motoman

Seen recently. Lisle Tool pn LIL 36880 cam lock tool. See video on lisle website. Work on C63? Unknown. List under$50, half that on summit racing.

brano_co

after some delay the apendix surgery is finally done

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Critter

Brano, good work, but tell us what were your symptoms, Great pain in side or ache in head!
Did you do the one for one bolt replacement, was this just preventative maintenance for you or did you have coolant lose.
Bolt heads look good, what year car are they from and the mileage. Buckets look good too. Would it be possible to sort through and give pictures of the bad ones.

brano_co

I did had some coolant loose, nothing major, about 0,5 - 0,6L in last 8 months, so was worried little bit about this, so did asked local MB to sort this out , to my surprise, as the car is 2010 year but had only 48,500 km (30k miles) on the clock now (when I bought it last may - almost year ago) it do had just 22,800 km (14k miles) on clock (pre previous owner had it beside 4 other cars just for weekends) MB told me they will cover 75% of the repair cost (the car is almost 2 years out of warranty) , so happy now so I don’t do the repair, all was done by local MB garage , and I do have 2 years warranty for this job so happy as **** the "bad" screw are in local MB garage, but if I want I will be able to take pictures of them, but had look on them when did take this pic, and there wasn’t indications about cracks etc, so not a lot what I photograph there…

motoman

Brano, thanks for the pictures. The headbolt coatings mostly seem to work except on a couple.

Glad MB europe is somewhat helpful. A shame they also withold failed headbolts. I was going to ask for a couple.

Headached indeed. Same mileage as our C63. I am now sending an oil sample to Blackstone and will advise.

AMG Boost

75% of the repair costs sounds like a reasonable deal! Congrats!

morganb

When mine was about 6 months out of warranty MB covered about 90% of the cost but only a one year warranty on the new work. That's a good deal 2 years out.

AMG Boost

I am curious if MB will be able to tell if the car has a tune on it or not and if they would maybe void warranty if they found it.... I suppose I can flash back to stock if I get problems and take it in. What do you guys think?

morganb

I think if it was tuned and they knew you would have little change of them contributing. My car was also serviced at MB dealers only as well which I thing would help anyones case.

motoman

Another unknown is what role high rpm plays. Does it accelerate the stress on the headbolt heads? Some say yes, some no. IF really "designed" this engine should accept frequent hard runs within its stock range. i don't know if 'tunes' are enriched, higher rpms or midrange torque, both?

The doubt creeps in when we realize this engine did not break new ground. The Brits ran 4 valve dohc's in motorcycles over a hundred years ago. And what about the Euro Sedan racing series. I don't follow it closely but have only see "also rans" among the C63's.

techjunkie

What if the head bolt issue shows up when you are out of MB warranty and you have a 3rd party warranty (CarChex) ? I am sure the warranty guys will blame it on MB since it was a design defect and not pay for the work. Will MB pay for part of the repair or will the owner have to shell out ~$16K to repair it?

Anybody in such a situation?

jvanbrecht

Either MB pays.. or the owner pushes it off a cliff....

techjunkie

Are you pushing the MB guys or the car off the cliff?

jvanbrecht

I can fit at least 4 adults and a midget in the car.. adds extra weight to reach terminal velocity faster... so 4 techs and a service manager :P

LFM_Vancouver

Just had my head bolts fail!

Dealer just confirmed it's my HEAD BOLTS!!!!! MB is covering 100%

With 4 days remaining on my warranty!

For those interested, here are the details of my car

2010 C63 March 2010 delivery
48,000 kms currently on car
no ECU mod, stock engine
Head Bolt failure occurred while driving on a cool night at 30 km/h 9.5 degrees Celsius outside temp

Jasonoff

Were you experiencing any symptoms prior? What happened while driving? Catastrophic or just engine light?

LFM_Vancouver

coolant light came on 3 days prior, I made appointment at dealer. The night before I was supposed to go to dealer I was leaving my in-laws from dinner. within 50 feet of their driveway my steering stopped working and my EBD, ABS, ESC plus every exclamation point came up on my dash, run flat indicator also came on.
Engine sounded deeper but seemed to idle normally.
I managed to pull the car over and call MB roadside. They said don't drive it and sent a flatbed right away. I have to say I've used roadside twice in 4 years and both times they were amazing!! As good as I could ask for.

Jasonoff

Thanks for the info. I'm a month outside of warranty now with about 76K km. Keeping an eye on my coolant level.

bhamg

Great timing LFM, I'm jealous! GL with the repair and we'll put your thread in the sticky.

MercedesDad

Looking at these recent failures, is there a place where one can find out the date manufacturers guaranty expires in our cars (other than calling the dealership)? The mileage is a no brainer at 50k miles.

Lowflight

I have a 2009 SL63 with 30,300 miles. Took it to my BMW/Mercedes Mechanic. A tiny bit of coolant in the oil. Just through blind luck, the problem has been caught WAY early. No smoke on start, no low coolant level.

Changing Bolts with upgraded design, Gaskets, Tappets, and Buckets.

Gonna be about $4k. I have an E39 M5 as well, so I am no stranger to cost. My wife said I was taking this very well. I told her I was glad it was this. Something that has been studied and beat to death, vs something unknown or rare that nobody sees often.

Ingenieur

did you do an oil analysis to find the coolant?
how could you loose coolant to the oil and the coolant level not change?
you pulled the head and found a broken bolt?
pictures please of the bolt
which bolt location?

Ingenieur

how about posting the warranty invoice when completed?
it would be nice to see the codes used and parts
obviously redact your personal info


how long did they have the car before they told it was head bolts?

Lowflight

A small bit of coolant was found in a random oil change by smell. So the level was not low.

Yes, my guy pulled the head and found th broken bolt.

Don't know and don't know.

LFM_Vancouver

They had the car about 36 hours until they broke the news to me