Kompressor - what does it do?

It's an engine driven supercharger whose function is to add air to the cylinders prior to the piston's compression stroke and so give the engine additional performance. A supercharger has no "turbo lag" and that's its main benefit vs. an exhaust driven turbocharger.

Both add efficiency to an engine - that means performance and economy.

Others will have to tell you about the supercharger's drive system - it's probably a belt.

Supercharger - in German.

Yes. You want to go faster without consuming extra fuel? Hey me too, lemme know how that works out for you. It's permanently on.

Dunno if it's belt or chain. MB is notoriously averse to belts so I'd *guess* chain. If it breaks you won't go as fast.

Minor niggle, it doesn't so much add air as compress a larger air/fuel mixture into the combustion chamber. You get a bigger bang in the "suck squeze bang blow" cycle of an infernal combusion engine.

In diesel it adds more air then the injection pump is told to add more fuel, but the net effect is the same. More air/fuel mixture to ignite.

What is interesting to me is that this technology -- used in the 'old days', thirties I believe -- lay neglected until recent times when Merc picked it up and has converted its entire smaller-petrol-engine range to it.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

Maybe lag is the wrong term to use. Driving the C230 Kompressor ('05) I notice a lag / hesitation when hitting the gas pedal from a standing start or very low engine RPM.

If I keep the RPM's up while driving, or 'feather' the gas pedal, it provides nearly instant power when punched. This is an extremely interesting, fun, agile, put a smile on your face, car to drive. It will also stand up and run down the highway just as fast as anybody would want/need to in my opinion.

I've gotten alot of experience playing with these cars as it is the standard 'loaner' car at my MB dealership and my wife's new ML350 has made multiple trips to the service dept. for the stupid POS MB rear seat entertainment system.

My wife has already said that when the kids are up and out of the house she wants to get out of the SUV and into a smaller C Class. I'm hoping that the supercharger returns to that class vehicle when that time arrives.

Kevin L. Bray Cedar Park, TX

'85 300SD '86 300SDL '91 560SEL '06 ML350

I drove a euro version of this car a two years or so ago and noticed the same thing. Granted it was test-sled, but still...

All petrol 4-cylinder models across the Merc range have the supercharger (well, I checked C and E-Class).

My guess is that the Kompressor will only be deleted if replaced by something else with similar/better performance.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling