dir1944

ok. i hope you can give me good advice.

i have a 2004 clk cabriolet which i bought new in september, 2003. it's been a fabulous car with various minor things needing fixing over the years but nothing major. i bought this car with the intention of keeping it almost forever. it now has 145,000 miles.

now, my top unlocks from the winshield but the rear locks will not disengage from the top cover and the trunk is frozen closed too.

got towed to my mercedes dealer and after a day of them finally getting the top cover open so they can diagnose the problem, they told me the problem is the hydraulic pump and i need a new one! they have to get it from new york and the cost for the pump is $2600, yikes! and their labor to install will be $1000, yikes again!

any opinions? does the price seem too high? or just about right? i have to get it repaired because i can't drive the car like it is. they did give me a 2015 c300 as a loan car for free.

sure would appreciate your thoughts. i'm in phoenix, az.

cheers,
david

Yidney

Wow, $3,600 for a pump that is easy to get at. That's ridiculous. Contact Klaus at Top Hydraulics - a vendor here - for a much better price, then do it yourself or hire an indy shop to install.

dir1944

yidney, thanks for your reply. i'm stuck though.
my car was towed to my dealer on thursday and they have it taken apart in order to find out the problem. this took until friday morning. i can't drive the car. i am 70 years old and i'm not able to fix anything. even changing lightbulbs is a challenge for me. i will call klaus in the morning and find out his price for a pump, a real mercedes pump and convey that price to the dealer. the dealer is getting the new pump from mercedes in new york or new jersey.

of course, i don't feel good about this but i only have one car and it needs to be fixed in order for me to drive it. your car sure is a beauty. i love my car and take very good care of it but things go wrong, i guess.

david
phoenix

Rudeney

Well, it sounds like you may be stuck letting the dealer fix it. Base don this ridiculous price, get them to agree, in writing, that this is the problem and that after you pay for this repair that your soft top problem will be fixed.

dir1944

yidney
thank you so much for your advice about klaus. i contacted him monday morning and he explained what he could do for me but i had to get my car out of the mercedes dealership. i told him i didn't think that was possible since the car isn't driveable due to the top not being locked. i called my dealer representative who's really a great guy, and told him the whole story of contacting mb world and klaus. klaus did say the $2600 price for the new, mercedes pump didn't seem out of line but he could rebuild my pump for $600!i asked my mb rep if he could remover the pump and pack it up and send it to klaus in oregon. he agreed to do it, which surprised me and klaus, and my pump was sent ups overnight and klaus should have it this morning. he said he should be able to send it back wednesday afternoon and my dealer should have it no later than friday. so i saved $2000 and my dealer was very nice about helping me. the $1000 labor charge is fair, i feel. they spent all day thursday trying to get the rear deck open and finally had to go through the trunk and manually get it to open. so, i'm willing to pay them for that and then installing the pump when it gets back to them.

thank you again,
david i rosen
phoenix

Yidney

Wow, I'm a little surprised myself a dealer would do that. Good for them.

SIGagain

sounds like your dealer wants to keep you happy and a customer...good on them and Klaus...

Bill