desmo996

My 09 C63 has a little less than 11K miles on it. As I travel a lot I haven't put much mileage on it. I basically just drive short distances around town at this time.

It tells me service B is overdue at this point (by 100+ days) but as the car has such low mileage I find it premature to spend close to $500 for service B on a car that is almost 10K miles short of the regular service interval. I know it's supposed to be 10K or 1 year which ever comes first but I'm thinking I should wait until I get a bit closer to the normal 20K mileage requirement.

If the car was just sitting put in the garage for months then I might be more inclined to service it at this early mileage stage but since it's used very lightly it seems like doing such a thorough service might be wasteful. What do you guys think about this conundrum?

antman0505

Don't you need to follow the recommended service schedule to maintain your warranty?

I would have thought that if your car wasn't properly maintained i.e. carried out the scheduled servicing, then MB would be well within their rights to refuse any potential warranty claim.

Mort

I would change the oil & filter and have the brakes bleed at the very least. I think the concern about your warranty is valid. If in doubt check with your SA.

desmo996

Really? It just seems silly to do a service B at 11K. The service A was done at 5K which was also early. It's almost as the car is being overly serviced. I never thought this would affect the warranty though. I could just reset the service message if that was the case.

Mort

You can reset the service message but under certain failure types with the engine MB may/will ask for proof that the service was performed. You will then be required to provide receipts. It has always been recommended that the oil be changed once a year regardless of mileage in engines with aluminum components as the acid that builds up in the oil can corrode those parts. The oil only contains so much ability to neutralize the acid and it deteriorates over time. Change the oil!

Vegas_AMG

Wow where have you been??? Good to see your still here and have your C.

I have 15,400 miles and have changed the oil 3-times. Service B was $249 but I had a "coupon". Need to drive her more............

Bill

venchka

Service intervals are a function of miles OR time. Your short stop & go driving is harder on the mechanical bits than long distance steady highway cruising.

If you are fortunate enough to own a semi-custom vehicle, you should be responsible enough to treat it properly.

Wayne

Jon2007E63P30

You have no reason not to do the service the manual recommends.

Merc63

I did my own oil change at home and had warranty work performed still afterwards.

However, I tried to extend my warranty and if they cant find a service history at a benz dealer they wont sell you the warranty.

desmo996

Well I guess I'll have the Service B done at a measly 11K then.

desmo996

Ya, it's been a while for sure.

Wow, $249?? That's some coupon. I got a $1000 Savings Card in the mail that apparently says I can get 25% off service the first time I use it. Will try that out. Hopefully there aren't restrictions for AMG's.

Will be driving it as much as I can.

DuaneC63

It's an expensive car. Don't forgo scheduled maintenance, in fact you're better off with over maintenance on a few items. Oil every 5,000mi or year what ever comes first. Brake fluid every other year. At 50,000 or five years change all the fluids, unless you have P31 then you should change the differential fluid every 30K or 3 years (friction disk wear inside the differencial degrades the fluid over time), or 2012 change the tranny every 30k or three years for the same reason. I also change all the belts and hoses at 50k or five years. To save money find a good indy for items that are done more frequently than the factory requires.

Roswell

I feel ur pain OP.. My car is 1.5 year old & has 5000km but I had 2 oil changes already.. My 3rd one is coming as soon as my car comes out of storage this spring.

I got to drive my car more cuz I'm definitely over-servicing this car.

dkhm3

dood... drive it more! i drove 2k miles in 2 weeks - just got the car lol.

and it's not even my DD

Roswell

^^ lol.. I know but it's hard to find time when u have ur own business.. I work 6.5 days a week.. 10 hours a day.

Mort

10 hours on the half day too...

eagle_lex

mine is an 09 with 12k miles. i have changed the oil twice. (once a year when it indicates it). both and indy and MB looked at the brake fluid and said, while its recommended to change it every two years, mine looked fine. its obviously never tracked and only driven VERY lightly. so its really up to you what you want to do. me personally i change the oil at least... probably still over doing it. but who knows.

desmo996

Funny, I'm a business owner too and yes, driving time is scarce.

desmo996

Sounds like you're in a similar situation. I called my dealer and will be taking in the car for them to check out. They said if it's not necessary they'll do something called a Service Flex A which isn't a Service B (where air filters are changed apparently making up much of the cost according to the service manager). They update some of the computer based systems if necessary and check out the fluid levels.

eagle_lex

thats what they did on my B service. my dealer didnt reset the service reminder but you can do that yourself. it takes a few tries before i got it right but its easy. i (like most car nuts) keep a spiral pocket notebook and i log EVERYTHING in it so the reminder doesnt mean much to me other then "remind" me. ha ha just service it like you would like to see one serviced if you were buying it preowned. most of us probably wont resell to someone as **** as us anyway.

Roswell

lol... pretty much it... or maybe 5 hours on Sunday then.

But my business is opened 365 days a year... including Xmas, New Year & Chinese New Year... sucks huh? lol

Roswell

Seriously, back to the OP... I would just sit down with your service manager before your service B, and go through the list of what is recommended... and ask them to cross what you dont want to be done. It's your car, you can service it the way you want.

As for warranty issue, I highly doubt you will have brake failure becuz you didnt change your fluid at 11K km (2 years). You can wait at 20K km no problem... just change your engine oil will be fine. I know for a fact, I didnt get a brake flush on my Lexus until 70K km, so I assume MB are built as strong.

eagle_lex

anyone want to take a stab at how many times my 05 nissan pathfinder with 127k miles has had the brake fluid flushed? thats right.... zero. now im not suggesting this for our 63s just saying.

DuaneC63

An interesting approach to break down maintenance for brakes. After 6-7 years and 127K miles of use your brake fluid has absorbed a significant amount of moisture. Of course you haven't notice that the brakes have become spongy as you drive it everyday and the difference from day to day is imperceptable. Your brake lines are also deteriorating because of the moisture in the system. Everytime you hit the brakes they ballon up like a sausage. But until one breaks, who's the wiser. So one hot summer day you take a long drive and end up going down a long steep grade (like the I-5 grapevine) and to be a law abiding citizen you keep tapping your brakes to stay with in the speed limit. (You don't want to put it in a lower gear because that will just fry the tranny fluid you've never bothered to change.) This adds substancial heat to the brake hydraulic fluid and all the moisture starts to boil off. Then for no apparent reason a jerk some place not to far up in front of you manages to cause a freeway closing accident and you're faced with a sea of red tail light and screaching tires. You're reaction to it hit the binders hard, but guess what, the pedal just keeps decending to the floor (and all that ABS pulsing isn't helping matters) and your speed is not decreasing at the same rate as everyone else. You guess what happens next? "I'm Mayhem and if you got cut rate insurance you could be paying for this yourself"

dkhm3

nicely said.