hevykevy420

Long story short, I recently purchased a 2009 c63 CPO that I found to have aftermarket manifolds, high flow cats, and ECU software. Vehicle failed TX inspection due to 02 sensors "not in a ready state", most likely from the sensors being coded out by the ECU tune. The vehicle has only been registered in non-emissions testing States prior to my ownership, so it makes sense there have been no OBD inspection "issues" until now.

Dealership has offered to repurchase the car. They do not appear to be willing to obtain the OEM parts that have been replaced with aftermarket on the car.

Alternatively they have offered to cover the cost of ECU coding (assuming this will allow me to pass emissions). They have communicated to me that the mods on the car will not affect the warranty. They are willing to provide a written statement to me that the modifications (ecu/manifolds/cats) were on the car when they sold it to me.

Obviously I am concerned about warranty coverage as the whole point of buying through a dealer was for the warranty coverage. I know the mod vs. warranty coverage has been beaten to death, but I thought I'd seek some advise/insight as to course of action here. To complicate things the dealership that sold the car to me is out of State and not where any service will ever occur. I hope I'm not being fed a line of BS here only to possibly pay for it in the future should some type of warranty issue arise. I don't really mind the mods on the car, I just don't want to deal with warranty headaches.

CarHopper

I went through a very similar situation when buying mine.

Car came from non emission state with a tune that did not allow the monitors to be set to ready. Also had some minor exhaust works which included deleted secondary cats and resonator.

Luckily for me the dealer was awesome and took the cost to get it to NYS inspection standards which sounds about the same in your case.

Here is what I would do, have it in writing the dealer sold the car with x y z mods on it and they will still warranty it. Also, talk to them and see what they are going to do about the ECU, mine was about to replace it to the tune of 2k+. It was kleemann tuned and I just said send it back to kleemann and have them put it to stock. However, in your case, because you do have headers I would pitch the idea to send it somewhere (I think eurocharged or OE can do this) so that the monitors will set and it is still tuned. Then have the dealer write in tune, headers, high flow cats and still warrantied.

If they wont, your options become very limited and you either just have a stock tune back on the car or have them repurchase it and find you a new one.

Good luck

Sincity

If you have enlarged manifolds with high-flow cats, then it sounds like the old Kleemann K2 setup. You will just have to send the ECU to them and have them turn on the rear O2 sensors to pass OBDII smog. You can just call Kleemann and give them your VIN to confirm if it is their K2 or not. IIRC, Vath had a similar setup but I don't know if they sold any here in the US. Also, HHughes used to have a setup with "shorty" type headers (I forget the tuner). I still think it is the K2 which is more common that you have in the car. I have the K2 setup.

hevykevy420

Thanks for the input PupleHeart, yeah I have the exact same situation, except the dealer that sold me the car is over a thousand miles away. That complicates things...if warranty work is needed, I'd have a better chance of it not being "black flagged" if I was at the original dealer, but that is just not possible due to geography.

If I decide to keep it, I am pretty certain it has a Kleeman tune so I was going to send the ECU to them to check it and recode/update the tune in order to pass emissions. The original dealer is willing to cover this expense. I think its a fair offer, just worried about having the local dealer or MB Corporate block a catastrophic warranty claim should one occur. At that point I'm wondering how powerful my piece of paper from the original dealer will be...

People shopping for these cars...don't assume that CPO inspection is worth the paper its printed on. They missed quite a few items and some obvious shiny exhaust parts that clearly do not look stock!

jrcart

Not sure how the car could have gotten a CPO, the Mercedes CPO validation is a very thorough inspection and should ahve caught the o2 sensor issue and a high flow cats and manifold would be pretty easy to spot on a simple visual inspection.

Dealer need to make this right, be prepared to have your attorney draft a letter. Dealers can get in big trouble for selling non-emmisions compliant vehicles these days.

jrcart

Did dealership sell it as a mercedes CPO car? That is a MB thing not a deaelr specific thing. With a MB CPO car you should be able to bring it to any MB dealer in Norht America and have the warranty honored.

hevykevy420

Sincity- yup, it looks to be all Kleemann stuff I've learned, but dn't know all the details as I'm new to the brand. I'm assuming the tune is Kleemann as well, Cory is going to check it assuming I keep the car. Cory doesn't have a record of my VIN but he said that it may have slipped through his records.

The car actually originally came from your neck of the woods: Seattle/Tacoma area. Was registered there 2009-2011.

hevykevy420

Yes, it was purchased CPO from a dealer in Alabama, I'm quite far away in TX though. I know that the CPO warranty is universal, I'm concerned if the engine blows up, could I get denied warranty coverage due to the mods that were installed on the car when it was sold to me.

jrcart

If that happens lawyers will be lining up to represent you in a lawsuit. You thought you were purchasing a stock, CPO car not a car with aftermarket non-emmisions legal parts.

hevykevy420

Yup, I sought a CPO assuming it would be "unmolested" and all OEM. I sold a modded B5 S4 to move into a c63 thinking "I'm not going to mod, just leave it as is" and here I am I have already communicated to the dealership that sold me the car that the aftermarket exhaust should have been noted in the CPO inspection and disclosed to me before I flew out to pick up the car and drove it a thousand miles home.

Lawyers may be lining up on my behalf but if you've ever been involved in litigation you know that its quite often better to avoid it in the first place. Litigation is costly and drags out for eons and most often no one leaves happy regardless of who wins. Well that is my previous experience...

Of course the dealership has already told me IF they buy back the vehicle "I have to cover transportation back to Alabama" but there is no way in hell i'm paying for that

Paculdo

i had some other issues when i purchased my car a year back from another state (issue with the title), and in the end, the MB dealership GM offered to buy the car back - all costs and shipping (i'm in TX as well, got the car from WA). I'm surprised they didn't offer you the same deal. The thing is, i told them that i'll be filing a complaint with the attorney general in WA and i'll get a lawyer to settle the issue and dealers don't want to be going through all these things specially if they know they were at 'fault'.

i'm surprised that the car passed CPO by MB (standards).

hevykevy420

Thought I'd close the loop on this thread.

After the vehicle failed emissions inspection I got under the car and inspected every inch of the exhaust system. I noticed a missing/broken exhaust manifold stud. I took it into the local dealer as my thinking was if the stud was covered under warranty, and the dealer who sold me the car was willing to cover the cost of recoding the ECU, assuming I'd get it through emissions, and I had something in writing stating the car was sold to me CPO with the aftermarket exhaust, I would just keep the car.

The local MB dealer inspected the stud and said that it was not covered under the CPO warranty. They said it would require an engine pull and their estimate was approximately 20 hours of labor. I didn't even bother with getting an explanation as to why it wasn't covered as immediately my mind was made up that the car was GOING to be repurchased.

Driving home I got a message from the dealership that sold me the car reneging on their offer to put something in writing stating the car was sold with aftermarket exhaust. Now... they are not willing to go on record/provide a written statement. So that helped me make up my mind even further!

The dealer that sold the car originally said that they would not cover shipping the car back but in the end they agreed to cover return transport. I also was able to get a refund for my expenses in flying out to buy the car and get it home. It sucks being without a car now but financially everything was covered in the end.

Apparantly CPO inspections aren't always reliable (assuming one was actually done on this vehicle), next time I probably will pay for an independent inspection even if I buy another CPO vehicle!

ddcha

wow. you need to blacklist that dealership for sure. That's pretty scary.

JeffDL

i bought my 09 with a kleemann tune CPO from a local dealer. I knew about the tune from finding the owner on this forum. dealer CPOd the car but it wouldn't pass inspection because of not ready monitors that kleemann had shut off. I had to send the ECU to kleemann for a retune before it would pass. dealer had no idea why it wouldn't pass and was going to file for exemption when i figured I'd just sort it out myself.

The CPO process is really a kind of a joke at least it was from my experience.