BrandonS

Dropped the car off last night and they started troubleshooting today. I was getting left bank cat and rear o2 codes as well as EVAP leak and charcoal canister valve codes.

mrobinso

How many miles on your vehicle?

BrandonS

That's the kicker... 455xx

moosejaw

whats the code for the evap leak?

DuaneC63

Unfortunately the early to mid 2000 MBZ across the board were not the best of the breed. I was lucky and bought the extended warranty on my C55 which saved my *** from a tranny and rear end replacement. When I got rear ended hard, I went to the salvage yard to meet my insurance adjuster and had a friendly conversation that I would not be too upset if he totalled the car out. Hence I have a C63.

xxaarraa

In fact, the EARLY 2000s were actually bullet proof. Most of the 2000 year and some 2001 year were pre-Chrysler and pre-bull**** at Daimler so were still being built right. Post 2002 is when the nightmare started.

Brandon, I feel for your troubles. Never a good idea to put up with a car that's always in the shop. Get rid of it and move on to something that gives you more peace of mind. Good luck figuring it out, let us know if we can help.

mrobinso

BrandonS, sorry for your troubles with the C55. I find this post and your problems disconcerting to say the least. It was always my understanding that the C55s were pretty heartily built and ran into less issues down the road due to their lack of fancier components and electronics such as the air suspension (whatever it is called) found in the mid-2000 CLs and some of the higher-end electronics that came with the E and S classes. What are the chances that your car was simply a bad seed? I know the AMG engines are bullet-proof, but what do other members think about the reliability of the rest of the car? Nearing 50,000 miles with mine.

mgiannetto

Brandon, Sorry to hear about your troubles as well. That is unfortunate and hopefully it won't turn you off to the brand in the future. I'm thinking it may be an issue with your car (a lemon perhaps) as the comments on this long thread detail owners with lots of miles and fairly minimal maintenance costs:

https://mbworld.org/forums/c32-amg-c...-c55-have.html

Hopefully the dealership will sort the issue and you can move forward. Keep us posted on the resolution.

BrandonS

Thanks for the kind comments guys. I'm glad you all didn't take this as me brand bashing because it wasn't that at all. I truly believe this car is just a bad seed. Like someone told me when I was talking about it. "Few cars are factory freaks/awesome, then another few are on the other end of the spectrum."

I've been on the phone with the warranty company as well as the dealership off and on for quite a bit since about lunch today. They borescoped the engine due to all the things I told them I already knew and found bad scoring. However, I have no idea what it happened from as it's nothing like I have seen. The dealership said they've never seen anything like it either.

As of now I was told by the warranty company the engine is covered under warranty, but have not gotten 100% confirmation on that yet due to my service history (oil changes mainly) not being faxed over until this afternoon. In the 15k I've owned the car I've serviced the car twice so I don't see any reason not to be covered as I upheld my part of maintenance.

They are saying they will replace the engine with a used. The kicker is, if they can find one. Myself, the warranty company, and the dealership all think it will be hard to find a C55 engine w/ <45k miles on it. They said if they can't they will look into other options. I am not sure what those are. I did go to the dealership to see the pictures and while I was there the warranty company called and asked how much a rebuilt motor was. MB quoted them $30k and reminded them it was an AMG.

IMO the only other option would be to buy just a bottom end and swap everything over (not sure if they've looked into this) or just buy the car from me at retail or whatever value they decide, not sure how they would do that, and assume ownership and sell it to recoup money.

W/out being 100% guaranteed on replacement yet, I do have to say my warranty company has been just awesome through all this. I know that can always change, but MB told me most aftermarket will make you pay upfront to have the engine torn down, then they will send an adjuster and THEN decide if it's covered. If it is not, you are out all that money. I asked my warranty and they flat out told me that will not be what they do and that engines are covered. and it would be replaced with a used one from a C55 w/ less miles. This was however, before the $30k quote from MB.

Even still I have to cover tax, fluids, and any labor rate overage so I'm sure it'll still cost me a pretty penny in the event they due cover it. I'm just so thankful that God brought this problem to light before I purchased those parts. I wouldn't have had any money other than savings to pay for this.

Sorry for the quality, but these are phone pictures of enlarged pictures from the Borescope that MB did on the car. Notice the bad score. The thing that confused us was the odd zig zag scoring overtop of it.

FrankW

i had the evaporator leak error and it was caused by the purge valve next to the ESP module. it's a cheap part. replace it and see what happens.

crazeazn

dont feel too bad..my car shut down on me at a stoplight..threw codes/CEL..then it dissapeared...06' with 30k miles on it..i ran it through a cheap OBD and it said TPS...so we shall see..just dropped it off at the shop today.

DuaneC63

Sorry to hear of your trouble. If this had happened about 15 months ago I had the answer for you.



45k on the clock. Oil changes every 5K. The car was immaculate before it was totaled. The damaged was worse than it looked. The floor pan had crease in it from one back door to the other. The only two straight panels were the front doors. Off course it had some prior issues. The tranny, drive shaft, and rear end were replaced at 40K under warranty so maybe the C55's had some quality control issues.

Chedeng88

$30K?! Just get this at half that price. You'll even cut your mileage by half. Front/engine looks intact. You can also part-out the front and interior parts to offset the price a bit more.

http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail...5&aff=national


Funny thing though is I got my pristine C55 3 weeks ago for less than that.

BrandonS

DuaneC63 sorry to hear about/see your car. I had a GTO I totalled out just before this car.

Newzchspy

I take it chain reaction rear ender where you got a**-ended and pushed into the car in front of you?

Quicktwinturbo

I'm having some electrical (power window) issue for my SLK at the moment.. Great car but these small issues are making me want to sell it n get a bmw. @#$@#$@!$

BrandonS

I hear you; I've been looking at CPO'd 335i or xi's since they do have a few common problems (HPFP, Injectors, Turbos). There is a very small selection of cars with the same luxury and performance as the C55 in my price range. I definatley will miss this car.

Oh, as of now I'm waiting for the warranty company to send an "inspector" to see the damage. Then decide of its covered or not and if so what course of action will be taken. The warranty company said that person comes from a non affiliated company for whatever that's worth.

DuaneC63

Yup full stop at a left turn red light and the guy behind me was just not paying attention (told the cop the lights to go straight were green and he got confused). Got pushed into a Miata in from of me. All he lost was a bumper cover and some tail lights. However there is a silver lining after all. I was already looking for a C63 and the market on C55 was soft. I got paid high retail blue book, plus the cost of new tires I had bought the week before, plus sales tax and tags. End of the day I prolly picked up an extra $5K.

Quicktwinturbo

Best of luck to ya.. $689 for freaking window control module. FU Mercedes...