rcrider

2002 CL600 101k miles, for $11k

I've spent all day yesterday on the board and found some very useful information about the CL600. It looks like I'm getting a good price for the car (i think). It's in mint condition from appearance and test drive.

I'm somewhat mechanically inclined and I have always worked on my own cars, mostly GM, Fords, Lexus but have never bought a European, let alone a car with this much mileage.

Any suggestions of what to look for?
What are the common issues I will run into around this many miles? waterpumps? radiators? ...etc.

What should be carefully inspected other than the usual (vague, i know).

Any info is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Jud Chapin

You asked for suggestions on what to look for. I would suggest looking for another car. The main problems with these CL's are the electronics and the ABC system. And being somewhat mechanically inclined won't do you much good as these are quite complicated to work on. The 600 is very, very expensive to maintain. If someone gave you the car would not necessarily make it a good deal. Repair bills can easily run into the thousands. I have a CL500 and replacement of the a/c evaporator is $8000. Another example is these cars are known to get stuck in park due to a plastic part that breaks in the shifter/selector. This is a $1200 or so repair. Hate to be so negative on these beautiful cars but facts are facts.

sunpointair

I'd say Jud sounds like a voice of experience ! Why not spend a little more for a lower mileage car, stay with a 55 and shop a extended warranty before you buy ! I own a CL55 with low miles and I am dealer, but, I wouldn't own it without a warranty !!! Repairs can eat you up ! As Jud points out it can almost total your CL600 out in one service call...

paul65k

Hate to sound like a "Broken record" but you can get a 3 year warranty on most of these cars for ~$2500 (B2B) if it has less than 70 or 80K miles and can pass an inspection.......let's not forget the ABC system that can also be over $5K if something goes wrong.

Now that having been said this is an AWESOME car and you should not give up just make sure you can get one that you will still be happy with in a couple of years

Jud Chapin

What warranty do you have?

Jud Chapin

What warranty do you have. The ones I've looked into are around $5k for 3 years.

sunpointair

I bought my extended warranty thru my local Mercedes dealer in June 07. The car only had less than 3000 miles, but, the factory time was out. Its called TWG warranty.. I only paid $2K for it and its good till May of 2011 or 62K.

I know theses vary as to how many miles are on your car. It even helps if you buy this BEFORE the factory warranty goes out, which I did. So it was the first thing I did on this car. Even with low miles you never know. This one scared me because of the low miles. Sometimes its harder on them setting....

rcrider

Thanks for all the comments...

Don't think I'm going this route, and will just keep a lookout on one with fewer miles. I'm not in any rush and just looking for a weekend car, but still don't want to put out a heavy bill just to maintain it.

Gondon

Run Run from the 00-02 600's

paul65k

Chrysler factory warranty (Bumper to Bumper) which has been discussed in length on this forum.

Cheers!

Jud Chapin

You might want to check if this warranty is "bumper to bumper". Frankly I very seriously doubt it. I have never seen one other than that of the manufacturer's original. I might be wrong but I can't imagine any insurer covering an old car (8, 9, 10 years old, 100k miles) for anything that could go amiss. Even MB's extended warranty which is excellent and from what I understand far superior to any aftermarket policy, is by no means bumper to bumper. Just as an example, their program doesn't cover, among other items, the radio or nav. Bumper to bumper means everything. Let me know.

Fraser

The Chrysler warranty is the one to go for but you can't get it on a car with more than, I think, 80,000 miles. I got the Maximum Care 5yr/70,000 warranty for my S600 for $3200 w/$200 deductible. It was about $4100 for the $100 deductible www.chryslerfactoryplans.com Lots of us here have them.

Spend the extra cash to get one of the vehicles with less miles and a little earlier and slap a warranty on it. I saw a great quote yesterday on the W220 board, 'A cheap Mercedes is the most expensive thing you can buy'

A 2002 CL600 will financially cripple you.

rcrider

Thanks again for all the comments, and also the info regarding the warranty. I'm still looking for a later model with less miles.

When I declined the sale of the CL600, he offered to drop it to $10k. Still passed.

Rob

Jud Chapin

Out of curiosity, is this company connected with bankrupt Chrysler Corp.?

Jud Chapin

In answer to my own question, yes it is.

Quadcammer

yes it is, but Chrysler has exited bankruptcy, and the warranty was not affected at all by the filing.

gaazmon

wouldn't go with 02 600, no turbos

these cars are a pain to maintain (we have an 02 cl500). i can just imagine what the 600 is like.

tusabes

GO with what Fraser said and get the Chrysler warranty. You need to find a car with under 80k miles.

mooneypilot

I have a 2006 CL500 in factory warranty. Where can I get an aftermarket warranty at the price you mention? MB dealer wants over $3000 for 3 more years to 75,000 miles.

mooneypilot

I looked at the Chrysler warranty. How do owners of this warranty feel about the requirement that the car go to a Chrysler dealer (not a Mercedes dealer)?

mooneypilot

How do you feel about requiring the warranty work be performed by a Chrysler dealer?

ch33sehead

$8000 to replace the evaporator? What a ripoff. I just got an '01 CL600 and I had to replace the whole AC box. Found one off a local junkyard for $150, took about 8 hours of labor to remove the dash, swap the ac box, and put it back together. Total cost $150 for whole AC box, $45 for some freon, and about $50 worth of gas to get to the junkyard. Plus a lost Saturday.

If you're mechanically inclined (and you know what you're doing) you can do the job yourself. $8000 is ridiculous. The job is not any different than in any other car.

tusabes

Then you arent looking at the right thing. The factoryplans.com Chrysler warranty allows going to a MERCEDES dealer.

Jud Chapin

This is why it cost so much to own a Mercedes, and IMO, why these cars don't hold their value like they used to. Another "rip off" example is I got a price from my local stealer for changing the tranny fluid for just dropping the pan and replacing the filter and ATF (not a system flush). Their price was $550. I did the job in about 2 hours at a cost of about $90.

As far as the work you did on your A/C system, did you happen to take any pics? Such info is of great help to those who need the same work done. If you have any, why not post them. BTW, did you use the MB WIS system info for the dash removal? If not, how did you figure out how to remove the dash and related A/C parts?

ch33sehead

The pictures I took were more for memory than for DIY instructions. I didn't have WIS at the time, and I figure it would've taken too long to read instructions for a job this big. My partner (general mechanic w/ 30 years on/off experience) did most of the work, but I did my fair share. Yes, he has a lot of experience and no we've never done a W215 S/CL class before. We figured we would just go for the usual places they put bolts and screws.

General instructions:
The A-pillars, side vents and center console have to go before the dash can be removed. For the side vents, the grille on top pops out revealing a screw. To get the center console out you have to get the chrome shifter trim bezel off, which means you have to get the shift knob off (rotate the chrome shift bezel at base of knob to unlock it). Center console unscrews from the sides of the dash (remove the carpet to unveil screws) and from the rear (remove rear vents on console). There's alot more to it than that for the console, but this is not meant to be a DIY instruction post.

As for getting the dash out, you have to know how to get dashboards out in general -- you have to feel it out. If you've never done it before then a CL is not the place to start! But if you've had experience doing it on several cars in the past then this job will be very similar.

Like I said, if you're mechanically inclined you can do the job done. By this, I mean if you've done the job before on other cars, then you should be able to take it on here. Most of the maintenance / repair work on a CL is similar to any other car. The only major differences are the ABC suspension (need Star Diagnosis) and anything electrical (need Star Diagnosis). So yeah get Star Diagnosis, do lots of Googling if you get stuck or use WIS, and that's all you should need. The only thing I had to Google was to figure out how to get the shifter knob off.

Edit: Almost forgot you also have to get the gauge cluster out (need radio removal tools, you can get them cheap from Harbor Freight) and the steering wheel out. In general for steering wheels you need to remove the airbag, which usually unscrews from the bottom with an allen. Mercedes steering wheels unbolt from the center once airbag is off (one giant bolt). Then you get the turn signal/wiper switches off. I also forgot to mention you need to disconnect the battery before starting, but I figure you would've already known that =). Also you need to memorize (or picture) how everything goes back together, and don't put the project off for a year or you will forget!

For AC work, you need an AC recovery system that will suck the freon out, otherwise it will go into the air. The lines disconnect from under the hood near where they go into the firewall.

Edit 2: Glove box and under cover removal... can't remember sorry ='(. All I remember is the glove box comes out pretty easily, but the under dash covers were a PITA.

Edit 3: BTW how much was the ATF per quart and do you know if you can get it anywhere else for cheaper? Also, aren't these trannies sealed-for-life?