SabbathC55

Hello all, I'm new to this forum, but I have owned my C55 for about 5 years now. Owning this car has been an awesome experience, I currently have about 53K miles on it already, and this year the car has been in the service shop more often this year than I would have liked, this year was a big year for expenses. Just this year I had the voltage regulator fail, and valve gaskets on both sides replaced. I also did a trans and brake fluid flush this year. But as of now, the car is in the shop for a fuel leak. When filling the tank with gas, I would notice a heavy gas smell. Originally you could smell it more just outside the car near the rear doors. Last week, the interior started smelling more - and we have kids. So we took it in immediately.

Turns out, there is a leak at the top of the gas tank, it is accessible and just under the rear seat. I saw the car today with the seat removed, and there is literally visible gas at the top of of where the gas tank cap is - located under the rear seats . Apparently this is a major cost to repair, however is covered under the warranty that I have. I've had a loaner car for about 3 days now, the warranty representatives had to send an adjuster out to the dealer. At this point, I don't know what my contribution will need to be on the repair, I can update you later. But a friendly word to you all, if you smell gas in or around the car after a refueling, and your warranty is about to expire, get it fixed right away! This is approx $2k repair - I'll provide more details later.

-Sabb

kjb55

Thanks for the post - definitely keep us posted as to what would cause this...

EVOII_Racer

damn sorry to hear about these new problems! I am sure it will stop after our c55 are very reliable! your gas tank issue sounds rare but crazy! Please take pictures if you get a chance

wawy

I've never heard of that issue on a C55 before. I know there are leaking gas issues on some W211 E55s (Fuel sender issue?) and even a recall I think. Please post more information about this when you have it. We would all appreciate it. Also, did you have any warning before the voltage regulator failed?

91RS

Definately interested to know what this problem is, not one I've heard of before on a C either.

gnma

+1

Best of luck with the repair. Hope all goes well.

SabbathC55

I wish I had taken some pictures when I visited the car with the back seat removed. The gas tank on this car sits just below the rear seat. When lifting the rear seat (you can do this by pulling on the black plastic pull handles - if you ever wanted to fold the seat backs down). There you'll see two circular covers, they look like sump pump covers. When I saw my car, both of those covers were removed - the driver side had a puddle of gas there.

I want to say thank goodness I had a warranty, but this time was somewhat of an ordeal. The dealer had provided me a loaner car, which I've had for a week (a 2011 C300 4matic). At first, the dealer's quote to fix this was approx $1600. The warranty company sent an adjuster before agreeing to pay the whole amount. Go figure, I still have not even come close to half of what I paid for the warranty in the first place, and it will soon expire next summer, but that's another topic. Turns out, the dealer wanted to replace the parts on both sides of the tank, but since only one side had the problem, the warranty company will only cover what is broken. This was ok I thought, I'd have them repair what was wrong, and my responsibility would be for the diagnostic charge, and a few small parts that the warranty wouldn't cover - I was told I'd have to pay approx $200, not bad...

A day later, got a call, the parts they ordered for the car have been superseded and they didn't match up correctly with the other half of the parts that were there on the side that didn't need repair. And, on top of this, the technician on the job got sick to his stomach and went home early - probably due to working around all that gasoline!

Today got a call, in order for them to complete the job, they will need to order new parts for the other side in order for both sides to work together - the superseded parts didn't fit with the older ones, so new superseded parts went on order. So they told me I would have to pay to fix the other side, since it wasn't broken and not covered under warranty. What a bummer.

The replacement parts totaled $805 (fuel pump, auxiliary pump, fuel sender, pressure sensor, mounting plates, seal ring, brackets, cable harness, contact bushing, ties and nuts), total labor was $650. Totaling $1455. The warranty covered $650, my out of pocket on this job was $850.

The car passed inspection with nothing major for the next 12 months, but I know I'm up for new brakes soon. Last visit cost approx $1200, and the time before that was another couple hundred: due to the voltage regulator.

I love the car, and still think it would be cheaper to keep it rather than buying anything new at this point, figure what another car payment plus depreciation would be on a monthly basis. Now that this car is getting up there in age, and the warranty will soon expire does have me thinking. C63s have come down a lot in price, and the style is finally growing on me, but.... in my opinion, I feel that the C55 interior materials as well as some other aspects are better than the new C class cars. Our engines have a nice mix of power/torque and fuel efficiency - consider the fuel economy of the C63, which isn't all that great. The new platform does handle nicely though. I did look at a 2012 C class while I was there, very nice car, and an improvement over the previous year. Eventually though I will have to make a decision to move on, before that day comes, I plan to savor every moment with my C55.

wawy

Thanks for the update and information. Certainly something to be aware of now..

91RS

Honestly, you should call your extended warranty company and raise hell. You should not have had to pay for the other side because the other side parts were required to go with the side that was broken.

SabbathC55

I completely agree. However, I had this fight with them about a year ago with my seat heater. As you all know the seat heaters on this car are crap and will only work for about a year before the element breaks inside. When the car was under it's factory warranty, they covered the cost to replace the seat cushion. A year later, when that one broke, I was into the extended warranty, and they didn't want to cover it. Why? because the 'broken' part was inside the cushion, and the cushion is not covered because it is an upholstery piece - which is exempt. Perhaps some folks here had their seat bottoms replaced under the extended warranty, which is great, but this will vary by the adjuster's interpretation of the agreement. They will only cover what is 'broken'.

Extended warranties can really be worth it in some cases, but in my experience they really haven't served me. If I had just put the money aside originally, I'd still have about $2k left. All in all, I consider this part of AMG ownership, which I accept.

I should give some credit to them though, they covered most of the repair needed for the voltage regulator, that was labor intensive because they had to move the engine upwards to get to it. Scared the heck out of me because I was about 2 hours from home, the warning on the cluster was a red: 'alternator, see service' or something like that, the radio had cut out, so I thought I was running on the battery, but the regulator was flaking in and out.

Re the gas leak: Symptoms to remember leading up to the failure, on this car, when filling up with gas, only when it is full, if you smell fumes around the rear wheels, chances are you have the same problem. This problem for me started earlier this year around spring. When I smelled the gas inside the car, that's when I said forget it... I have kids. Something to keep in mind if one side will go, you'll end up having to do both sides due to the superseded part and compatibility etc... Sounds like my issue is a rare one however.

91RS

What warranty company is this? Sounds like one that might need to be avoided if they want to fie print the crao out of every repair. As long as the repair is legit and justified there should be no problem (like with the seat heater).

It does sound like this problem is a fluke though, I can't imagine it is happening very often since no one has ever complained about it on here before.

wawy

You may find the following interesting.....

https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...2-15-10-a.html

SabbathC55

Thanks wawy - wow! The superseded parts now make sense - they were most likely redesigned because of this very risky problem. Curious about the problem recurring for the E55 owners though.

billapex

Mine started leaking recently when I fill up the tank. '05 C55 with 83k miles. Drat.

moosejaw

This is a big problem for not just the E55 cars, but the entire E Class range..... it is present on other MB Models such as the CLS.

I'm surprised this issue has made it to the C Class platform. Look up the other thread entitled "Our cars are bombs!" in the W211 AMG Forum.

If you guys do experience this issue, try these solutions in order to fix.
1. Check and replace gas cap. If that doesn't go away....
2. Remove rear seats, remove circular access panel behind the driver's seat and replace the green rubber seal surrounding fuel sender. Cost is $20 from dealer.....If that doesn't go away....
3. Pay for a smoke test to see where leak is coming from? I paid $80 for this test. This will determine your next course of action.....
4. Either replace fuel sending unit, the cost is around $ 400 from dealer and do it yourself or......
5. Replace entire gas tank which a lot of dealers are advocating. I have been quoted $1,600 to do this. This involves dropping the driveshaft and rear subframe.

There is no solid answer on why this happens in our cars nor is there a guaranteed fix by MBUSA. The only solution I have seen that prevents the problem from coming back is a spanking brand new gas tank. BTW i noticed that the check engine light was not mentioned in this post. It commonly comes on with this problem. You scan the code and it comes back as a Evap Error.

Ive been told by former MB Mechanics it's not worth repairing. Clear the code with a code scanner and just dont fill the car up all the way to full. I can go about 5/8th of a tank before it appears on the dashboard. If i go on a long trip, i bring a scanner with me to clear the code.

BTW this problem has come up even in the brand new W212 E Class.

wawy

…and yet I have to wonder if perhaps that’s really the best solution – especially if the aforementioned solutions don’t the solve the issue

Thank you for posting this information as it may prove invaluable when and if this problem occurs..

Newzchspy

WOW, so you can only basically fill about half the tank before it starts to smell in the cabin???

I haven't had this problem with either of the C classes. (should've kept that C Trienta y Dos Drew!!)

moosejaw

The long short of it.................Yeah
Another **** poor product brought to you by Mercedes Benz

SabbathC55

My service advisor did ask me if the cel came on, which it didn't. He did say something about this happening on the E class cars but a cel would come on. This problem for me started about 9 months ago when I smelled gas outside the car after a fuel up. It was until just recently that I smelled inside the car. When my car was serviced, They did not replace the gas cap. They did drain all the gas out of it, in fact I was told the tech working on the car didn't report into work the one day because he felt sick to his stomach.

When researching the issue here, I read where the problem happened a again after the repair. Now I suspect the value of these cars have gone down some more. If I were an educated buyer of one of these I would at least check to see if an update was done. Figure $1600 bucks for such a stupid problem. I'd rather see that money go towards tires or brakes. My car only has 56k miles on it and I'm still in love with it after 5 years.

wawy

.....Just be glad we don't have Airmatic

But in all seriousness, this doesn't appear to be a widespread issue with the W203 (knock on wood).

moosejaw

Airmatic would be easier to deal with bc Arnott makes manufactured airmatic struts for $400ea + core w/ lifetime warranty.

My car only had 32K miles when the CEL happened

moosejaw

BUMP........
This finally getting resolved on the E Class
Please read link in this thread
https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...leaks-e55.html

JonMBZ

I am getting pre-symptoms of this issue which started with a CEL (minor leak) I am surprised your CEL didn't come on since I don't have any gas spilling anywhere or gas leaking under the seat. I was told by the technician that I would probably need to replace the filler neck and that it was a common issue with our cars. I had the two seals checked and they were fine the next step is to do a "smoke test" to see where it's leaking. For now I have been just clearing the CEL every few months as it hasn't been a huge concern of mine. Next step was going to be doing the test and just JB weld the filler neck since it's mostly all plastic approx $400 for a new one.

moosejaw

Update 4.18.12..........I want to report that this afternoon I've had the NHTSA call me up and ask me several pertinent questions that pertain to this problem. They are taking this issue seriously and Ive directed them to this link and others so that they may gather evidence.

In our conversation, we discussed at hand the issues leading up to this problem including the recall performed years back, the ethanol content in today's gasoline, and the fact that Mercedes is making customers paying out of pocket for the fix. They know of the car and the fact that they consider specifically the E55 one of the Halo Cars that Mercedes sells. Their engineer was also surprised at the low mileage that my incident occurred (33K miles).

What can really help if anyone who has paid out of pocket for this repair to please contact me via PM. I would need a copy of an invoice or a quote for the work done to show the folks back at the NHTSA how Mercedes is trying to bill the customer for this repair.

Still no update on the recall, Mercedes has provided a response to the NHTSA. But it's still preliminary right now.

matler23

We just bought our C55 about a month ago. We started smelling gas last week. My wife was going to be in the Dallas/Ft Worth area this week, so I told her to go ahead and take it in. They quoted us just under $2k to perform the work. Mileage is just over 60k.