ducatista4life

Gents,

I have been following you all for awhile now and I appreciate your comments and suggestions for the other members and it is ultimately what made my decision final on my purchase of an '08 S600 with 90k miles ( I know its a lot :/ ) I also bought an extended service contract to hopefully help out with this.. I love this car.. For the whole 3 days I have had it for the last week..

Now for the bad,
I took in the car, back to the Mercedes dealership to have all the small little things that needed fixing that I noticed, BEFORE, I bought the car. Now, while I had it, like the first night I had it, I noticed the next morning a small puddle of hydraulic fluid.. So, I informed my service advisor and brought it in 2 days later.. Now they are stating it is the ABC pump.. A costly $3800 ($2600 for the pump) repair that my extended service contract does not cover, because it is a suspension part. Now, I am about to blow my gasket on the dealership, as this probably was occurring while they had the car and since I was the first person to drive it since its Service A and the transmission being replaced, that I was lucky enough to find the problem.. Needless to say I would expected a better experience coming from a mercedes dealership..

Now I am open to your thoughts on my next course of action..

Believe me, I am open to all ideas..

As far as DIY, I have noticed that that is next to impossible, as you have to be able to re-pressurize back up to 190bar? I believe that was for the W220 class though.. I am pretty sure that used parts/remanufactured parts are a no-no as well for these, but if not.. I am DOWN!

xabo

may I ask with whom your extended service contract is with?

Nickthegreek

Do you have access to a star diagnosis unit? You have to do a rodeo rest afterwards. I'll see if I can find the procedure to replace the pump on WIS

ducatista4life

Thanks for the quick responses! My warranty is through ASC, per the dealers recommendation.. And not to mention they replaced the pump approx. 1 year and 351 days ago.. We shall see.. And I have the part number: 0054667101 I have contacted another dealership and I can get the part for $1600ish and unfortunately I do not have access to the Star diagnosis system..

ducatista4life

*UPDATE* The warranty company heard the term suspension pump.. Vice Power Steering Pump.. Which is covered.. Dealer is recalling the company now..

Nickthegreek

Yeah it is both a suspension and steering part/pump. I say fight them to holy hell on it. You get even any dirt in it its done if you DIY it.

Nickthegreek

Did the dealer replace the pump 1 year ago?? Shouldnt it be on their dime?

ducatista4life

Unfortunately, it was almost 2 years ago.. Exceeding their 1 yr/unlm warranty.. it's a waiting game for the phone call now fellas.. I love making a splash for my first post.. Seriously though, I love this car!

ibeforreal

That really sucks!!! The dealer must have known about the hydraulic problem before the car was sold. They probably topped it off with some pentosin (hydraulic fluid) and sat it on the lot. You might also want to have them check the air cells/nitrogen *****/accumulators (all the same depending on who you are talking to). With 90k miles these probably need replacing and they should be a warranty item.

ducatista4life

Good news! Warranty is covering it.. Thank the lord!

cmpcpro

Sweet! You got very lucky! I thought the warranty plans had a 30 day wait period.. you scored!

Nickthegreek

very awesome!!!! Just make sure to read up on required maintenance intervals on the fluid and do it either when needed or alittle earlier, and you should be good.

ducatista4life

Thanks guys.. I'll be sure to post a thread later on the car and the things I wish to do to it.. At the moment it has some extremely gaudy rims, so those will be first.. Either way, thanks for y'alls.. I am usually on the ducati.org forum and the MBworld is a new one for me and I definitely already feel welcome and appreciate all of the help you guys have given me..

xabo

As it should........it's sad but sometimes you have to stay on their a$$ and/or go above their head. You can read about my experience here: https://mbworld.org/forums/cl55-amg-...c-failure.html

ibeforreal

I would certainly make sure that they change all of those accumulators which would require a flush of the system and a rodeo test.

I can tell you up front that it will require about 10 quarts of fluid to flush. Knowing MB they will use their brand which will sell for about $35 per quart but it is really Pentosin CHF11 which you can buy at your local advance auto for about 17 per quart. Also, MB will charge you for the filter (probably in the $80 range) but that can also be bought much cheaper.

Most likely the fluid flush would be part of the regular maintenance and not a warranty item. The would be part of the "B" service.

ducatista4life

That is ridiculous man.. I think the dealership had a OH **** moment because I was talking to my sales rep and he was saying that all the main people had a meeting because of the car they sold me.. In that, it was just in the shop and had the transmission replaced, but they missed this and now a customer potentially has a $3.8k bill without putting 200 miles on the car.. Either way, I dont know who go ahold of ASC, my warranty company, but they called me an hr later letting me know its going to be covered..

Ridiculous.. Yours sounds so much more terrible, I guess I got lucky though, because the dealer went through a lot today to get that warranty company fixed..

I will have to ask them about the accumulators.. Totally forgot about that..

Wonders

My 07 S600 also had similiar (small puddle of hydraulic fluid) from ABC pump, don't have warranty so i panicked and imagined the worst but took car to my local indy who found that a bolt on the bottom of the ABC pump was leaking, the washer on the bolt had perished, he raised the car so all 4 wheels were of the ground removed bolt and replaced washer, no Rodeo, no more leaks, inexpensive repair.

alx

Dealers don't replace washers/ fix things. They diagnose and replace whole parts.

It sucks for the customer, but in our current legal landscape that is the only business-wise approach

On the subject of the tandem pump- it is both a steering and suspension part. I assume the dealer worked something with the aftermarket insurer to have your pump replaced free to you.

Jason B

Cool start-up vid of s600

ducatista4life

Yea man.. Pump is getting replaced today free of charge.. It was literally a gasket that had gone out and of course I was saying.. Just replace the gasket and they didn't want to do that and thus, the pump is replaced.. Slightly higher cost, but extended warranty company has now covered it..

Wonders

Great news, glad warranty has covered cost.

ibeforreal

If you really want to freak them out ask if you can have the old pump back.

ducatista4life

You know.. That's a great idea.. I definitely saw a leak, but maybe for point of reference I should check it out.. they will be probably turning it in for core charge though

ibeforreal

I remember when I had the infamous "stuck in park" problem instead of replacing the broken plastic piece inside the gear box they replace the entire box. Since the car was under warranty I really didn't care. When I returned to pick up the car I told them I wanted the old gear box to try and determine what caused the problem (I already knew). At first they tried to tell me that there was a core charge so I wanted to know why I was paying full price for the gear shift box if it was a core return credit. After much going back and forth they ended up giving me a $300 rebate because my gear box had mysteriously disappeared. From that point on each time I take my car in for service I ask for the old parts. However, I never let them know I want the parts until I pick up the car.