.
LOVED IT, car was flying, drove effortlesley really enjoyed it. Noticed the second day that the gearbox was acting slightly odd nothing major just sometime wierd gear changes or a sudden knocking noise when u come to a stop. Anyway continued driving enjoying my 602BHP monster.

Third day, after a short burst of power as i was crusing my engine management light came on. Took it to a personal friend of mine who was a recently made redundant benz technician working at the mercedes dealership for 5 years, popped round his house where he hooked my car up to his star machine to read the fault.

Fault said someting in technical term about my 4th gear slipping..
Erased the fault, and the light was gone, all was sweet. Only after a Hard bit of driving which i hardly do but started to coz of the sprint booster acting so well, after 30 mins hard driving the engine light would come up again. Checked it on the computer again then said the gearbox oil temperature was too hot, unusaly as i had only been in the car for 40 mins. Reset the light again then again after another drive light appeared. star machine now saying 2nd and 4th gear implaussible fault and slipping.

brought the car from Main dealer mercedes 13 months ago as its an 06 Blate car mercedes givew you 1 years used and approved warrany bit my car was now a month outa warrant.

Took it into my local Merc dealer (removed the sprint booster) and told him my engine light came on...

And then unfortunatley after there diagnosis said i needed a new transmission, valve body ant torque converter for the gear box.

Total repair cost just under £10,000, bearing in mind brought the car a year ago for £65,000.

Was so upset and compaind to head office and got the bill reduced to £3000 under good will. Am now wating fpr the parts to be installed to the car which will take a week as there being delivered from Germany..

My Merc Technician did say since the sprint booster that the gear box was occasionaly misbehaving, neverhad a problrm with transmission considering its only go just over 60k on it and since the sprint booster needs a whole new transmission unit!!!!

He and myself feel that on the w221 2006 S Classes the sprint booster dosent agree with the gearboxesn and stresses it causing this problem...

A £200 sprint booster is now costing over £3000 and me being without the vehicle for over a week.

Anyone experience any problems on there S Classes, would love to know...Please help lads...

Thanks

2006 S600 LWB V12 Bi Turbo
Custom ECU remap
K&n air filters
Sprint booster
Brabus Exhaust
AMG S65 Body kit
Brabus interior compete
Brabus Illuminated Sills
8K Bi Xenons upgrade
602 BHP
Fully loded S Class

 

[Howard]

I find it incredible that you have a custom ECU map on your car and a sprintbooster and you have the audacity to approach MB for a goodwill contribution towards the gearbox that has broken ...

Am i missing something ?

 

[S600 V12 W221]

The custom remap was reccomended from my Mercedes service manager pretty cool guy and off the record told me that many of theres cars they came across V12s and other had been remapped and said was good for the vehicle, hes from Germany any says it unlocks its true power if kekp within its tolerence leval which i had and used a reputable remapping company.

Why would u not ask if the car has just finished warranty a month ago with only 60 k on the clock. Does that sound normal on a V12 Premium s class for ta transmission to die at 60k?????

Plus the remap was done a year ago when i brought the car, had no prblems since fully maintained from mercedes. Only had a proble since CKS performance installed my sprint booster.....

 

[davidjpowell]

The Sprintbooster does not change the power though so should not affect anything directly? If the car is being driven harder though I wonder if it would present more severely symptoms that were already being developed.

It does make me wonder if the custom remap could affect anything though. If more power is being developed could it break the gearbox?

If I was the OP I would be upset, but assuming that he had the remap done I think he has come out of it pretty well really.

 

[Howard]

Will your service manager put his name in writing to MB that he recommended it ? Probably not ....

The remap is what has killed your gearbox , not the sprintbooster.

The torque was restricted on the 65 series , ( CL , SL and S ) to 1000nm IIRC correctly as the gearboxes couldn't take it .

I wouldn't concern yourself too much about the warranty , no doubt the gearbox wouldn't have gone pop if you hadn't remapped it.

I think you have done well out of MB personally , did you take the sprintbooster off the car before you took it in or were you honest and left it in place ?

 

[S600 V12 W221]

The V12 S600 Gearbox are apparantley bullit proof...??

Obvoiusly NOT, plus my gearbox is the point 6 vervsion which is the best and can handle loads of torque i thing 1000newton metors or so. Its the best gearbox Mercedes have, the remap gave me 50 bhp which isnt really abusing the V12 potential.

Even Merc are surprised the gearbox has gone apparantly is very very rare for the s600.

Trust me on a S class the Sprint booster doesent like it. Ive read other forums and another guy with a s600 said the sprint booster ripped up his transmission...

ANYONE HAD ANY PROBLEMS??

on the other Mercs im sure its fine, but on thw W221 slass they dont get on, a friend of mine has it in his S329 cdi and hes told me his gearbox has become jery and hes only had the SB for 4 days and no problems prior to this, i advised him to remove it until we confirm thats the cause.

Carefull guys with the W221 s class.

Any problems with others?

 

[S600 V12 W221]

Sorry cant type to save my life, i meant S320 CDI is Jerky...U know what i mean...

 

[S600 V12 W221]

I removed it to be honest with you buddy....
i had my 57 plate S320 CDi remapped and had it for 3 years with no probs plus other vehicles i,ve owned. It wasnit like i increased the power by over 100bhp plus loads of torque, only 52bhp on a V12 BiTurbo, surly the gearbox can handle that and cant be so weak...on other Merc Forums people have said sprint booster and gearboxes are a bit of a dodgy subject as the transmission works harder with the sprint booster up and downchanging aggressivley expecially with the sprint booster 2nd generation which is what i used, which is alot more aggressive as opposed to the regular one...

 

[Will]

I agree with Howard here - the sprint booster doesn't affect engine output or torque AFAIK, but clearly the remap could affect both of those things, putting additional stress on the gearbox.

In other words - I believe the sprint boosters simply make the throttle control more sensitive, to give a similar effect to pushing the throttle quickly - no power gains.

If the gearbox is/was slipping, I'd consider that it could be as a result of wear and tear, something perhaps that has happened over a longer period along with the remap, and not in two/three days since the sprint booster was plugged in.

Sounds like a reasonably fair result from MB - a 70% contribution to the bill for a 66k mile modified car (filters, exhaust, sprintbooster + remapped) with no warranty - could be worse!

 

[S600 V12 W221]

True i agree, if you think the sprint booster did not affect my gearbox, do u think its safe to install back into it when i get my car back with new transmission??

 

[S600 V12 W221]

The only reason they made such a contribution was because i have a fleet of S Classes as i own a chauffeur company. They didnt want to loose my business plus buy all my cars from them..
But i happy with the result...

 

[Will]

Well I guess it's your call. I wouldn't drive any vehicle around constantly shoving the throttle aggressively which is to an extent the way the sprint booster works If you need quick acceleration every now and then, why not just use the tiptronic and drop a couple of gears, or for sudden/unplanned acceleration the kickdown works fine I find.

Surely not a slouch with 600+bhp and mountains of torque - I'd leave the SB out myself.

 

[trapperjohn]

I'm not a techie or any sort of authority on engines/gearboxes/software/addons.

Something though "in my water" says leave it be. Once bitten and all that. Plus if it happens again I do not think Mercedes would be looking at a 70% refund to you.

 

[S600 V12 W221]

True, would love to know if any other people have had problems with sprint boosters in there w221 s classes.

 

[S600 V12 W221]

Anyone know how to activate tv/dvd in motion on the w221 s class? Woud love to get mine done (for my passengers)

 

[S600 V12 W221]

Or has anyone instaledd a sprint booster on there w221 s class 2006 onwards and had no probs? Working well?

 

[DonDon]

SBDD 452A Sprint Booster with a 3 way switch, problems

I have a 2009, C220 CDI Sports AMG Diesel Auto Saloon, it suffers from a terrible lag at lights or roundabouts, up to 2 seconds, so decided to install a Sprint Booster. A Mercedes technician now inform me that the new diesel engines, when the car stops, disengage the gearbox to save on CO2 emissions, then when you give it some throttle it all has to reset itself, this can take up to 1-2 seconds to achieve, this is the lag.
I didn't know this, so I installed a brand new switchable booster, which orked great for 3 days on the mid boost setting (green light), no lag better acceleration, so full of confidence I switched it on to the full boost (red Light). All hell broke lose.
Lots of error messages, tyre inflation indicator has stopped working, problems between the pedal and the ECU, the computer diagnosed it as a short circuit, lack of power, switching on and off to get you home mode. Mercedes ran their diagnostic test and told me to remove the booster. I returned home with the booster on the Green setting, all worked great.
Today Saturday it finally blew up, the engine diagnostic error light came on. The car would slow down almsot stop, then speed up. So I removed the booster, still got the diagostic light on but all seems to be working well, will see on Monday, when I ask Mercedes to stop the light.

 

[Hi-Ho Silver]

I tend to have a 'black and white' approach to cars. If it was meant to do it, the manufacturers would have built it that way. Perhaps there are exceptions to this, as sometimes tends to be the way with black and white attitudes but for what it's worth, i've heard too many scary things from people who have faffed. Of course, I haven't heard from those who have faffed without any issues; people don't tend to report when things are going well, just when they aren't.

My opinion: Save all the faffing about with additional aftermarket bits on what was probably a very well designed car if left as standard and buy yourself a car which drives the way you want it to, without having to alter it. I believe they are out there.

I'm still curious to hear the findings of the guys on this forum who took their cars for a mass remap a few weeks ago.

 

[LTD]

What I have noticed with my S Class (albeit a W220)

If you stick it in 'C' mode and pootle around for a while it becomes very 'soft' and relaxing. The onboard gizmos get used to your style of driving.

Pop it into 'S" mode and faff around with the tiptronic and it gets all edgy and jerky for a while until it realises you have a new approach to driving then it becomes sensitive and taut. It just takes a wee while to get used to you.

Given that the car is monitoring the way you drive, and making the best plan from the data, I'd leave off the sprintbooster - in my opinion it is not necessary.

 

[markjay]

Anyone know how to activate tv/dvd in motion on the w221 s class? Woud love to get mine done (for my passengers)

I don't actually know, I am sure some do, doubt if anyone here will answer this...