Test Drove a C280 today!

[GrahamC230K]

Originally posted by GregDavis
Just heard back from Upsolutes local dealer in Rochester(kent). My C200 Petrol gains 12hp and 20nm torque by chipping. It will take 2 to 3 hours and will cost £265 normal or £295 with Rolling road report. Obviously diesels and turbos get far greater gains.

Thourghts any one, any previous experience , has anyone else chipped their car?

I recall that I got a quote for a chip from somewhere that only had a dealer in Kent. However they could not say for sure if they could do the job, until the day when they actually saw my ECU.

I got the C230K instead

 

[jimmy]

I spoke to Impossible Performance in Rochester on Tuesday and it looked like I would be chipped by the weekend.

It is now Thursday late morning and nothing seems to be happening. I spoke to the bloke yesterday morning with my Bosch ECU numbers, I spoke to him again yesterday evening and he is waiting to hear from Upsolute if my ECU can be done.

According to their database my ECU is the same as a C230K which is confusing them.

I will keep you posted.

 

[jimmy]

Originally posted by GregDavis
Hi Jimmy, are you still located in Northampton if so it's a bit of a run to Rochester? I'm really interested in how you get on with chipping as I live 10 mins from Rochester and if it worked out then I might concider following your example!

Ahh well if your'e only 10mins away why don'y you get it done first, if you think it is worthwhile then I will get mine done.

It is about a 2 hour trip for me, but I have got to go down that way to look at some garage equipment so I was planning on combining the trips.

I will give him another ring in a little while.

I am sure it will be worthwhile, a 10-15% increase should be quite noticable and my K&N filter should improve it more too. My dad once had a Range Rover TDi with the BMW engine and had it chipped, wow what a beast that was. He was considering having his 2002 E320CDi done too but he has ordered a new E320Cdi estate. I know turbo diesels gain more bhp than naturally aspirated engines, but it should make my little 1.8litre more like a 2litre or 2.1litre .

Hopefully it will keep me happy for the rest of this year at least, so that I can start looking for a C240/C250/C280 or even a C270Cdi (no harm in dreaming).

 

[GrahamC230K]

Originally posted by jimmy
Upsolute if my ECU can be done.

According to their database my ECU is the same as a C230K which is confusing them.

Can they chip a C230K then??


Contact details?

 

[jimmy]

I dont think you need to worry about trying to gain performance from a modern car, especially not a Merc. The engine and tranny is quite capable of handling the extra power.

As an example, I used to work in agriculture and when we used to buy tractors there was always a range with HP from 90, 100, 110, 120 HP - all the same tractor, same engines and gearboxes just different power outputs and £2000 price difference between each model.

We once bought a 'bottom' of the range Case tractor that was 155HP, 8Litre, Turbo diesel, intercooled, 32 speed powershift clutchless gearbox, CD player, AirCon, air suspension cab, enough lights to light up a small town, and every comfort you could imagine all for £45K. As soon as the engine was run in, we had it tweaked to 225HP.

These engines had mechanical injection not ECU's so it was just a case of adjusting a small screw on the fuel injector pump whilst connected to a Dyno (Big electric heater ) Incidentally the performance was vastly different in the field (not on the road , top speed of 40Kph) but the fuel consumption was reduced. Before we could do about 10 hours of work on 80 gallons, after you could probably do 13 hours and do much more work, it sounded awesome too .

Back to cars, as we all know (most) Mercedes are built well and I would have no problem with chipping mine. Look at Koolvins Turbo for example, I am sure he won't have any engine problems unless he is regularly running the 1/4 at the pod or doing the traffic light grand prix at every opportunity.

All car manufacturers have to compromise between costs, performance, reliabilty and legislations when designing and building cars. That is why your C200 is producing about 135bhp when it could produce more. They have to allow for poor fuel, lack of maintenance etc.

My brother in law is a top mechanic for a leading racing company and I have spoken to him about this subject many a time. For a relatively small increase of upto 30% the engine will be fine as standard, for anything more they would upgrade certain components in the engine, namely the bottom end.

Sorry to waffle on, I just hope mine can be done after all.

 

[Shude]

Originally posted by GregDavis
Obviously diesels and turbos get far greater gains.

http://www.upsolute.com/database/english/sheets/196.html

Adds 39bhp (28kw) and 30 ft/lb (42Nm) to the c230k

 

[Shude]

Originally posted by jimmy
All car manufacturers have to compromise between costs, performance, reliabilty and legislations when designing and building cars. That is why your C200 is producing about 135bhp when it could produce more. They have to allow for poor fuel, lack of maintenance etc.

My stealership servicing guy said one customer brought a car in 22k over the service interval, he had bought it already needing a service (as indicated by ASSYST) but he ignored this for about 2 years or something and THEN took it in when it had some problems. Once they'd given it a thorough B service it was fine, but they did recommend that next time he should bring it in as soon as the little indicator told him .

MB designed the cars to take punishment like this, that's why they're sometimes not as powerful as perhaps we'd hoped...