Just bought a '98 E300 TD. Questions inside - Page 3 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

EDBSO · #31 07-04-2017, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kendogg

No offense, but I've dealt with quite few professional calibrators - yes, there are ****ty tuners out there, lots of them., But a quality tune is worth every penny, on most cars. You can stop the fear mongering now. Your post is nothing but that - not a single bit of first-hand knowledge, only fear.

Not so fast!! The experience of others on this forum contradicts you, there is more. Frankly Shertex has it right when he recommends bringing the car to the tuner.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cloudsurfer

Resurrecting an old thread here.

I sent my DME to SpeedTuningUSA last week for their Stage 2/ EGR delete tune, and when I got it back and into the car, immediately had CHECK ENGINE and ASR/ BAS lights illuminated, and when hooked up to MB STAR diagnostics, it turns out there are a bunch of CAN bus errors because somehow all the coding from the DME has been wiped.

Oliver wants me to send him the DME back to that he can try this again and hope for a better outcome, but after all the good and bad that I can find about his outfit, I'm a little hesitant to do so. At least my car RUNS at the moment.

I certainly don't want to get into a matter of extortion with him holding my DME as hostage to get me to throw him more $$$ (google other threads on the web about this), and I certainly don't want to be stuck buying a new DME from the dealer.

All that being said, I'd greatly welcome further input. Thanks in advance guys.

kendogg · #32 07-04-2017, 11:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EDBSO

Not so fast!! The experience of others on this forum contradicts you, there is more. Frankly Shertex has it right when he recommends bringing the car to the tuner.

Sometimes you have a bad flash, or it bricks during flashing, or any number of things can happen. Sad that they apparently don't have a procedure to bench test the DME's like we do before they go out the door, but really thats a moot point. Thats a flashing or checksumm error, not a 'bad tune' or something that will damage the vehicle. Not something to lose sleep over. Send it back again and they'll either reflash it correctly, or they'll see what they did wrong and if it's bricked I'm sure they'd find you another DME.

And yes - you're fear mongering. Because it's ever so apparently that you have absolutely NO IDEA what you're talking about.

capflya · #33 07-04-2017, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EDBSO

PS There are real limits as to how much the injectors can flow.

You are aware people are making 500+ horsepower on these engines with "stock" injectors right? They may modify the pop pressure settings but as far as I know the nozzles are not modified.

shertex · #34 07-04-2017, 10:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EDBSO

Apologies, must have been someone else, I wasn't certain.

Would you spend the money again?

Yes, absolutely. The expense was pretty minimal in light of the performance improvement.

shertex · #35 07-05-2017, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EDBSO

Apologies, must have been someone else, I wasn't certain.

Would you spend the money again?

What you may be thinking of is the hassle I had getting the dyno done...a thread which some has added to this thread.

EDBSO · #36 07-05-2017, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shertex

Yes, absolutely. The expense was pretty minimal in light of the performance improvement.

Thanks shertex it is good to know. My 06 CDI goes like stink, have you considered doing your CDI?

Kendog you are an interesting person.

You start the thread as one of us common owners.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kendog

Is there a tuner that can turn of the codes for EGR?

Tuning/software. Who are the recommended tuners around here? Not going for big HP, but a few more ponies and a few mpg gains would be nice (and getting rid of the pesky emissions equipment, of course).

Then you aggressively defend "tuners" and people slightly critical and then you disclose that you are shilling for them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kendog

Sad that they apparently don't have a procedure to bench test the DME's like we do before they go out the door,

And yes - you're fear mongering. Because it's ever so apparently that you have absolutely NO IDEA what you're talking about.

I know of what I speak, unlike your tunes which are obviously perfect, others have caused many problems, some immediately, some weeks or months later.

ebay has many resistors are used to double the Hp of Diesels and there are some also good tuners (my final comment re kendog)

kendogg · #37 07-05-2017, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EDBSO

Thanks shertex it is good to know. My 06 CDI goes like stink, have you considered doing your CDI?

Kendog you are an interesting person.

Then you start the thread as one of us common owners.

You aggressively defend "tuners" and people slightly critical and then you disclose that you are shilling for them.

I know of what I speak, unlike your tunes which are obviously perfect, others have caused many problems, some immediately, some weeks or months later.

ebay has many resistors are used to double the Hp of Diesels and there are some also good tuners (my final comment re kendog)

I own an automotive repair shop. I specialize in BMW, but work on most makes & models. I have some Mercedes experience, but not a ton - hence my post looking for some insight from people with more experience than myself. Before I opened my shop, I used to work for TRM Tuning, who is one of the biggest BMW tuners in the country with MANY NASA, SCCA & club race wins under their belt, as well as extensive experience engineering for IMSA & PWC teams. I was a mechanic there, and work with them extensively now (I only run TRM software in any of my customers BMW's, for example). I know EXACTLY what I speak of, unlike yourself. I'm not 'shilling' for anybody - I'm speaking from years of experience with the performance aftermarket. Whens the last time you had a vehicle of yours tuned by an actual professional, and what was the experience?

Also, to add to that - my first engine swapped car is a '95 Volvo 960 wagon that I put an LS into. Yup, need custom tuning there too. Need to remove VATS, as well as some of the emissions devices from the software, and change other parameters. I used Brendan at LT1swap.com. The only mods to the engine were an LS6 cam and headers. Dyno'd the car after, and it's spot-on, AFR's are perfect, no CEL's, no limp modes or any other issues. Also used him for a custom tune on my truck when I upgraded to a newer PCM. I don't use 'resistors'. Thats ebay stuff, like for the people who use a resistor mod to lower the coolant temp the PCM sees. Garbage in = garbage out.

shertex · #38 07-05-2017, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EDBSO

Thanks shertex it is good to know. My 06 CDI goes like stink, have you considered doing your CDI?

I've thought about it. But it would almost be doing it just because I can. The car is fabulous stock. I'm sure, however, that noticeable improvement can be extracted from it. Jeff at Rocketchip has done many CDI's over the years.

jake12tech · #39 07-06-2017, 01:54 AM

I thought about chip-tuning my E300's but have heard so many bad experiences of reliability with people tuning their cars in general. What can go wrong and what's the chance? Don't think I'd ever take a chance on knocking the reliability off my cars. They startup every time i need them to without a hiccup.

shertex · #40 07-06-2017, 08:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jake12tech

I thought about chip-tuning my E300's but have heard so many bad experiences of reliability with people tuning their cars in general. What can go wrong and what's the chance? Don't think I'd ever take a chance on knocking the reliability off my cars. They startup every time i need them to without a hiccup.

Because of were you live, you should head over to Rocketchip....Jeff is in Red Lion, PA. There's really no risk with someone of his caliber...of course there are a number of good tuners out there.

kendogg · #41 07-06-2017, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jake12tech

I thought about chip-tuning my E300's but have heard so many bad experiences of reliability with people tuning their cars in general. What can go wrong and what's the chance? Don't think I'd ever take a chance on knocking the reliability off my cars. They startup every time i need them to without a hiccup.

If you're perfectly happy with how the car is stock, then cool, I completely understand the hesitation. For some of us, we want something more. Sometime more than what the manufacturer decided they had to do to comply with EPA regs & CAFE fuel standards. There's never a sure-fire method for finding a good tuner - everybody has SOMEBODY thats been upset. But factory stock DME's or engines et al fail on the rare occasion as well. For me, it's a trivial issue. Do my research & due diligence, find somebody who's been in the business a long time with a prove track record, and start asking them questions. If they respond with logical answers that make sense, then ya - to me, it's worth that risk. If I feel they're blowing smoke or won't tell me anything at all - I'll pass along to the next.

In short - it all depends on what you want out of the car, and your assessment of risk. if you're modding the car at all - a good ECU tune is pretty low on the list as far as risk to the long term life of the car goes.

ROLLGUY · #42 07-06-2017, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EDBSO

Thanks shertex it is good to know. My 06 CDI goes like stink, have you considered doing your CDI?

Quote:

Originally Posted by shertex

I've thought about it. But it would almost be doing it just because I can. The car is fabulous stock. I'm sure, however, that noticeable improvement can be extracted from it. Jeff at Rocketchip has done many CDI's over the years.

I would sure love to get a "Tune" done on my CDI. If for no other reason than to get rid of the "rolling Coal" issue. My first CDI went "like stink" as well, and that with no black smoke. I think programing the EGR out of the system would help greatly. Is there a capable tuner somewhere in So. Cal.? Having emissions testing every other year, any tune would need to be reversible.

kendogg · #43 07-06-2017, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROLLGUY

I would sure love to get a "Tune" done on my CDI. If for no other reason than to get rid of the "rolling Coal" issue. My first CDI went "like stink" as well, and that with no black smoke. I think programing the EGR out of the system would help greatly. Is there a capable tuner somewhere in So. Cal.? Having emissions testing every other year, any tune would need to be reversible.

If you're deleting EGR function but still leaving the parts in place (maybe pip-plugging the EGR tube) and turning off EGR functionality in the ECU shouldn't be a problem with emissions. EGR's sole purpose is to reduce NOx emissions during part throttle cruise situations. I'm not sure how Cali does their testing, I know they're nazis about it, but I doubt they run the car enough to actually show EGR usage out of the tailpipe?

It looks like it's literally an OBD check and visual inspection. If it's disabled properly in the DME software, that'll never show up to a scan of any kind. The rest is a visual inspection for smoke, according to this:

http://www.dieselhub.com/tech/ca-diesel-emissions.html