Jonny Nitro

Hi Guys,
I responded to another thread about my issue with the headbolts and was asked three times to make it a new thread so I will do so. Here is my story:

I have a 2009 C63 with 120, 000 kilometers on it. Ran great and felt good. I have never had an import before; all of my cars have been north americain made rear drive V8s most of which have taken their share of abuse at the local 1/4 mile drag strip. Now that I have a family of five and need to fit three car seats in the back I test drove the challenger and just about puked in my mouth. No other domestic had a 400hp+ V8 so I heard about the C63 after a test drive i fell in love.

I am no stranger to working on large 90 degree V8s. C63 was a nice fit. Until a few weeks ago, I started getting all the symptoms of a head gasket failure. Immediately shut it off and towed to the dealer. The dude on the phone said, "Oh thats not a head gasket thats a head bolt on your car we know all about it". I was confused as I had never heard of this before. After the tow and the mechnics took a look they agreed. Head bolt failure. I asked for a quote. In the mean time I googled it and found this awesome forum! Kudos to you guys I can wait to get more active on the forum!

After frequent calls to the dealer and head office, the recognized verbally that it was the fauly headbolts and because I am off warranty they would pay for half. I was excited thinking that was reasonable. Estimate was 42K to rebuild the motor, i would be half. That seemed crazy considereing that it was a known problem. So I researched around town and found a high performance import shop specializing in german hi-po cars and they would rebuild for 10K. So last week i had it towed from dealer into town and we will see next steps...

i will incllude pictures of the rebuild if you guys want and let you know the end result. Here is the part that makes me laugh my ***** off and hate Merc. The guy at the dealer named Jason called and dispite all this bull**** he asked for $600 for the assessment. I figure i just saved him $21K, so he can go hump a post for all I care or call my lawyer. Thats idiocy at its finest.

So there is my story and I would be happy to keep this great forum up to date! Thanks for the interest in my problem, you all seem like a great lot of guys!

Jonny


Please excuse the poor grammar and spelling.

Shifter

Why would you need to rebuild the entire motor? If a rod bent you can put individual rods/pistons in it. And they wouldn't know that until the had the heads off and could measure piston/deck height.

Jonny Nitro

Rods and pistons can stay in, want glycol out of crank bearings. Flush wont do it.

CoolBDPhenom03

Good luck! Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

Merc63

You sound like you know cars.

Its not overly hard to remove the engine. I pulled mine out with 1 other guy in 5 hours.. Given we weren't concerned about putting it back in, so no pictures were taken, etc.

It burns me to know MB knows about this and does nothing about it.. we will pay half of 42k like come on, get your heads out of your *** and step up to the plate.

They advertise MB as such a reliable and prestigious brand, but expect you to cough up $21,000 dollars because of their negligent engineering.

Not sure why some guy is suing over cams, when the real law suit should be these faulty head bolts with HUGE repair bills that often come up after warranty is done.

Glad you found a reasonable solution to this issue. Id suggest checking out ARP head studs from Weistec if you plan on keeping the car.

Jonny Nitro

Thanks Merc 63, shame on MB; I agree.

Weistec bolts are on order and should arrive next week. You and i are on the same page.

bhamg

Jonny - Thanks for the update and good to hear things are moving along. 72k miles is the highest mileage I've seen to date...which is I guess bad news for all of us as it indicates there may be no "safe mileage" at which one is home free re the head bolt issue.

Merc63

We are going to see more and more of these.

Jonny Nitro

Isnt there a class action law suit? I just cant find the lawyers name to join it.

Chancejat

does anyone know yet if you can change the headbolts one by one without pulling the heads and changing gaskets?

solekeeper

I can't wait to get my hands on the 63, but this issue is bothersome. Good thing you found a shop to do the rebuild. I think I'll need to find a reputable shop myself..

Jonny Nitro

From my experience with small and big block chevy's and fords this will most definetly result in a head gasket leak. I can not say for sure on MB but can only imagine it would be the same.

Merc63

Didn't you already ask this in another thread??

Answer is No.

bhamg

This is the lawsuit:

For those of you that have not heard by now, Mercedes-Benz is facing a class action lawsuit for alleged defects in the M156 V8 engine installed in numerous AMG Mercedes vehicles. You can read the class action complaint filed in New Jersey here.

According to the lawsuit, the class action may affect all current and former owners and lessees of 2006-2011 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG, E63 AMG, S63 AMG, CL63 AMG, CLS63 AMG, ML63 AMG, CLK63 AMG, R63 AMG, and SL63 AMG models equipped with AMG M156 6.2 liter V8 engines.

The class action lawsuit alleges the V8 engines in several AMG vehicles have underlying problems that make them prone to premature wear, causing major engine damage and sometimes total engine failure.

Los Angeles resident Cedric Chan alleges in the Mercedes-Benz AMG class action lawsuit that after obtaining his AMG he experienced problems with loud ticking noises under the hood and a drop in oil pressure. The lawsuit suggests the ticking and drop in oil pressure was the beginning of the AMG engine’s destruction. The apparent problem according to the lawsuit is that the defective AMG engines are manufactured using soft camshaft metal that is improperly heat treated and/or improperly offset, making the camshaft prone to premature wear. It appears Mercedes-Benz was somewhat aware of the defect since at least 2007 when a service bulletin was released. Service bulletin S-B 05.20/20b involved parts relating to the camshafts, including the camshaft adjusters and authorized replacement for at least some adjusters; subsequent revisions to the service bulletins include P-B 05.20/20a and T-B 05.20/21a.

Due to the premature wear of the camshafts, the camshafts, valve lifters, camshaft adjusters, valve tappets, gaskets and bushings all have to be replaced.”The cost of replacement is thousands of dollars, which was passed on to Plaintiff, because Defendants did not issue a recall for the defect, even though they knew it to exist.’”

Fung63

GL with the rebuild and i really hope MB will step up in the future.

However, i want to see a pic of 3 car seats installed in your c63

RNS-11Z

Would it be wise to change the headbolts before this occurs?

_timothy

OP, that is insane. then the ****ing guy has the ***** to ask for $600 for the assessment. what dealership is this? doesnt something like this fall under civil negligence?

jaenschw

I'm starting to think the same...

prindone

I subcribe to your post to be aware of this problem than can come on mine too!

Mort

Jonny good luck with the engine repair/rebuild.

For others, if you are intending to keep your 63 with a M156 out of warranty it would be a good idea to consider replacing the head bolts and valve buckets (with SLS buckets).

LuisC55AMG

Does anybody know the cost of doing that?

CoolBDPhenom03

I'm not sure about the valve buckets, but the Weistec headbolts would run about $1500, plus maybe $4k in labor.

Sincity

No doubt......sadly.

Sincity

The $4k is on the high side. Figure about 15 hours and mutliply that with the hourly rate. While you're replacing the bolts, you might as well update the valve buckets to the SLS style ones.

Jonny Nitro

HA HA HA!!! When i go to take pictures of the motor I will snap one of the back seat!!!