shanusanus

Hi all - havnt been on here for a while - funny thing for the past 6 months my CL has actually behaved herself. However I started getting a grinding noise when turning the steering wheel at idle. I finally decieded to take her into MB Dartford - I have a whole year warrenty still left - and to my surprise it turns out the ABC pump was leaking so guess what - I get a whole new ABC pump + labour on warrenty. Dealer said this is well over £1000 of work so I'm happy.

I pick the car up - dealer said they started work at 9am - finished job just before 6pm! wow. Took car home all well - then next morning, 30 minutes driving....... ABC VISIT WORKSHOP appears on dash! what the.....

Take the car back into dealership - turns out the brand new ABC pump has a faulty valve - well thats MB all over isnt it - bad quality of parts etc!

So the cars back in for another 24 hours - another full day of work fitting another ABC pump. Thank god I have a warrenty.

I tell you honestly - dont even LOOK at a CL unless you have a good full Tier 1 warrenty - it just isnt worth it otherwise. I asked the dealership for a history report of the work warrenty has done so far , with 11 months still left on warrenty, the car has already had 12K worth of work done! Man thats sick.

Well I have my eye and finiancies ready for an Audi R8 next year - man I will NEVER be buying another Merc - this was a 70K car brand new - yet the quality was worse than my friend Hyundai Coupe!

As soon as the warrenty ends next October - the car is GONE I tell you
Shame cause what a lovely looking thing it is........and if your a fool like me and are still in love with her looks - for gods sake make sure you get a good warrenty in place - preferebale at least 2 years if not more. I promise you wont regret it.

brokenstunter

like really, I hear all these bad stories and just had to say something. I have put 150,000km on a CL500 and NO problems. Is it because I do all my own work and actually maintain my car? Im beside myself here.
The only problems I have ever had was the MAF sensor going bad 2-3 times. Then I found out it was all MY fault for treating a highly advanced automobile like a Chevy.
You dont get this kind of refienment without high tolerances and bad gas caused all my problems with the MAF. Since I havnt been using gas with Ethanol no more MAF problems.
As for all the ABC pump problems I have changed filters/oil as per Mercedes intervals and no problems.
But alas I did have to change my motor mounts because of vibrations.

fatmike

I've really had no problems either, except for the shifter being stuck in park. I guess thats not my fault, and is expensive, but it was under warranty. He is right, a warranty is more than likely necessary...honestly its nearly the same with all cars...our parts are just more expensive.

BlownV8

Sounds like they did not properly flush the system. Once the pump goes, it introduces a lot of metal shavings in the system much like when an AC compressor fails. It will fail again unless they flushed it at least twice and changed the filter after the flushes.

Patentmat

I think the reason we see more posts about the problems is because a post about 'no problems' is really boring, and not even worth it. For what it is worth, my CL55 is getting up to the high 70,000s and has been mostly trouble free.

Bo CL500

How often do you change your ABC filter and oil?

calgary

How many kilometers between filter/oil change for the ABC
system? What about the Rodeo ride, if you did your own oil/filter change??

W210 Guy

What year is your CL?

brokenstunter

On the first Cl I did it every 30-40kms. On the new one I did it as soon as I bought the car. Planning on goin to 20-30kms as I want to keep this car for a long time as it is a niece specimen!
The last time I did my filter/oil change I did what my mechanic friend said and jacked the car up so the wheels could hang all the way down without hitting the ground. Then drain oil, change filters and top up then put car on the ground then move the car up and down with the ABC. After I did that I took the car to my dealer so they could do the rodeo ride to make sure. Tech said there was no air to purge so it must work.
I avoid the dealer "bull" as much as I can, they would never tell you it could be done that way then you dont have to pay them to do a SIMPLE job.

calgary

brokenstunter: Thank you for explaining it. What year was your previous CL? My 2001 has over 300K KM - and I replaced the pump once, changed oil/filter several times. Car is "settling down" when parked, but usually rises after starting the engine.
Sometimes I have to set it to level one or two, in order to make it work.

brokenstunter

The last one was a 01. Loved the car just wanted the updated interior. 300km and one pump is about right. As for the car settling down you have a leak somewhere, it shouldnt be the pump. Have you done the "sturts" yet?