andrewst

I just bought a used 2002 C32 AMG, as my second vehicle. I always wanted to own this car. It will spend most of its time in my garage except for the weekends. It is still under warranty until July 2010. It has been regularly serviced (and just checked) at the local MB dealership. The dealer fixed the ticking noise coming from the dash board, and advised me to change front rotors and brakes for which I was charged $900. A smell of gasoline was filling my garage and the dealer resealed a valve at no extra charge. The smell is now gone. I notice transmission shifts rough from 1st to 2nd gear and when cold the engine produces a noticeable hissing noise when accelerating. This noise goes away when the car is fully warmed. Any advice on these issues? Is there any one or two items you recommend I check before the warranty expires?
Thanks
Andy T

jturkel

that shift problem is normal. everyone has it. i dont recall if there is a fix for it. but it has definitely been addressed in tons of threads here. do a little search.

not sure about the hissing noise. can you provide an audio or video clip of the noise? do you know where its coming from? it could be the supercharger bearing on the supercharger pulley (the top right pulley). if it is a whining noising, then that is just your supercharger. those are supposed to have a high pitched whine.

welcome to the forum!

oh....and the intercooler pump will go out at some point. usually the stock one lasts for like 40k miles. i'm on my third. see if you can get a report of all the work done on your car to see what has been done on the car and we can work from there to see what problems may or may not arise and when they might surface. how many miles on your car?

ScottW911

The tranny will always be a PIA with this car. Mine has a terrible jerk that the dealer said was normal the AMG. Disconecting the battery reset the ECU enough to give me smooth shifts for a few days.

I am assuming the hissing sound is not something you want to go away. That is probably your Supercharger working. (I would hope)

Gramma_Benz

Make sure you do a search on Glycol Contamination. 02's had issues with the Valeo Radiators leaking glycol from the radiator to the transmission fluid. If that happens, it could lead to a huge costly repair. I had no warranty, but changed out the radiator to a Behr one instead just in case.

Other advice, don't pull, tug or touch the steering wheel while it's moving.(it will break this small plastic piece that is cheap, but tons of labor to fix). Don't kneel on your front seats as that will break your seat heater.(have to replace the whole lower cushion if that happens)

Otherwise, the car can get expensive maintance wise, but luckily the car is worth it.

Congrats on your new purchase. ENJOY!!

TemjinX2

honestly, i would recommend changing the valeo radiator to a new behr radiators and doing a transmission fluid change.

All the 2002 valeos will fail, its not a if, its a when. When you notice signs of glycol contamination, 9 out 10 the tranny is already gone.

$150 and about 2-3hrs of your life is good way to prevent paying $4k for a new tranny.

Dingleberry

really? because when I search, it appears that most people with glycol contamination did not have a trashed trans.

loudandheard

I think what he means about seeing signs is when the transmission starts acting up. I read stories when I first got my c32, that the transmission would completely fail and the cause was the contamination. Some would not catch it in time and the transmission would be in very bad condition.

A lot of people have been lucky to catch it early though and not have any irreversible damage.

TemjinX2

Obviously, you didn't search well enough.

just do a search on glcyol contamination on the w203 forums.

Basically the tranny starts slipping and people get there tranny fluid tested. By the time your tranny starts slipping its basically too late, because the glycol has already ruined your torque converter and clutch packets.

Thats why its slipping. Those lucky enough with warranty when it happens, usually gets a new tranny.

Just look at mugenx's thread, he took his car in for tranny problems and they found out his tranny is bad. The dealer wants to charge him around $4k to fix it.

Pshek's tranny went back with glyol contamination. He didn't notice until it started slipping and the tq converter was already gone.

He lucked out since i had a spare tranny, i sold to him for cheap. My car has more miles then his, only difference is that i swapped out my radiator almost 2yrs ago before they were any signs of problems.

Anyways its up to you, invest $150 in preventative maintence to prevent a $4k repair bill or not. Its your car and money, I don't really care.

Just some friendly advice to the OP.

Dingleberry

i'm talking about a search in the c32 forum, since obviously, the OP has a c32.

most people get jerking, not slipping. most of the searches come up with torque converter replacement only.

anyways, it's obviously a good idea to get a behr radiator, i have one too.

TemjinX2

I understand, but it makes sense to search the w203 forums since the c32 is almost identical to other w203 other then the engine and the older w203's came with the same 722.6 transmission and has a larger sampling.

Keep in mind only 8000 C32's were made in the life of the car world wide compared to the 230K + w203's.

To keep it in perspective, BMW sells around 1500 M3's a month.

320 dreamer

was the valero radiator issue limited to only the c32's or would it affect all the cars with 2002 valero rads? im not sure which one is in my slk32 and dont have any issues but for the cost ill dump it if could be a problem

TemjinX2

the older w203's came valeos as well. I believe the newer models had them replaced with behr radiators. There should be the sticker toward the top.

here's the instructions to find the sticker on the c32. I'm not sure on the slk32.

https://mbworld.org/forums/c32-amg-c...ook-valeo.html

Considering the dealer usually charges $60-100 to do the glycol test and the radiator is only $150. It seem like its more worth while just to swap out the radiator, just so you don't have to worry about it in my opinion.

andrewst

Wow! What an informed group. Thank you JTurkel, Gramm-Benz, Temjinx2, and others who replied as I got valuable information and followed up with the dealer. My C32 currently has 97K on it. It has had two previous owners and is still under warranty until July 2010. According to the dealer this car has had its gas tank replaced (after many complaints of fuel smell), several transmission leaks fixed, a few electrical switches replaced, right front strut and bearing replaced. Other than Services A and B (which included flush of transmission, brake, and power steering), Serpentine belt was replaced at 70K, and ball joint boot of the right front side was replaced. According to the second owner the turbocharger had acted up while in the possession of the first owner and that the first owner had taken care of it. I am not sure what was done. Since there seems no solution for the jumpy transmission shift from first to second gear, I summarize the preventive work that you guys recommend as well as something I found on the internet:
1. Replace the radiator (to a Behr radiator),
2. replace the intercooler pump (with Johnson's CM30) although none of you mentioned this (please let me know if you agree or disagree with this).
If I left out something and/or you like to add other items or think I skipped something please share.
Thank you all,
Andrewst

TemjinX2

The c32 has a supercharger not a turbocharger, so its clear.

Yeah i would go with a behr radiator and johnson intercooler pump. Its better just to knock all of it out a once, since you have to drain the coolant anyways.