UndertheRadar

I changed from yellow stuff the last time my fronts needed changed, and have blue stuff installed at the minute. They are a far nicer better all round pad. No complaints after several thousand miles. Same solid pedal feel from cold, as they are warm. Consistent braking and easy to modulate. I’ll probably change the rears from yellow to blue when they wear next time, for no other reason other than my wee brain doesn’t like them two different colours 😂.

The 2500 pads are bad for dust and have a tendency to start squealing as well unfortunately.

Ride is great. No issues anymore with shocks and springs. B6 damptronics with Eibach pro kit. Racingline links and H&R bars front and rear. I have three sets of Lower front arms on the go at the minute. I’ve been trying different front bushes to stop them eventually making a slight noise when they dry out during the summer. I’ve tried pre fitted, I’ve worked my way through suoerpro, and powerflex. I’m starting with polish now. I have the blue fitted but it’s starting to emit the odd creak again. So I’ll pull them out and try going up to the orange. I’ve also tried all the others refitted with a range of grease from polybush specific to marine grease to no avail. Just the front now though. The front lower with the tts solid bush is quiet. Obviously for reference, it’s always rebuilt with new bolts and tightened on the ground along with setting the adjustable links again everytime. Otherwise the thing drives really well and still makes me chuckle evertime I use it. The rear bar and links were a great help as well to handling and cornering. Yellowstuff rear and blue stuff on the front with their floating discs. Needs tyres on the front, but I’ve PS5’s coming again hopefully next day or two.

I fitted mine dry as well as per their instruction. Felt weird doing it, but no issues since.

Best compromise I’ve been able to find is adding a TTS solid rear bush to the rear of the front lower arm and a poly to the front. The 034 stuff is solid and well put together.

Worthwhile getting the kit with the oil filler cap as that pushes the combined increase closer to 15bhp. 😂

Reset the codes and drive the car again. Then do a fresh scan and see what still shows then. ABS sensor faults normally cause the car to behave like it’s off its meds with lights on the dash everywhere. Check the battery voltage

Just by way of an update. I upgraded the fronts several months ago, and have been running them in since. Ended up going with the Kef R11 meta’s and an R6 centre. Lovely sounding neutral speaker with fantastic clarity for music and movies. Elevated dialogue to a point where I don’t rewind content now, to hear what someone said 😂. Replaced the bulb in the projector, and have a Sony Bravia 7 mk2 in 85” ordered to update the visuals. Kef Ci 160 X 4 being added for heights to add atmos, so I can make use of certain content from Apple TV etc. PB17 still running well, and still a fantastic product. Recent update to the app allowed for auto EQ function, which works extremely well at flattening out the curve and has tightened in the response compared to my manual settings by ear.

So far everything I’ve tried eventually makes noise again. Best at this point is OEM arm with TTS solid lower rear bush and poly front lower. Still get a small amount of noise when it’s very warm and dry, like at the minute, and only if it’s been sitting a few days. Disappears after about 10min of driving. Nothing like the old creaking though.

Mercedes are very prone to that sort of behaviour, along with showing no codes at all, when they have a failing EGR valve. Although, if you’re considering handing it back, then just do so without dragging your hurt on any further.

Is the battery an EFB or an AGM that’s fitted ?

Add a subframe alignment kit while you’re planning as well then. Makes life a little bit simpler for setting the alignment up after refitting the subframe. Some bars come as a kit, so you get front and rear for a bit of a discount. If you go this route, add a quality set of adjustable rear drop links, as otherwise you’ll end up with the plastic factory rear links snapping.

Have you checked the battery charge/condition ? Sounds like a voltage issue causing module faults.

Spray a liberal amount of silicone on the lower arm bushes and see if the noise goes away. If it is. The only way I’ve been able to remove the noise for any length of time is to fit the rear lower bush with a solid TTS bush and the front lower with a poly bush.

It would show 90c from cold. First day of extended crank I did not notice it as it started and I hadn’t picked up on it. No codes of any description. Second day from cold I was looking for a fault, so caught temp gauge, but ran through all other scenarios anyway to rule them out. Had to wait for sensor to arrive as not in stock, so picked up on oil temp and battery charging conditions as I was poking out of interest to see what other areas the sensor effected without alerting most folks to the fact there was actually a fault. Also no fast idle or warm up sequence as module thought vehicle was already at running temp the entire time. You would think the system should have a redundancy to verify the coolant sensor, as it does have the use of the radiator outlet temp and oil temp sensors which could be used to determine a fault, but none seem to be built in.

I should have added that the failed sensor also caused oil temp issues, in that it ran the oil temp 20c cooler than it should have been and I noticed it also caused the battery charging state to run low as well.

I would want a known working lock before diving into wiring diagrams. If nothing obvious looks broken in the connectors, then I’d firstly make sure the used lock was compatible with the rear electronic activation child lock function. If it’s not, the lock will not work. I think a brand new rear lock genuine from TPS for mine a few years ago was £250, with the drivers door switchable child lock function.

Yes, then runs as normal when the engine is warm.

Running E5 and mapped for 97ron as that’s the best we can get over here. Literally no where does a 99ron fuel. Ambient was just literally the outside temp in this case. The coolant at the radiator outlet sensor was reading within 1 degree Celsius of that. Think outside was 16c and outlet reading was 15c. Main coolant sensor, which in my case on this version of the engine is on the side of the head under the vacuum pump, was reading anything from 78c-81c. Car had sat all night and hadn’t been started so I could check the readings. Plugs were changed about 2 weeks ago for another set of genuine OE plugs, which from memory are really just NGK platinum plugs. These get changed every two years and are set to 0.028 and were still perfect when I removed them for inspection.

Adding this for anyone that comes across the same issue. Noticed a slightly extended crank a day or so ago, along with a few seconds worth of poor idle and then ran as normal. Checked for codes, and none showing. Checked plugs when I got home again and all ok. Checked the lpfp count and was at or around 50% at idle. No hesitation or misfires and none detected on scanner. Rail holding pressure within parameters and both lpfp and hpfp showing requested and actual pressures where they should be. Checked the plugs again this morning on a cold engine for damp, and they were dry and showing no signs for concern. And now for the culprit. On a stone cold engine, the engine coolant temp sensor was showing 80c while the radiator outlet sensor showed about 1c within ambient air temp. A new coolant temp sensor now fitted and all showing back within normal tolerance levels and no more extended crank issue. Just thought this might be useful for anyone with the same problem now or in future and hopefully it saves them time and money.

Looks like auxiliary pump failure. Usual suspect is rear aux pump. Situated at rear of engine low down. Front aux pump situated at front of vehicle closer to bumper. Follow the coolant hoses to make it easier to identify.

They will do it at a price. You’d be far better off talking to a good VAG independent garage IMO.

Check the expansion tank for Mit Silikat on the top. If it’s on it then it has a bag in the tank. They were prone to failing and blocking the system, taking the matrix with them. There is an official VAG flush but the matrix is normally in need of replacement when this happens. I and others here have removed the tank and replaced it with a silikat free tank, and some without the double skinned inner chamber have been lucky enough to remove the bag with long nose pliers or something similar.

Good chance the bags burst in the coolant bottle and blocked the matrix.

As MarioVrs has stated, the car in standard form is wild unstable. Mine used to under steer extremely badly until I changed the front and rear roll bars, links, and added Bilstein B6 and Eibach springs. I’d say your tyres are only a small part of the issue.