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A little back story.
Last service I took the 2009 C63 in to my trusted Euro only shop for (new fuel injectors and breather valve replacement) and they found (2) fuel rail mounts were cracked as well as a rear actuator mount on the intake manifold. This was before they disassembled anything and they called me to the back so I trust they did not do it. Car has only 42K miles and has been garage kept all its life....so damn. They were able to band aid and re-thread and a little JB weld but they let me know not a permanent fix. And they sent me on the journey to find a new or used ish....intake manifold.
1. Assuming by now if no aftermarket company has made an intake manifold for the M156 its never going to happen right? I have come up with zero hits online. And I have tried to purchase the Original A1561401501 from a few German retailers just to be told weeks later they cant get it and getting a refund.
2. Once I find one new or newish.....how do I keep the intake manifold from corroding again and falling apart? I'm in Tennessee with decent weather. Or is that just what happens with magnesium alloy? If its impossible to find one now....what will it be like in 10 years? What's frustrating is a have a 6.2L 2011 Ford Raptor and the intake manifold is plastic...has a 180K miles on it....and will probably out live me. I don't want to have to stock up on intake manifolds and replace every 40k miles. I thought I covered myself with the head bolts and intake cam adjusters replacement. I love this car and was fine with the general maintenance that comes with it, But a intake manifold that has a timer on it is just insane.
3. Where do I source one besides getting a used one with the same issues? So far all the ones I have found on ebay or used parts shops all have the same issues. Cracked fuel rail mounts or way worse. I have reached out the Tasos and his company ABE and waiting on a response. Since Tasos refuses to refurbish them anymore for customers they have to be able to source them new still.
Last edited by fidget; 12-02-2023 at 10:46 AM.
Reason: misspelling
Thanks @sickSVT Looked at the supercharged route once I saw the price or a new manifold. But really wanna stick to the original setup and stick with NA. What's makes this car a unicorn anymore.
Yes, buying used may suck but sometimes it’s the only route unless you got some deep pockets. Here’s another website you should look into: https://www.car-part.com/mobile/index.htm
Have you tried the following site to see if they have it in stock? I'm doing a restoration on my 09 and have purchased parts from them that I couldn't find anywhere else. I noticed my manifold is in terrible shape with close to 50k miles. I'm currently working on the rear end and will eventually start work on the engine bay and front end. Also debating going the supercharger route as a last resort as I would like to keep it NA.
I always thought that someone should get good at repairing them and offer the service....given the enourmous cost of a supercharger setup and the rarity of new/good instakes, there's got to be a market for someone willing to pay $1-3k to have theirs rebuilt/repaired.
A little back story.
Last service I took the 2009 C63 in to my trusted Euro only shop for (new fuel injectors and breather valve replacement) and they found (2) fuel rail mounts were cracked and broke as well as a rear actuator mount on the intake manifold. This was before they disassembled anything and they called me to the back so I trust they did not do it. Car has only 42K miles and has been garage kept all its life....so damn. They were able to band aid and re-thread and a little JB weld but they let me know not a permanent fix. And they sent me on the journey to find a new or used ish....intake manifold.
1. Assuming by now if no aftermarket company has made an intake manifold for the M156 its never going to happen right? I have come up with zero hits online. And I have tried to purchase the Original A1561401501 from a few German retailers just to be told weeks later they cant get it and getting a refund.
2. Once I find one new or newish.....how do I keep the intake manifold from corroding again and falling apart? I'm in Tennessee with decent weather. Or is that just what happens with magnesium alloy? If its impossible to find one now....what will it be like in 10 years? What's frustrating is a have a 6.2L 2011 Ford Raptor and the intake manifold is plastic...has a 180K miles on it....and will probably out live me. I don't want to have to stock up on intake manifolds and replace every 40k miles. I thought I covered myself with the head bolts and intake cam adjusters replacement. I love this car and was fine with the general maintenance that comes with it, But a intake manifold that has a timer on it is just insane.
3. Where do I source one besides getting a used one with the same issues? So far all the ones I have found on ebay or used parts shops all have the same issues. Cracked fuel rail mounts or way worse. I have reached out the Tasos and his company ABE and waiting on a response. Since Tasos refuses to refurbish them anymore for customers they have to be able to source them new still.
You can still buy them from the dealer, they will just take forever. I ordered mine in May. It was supposed to ship last month, but dealyed.
Thanks @Lemons6245
All the dealerships I called told me to kick rocks...in a nice way....and that the Intake was no longer available. My Euro shop tried as well and could only find used that were iffy at best.
Probably because it doesn't exist and you got a good for a parts person.
Nobody here has seen them in MB's system for a while now.
There is a slight possibility that MB may not provide them outside of their own provenance...
e.g. Porsche/Ferrari have been doing the same with parts and information for years and since there is a dwindling supply of these parts, the idea that MB would want to support "their" customers first stands to reason.
How they can have intakes for every platform of their GT3 motor yet not supply the thousands of motors that still exist on modern roads to at least a minimal extent seems rather suspicious however.
Reliability wise, the M159 manifold may be the answer. I wonder how bad the mid range torque loss is.
For the cars that DO have a torque converter, probably not that bad.
I'd like to see some sot of nice packaging with the air filters. Although those long air filter tubes almost certainly are there to smoothen the flow and you won't have room for them.
My dealership (in so cal) actually has 2 intake manifolds in stock. They are for the pre facelift cars with the lighter intake color. Part # ending in 08-01. I just purchased the 09-01 for my 507 and it is sitting in my garage. So the dealerships that say they are no longer available are just lazy
I went all the routes possible to find the OEM A1561401501 intake manifold. The local Euro garages tried as well as the local Mercedes dealership. The dealership took my money and put in an order only to be told several weeks later that Mercedes no longer manufactures A1561401501. Oddly enough they still make 156141090164 the manifold technically for the 507 and Black Series M156. I eventually I gave up and bought the more expensive one. If they still have one available you care to PM me their information? I wouldn't mind having a spare since these have a shelf life of 50K miles. I would also be interested in the manufacturing date if the intake is the pre-facelift A1561401501 intake manifold. I imagine they squirreled a few in the back once they started becoming harder and harder to come by.
I went all the routes possible to find the OEM A1561401501 intake manifold. The local Euro garages tried as well as the local Mercedes dealership. The dealership took my money and put in an order only to be told several weeks later that Mercedes no longer manufactures A1561401501. Oddly enough they still make 156141090164 the manifold technically for the 507 and Black Series M156. I eventually I gave up and bought the more expensive one. If they still have one available you care to PM me their information? I wouldn't mind having a spare since these have a shelf life of 50K miles. I would also be interested in the manufacturing date if the intake is the pre-facelift A1561401501 intake manifold. I imagine they squirreled a few in the back once they started becoming harder and harder to come by.
The part # that we have that I show for the PFL (lighter color) manifold is A156-141-08-01 which is technically what my parts department said is for my 507. I had to correct them once the 08-01 manifold arrived and I saw it was the lighter one and didnt want to put that on my 507. So after some research it showed that the 09-01 is the darker color manifold and according to Mercedes "for increased engine output". Now everybody says the manifolds are the same other than color. I have no evidence that they are not the same, but why have 2 different part # for the same manifold if the only difference is color? IDK. I'll PM you with details for my parts department which has 2 of the 08-01 in stock.
I went all the routes possible to find the OEM A1561401501 intake manifold. The local Euro garages tried as well as the local Mercedes dealership. The dealership took my money and put in an order only to be told several weeks later that Mercedes no longer manufactures A1561401501. Oddly enough they still make 156141090164 the manifold technically for the 507 and Black Series M156. I eventually I gave up and bought the more expensive one. If they still have one available you care to PM me their information? I wouldn't mind having a spare since these have a shelf life of 50K miles. I would also be interested in the manufacturing date if the intake is the pre-facelift A1561401501 intake manifold. I imagine they squirreled a few in the back once they started becoming harder and harder to come by.
Surely they don't have a shelf life of 50k miles and you just got unlucky? I don't see people talking about replacing their manifolds after 50k on the formus unless i'm missing something. I'm willing to bet that almost all m156 over 120k miles are still with original manifold.
G'Day Folks,
Good to see Fidget, that you were able to locate a replacement.
Any chance you could post some images, of the damaged areas, on the old/replaced intake manifold ...... when you get a chance?
Just so I can plan ahead, if I need to do the same.
Best regards
Homer
Last edited by Homer Oz; 02-21-2024 at 11:37 PM.
Reason: miss spelling
Surely they don't have a shelf life of 50k miles and you just got unlucky? I don't see people talking about replacing their manifolds after 50k on the formus unless i'm missing something. I'm willing to bet that almost all m156 over 120k miles are still with original manifold.
not a matter of mileage unfortunately with these magnesium material, it has to do with age if what i'm reading from OP's post is correct.. not sure if that also means this isn't something we can stock up on either, as it goes bad over time, will need a freshly-made one in due time?
To preserve the intake manifold against this start with alodine aka bonderite (metal pre-treatment) , chromate conversion coating . Then apply paint like Rustoleum High Heat Paint (1200 degrees F rated) or brake caliper paint could also work as its high temp by nature. Use loctite 5970 if the old gasket or seal is no longer usable. If there are cracks or small holes in the manifold then can use 'FEVICOL Fast Steel Epoxy' or JB Weld.
@Madcow554 I don't think I'm that unlucky. Just a statistic at this point. I've started calling the manifold Thanos....because its inevitable. The cast magnesium just falls apart over time at the thin or weak point. For most it starts will small cracks at the fuel rail mounting points and gets progressively worse over time and more signs of deterioration at the throttle body plate or the various hose connection locations. I would say you would win the bet with most 120K miles M156 engines still have the original intake manifold. But would guess that the issues haven't been noticed or have been fixed with a temporary band aid like JB WELD. For me was noticed when I was having new fuel injectors installed. When removing the bolts for the fuel rail one bolt was loose because of the crack. Another bolt the threads just turned to powder. There are plenty of examples on this forum of cracked manifold.....and......every time Tasos does a M156 checkup on one of his YouTube videos....something is wrong with the manifold. Its an amazing car and engine and will continue to fix the issue that come up. I'm sure Mercedes/AMG had their reason for going with magnesium. But they also moved to a military grade plastic on the M157 for the intake manifold.
@Madcow554
I'm sure Mercedes/AMG had their reason for going with magnesium. But they also moved to a military grade plastic on the M157 for the intake manifold.
Thank You Fidget, for posting the above details.
My Dumb Question for today is; Does anybody know, if the intake manifolds for the M156 and 157 interchangeable?
11-27-2023, 03:37 PM
