Merry Christmas for my car. I just picked up my SLK55 from Oceanside Driveline. They installed a Wavetrac differential I purchased a week ago. I couldn't get a Quaife easily sourced so looked around and found this unit at Autotech Sport tuning and driveline in Aliso Viejo CA (Orange County LA area). They requested the VIN and made a unit based on the 215 axle the same day. It took them 2 hours to have my unit ready. I'm 40 minutes from their shop so I drove up and got it myself.
I included a few picks
The car drives better. Less of the ESP light coming on. Good Grip from both rear wheels when I stand on the accelerator pedal. Corners better as well.
The driveline tech said the car will be safer as well as quicker from a standing start and corner quicker too.
I thought about doing the airbox and ecu upgrade from Renntech or Kleemann but I didn't want to mess with the engine.
This is a great upgrade...surprised the car didn't come with one.
I had seen the Wavetrac come up on searches along with the Quaife. When i notice you had one I decided to look in detail at the Wavetrac. I think its a newer design with a few technical upgrades over the Quaife. Availability made it an easy choice.
Thanks for posting, this is something I've been considering on my car. Do you track the car? Or just want to improve overall handling of the car ? Would you recommend the shop (I am local)? Cost?
The Wave Trak LSD differential was installed by Oceanside driveline. They had to do a little bit of grinding inside the differential housing for clearance as the wave track differential is a little larger than the stock open diff. Quaife manufactures two that fit the SLK 55 R171. One of them is a drop in unit with no modification , the other one notates some "Modification required". The nice thing about this upgrade is that it doesn't require any modification to the ECU that controls the car. After a couple of months of experimenting , I have noticed the traction control program actually works better. It's still there in the background however and I rarely turn it off. I have found that with experience and little bit of thoughtful pedal modulation on the excelerator , it will generate a little "chirp" from the rear tires, both rear tires at the same time, but the wheels lock up quickly with no flashing yellow light indicating the traction control program is coming on. If I stand on it with WOT from a standing start the traction control kicks in and kills the fuel delivery along with a little bit of rear breaking. That is a little disappointing , however it is performing the way it supposed to. If I really want to get on it from a standing start I just turn off the ESP and light them up. You get a little bit a wheel spin but it locks up quickly and away I go . This is by far the greatest car I have ever owned and now it's even better. It feels different... better.
Next I think I'm going to go for some headers, and airbox and an ECU reprogram. I've decided that I want to keep it a naturally aspirated engine. I love the sound of it with the stock resonator and the stock AMG mufflers. It's pretty quiet until you hit the gas and then it just sounds really great, not too loud but loud enough. I've had many people say how great this car sounds. It's just a great all-around car. Because I live in Southern California the top is almost always down and I run it in S mode all the time. After playing around with the manual shift option I have come to the conclusion that it's best just to leave it in drive and let it do the shifting. Honestly I think the car trained me. I am a former owner of a 2002 SLK 320 and I mistakenly sold that car and was sorry for it but now I have this little bad ass 55. Every penny I spend on this car is worth it.
Update on the wavetrack positraction differential. It was installed with "other than approved " differential fluid and leaked out of the breather because it was most likely too thin with lower viscosity. Replaced with approved differential fluid and thus far does not leak . I love this upgrade as it makes the car drive so much better with more power down to the road. The standing starts with the ESP off are so much more fun !
Something I would love to do to my R171 350. I have looked at the Quaife unit, but its beyond my pocket. I agree that this is something that Mercedes should be building into their more powerful models anyway.
So I will keep my eyes open, maybe Quaife will do a deal at some point, or I may find a second user part. in the mean time I will just have to do without - yellow triangle here I come
Has anyone who purchased a 55 with the factory performance package, which includes a LSD, considered (or gone through with) swapping out the OEM LSD for one of these units? I'd be curious if the wavetrack or quaife LSDs perform better than the one included in the performance package option.
Did the r171 55 not have the performance pack option? I would assume it did but that most buyers or dealer-specced inventory 55s back in the day just skipped the option due to the 3-4k price. I do agree that the LSD is amazing to have. My 55 pulls from a standing start SOOOO much better with much less wheel spin than the two 350s I owned, even with its increased power and torque. The 43 did as well. Just turn off traction control and let the LSD donits thing for continuous fun factor! And it DEFINITELY helps with cornering, even with traction control left on.
I had a Wavetrac LSD installed last October. I autocross my car and the Wavetrac allows me to add power earlier and more aggressively coming out of a corner. It’s a good investment for a performance upgrade.
Bob
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