W208 430 throttle response

[IainB]

Thought this might be the best place to ask (in as much as I believe it to be working as designed).
I know the throttle on the 208 CLKs go from mechanical to electrical, but as much as I love the car the 'pedal in a pillow' effect somewhat dulls the experience, most notably whilst moving away and / or slow moving traffic.
Is there anyway of improving throttle pickup? (Star - engage hooligan mode?)

 

[Lenny63]

Mine feels the same to be honest
the C43 on the other hand is an absolute menace in comparison and behaves much like you would expect
there is a little gizmo that plugs into the TPS sensor and works wonders and I remember seeing a lot of praise for them on american forums - I can~t remember the name though someone here will - they are not cheap though (approx £150)

 

[IainB]

Thanks - at least I now know its not me going mad
Its an awesome car (well not as good as an AMG obviously!) but I just need that 'feel', Ive had fast cars before but never had anything that goes... powers coming...soon
Will go an have a Google

Edit - so im looking for either a DTE pedal box or sprint booster. Anyone had any experiences of either?

Edit 2 - CKS appears to show improved throttle response from a remap (and a little extra bhp / torque) - now im confused, for the little extra on top of the purchase of a box, is it worth getting the remap instead?

 

[Howard]

Steer clear of cks

The most you'll get out of a remap on a 430 is 20 ish bhp

Get a sprint booster but be prepared to knock down the garage wall when parking the car, the throttle is sooooo touchy afterwards

All the sprint booster does is trick the car into thinking you've stamped on the gas instead of tickling it

You could save yourself £150 by just pressing harder on the pedal all the time

 

[PeterM]

To be fair to CKS, all they claim for the remap is a 19 bhp increase. Unless you mean steer clear of them for other reasons?
I find my 430 is quick to accelerate from a stand still. So much so that when I have a passenger in the car I switch to the w mode, which I find gives a gentler/smoother acceleration. Overtaking on the other hand can be a little frustrating waiting for something to happen. I find shifting manually works fine when I want to press on and enjoy the drive.
The sprint booster seems to divide opinion on the American forums for the reason given by Howard,

 

[Howard]

Cks have a terrible rep for being overpriced and unhelpful

I never used to struggle with my clk430 , if you are driving 'spiritedly' just use the tiptronic box

I did used to find that the car performed and changed better after a good motorway drive , and I would also consider getting the atf changed

Mine was like a different car with new atf, but it's important to get it done properly, there is a how to on here somewhere and to use the correct fluid

 

[PeterM]

Fair enough on CKS then. I'd not heard of them before searching for them after reading this thread.

I've also seen mentioned before the benefit of a atf change. Something I plan to get done to mine soon.

 

[Lenny63]

My ATF change did not make any difference the traits your describing

 

[IainB]

My ATF change did not make any difference the traits your describing

That was the first thing I had changed on mine when I bought it, my local indy said there was a fair chance it was original (at 90k) it improved the changes but not the 'pillow' feel. Everything Ive had before (bar the other W208 CLKs) has always been mechanical, though the 320s didnt seem to suffer from what im experiencing.

Also, unless im very much mistaken I haven't got tiptronic on the 430

 

[Lenny63]

Can you nudge your gear lever left to right ? Look a the clock on th dash and see if the gears move up an down ?

 

[IainB]

Can you nudge your gear lever left to right ? Look a the clock on th dash and see if the gears move up an down ?

Well... that's a bit embarrassing a) Ive never read the booklet and b) my ribbon cables need sorting so I cant see the gear indicator on the dash... have just been out playing and yes indeed, I can move the gears left and right

 

[Howard]

Happy days

We know what you'll be doing tomorrow then

Nice little drive , couple of taps to the left and then give it the beans ...