W211 E55 AMG

[TheAngryDog]

Well after threatening to buy a new car for ages, I finally did.

Welcome to my W211 E55 AMG.

It is a 2004 car with 805 build code in Cubanite Silver. It has 135k on it but it looks like it has been looked after with lots of money spent at main dealers and good independents. It also has a panoramic roof which is quite cool I must say.

Obviously there are a few niggles with it as always, but nothing major. It needs a little cosmetic work but again nothing major.

It is a bit quick. A 2 tonne car has no right to be this quick. The supercharger whine is addictive. I'd call the call nasty in its power delivery. It makes my E39 M5 feel sooooo slow, when it isn't. This is just in another league!

So without further adieu, here it is.

Edited by TheAngryDog on Sunday 16th July 19:14

Edited by TheAngryDog on Tuesday 1st August 22:37

[TheAngryDog]

TheLordJohn said:

That looks the absolutely business!
Are they upgraded charge coolers or something?
Really nice exterior colour.
I used to see a silver 2005 E55 in Gibraltar when I cycled home from work.
Always admired them.
Can't manage to get over the fact that the interior of ANY MB resembles a taxi; irrelevant of how expensive the car is!

(perhaps serious SLS, SLR etc models aside)

Cheers! No those are aftermarket air filters. I have the original boxes to go back on.

I agree, the interior isn't quite as nice as my M5's, I think the E39's interior will be appreciated for a long time to come.

a7x88 said:

Excellent choice sir

Will have to meet up and see how much it spanks the Mazda by

Cheers Adam. Lol, I am sure it'll be a close run

dave_s13 said:

Nice one.

I bought it's more practical and slightly more sensible older brother yesterday.



Pick it up next week.

Edited by dave_s13 on Sunday 16th July 20:41

Cheers!

Thats a nice car, the W212 shape is growing on me. I suspect it has a huge carrying capacity!

Butter Face said:

Love that a lot

Cheers

Douglas Quaid said:

It's the car I will get when I've got some spare splash. How much?

I paid £7999 for it.

HybridAero said:

Congrats sir this is absolutely mental! Must go like the proverbial.

Was Mr Clarkson right when he said 7 mpg?

One of these is definitely next on my list, if there are any decent ones left in a couple of years.

Ludicrous value for money: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes-Benz-E55-AMG-5-...

It is nasty fast. I know I have knocked my M5's performance but it was no slouch. This embarrasses it. I genuinely believe that this is a 9 second 0-100mph car. I am going to take it to Santa Pod at some point to find out!

I haven't really driven it much tbh so not sure on the MPG. I did 104 miles in it to 1/4 of a tank coming back from buying it but as my wife was following me I didn't go too quick, plus M25

ZX10R NIN said:

Great work OP glad you got there.

Cheers! I finally bought a sodding car

[TheAngryDog]

TheLordJohn said:

TheAngryDog said:

Cheers! No those are aftermarket air filters. I have the original boxes to go back on.

I agree, the interior isn't quite as nice as my M5's, I think the E39's interior will be appreciated for a long time to come.

Of course they are, silly me!
£8k seems fairly sensible money.
I need estates when i buy cars and all the fast Merc estates seem to hold a strong premium over the saloons.

Yeah, I was prepared to pay more for one, but I was looking for one with folding rear seats. I had another one on my radar but it was silver, and wanted something a bit different.

Booked it in for an MOT on the 28th, I glossed over the MOT cert and didn't take note of the date, 12th of August it expires. Oooops lol. It passed its previous one with no advisories so I can't see there being too much wrong with it.

[TheAngryDog]

Rawhide said:

Fellow E55 AMG member here. I'm meaning to post a build thread shortly to track my maintenance. They are indeed awesome machines and stonking value IMO.

In the 4k I've driven my E55 has been totally reliable which I can't say for my Volvo or Landrover which are also in my fleet. I'm averaging around 22mpg which is mixed rural and motorway driving. I averaged 26 on a (circa 75 ish) longer driven when I bought the car.

I'm trying to resist modifying my car as I love the sleeper looks but will focus on updating cooling and suspension components before I look at power hikes.

I'm also wanting to put a C63 back box on there to give a bit more bark to the exhaust.

Get it up then man! I am very surprised with it. It does feel like a big car though, bigger than my M5, yet there isn't much difference between the two.

It is good that it has been reliable, I hope that mine lives up to that!

I am going to look at cooling next, though I am going to get it checked over to make sure it is running 100%.

I am tempted by the C63 back boxes, but it also is nice having a quiet car, except for the s/c whine

[TheAngryDog]

pimpchez said:

I recognize this car , the lad has been trying to flog/px it on every FB page going for the past few months. He initially reckoned it was ~600bhp.

Yeah, he kept dropping his price. It is no where near 600bhp. Part of the problem is where he lived - I tend to find people don't like going to difficult to get to places to buy cars. Hull has this issue, which is why cars tend to be cheaper and sell locally rather than go too far away.

The car has had a lot of money spent on it. The guy who had it before me spent over £600 on it recently. Ateotd, if something goes wrong then it goes wrong. I don't think it will, but if it does, I reckon I'd get my money back on it in parts without too much hassle. As I said though, I don't expect any issues. I'll find out in less than 2 weeks when I MOT it and when I take it to a specialist for a look over.

[TheAngryDog]

pimpchez said:

TheAngryDog said:

pimpchez said:

I recognize this car , the lad has been trying to flog/px it on every FB page going for the past few months. He initially reckoned it was ~600bhp.

Yeah, he kept dropping his price. It is no where near 600bhp. Part of the problem is where he lived - I tend to find people don't like going to difficult to get to places to buy cars. Hull has this issue, which is why cars tend to be cheaper and sell locally rather than go too far away.

The car has had a lot of money spent on it. The guy who had it before me spent over £600 on it recently. Ateotd, if something goes wrong then it goes wrong. I don't think it will, but if it does, I reckon I'd get my money back on it in parts without too much hassle. As I said though, I don't expect any issues. I'll find out in less than 2 weeks when I MOT it and when I take it to a specialist for a look over.

Fair enough , i didnt think he would sell it for that much tbh. Anyway the car looks and sounds great unlike the majority of turds people try to sell on there.

Are you planning a dyno run?

Cheers. It is what it is, a cheap E55 lol.

Yeah I am going to get it dyno'd. I'm just deciding where to take it. Either MSL or EuroCharged UK.

[TheAngryDog]

HybridAero said:

Please convince me not to get an E55; I just got a frighteningly reasonable insurance quote!

Guessing there must be a catch? It's soooo much car for £8ishK. 22 mpg average is incredible! I guess AMG must use lightweight internals and the engine will rarely be stressed in daily use.

Dooooooooooooo it LOL

I know of one for sale at the moment in Silver with 132k on it.

KillerHERTZ said:

Couldnt be living with that aftermarket grill, needs the OEM one on it asap

LOL! I have an Avantgarde one on the way

[TheAngryDog]

turboflutter said:

Thought I recognised this! Saw your post on the e39 club on facebook a few days back. Properly cool car, very understated unless you really know your stuff I bet everybody passing it in that supermarket car park wouldn't look twice. Want, very much.

Yeah it's just a Berlin taxi, which I quite like tbh. It does have a little rumble and I have seen people looking at it as I am driving, perhaps the s/c whine also helps!

MDMA . said:

Think one of these might be my next car

AMGmeister has a nice one that he covers on Youtube.

It is epic. I haven't driven it since Sunday, but cannot wait to do so next!

Cheers, I am going to watch his vids, shockingly seeing as how I don't watch Vlogs

PowerslideSWE said:

Wow, looks great OP, the colour is very nice indeed. I agree however with previous posters that some of the interiour looks shonk-tastic compared to the e39 and Mercs of old, but that's progress I guess.

This is one of the cars on a very short list that I intend to replace the E39 M5 with when the time comes. Might aswell go supercharged V8 before everything is a one-cylinder diesel/electric hybrid

Edited by PowerslideSWE on Monday 17th July 16:49

Thanks! Oh definitely, the E39 interior is class, the E55 is council
I had never had a supercharged car before. I was expecting it to feel like a powerful V8. At 2k when the charger clutch kicks in its like the afterburners have been lit. It's one heck of a quick car!

I am still getting used to the brakes, they don't have a lot of feeling due to their brake by wire nature, but they do stop better than my M5.

Muzzer79 said:

I like the way you have over half a tank of fuel left, but your range is only 161 miles

It was less than that, it was at around 125 miles. It goes up when on tick over lol.

[TheAngryDog]

ZX10R NIN said:

Get some braided lines fitted & a change of pads will give you the bite you're looking for.

Any particular brand of pads?

Will the brakes need bleeding?

[TheAngryDog]

TheLordJohn said:

TheAngryDog said:

Any particular brand of pads?

Will the brakes need bleeding?

Yes, removing the brake lines will require bleeding of the brakes.
Not the end of the world, unless the fluid has been changed in the last 24 months.
It's hygroscopic so takes in water over time.

Doh me, I knew that LOL. I mis-read it as changing the pads only!

[TheAngryDog]

TheLordJohn said:

TheAngryDog said:

Doh me, I knew that LOL. I mis-read it as changing the pads only!

No, but i remove the brake fluid reservoir cap when retracting the pistons to give the fluid somewhere to go.
(Up into the space where there was air, not over flow out the reservoir!)

Yeah, I just wasn't sure if they'd need a re-bleed afterwards, especially with the SBC being something of an interesting proposition.

[TheAngryDog]

ZX10R NIN said:

TheAngryDog said:

Yeah, I just wasn't sure if they'd need a re-bleed afterwards, especially with the SBC being something of an interesting proposition.

If your one is affected by a the SBC issue yours is one that can be reprogrammed to give you another load of stops.

I now use Carbon Lorraine pads on my E500 they have a very nice bite but I use Brembos on the 63 as they seem to give better feel on that cars brake setup.

It has already had the counter reset done previously in the last 12 months. I have money aside for an SBC pump just in case.

I think Brembo's are standard issue aren't they?

[TheAngryDog]

The front disc's are fine with no lip so not going to replace just yet. I aren't sure about EBC RedStuff pads, are they any good? I don't rate YellowStuff.

Any other recommendations other than Brembo?

Car is booked in with MSL Performance for the 12th of August for a check over.

While going through the paperwork last night I discovered that it has had the newest Bosch IC pump fitted as well, bonus.

Standard airboxes are going back on as well.

I haven't driven it since Sunday, but I need to use it tonight, I cannot wait!! I almost drove into work today

[TheAngryDog]

My ViseeO MBU 3000 arrived today. I should have Bluetooth connectivity tonight for my phone.

It sits in the arm rest and connects via the wires for the original inbuilt phone.

It doesnt allow Bluetooth audio unfortunately! I'd even accept audio playback via an iPod if I could control it from the head unit.

[TheAngryDog]

J4CKO said:

Dont piss about with the old Comand units, they are very old fashioned, get one of these,

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Android-7-1-Mercedes-Ben...

Not that big of a job to change, took me about two hours, your will have, I guess the HK speakers with an amp in the boot which adds a bit more work but still not a massive job.

Can always put the old one back in to sell if you are bothered about originality, but not sure who is that arsed about early 2000s sat navs.

I've never found an Android unit that worked that well tbh, hence why I tend to stick with the OE kit. If I can't stream music then it isn't the end of the world. It does have an AUX port, it would just be easier to control from the H/U.

My car does have H/K speakers. It is the best audio I've ever had in a car lol.

[TheAngryDog]

J4CKO said:

TheAngryDog said:

J4CKO said:

Dont piss about with the old Comand units, they are very old fashioned, get one of these,

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Android-7-1-Mercedes-Ben...

Not that big of a job to change, took me about two hours, your will have, I guess the HK speakers with an amp in the boot which adds a bit more work but still not a massive job.

Can always put the old one back in to sell if you are bothered about originality, but not sure who is that arsed about early 2000s sat navs.

I've never found an Android unit that worked that well tbh, hence why I tend to stick with the OE kit. If I can't stream music then it isn't the end of the world. It does have an AUX port, it would just be easier to control from the H/U.

My car does have H/K speakers. It is the best audio I've ever had in a car lol.

They arent perfect but still find it offers more than the NTG 2.5 mine had in, for example the radio reception isnt the best but that can be sorted, just not that bothered as use Spotify, Waze for navigation is way better than the OEM one was, it updates the maps in real time, it routed me round some traffic in Bath using side roads, realised what it was doing as was driving over bridges over the traffic, pretty impressive really.

I listen mostly to radio, often TalkSport so need decent MW reception. I use Waze on my mobile, never used SatNav that is built in, I don't think it works that well.

[TheAngryDog]

Well annoyingly it doesn't fit. Looks like I was told to buy the wrong unit. That's a pain!

[TheAngryDog]

r129sl said:

Slightly stupid question, but are you sure? The Viseeo thing you have bought ought to work in a 2004 w211. Do you have a picture of the cradle?

The cradle is different.

[TheAngryDog]

I bought it from eBay so I'll have to just take it on the chin and sell on.

There are a few options available, but costly .

Yeah there is an aux connector in the glovebox, it's just a shame it won't be controllable from the hu.

[TheAngryDog]

MB-4 ordered. MBU-3000 up for sale!

Also ordered a Nilfisk C120 so that I can clean it properly!