Markus03

So I was driving a little enthusiastic today and my upshift paddle didn't shift into 2nd gear such that the engine revved to redline and the "upshift" red light came on at which point I pulled the paddle again . I noticed in my rear view mirror a cloud of white smoke . Have any of you ever had this problem that the paddle didn't shift properly the first time from first gear (that you have to do it twice) and get a white cloud of smoke from the exhaust?

Thanks a million for your input!

Zeee_Q

Whenever I use the paddle shifters, I notice there is a slight delay from when you actually pull the shifter to when the car actually shifts. The car not shifting the first time is most likely due to not pulling the shifter hard enough or the car didn't register the shift but it's probably not a big deal if it's never happened before. Not sure on the white smoke issue though.

GrnLantern

Possibly the head bolt / coolant leak issue starting to creep up?

See https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-w...lant-leak.html, specifically post #6 in that thread for starters.

Check your coolant levels. Don't panic, yet, but check levels and schedule a service appt.

Sincity

+1. Do you also notice the smell of burnt coolant?

CaptDngr

This issue has me a bit scared, and is the reason why a deal that I had on a C63 AMG in SoCal just fell through (factory warranty expired today, and I wouldn't have been the registered owner before today passed, which means I wouldn't be able to get the formal MB ELW on it). Thanks for all the information, folks. Very much appreciated.

SonnyakaPig

Curious to know how the conversation relating to the head bolt issue went between you and the seller. If you wouldn't mind, I would be very interested to know how this issue plays out in sales discussions. I mean, I can imagine how the conversation could go, but just interested in your experience.

CaptDngr

It was a CarMax dealership. So, unfortunately there was no way the car would be offered as an MB CPO car. There was minimal discussion other than me mentioning the head bolt issue, them say that the car comes with a 30 day warranty from CarMax and I can extend it (albeit a 3rd party warranty), and me insisting that 3rd party warranties won't work for me in this regard. It's an AMG car, and if anyone's going to be taking apart my engine, it's going to be AMG certified technicians. (Granted, I'd rather that didn't have to ever happen in the first place, but this is insurance.)

I get the feeling that, for the most part, buyers in the know (i.e., those of us researching on the Internet and reading boards, etc.) will shy away from cars out of warranty or ineligible for the MB ELW.

Thing is, I highly doubt this will be a widespread issue, and if it became widespread, I'm confident MB/AMG will handle it appropriately. I'm more worried about it being a rare "0.1% of M156 cars" issue, where MB Corporate won't get too involved and people out of warranty are SOL.

Glock Guru

Human error is Always a factor also. "hand built" is all well and good and great for marketing, but there is nothing wrong with letting the computer do the work. I'm sure it's not a wide spread problem however IMO, hand build is not always all that and a bag of chips.

-Troy

shades

I dont want to scare you but that puff of white smoke would concern me. Check your coolant level....if its low and you have no leak, most likely its the coolant slowly seeping into to your engine. If you are sure that you did indeed grab the gear and it didnt shift, it might have been geeting ready to go into limp mode, which is exactly what happened to me. I just recieved my car back this week for the headbolt issue. I was fortunate to be in the original manufacturers warranty and the whole bill was picked up by MB. A month without your car in the summer hurts, but they did a great job, and the car feels great. I got piece of mind now that the issue has been dealt with.

bhamg

shades - I took the liberty of quoting you here, in the master thread:

https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-w...ml#post5292418

GrnLantern

Glad you got your car back and that all is well! Also good to hear about the warranty. Did you get a chance to see what the total cost to MB was? Curious to know what the out of pocket would've been.

BerBer63

its not hand built... its one man one engine and everything is done my computers and all logged

shades

Feel free my friend

natman316

I was at auto x today and I hit the rev limiter once, my friend that was watching saw smoke come out of the car. I think he said it was black smoke though

shades

There were no prices at all on the 5 pages of the fix. But there were a lot of parts involved i can tell you that. It looked pricey though. I think if someone was to do it at an independant dealer, it would be much cheaper than MB. I believe the techs get full labour from MB Canada, so its a great job for one of them. If your going to do it out of warranty, for preventative maintenance, it should be much cheaper

SonnyakaPig

Thanks for the reply. Sorry it took some time for me to respond.

I met a random SL63 owner within the last month or so and I asked him if he heard about the head bolt issue and he said it happened to his car when it had very low miles. It was covered under warranty but he said the bill would have been around $18K, if I remember correctly.

I would like to believe that was a coincidence, and it was because I was literally reading the head bolt issue thread right before (like 2-mins) before I met him. But, we can already see from the members that have experieced this issue to the random M156 owner I met, this issue is real, there is a bulliten for it, there is a fix and the rest of us with engines in the build range are sitting ducks.

BK63amg

What engines are in this "build range" you mention? How would you know if your car was one of them?

bhamg

ALL '09's are in that build range. Unfortunately.