The Day I Test Drove A.....Mercedes Benz E200 (W213)

Back in June, Daniel, Marketing Manager of Jati Transport offered me to test drive the E200 (W213) when I bumped into him while picking up our children at school.  I was reluctant at first because I am not planning to purchase anycar at that time.  He told me there is no obligation and offered me to take the car home for 4 days just to test drive!  How can I say no to that!

 

I am a big fan of W210 to W212 because of the quad head lamps design.  The new generation W213 took a different approach by combining them to individual headlamp.  So to speak I am not a very big fan of this new approach.  I had seen the W213 AMG E63 in brochure and damn it is one very aggressive car!  This E200 doesn't come with AMG package.  Its the standard version coming out of the factory so no aggressive AMG bodykit or performance package.

On delivery day I was brief on how to "use" the car.  I am glad they taught me because there was a few features that require first hand information for new driver.  At the point of writing, this particular version was offer for around BND$95K~$98K . Again please check with Jati Transport for their latest update on pricing.

The first thing that caught my attention when I hopped into the driver seat was the beautiful layout of the interior design. Everything inside the cabin felt so modern and yet elegance at the same time.  You will also be greeted by the new LED interior lighting.  I am not new to this because my MINI Countryman was one of the earlier car to approach this type of interior lighting.  The only differences is Mercedes Benz took their E-Class version a step further.  You can control two different part of the interior with different LED lighting!  It can be done with single color, dual color or continuously color changing!

The First drive : Once I am done with adjusting my seating position, I pressed the START button and the half analog/digital instrument came to life(The E300 version gets the dual LCD features). I engaged the gear stalk located behind the steering wheel for Drive (I am still not used to this type of gear stalk as it is similar to my mum CLA200).

Once the car was engaged, I took the car home and during that period of time with the car I can say it is quite an impressive car.  Steering is very light and easy to maneuver for a car this big. The performance for a 2.0(184hp) is actually quite impressive!  I said this because I was so disappointed with my mum CLA200 as it was sluggish.  This E200 felt very fast, as a matter of fact it felt faster then my MINI given they both have the same hp rating only the MINI is 1.6.  I cannot imagine the power of E300 with 245hp on tap.  Handling is more or less a typical Mercedes-Benz sedan.  If you ever engage the Sports+ setting it makes the car performance even more sporty. 

The Tech : This car is loaded with lots of tech.  My favorite was the auto parking assist where the car will search a suitable parking spot and help u parked the car without your input for steer and brake.  All you need is engage the gear for the car!  Is a very simple step and I think all car in the future should have this feature.  And when you want to leave the parking space, the car will reverse out the parking spot like how it was parked in the first place!

The steering wheel has touch sensitive buttons for easy control.  All the buttons are beautifully lay out in the center console.

The LCD also display many 360 angle for your vehicle when parked. 

Here you go, my view on the new E200.  Would I buy it?  Hell yeah if I got the money but I will probably go for the E300 with AMG Line.  I give this E200 a score of  7.5/10 based on my experiences on medium size executive sedan.

Car Spotting In Brunei - Mitsubishi EVO VIII

Here is a prestine Mitsubishi EVO VIII fitted with genuine Veilside VS-GT kit.  This car has been in hibernation for quite sometime and I am quite surprise to see it in the workshop.  This car was last tuned by Ohura back in the late 2010s.  I am not sure what it is doing in the workshop but seem like a lot of work is going into the engine.  Hopefully is a big upgrade!  Oh by the way, that is a matt paint job, not a WRAP! 

Friends Ride at SHHProshop

Here are some photos of one of my friend rides, Yes, all these belongs to one owner.  All are currently work in progress and also all are white.  Here you have a full blown drag racing Nissan S15 with HKS Sequential gearbox.  I was told they are aiming at 600hp and above from that SR20DET!  A full on HKS GT800 turbo kit R35 GT-R getting the gearbox calibration and also a Honda S660 getting an HKS kit upgrade on that tiny lawn mower engine.

Tuning day at SHH Proshop by Seed Racing Japan

Seed Racing Japan is currently in Brunei for tuning session supported by SHHProshop.  They will be here from 3rd Oct to 17th Oct.  The tuner, Mr Hide Koh had been to Brunei multiple times since 2013.  And here are some of the beautiful rides from Brunei and our neighbouring country. 

Lots and Lots of EVO and Scooby!

EVO X from Malaysia.

Rare EVO IX from Malaysia.  Very beautiful paint job like the Solar Sunbeam Yellow from AMG

Another black EVO X

Very beautifully wrapped Subaru STi!

Local Nissan Skyline GT-R BNR33.  Very very rare to see one nowadays given the fact only a handful of it were imported officially.

Brunei first Toyota 86 fitted with HKS bolt-on turbo kit!

 more coming soon in next post!

Nissan Skyline ER34 F-Con V Pro New Remap by SHHProshop and Seed Racing

R33, R34 & R35

Good morning readers!  Before I talked about my 2 months hiatus, lets talked about my ER34 first!  Why is my car up on the dyno?  Well, my car got some issues, the engine idling is not smooth and it sounded like Subaru boxer engine.  At full boost, the top end isn't pushing as hard.  The worst scenario was engine stalling during driving and idling.  I suspect it was the cable connected to my F-Con V Pro.

Ever since the car has these issues I had always wanted to bring my car to SHH Proshop so that Mr.Hideto from Seed Racing Japan can have a look at the F-Con V Pro to see what are causing all these symptoms! 

Every year SHH Proshop will organise a group tuning session and sadly I missed last year and this year April tuning schedule.   So when I was told there will be another tuning schedule in October I immediately put my ER34 on the list.

When I was told to bring my car in on 09 Oct 2018, Mr.Hideto checked the ECU and found out it is a cable issue.  It was a quick fix and he told me to test the car to see if the symptoms still persist.  Before that, we had a quick chat  together with Danny, owner of SHH Proshop.  A recommendation was made to have my ECU re-tune after Mr.Hideto took a "look" into my ER34 mapping. 

Normally only the tuner of the car can access to the ECU mapping.  My last tuner, Mr.Ohura, didn't lock the ECU hence it was opened to anyone with a F-CON program to view or edit. Luckily I never let anyone touch my car except SHH Proshop.  I was reluctant at first to remap but SHHProshop offer me a deal that I cannot refuse!  So a re-tune was given a go ahead!

To prep for the remap, my car went in for a general servicing which was also pass overdue!  HKS engine oil was used couple with HKS oil filter. We also flushed the coolant fluid for a fresh new one and a fresh new HKS radiator cap.  Of course a pre-check on all the engine components was performed to make sure everything are up to speed.  

Mr.Hideto started the dyno tuning and on-road tuning after everything was green lit.  During the tuning, ER34 NISMO fuel pump went kaput!  This particular fuel pump was last installed in 2002!  It lasted 18years! Talk about money well spent.  Luckily SHH Proshop has a specific ER34 HKS fuel pump in stock.  So in with the new and out with the old!

Today (11-Oct 2018) my ER34 was returned back to me.  I was told to give the car a test drive for any feedback and issue.  First thing when I started the engine is how much louder my exhaust note is.  Secondly how damn f**king smooth the engine has turn out.  I hoped into my seat and went out for a quick spin on way home.  The first thing I said when I pedal to the metal is "OMFG, SHIT!". I had never felt this torque sensation compared to my last tune back in 2008.  It was a rainy day and my car was wheel spinning on 1st and 2nd gears! LOL!  That was some scary shit my pants moment.  Then came 3rd gear, the instant torque from 3500rpm all the way to 7300rpm was intoxicating.  You can say I am a very very happy customer!

 For the next few days I will be frequently testing the car before Mr.Hideto returns back to Japan on 17 Oct 2018.  Good tuner always want you to report back if there is any problem or unsatisfactory with the car they tuned.

Anyone want to guess how much HP my car is now currently making?

................AND YES I AM BACK INTO BLOGGING!!!!!

Project : W210 - White Halogen Bulbs

Just bought a bunch of white halogen bulbs for my W210.  You can say this is my first small mods for my E240.  The bulbs here are pretty cheap, about BND$1.50 a piece.  I bought 4 sets of H7 and 2 sets of H11.  H7 will be fitted for the low beams and high beams.  The H11 will be fitted to the spot lights in the front.  The bulbs are tinted blue so when its turn on it will project white beam thru the lamp.

The 9006 bulbs were supposed to be fitted to the Dodge Journey but sadly I bought the wrong size.  I will get these fitted to my W210 this week and will show you guys the result.

H11 bulbs for the spot lights

H7 for both low and high beams

This is 9006 size and doesn't fit in any of my cars. LOL

Project : W210 - Removing the Instrument Cluster Pt.3

OK here is the "newly" replaced instrumental cluster. Everything is working just like it should except for a few errors on the central LCD.  One thing I am a bit confused was the "Hydraulic Oil Level" error.  I am surprised to see this error because it wasn't on my original instrumental cluster error.  So I did some digging online and found out the the hydraulic system was only fitted in a wagon W210.  The hydraulic help to maintain the ride height in the even of heavy load on the rear boot.

I checked my eBay purchases regarding about this instrumental cluster and found out it was taken out from a wagon W210.  So now I learned that old error from old car will be memorized in the instrumental cluster. 

There is no way I will be able to delete the error.  We will see how it goes in the future.  I might just put back my old instrumental cluster and replaced only the moldy plastic covers.

Here are two more errors that has been popping out for a few years. There are the ASR and ABS.  There are many reasons for these two errors so a proper diagnosis will be in order after I fixed the engine shaking problem.  Thanks for reading!

Project : W210 - Removing the Instrument Cluster Pt.2

Here is the instrument clusters comparison. The top part of the picture as you can see with faded plastic with mold is from my original W210. The bottom half is the used cluster I bought from UK eBay.  Big differences isn't it.

When I bought this instrument cluster, the initial plan was to just replace the plastic bit that was faded with mold and uses back all the original parts.  Then I realized the used instrument cluster actually will work on my car even though the speedometer and rev meter is not correct. As you can see the picture above my W210 is in "km/h" whereas the used instrumental cluster is in "mph".  Thank goodness this cluster has another set of reading in "km/h" only smaller in font size printed below the "mph"

See the rev counter from the picture above ? They are also different.  The one on the left picture is my original cluster that rev peaks at 6000rpm whereas the other peaks at 5000rpm. Not really a big deal because I rarely rev this car over 4000rpm!

The above pic is another comparison of the cluster.  There are several differences as some of the bulbs are missing from the used cluster.

The best part of replacing the cluster is finally my center LCD display is now in full working order! The original cluster has been faulty for about 7 years.  This is very common on the late 90s and early 2000s Mercedes Benz.  

Normally the ribbon connecting the LCD and cluster will require replacement which will set me back around BND$50.00~BND$80.00 and require a proper electrician to weld the ribbon.

Luckily this used cluster LCD is in perfect order so I don't have to replace them.  The only things is now my mileage has drop from 220,xxxkm to 179xxxkm.  This is because this mileage is recorded from the previous car where the cluster is from!

  So far so good on replacing all the parts bought UK!!!