Ck Engine Light & The Hell It's Caused
 

I previously began a thread about the '01 600 being problematic possibly because of it being its first year of production, but now I'm beyond that, hence, I'm starting a new thread to see what can be done.

This has turned into a total nightmare with the dealer. After several weeks going back and forth with the ck engine light going off then back on, and after several visits, it STILL remains unsresolved. Before, both engine banks were confirming diagnosis codes on the computer; now it's only one side at least. The service mgr. suspects a pinhole leak somewhere, but no one can find it. Now, after another entire week of downtime, they tell me the intake manifold, engine, etc. all has to be pulled because it's like looking for a needle in a haystack and they have no other choice. Even worse, my extended warranty does NOT cover such in-depth diagnosis time (anything beyond an hour) which is B.S whereas Starmark does!!! Here is a true example that you can get screwed even with an ext. warranty.

The dealer is Fletcher Jones, here in Vegas. Worse come to worse - I don't know where else I could take the car at a lesser hourly rate so I don't get killed on labor @ $100/hr! The car is simply not worth dumping cash into.

Anyone have any suggestions here???

I would get a second opinion from a good MB tech before getting into engine pulling, etc. If these guys don't know what's wrong, perhaps someone else does. And, perhaps, the problem is much simpler to right than what you are being told.
Prior to doing so, though, you might also ask for help from your MB dealer. I know there are cases where the local dealer will go to bat for a customer who is out of factory warranty where MB will share in some of the repair costs. I don't know how far out of warranty you are, but I think it absurd that a car of this nature would have such a problem so early in its life. If they are correct in their diagnosis, this sounds like an engineering defect to me. Good luck.

The problem that you are having sounds familiar to the one i had with my clk they diagnosed it with those symptoms but it ended up being the mass aif flow sensor. Good luck with your sitiuation.

-- ditto that, mine was the same on my 500-- they were able to diag and fix it immediately, tho. i heard these are common-- if it is, expect about $600 fix :mad:

Mine is at the Service Center as we speak (type) I sure hope they will find the problem. The factory really needs to come to bat for us, this kind of thing is not our problem, it is the people who designed the car!
Have you contacted the Client Assistance center in NJ? I feel it's time to do so now.
Ed

Well they "say" they figured out what's wrong with my car.
2 Coil packs
1 ABC modual
24 Spark plugs
all to the total cost of about $5,400. The GM Protection Plan people will be out on Thursday to look at it and give a OK on what they will pay for. All except $100 should be covered, the plugs may be a point of concern, we shall see.
Ed

Those are some real problems, glad you got them solved. Hey, what can we say, you have been initiated into the CL club.

sped, the nightmare continues as I'm STILL stuck over here at Fletcher with the '01!

They "think" they have the ck engine light issue resolved, but won't know till I test drive it to see if it comes back on. They thinks it's some type of fluid leak now, I dunno anymore. A vehicle this young should not have this many repeat problems (only 35k miles). Who's your service guy over in Henderson? Maybe I should go see him for a 2nd op.

I had the same problem a year or so ago and it turned out to be the coil packs. They were replaced under warranty and the car has been fine since then.

CL Freak,

My service guy is Bryan, stay far away from the chick she has nothing but air in her head.
Mine is still in the shop (today being Saturday) the reason is because the GMPP inspector wanted to just change the insulators. The service Center wanted to change the coil packs, insulators, and plugs. It's GMPP's money so I have to be put off while they show how good of a mechanic they think they are(GMPP). Since they used up all the insullators they had on the wild goose chase, I am without the car, but I have a nice Sentra rental!! <G>
They are not changing the ABC because it did not code while he drove the car, that's OK I will just have them do the work when it does code up.
This deal you got really irks me, why don't they find the problem THEN charge to repair it, instead of making the customer pay for the search.
Regards,
Ed

Well, I got my CL back yesterday and it sure runs better. They wanted to keep it till Tuesday to get the charge paid from GMPP, then their computers went down and they said it would be OK to pick it up. I think they could have given it back sooner but what the heck. The codes are all gone and it has power I never knew about, I have yet to really push it because I want to just drive it for a while untill I test it.
Seams like these guys know what they are doing so CLFREAK maybe you should try bringing the car over here for a second (3rd) opinion.
Think I'll take it out tonight and see what it'll do, I'll let you know.
Ed

Sped - after having the car in the shop this whole week, the service advisor now tells me that all the codes are finally cleared after having replaced the air intake manifold. They tested it out putting about 80 miles on the car and no ck engine light. Wait till I get it, I'll drive it a few miles and the damn thing will pop back on again with my luck! So, at least for now, it sounds like they've managed to fix it. That's not the end though. It needs the suspension re-calibrated and adjusted because the car was lowered before but I wanted it lower since I'm going for a new look. They tried to do the same as before - tricking the ABC computer - to lower it a little more. This time, it sent the computer into complete overdrive and now the car is up so high it looks like a 4x4 CL! They say this has never happened before and can't figure out why. I told them forget about the lowering and just bring it back to factory suspension height; I will take it to 702 Motoring, as they said they can do it without any issues. I should be used to customization ups and downs - I've been doing it on all my Mercs since 1987! I will posts pics of all when I get the chance. I forgot to ask you before, what did your ext. warranty cost and do you think you will have any problems getting your issues covered under it?

BTW, do you or anyone know anything about 702??

CLFREAK,
Glad to hear they finally found the problem without the nightmare. Things like that really can get out of hand in a hurry.
My warranty cost $3600 from General Motors Protection Plan, not sure if you can just walk into a GM dealer to purchase it but you could try. They covered the repair cost minus my $100 deductable. They even paid twice for the teardown, thinking the insulators would cure the problem, maybe next time they will listen to the mechanic.
I have not heard of 702 Motoring, tell me what they do. I would like to see your car sometime, I am off on Friday, Saturday, and Sundays.
Ed

PS..Found 702's website, I'll go by and check them out when I am in the area.