When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Its been about two weeks since I purchased my 1999 C43. In those two weeks, I have put on about a thousand miles and I think I have a pretty good grasp on where the car is at mechanically.
Mechanically good, some issues, but nothing that would keep it from being used on a daily basis.
So far, everything has been pretty easy to fix. Doing the same maintenance jobs on my E34 M5 would not be so simple or inexpensive.
First up was the oil. I have no clue what the previous owner used for oil or what sort of time/mileage was on the oil, so I changed it out. They did use a fleece filter, which was nice. I put in Mobil1 0W40. Looking through the oil filler, I could see some gunk but it does not look like some pictures I have seen of the M113 gunked up. Before the change I ran BG EPR according to directions. I plan on doing another oil change in two weeks and doing BG EPR at that time as well. I don't have the oil filler extension, which is no big deal as the oil cap seems to fit fine without it. I think I might get a new one as a slight bit of oil seeps from the cap. Something I will keep an eye on.
I think the gunked oil varnish on the heads came from the lack of a gasket on the airbox to MAF. It was wide open and who knows how long the car was operated like that. I looked for the gasket, maybe it was stuck around the trans or something, but no luck. Took a bit to get the right part, but eventually I did though special order at my local dealer. Thread here, with pics:
When I test drove the car, the brake pedal feel was horrendous. My 190d had far better brake modulation. It was squishy and took a lot of travel to get any brakes. So I bled the brakes with ATE SL DOT 4. The brake fluid that came out was pretty bad. Lots of sediment and it was pretty obvious it needed to be changed. Brake pedal feel improved, still a bit squishy, though I plan to use my father's pressure bleeder to flush again. If pedal feel doesn't improve, I might look at the hoses and master cylinder. Plenty of brake pad dust from the fronts, typical German car. Squeals when I brake in reverse, kind of annoying, but I will check on that as time goes on.
I have a slight valve cover oil leak on both sides. My guess is that the breather covers need to be resealed with RTV. I checked the torque on the valve cover bolts and one was a little loose, but everything met the low nm spec specified by WIS. I did order the valve cover gaskets and a bunch of breather hoses/fittings, though I am skeptical that it is the actual valve cover gasket. I have a considerable build up of oil and dirt around the breather covers and the actual RTV or whatever MB used is extruded.
The next issue I am dealing with is coolant temps. I think it tends to run high, but I am not an expert and I could use help here. It likes to run close to the 3/4 tick mark. The electric cooling fans do come on, but I think they might not be pushing enough CFM and they do seem to only come on when the temp gauge shows really close to 3/4. They do not stay on very long and the temp doesn't actually change much. It does not go over 3/4 though and after moving the vehicle down the road, temps stabilize at 80C.
I noticed a lot of dry coolant on the top of the expansion tank, so I replaced the cap. Im not convinced this solved anything and the new cap doesn't seem to lock in place with that little tab so this is a bit bothersome. I did drive around with it today, but no conclusions. I noticed some moisture around the coolant neck, but this could be from when I wiped off the dry coolant. I will monitor this over the next few days. Thoughts on what I can do here? Ive heard of some mod for the cooling fans. Do I need a new expansion tank? Advice welcome, particularly before I start throwing darts at my online parts store
Also added a pic of a potential new neighbor. There are a few MBs in the neighborhood, but no other AMGs.
NB. Thumbs of attached pics are rotated 90 to the left, but when clicked on are oriented properly.
Last edited by triethylborane; 08-12-2016 at 05:52 PM.
You're definitely correct with the C43 being an outstanding value right now. Despite the age, they are still very modern and capable. The fact that they are very reliable, durable, and easy to maintain adds huge value. I bought a high miles example with 238k on the clock in 2011 and have daily driven it since. I had to replace the water pump and idler pulley. Once my timing chain finally needed replacing, I pulled the trigger on the E55 engine swap and now have only 140k miles on my engine but with considerably more power.
Search here for soft brake pedal. It's an issue with others too. I've owned 2 C43s at once. One had prefect brake feel and the other was far too soft (yet grabbed fine when i went to the floor). Its a very frustrating experience when I would switch cars. I kept the one with tight brakes. And in case you didn't know, the factory brakes on the C43 are some of the best ever made. They are seriously nosebleed level. Some people still upgrade them to more modern AMG 4 and 6 piston, but there's no functional need. I'm leaving mine alone but intend to paint them silver sometime.
How's your interior holding up? Looks great in the pics. Another strong point in these. The interior holds up amazingly well over time if you got all black. The two tones not so much. But expect your headliner to fall soon unless it was already repaired.
You're definitely correct with the C43 being an outstanding value right now. Despite the age, they are still very modern and capable. The fact that they are very reliable, durable, and easy to maintain adds huge value. I bought a high miles example with 238k on the clock in 2011 and have daily driven it since. I had to replace the water pump and idler pulley. Once my timing chain finally needed replacing, I pulled the trigger on the E55 engine swap and now have only 140k miles on my engine but with considerably more power.
Search here for soft brake pedal. It's an issue with others too. I've owned 2 C43s at once. One had prefect brake feel and the other was far too soft (yet grabbed fine when i went to the floor). Its a very frustrating experience when I would switch cars. I kept the one with tight brakes. And in case you didn't know, the factory brakes on the C43 are some of the best ever made. They are seriously nosebleed level. Some people still upgrade them to more modern AMG 4 and 6 piston, but there's no functional need. I'm leaving mine alone but intend to paint them silver sometime.
How's your interior holding up? Looks great in the pics. Another strong point in these. The interior holds up amazingly well over time if you got all black. The two tones not so much. But expect your headliner to fall soon unless it was already repaired.
Thanks for the feedback. Kind of surprising you needed to replace the timing chain. It is a duplex chain, no? Ive only seen a duplex chain need to be replaced once due to stretch in an over revved BMW I6 (8500rpm). Interesting.
The brake calipers are great, tremendous clamping force. I don't think Ill switch them out. I don't plan on tracking it and I don't drive like a maniac, so stock will be fine. Ill hunt around and see what people have done. Master cylinders and lines are cheap, so I might do that if bleeding doesn't yield a fix.
The interior is in really good condition. The wood on the doors has warped (this car lived in TX and FL before coming to CO), which isn't a big deal. The dash is immaculate and the leather on the seats is just fine. The rear headrests and top of the rear seat were dry, so I have introduced some leather conditioner into the grain slowly to rejuvenate it. Once I did this too quickly on another car and the stitching burst, weird.
The wood on the steering wheel and transmission surround have cracked, though I don't plan on changing that. Actually the headliner is in great shape. A little indentation, but otherwise still plush and secure. I have no clue if it is original. The rear shelf has turned purple, but whatever.
It looks like the liquid crystal in the driver's side mirror seeped through a crack in the bottom right corner and dripped on the paint. Ugh, not good for the paint. Im going to wash the car and assess what I can do, probably a light 3M rubbing compound will take care of the marring. Im going to remove the outer layer of glass and drain off the remaining fluid, which should leave a mirror just like the passenger side.
Its a duplex chain yes, and few shops have done it on these motors but it still happens. Almost 300k miles can trigger a number of things
Like a broken chain guide. Mine was rattling, the only symptom.
At $4500.00, you did OK, but it appears that your car had a bit of a hard life.
I own two C43s, one is one of the two former PPG CART Indycar Pace Cars and has only 2500 miles on it (!!!), the other is my wife's daily driver, a '99 silver job with black interior.
The Pace Car is basically a brand new car and sits mostly under a cover, but will soon find museum duty as I am donating it to a local museum.
My wife's car has now 84K miles, we purchased it in 2008 for 10K with 68K miles, she does not drive that much. It is in near pristine condition inside and out, and has been carefully maintained by OC Benz in Orange County. It runs to perfection today.
As soon as we got the car:
-Crankcase oil flush, then new fresh oil and filter (Mobil One)
-Transmission flush and new oil/filter
-Change one ignition coil that acted erratically.
After a while, issues developed: full throttle caused the main computer go to limp mode (stop the car, wait one minute, restart and it's OK). Eventually the computer failed and the car would not get out of limp mode.
The issues we fixed:
-Lower steering control arms.
-MAF
-Main computer failed and had to be repaired (the most expensive repair we did on the car so far): 1500 bucks from MBNA. You CANNOT switch computers on these cars, you need to "rebuild" and reprogram the existing units. It is however a rare failure.
Since then, and this was YEARS ago, NOTHING. Perfect reliability, starts every time, a ball to drive, just a little stiff for my taste, as my own rides are an '01 W210 E55 and an '05 W211 E55, the '05 especially being is a magic carpet compared to the C car. But the C car can be thrown with abandon like a go-kart and will never fail to satisfy your need for 4-wheel slides on freeway off ramps!
We have zero plans to sell the C43, as its cost VS rendered service has been that of a Camry or another dead car for the masses. Who needs a new car?
Both C43 cars have never developed (so far) any roof liner collapse, not even a sign of it. But both cars are always garaged, so not subject to sunlight heat other than when they are being driven.
However I used to have a C36 that did the roof liner thing, and it was a ***** to fix. The car in these pictures needs a wash, but when washed, you would not distinguish it from a new car. These are very well built, and even the paint is holding quite well for a 17 year old car.
I had two, both were high mile basket cases that I made right for pennies on the dollar. Got sick of one always sitting and sold it to drop an E55 engine in the other. But your sentiment rings true to me as well. My old c280 and w124 e320 were fine cars but as they aged they anyways needed something.
I was realizing just the other day that my 99 C43 with 297k miles has been the most trouble free car I've ever had. Bought it with 240k on it for 4 grand in 2011. Wife totalled it, loved it so much i had it fixed. Everything works, it's quicker than expected, and I actually get excited to drive it to work down the interstate. I sometimes feel like I want a cls55 but then I'd have to part with my C43. No way.
I had two, both were high mile basket cases that I made right for pennies on the dollar. Got sick of one always sitting and sold it to drop an E55 engine in the other. But your sentiment rings true to me as well. My old c280 and w124 e320 were fine cars but as they aged they anyways needed something.
I was realizing just the other day that my 99 C43 with 297k miles has been the most trouble free car I've ever had. Bought it with 240k on it for 4 grand in 2011. Wife totalled it, loved it so much i had it fixed. Everything works, it's quicker than expected, and I actually get excited to drive it to work down the interstate. I sometimes feel like I want a cls55 but then I'd have to part with my C43. No way.
how has engine transplant been treating you?
car's been good to you so far with the new donor heart?
did you do an E55 ECU re-flash?
or do you still use stock unmodified C43 ECU?
No reflash, no mods. Just the engine swap with new valve cover gaskets and fluids. It's been flawless!
I've seen online where it actually makes less power if you reflash to E55 ECU. A guy here dyno'd his car before and after. I'm staying with C43 flash. Getting exhaust cut Tuesday. Secondary cats and resonator removed.
No reflash, no mods. Just the engine swap with new valve cover gaskets and fluids. It's been flawless!
I've seen online where it actually makes less power if you reflash to E55 ECU. A guy here dyno'd his car before and after. I'm staying with C43 flash. Getting exhaust cut Tuesday. Secondary cats and resonator removed.
what about fuel getting lean coz c43-ecu with (C43) software might F-ing up the cats in the long run using the E55 engine?
is it something to worry about?
congrats on the C43 purchase.
i bought mine with only 62000 miles i think almost 4 years ago, just this spring i started daily driving it and now it has just over 80k miles.
for the brakes: i initially autocrossed and tracked my car so i had SS braided lines, loved the brakes, but now i swapped the lines over to my CLK55 and put stock lines back on the C43 and its super spongy! i didnt know how much difference the lines had made until i went back to stock. my car had about 50% pedal travel with only about 15% braking power then the other 50% of travel basically applied the remaining 85% of braking power, or at least thats how it seemed, and i really liked it that way, it was good for autocross :-)
my headliner is fine but just this spring the fabric on the sunroof cover has delaminated so thats sort of annoying.
other than that its been pretty solid as well. but i get a squeaking from the front suspension now when i go over speed bumps and the shop said the ball joints need replacing, so i have the parts that will swap those out soon. other than that i cant really recall any issues with the car mechanically. i had issues with the seat control adjustments (the ones in the door) they basically stopped working, but that was repaired and the car is pretty solid. and i drove it HARD on autocross and on the track for 3 summers and its a trooper, tranny and engine are both still perfect as far as i can tell.
for your engine temp, my car usually was between the halfway mark the the 3/4 mark, even on track days in 90 degree heat in the summer that i recall.
black w202 C43 / Black e93 328i / Smoke Silver 560SEL
Congrats on the C43, and that really is a fantastic price. I paid 3500 for mine, and it was a bit of a heap with 200k mi when I got it. The motor mounts failed to the point that the engine was basically held in by the transmission and wiring harness.
what about fuel getting lean coz c43-ecu with (C43) software might F-ing up the cats in the long run using the E55 engine?
is it something to worry about?
the ECU auto adjusts, according to what i've read online. that's one of the reasons the swap is popular and easy, the ECU was apparently ready for both displacements. i'm sure it made manufacturing a bit easier for MB and AMG, with so many cars getting 43 or 55 configs
06-18-2016, 03:32 PM
and who knows how long the car was operated like that. I looked for the gasket, maybe it was stuck around the trans or something, but no luck. Took a bit to get the right part, but eventually I did though special order at my local dealer. Thread here, with pics:
