To whom this may concern,

I recently bought my dream car 2013 C63 from Dallas, TX and drove it all the way to Massachusetts. Unfortunately, it came with an oil leak (seems to be splattering all over) & no catalyst converter which is needed to pass state inspection of course. Any recommendations on finding one? &

Also, my mechanic says I need to replace the harmonic balancer - crankshaft pulleys. In addition, to the, valve cover and gasket, and cam position sensor. On top of that, it has no traction, I do need to replace the tires which I’m about to do, but I’m sliding all over the place as if it doesn’t have any grip.

Lastly, it didn’t come with an owners manual or a spare tire. I’ve been hearing mix reviews about that, but is it true that it already doesn’t come with a spare tire?

Please help any possibilities, positive suggestions, tips and advice is more than appreciated! I do have some pictures of what the dealership had given me, but I can’t tell underneath by the picture.

Thank you so much for reading and God bless!

 

Sorry to tell you, but I think you just bought yourself a lemon.
Personally, I would pass on this vehicle as it could become a serious money pit to get things all right, and then look around for a good one. In all cases, do a prepurchase inspection before committing any cash

 

damn you really think so? I know the previous owner did some mods, but I felt like they never took care of it properly which is why some of these things are happening, but when you say a pre purchase inspection. What do you mean by that?

 

Here's some reading regarding a pre-purchase inspection:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-purchase_inspection

If you say the previous owner did some mods and you feel that the vehicle was never really taken care properly, one never knows what's going to happen to it in the future. The M156 engine is a good engine but needs regular maintenance. If it goes "pop" you could be faced with a very expensive bill

 

Buying a modified car, you should always take extra precaution. Buying a car without catalytic converters, in general, isn't a great idea for those not technically inclined.

In order to adjust for the lack of cats, your vehicle is likely tuned. When you throw cats back on, you'll face additional issues since there is unexpected restriction back in the system.

Also, you'll need winter tires for the snow you're trying to drive through. Assuming it has summers, from Texas, you'll barely be able to move. All seasons might barely get you there but otherwise you'll probably need two sets of wheels.

 

What size tires do you need.

 

I think I replied to you post on the Facebook page recently. In any case, take it one thing at a time. You bought the car already, so now you are unfortunately committed.

If you live in a state that does OBD2 emissions inspection, then not having cats will be a challenge. To fix that, you need to know what was done to your car. They either did a set of long tube headers or just had the cats cut out and replaced with a straight pipe. Not sure how the laws are in Texas, but in many states it would be the responsibility of the dealer to address the emission systems of a car unless it was specifically disclosed. I would start there to save some cash.

For the "fix", if it has long tubes, you'll have to source some high flow cats to connect downstream. The risk here is that not all high flow cats will cause the car's readiness monitors to set, so you may or may not pass with them.
If all they did was cut out the OEM cats, then you'll just have to source the OEM cats with the pipe that connects to the stock exhaust manifold. A lot of people do headers on these cars, so you can ask either here or on the Facebook pages for someone selling them locally.

Next, do you have a check engine light for not having cats? If you don't, then the car is tuned and the rear O2 sensors have been disabled. You will have to have it flashed either back to stock or with a new tune to enable the cats in order to set emissions readiness. Do this only after the cats have been reinstalled.

That would take care of the emissions stuff. Regarding the oil leak and it being "all over", do you mean under the car or in the engine bay? If it's under the car, hopefully it's just the valve covers that your mechanic mentioned, but know that the valve covers themselves are pretty pricey. Hopefully the covers are okay and it's just the gasket(s) needing replacing.

Not sure about the harmonic balancer thing your mechanic mentioned. I haven't heard those being an issue on these cars, but I suppose anything is possible.

Anyways, start with the emissions stuff and then work through the rest. Seriously, look into the laws in Texas about dealers and emissions repair. It can save you a ton of money, or possibly even force them to buy it back from you if they won't resolve it.

 

Just a thought here , but you could save a lot of money if you just stored it for 2 more years. MA inspections for emissions are only applicable to cars 15 years old or younger. A lot of dealerships and other places that do inspections don't even know this fact. Nothing is more fun than telling the inspection station who is about to fail you that "you are wrong - the car is over 15 years so your failure is not valid".

Otherwise you are in the process of learning an expensive but valuable lesson Buying a car sight unseen on the internet with no PPI can indeed cause you great financial harm.

Any good exhaust shop can probably get you setup with cats though. Try Lou's - I use them for all of my cars and I have been happy with the results. Pick one in a less affluent area to save yourself even more (like go to Worcester or Lowell/Lawrence over those in the greater Boston area).

 

yes they come with spare wheel in the boot space, it is a space saver though.

 

O2 sensors and the associated codes can be disabled by coding with Xentry or a quality aftermarket scanner with coding support, or you can turn off the O2 sensor in the tune. HPTuners lets you do this.

Usual places where it might leak oil are the valve cover gaskets / valve covers themselves and the bedplate / upper oil pan. Sometimes the front timing covers leak. Valve covers are easy and take maybe two hours to do with basic hand tools. Bedplate is best left for someone familiar with the job and will take several days. Front timing cover is very easy to do, just some bolts and a replaceable gasket.

The pulleys do go bad over time but replace them with factory pulleys, avoid aftermarket billet ones because the bearings they use never last. The crank pulley / balancer sometimes will separate on higher mileage engines and is worth replacing with a factory one for peace of mind. Both easily doable with basic hand tools.

Same thing with the cam position sensors. They're right up front and in your face after you remove the air ducts.

The M156 is a very easy engine to work on, you can save a lot of money by doing things yourself. Coming from Porsches, Subarus, and Volvos as my other cars, the c63 is the easiest to work on out of all of them.

Hopefully you got the car at a good deal. These are cheap, simple cars and a boatload of fun but will require some time and effort on your behalf to keep a 10+ year old german car running.

edit: I also have an extra owner's manual if you want it for free, just DM me your address.