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On New Year's Eve, I totaled my Dinan BMW 540i. Friggin sucked. I thought I would try Mercedes, so just this week, I bought a 2000 C280 Sport with 39K miles on it. I absolutely love the car and am an instant Mercedes fan! However, my 540 had about 330 HP vs just under 200 in the C280.
What are the most cost-efficient performance upgrades for a stock C280? Where is the best place to start? Being brand new to Mercedes, I am not sure where to begin. Any advice is much appreciated!!!!!
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I found the most efficient upgrade, cost plus performance enhancement was a CAI. One designed for your car. I have a 99 C280, and after searching for quite a while I found a CAI that added, at least by seat of the pants, a new feeling of acceleration to the engine. Your not going to get BMW Series 5 performance, but you will get a jolt that will put in back in your seat. A upgrade exhaust, will also help. I am having one made at a custom exhaust shop in the area, saving hundreds of $$ compared to the aftermarket. Go to this website
I bought myCAI here and it made a big difference, especially above 3K RPM. Also if you are really adventureous remove the screen from the MAS and air flow will increase. I also bought some bendable intake tubing with those "ripples" at Pep bo, a bit narrow then the rippled tubing on the intake behind the MAS, and inserted it into this portion of the tube. Contray to popular belief a "vortex" is not what a engine likes, it is straight flowing [compacted air], that will produce some additional HP. DECLAIMNER REMOVING THE SCREEN FROM THE MAS COULD CAUSE DEBRI TO ENTER THE SYSTEM AND POTENIALLY CAUSE DAMAGE.. Also the tubing I mentioned above has to fit snug enough so it doesn't bounce around inside the out tube. I use some double sided take to hold it in place, and so far so good.
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Allan aka C280 Wizard
Moderator
JOINT MERCEDES FORUM
1999 C280
1979 450SLC
Removing the MAF screen will increase airflow, but removing it will advance the ignition timing and lean the air fuel mix. It's not there to stop debris. That's what the air filter is for. The MAF screen distributes the incoming air predictably over the MAF sensor wire so it can be measured. The MAF will misread the amount of incoming air if the screen is not there.
You're likely to encounter problems with advanced timing and a lean mixture, unless you're able to always buy the best gas and the ambient air and/or your engine isn't too warm. Otherwise, you'll get some engine knock and the ECU will retard the timing and your car will go slower. Just buying 93 octane gas isn't always good enough.
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'95 SL600, Black
'70 Chevelle SS454, Red, real LS5
'55 Bel Air, Black, 350, 4-spd, 9" Ford
'01 Corvette Coupe, Mag Red, 6-spd
'03 Silverado 2500HD 4x4, X-cab
'77 Jeep CJ7, Rust Bucket
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Okay, buying 93 octane or 100 octane or whatever octane gas isn't always good enough. High octane gas isn't magic. If the air is too warm or the engine is running hot, it will knock and the ECU will retard the timing to prevent engine damage.
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'95 SL600, Black
'70 Chevelle SS454, Red, real LS5
'55 Bel Air, Black, 350, 4-spd, 9" Ford
'01 Corvette Coupe, Mag Red, 6-spd
'03 Silverado 2500HD 4x4, X-cab
'77 Jeep CJ7, Rust Bucket
'03 John Deere L-120, Green
BLUE SMOKE FROM ENGINE!!!! read this if you have a c280 98 99 00 01
with all cars and upgrading them usually youre forced to pick N/A or a turbo or supercharger kit which ill get to in a sec.
i own a 99 c280 sport with 115k on it, but the engine started to combust large amounts of oil around 105k, about 6 litres in 300 miles when it had 8.3 litres to begin with. it was shortly after i topped it at 152mph where it is drag limited, merc didnt put a limiter on it due to the engine being to weak to break the European 155mph barrier mark so it saved money in making the car which makes it nice bc with my new engine i have gotten it to 160mph where the gauges end. point being be careful ripping on a ten yr old car, and if your engine does start to blow BLUE SMOKE from it and its a c280 w202 later model meaning 98 99 00 and not sure about 01 but there was a class action law suit in 2005 honoring the defect to people owning and experiencing these problems. i took it in and they checked it out re filled the oil, the engine sounded like a diesel and you could hear numerous cylinders not firing but they set me off out of the dealer, went home from school 350miles away used 6 litres in the trip there and back and the repair under warranty margin was 2 litres in 1000 miles. so they set to replace the damaged parts, but they took it apart and everything was warped so they dropped in a 2010 "drop and go" engine they called it and i picked up the car in 3 days.
it now has 12,000 miles on it and hasnt missed a beat. i put in a CAI, which made a difference more so in the lower rpm's than the high rpms but it still made an improvement in power and fuel economy. my advice is put in the Cold Air Intake and buy a K&N cone and dont be cheap and buy some other one that is twenty dollars less. Mine was 64.00 dollars with tax, then i bought a rubber fitter kit for a few more and so clamps.
remove the top half of the box only, leave the bottom half of the box and if you're adventorus trim the top and make it fit snug it the part which moves to the center of valance where it gets nice cold fresh air being pushed in as you move. my friend decided to remove the bottom of the box and it is definitely sucking warm air from the engine. CAI is good as well bc you will be able to hear an exhaust leak, which mine has.......perfect excuse for a cat back. might go straight pipe from cat back depending on the sound.
also another good modd is a crank pulley, one that is lighter, and a chip from kleeman or brabus is about 400 which is worth it. shocks which lowered the car 1.2 " front and back looks nicer and hasnt effected traction in the snow.....in buffalo NY where its about 5 feet.
i owned a jag xj6 with a 4.0L straight six and that had 270hp and 296lbs but i got rear ended and this was a good buy which turned terrible until i found out about the engine rebuilt ****, and now i have no reason to get rid of a car with a brandnew engine. few mods on it so far, decided to go NA, the engine could handle a supercharger kit from kleemann for $2300 but the tranny couldnt due to the heavy tq increase.
stock was 194hp and 198lbs tq
few mods to increase air flow i.e. CAI catback crank pulley and a nice chip would bring it to 250, esp if you removed the cat completely....in NY you wont pass inspection sadly
hey guys, you sound very knowledgible about benz's. i have a 99 c280 sport and i want to turn off the rss/fss light on the dash, all the procedures i can find in the manual and on line don't work, any ideas? i was able to do this before, but since have lost the procedure.
thanks in advance.
id say bring it to the dealer, benz is very iffy about that kind of stuff, they tryed not to avoid my warranty bc the last owner never brought it to a BENZ DEALER...... it was only 10,000 miles tht wasnt recorded which wasnt a huge deal but made an issue. taking it to the dealer is nice bc id rather be over charged a little by Benz than have some greeseball garage mechanic not fix something correctly bc he thinks im going to bring it right back in....
i own a 99 c280 sport, brillant silver as well, be careful of the BLUE SMOKE
C280 Performace Upgrades
