moosaud1998

We just took the car in on trade Friday. Runs and drives well. Has a slight lifter tick to it. The body is in pretty good shape. Looks like it was in a front-end accident (The hood's paint is somewhat peeling). Has 4 brand-new Goodyear tires. Obviously, I work for the dealership so I'd be paying $500 above our cost +TTL. Anything I should look out for? Doesn't seem to leak oil as I didn't smell anything when driving it. Didn't see any oil under the hood. But, I did take the oil fill cap off and the oil was super dirty. Not sure when the PO changed the oil but I'll probably have the tech at my job put some anti-friction stuff in the motor when he changes the oil. I'm going to have the service department do a used car inspection to see if there is anything major I should be worried about. I won't be keeping the car for longer than a year. The only thing that I am iffy about is the carfax says, "Exceeds Mechanical Limits". Not sure what that means but the miles seem to add up when you look at the service records on the carfax. Link to Carfax: https://connect.carfax.com/dir?key=...2eOUmpoZcI6NfGj-7T7-8vTmLUmqamqrjNAlqur2Krq5E

Any clue as to what that means? Maybe a mistake on the DMVs part? Cars got 172k miles

cvx5832

The M272 can go a long way, I have 202k on mine. That said I got the impression around here that it's the transfer case to worry about.

moosaud1998

what's there to worry about in terms of the transfer case? I didnt get to drive it to far. I wanted to take it home lver the weekend but we havent changed the oil yet. I don't want to take it to far with dirty oil.

Odd Piggy

“Exceeds Mechanical Limits” refers to the odometer. In this case, that’s absurd because the car would have to have a million miles or more on a 6 digit odometer for this to be accurate.

moosaud1998

Exactly. So, im assuming the DMV check marked that by mistake. I hope there is nothing major wrong with the car.

Baltistyle

This sounds like a car that should not be more than 2-3k and should not have any money dumped into it. I’d not be so worried about driving with the dirty oil because the previous owner has probably not changed it in 20k miles. It sounds neglected and what’s done is done. As you know there is nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes. So we can better help, perhaps list out your budget and goal. Do you only want it for a year or only ultimately think it will last for a year to get you by, two different ways of thinking. Good luck. Nice cars when maintained well.

moosaud1998

I was only going to use it during the winter and then sell it. I mean, if there's nothing major wrong (which I doubt), I might end up keeping it until it doesn't blow. For a winter beater, I did not want to spend more than 3k. This falls about 1k under.

chassis

Intake manifold?

I would not do as the OP proposes which is to buy this questionable car to own for a year with the hopes of not putting more money into it.

moosaud1998

if I have to put $1k in it for it to last me more than a year, I'm okay with it. That's if I can get it for $500 above cost. If not, I'll pass

moosaud1998

Well, I peeked under the hood. Doesn't seem like it's leaking oil anywhere up top.

moosaud1998

I'm at 2800 with taxes and stuff. I just want to make sure it's no leaking oil underneath

AAIIIC

Oil gets dirty in any engine once it's been run for a little while. Unless you saw visible metal flakes there's nothing to worry about.

Give it a thorough check underneath - https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...-subframe.html.

moosaud1998

The oil was like muddy. When i took the cap off, the side of the motor by the timing chain was all muddy.

I passed on it. Seems like it's too risky

Odd Piggy

Muddy sounds like water in the oil. Regardless of where that came from, passing sounds like a good decision.