First post here from Florida USA.

Im looking an ‘01 CL600 with 94,000 miles. I did a lot of research to prepare myself and here’s what I found/observed:

ABC: Surprisingly works. What I did notice is the front struts have uncovered coil springs. I did come across a few pics with visible coils but most seem to have a cover. Does this mean anything? Were they replaced or serviced?

Dash lights: Lots of codes, front pads, check engine, lots of bulb light codes.

Brakes: Work ok but the pedal is long and somewhat spongy. Front rotors are whipped so it’ll need pads and rotors.

Temp: it was 92 with a feels like of 99 and it was doing ok. Electric fan was working.

Engine: Definitly down on power, probably needs a good tuneup with plugs at a minimum. No smoke.

Electrics: Drivers door switches do not work. I couldn’t adjust the seat or lower the windows or any of that. This is most concerning to me as I couldn’t find any switches online anywhere.

Exhaust: Intact

Rust: None. Underside is clean.

Randon stuff: There are a few wires that clearly were rigged up, some kind of ground and another wire going out the grill, this one looked like a temp sensor.

Front underbody air dam: When the hoods open you can see the ground. Is there supposed to some type of splash shield underneath?

Any thoughts or comments?

Pics of cobbled ground at the front bottom of the passenger valve cover. And an area of ‘wetness’ at the back of the engine, drivers side. And then a few randoms…

 

Welcome on the forum!


I love this kind of question, let me pour all of my knowledge of my 2000 CL600 into my answer

The coils of an ABC strut should not be left visible for too long, dirt will get into the strut as you drive around, causing damage to the seals. This will eventually destroy the strut

My guess, battery isn't as strong as it ought to be.

Make sure to get low dust brake pads, or you'll be cleaning your wheels every other day
Oh and for the temperature, it'll fluctuate between 84 and 97 degrees depending on the air speed, thus the cooling efficiency.

Coil packs and voltage transformer need a good battery to properly operate

It's not the door switches, it is most likely a broken wire/broken wires in the door hinge. It's a common weak spot and should be repeared.
Disconnect the battery though, since there is an airbag wire in that harness.

Yes, the whole engine compartment has paneling, all the way to underneath the transmission. (10, 20, 40, 100, 110, 170)


100 and 110 are for cooling the engine mounts. Yeah it's ridiculous, I know. Don't skip out on them or the engine mounts will skip out on you.

Fix this, good ground points are essential.

As for the wetness at the back of the engine, the oil cooler heat exchanger is a common weak spot on these engines. When the gasket in between fails, the heat exchanger needs to be replaced, which requires both heads to come off.
You could use rubber seal restore, made for use in engines to soften and expand the rubber gasket a little. It might allow you to get a few more miles out of the current exchanger.

I'd start thinking about replacing all ABC hydraulic hoses with custom made ones, when they fail you need to stop the car immediately, otherwise you'd destroy the pump.

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Covers are missing on the engine itself.


490 and 500 are missing.


In general, a good clean of the engine bay and a few small things will make it nicer very quick.

I'd replace all oil, filters (including transmission and diff oil), sparkplugs and O2 sensors preventively and then do an italian tune-up.
Also, perform maintenance on ABC. Flush the system, change the filter and continue to check fluid level whenever you've driven it to see if it's leaking somewhere.

 

Tim, thank you for the very informative and detailed reply. After posting I made a very deep dive into the internet and Youtube and feel most, if not all, of the problem areas are within my mechanical skill level.

A few more questions:

Strut covers: Are they available or is there a work around?
Coil packs: If they need replacing, are the 'rebuilt' holding up okay?
Brake pads: Low dust is a must!!
Schematics: Where did you get the pics? Are there any 'must have' manuals or repair guides?

The price is right on the car, I'm guessing anywhere from $500-$3000 to get it fixed. Does that seem reasonable?

 

If someone was willing to give me $10k and the car but I had to repair and maintain it, I would not take the deal. ABC is an absolute bank account draining proposition and there is no reason to get anything pre 2003 as far as the V12 goes.

 

If you don't know what you're doing and continue to drive when a hose is blown, yes it will drain your bank account.

No worries!
It is a very satisfying car to work on as the rewards are great. I've learned wrenching on this car and about half a year ago I replaced bot camshafts + roller assemblies because they where worn due to rust.

These are one of the only parts you can actually safely get from China: https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DBYWaMB

For quite some time I've been running a DIY repaired voltage transformer and Clarks coil pack. It's only until recently I started to doubt the coil pack. Mercedes also provides coil packs, similairly priced to Clarks


I'd get yourself an installation of WIS/EPC and get an SDS diagnosis system with C3 or C4 multiplexer. A bluetooth dongle will not do the job.

I don't have one available whilst I am at work, so I regularly use this one Mercedes FG 215.378 (68R) > Mercedes EPC Online > nemigaparts.com
Bookmark it
However, some of the part numbers are VIN specific and nemigaparts will not show everything correctly, so for some part numbers, you'll need EPC.

Yeah I think that sounds reasonable.

If there isn't any fluid in the ABC reservoir when you come to look at it, don't buy it

Next to the must do's in my first post; here is another one
The ABC system features 2 accumulators, if they haven't been replaced recently, replace those. It could cause a burst of nitrogen in the system, spitting out all fluid from the reservoir.

 

Burst hose, LOL, that's the least of it. I replaced close to a dozen ABC pumps on the two ABC equipped vehicles I owned and one of those being a CL600. It also blew just about every hose while taking it up to 100k miles and then there are the hydraulic shocks and all other equipment to make the system work. It all goes bad. They no longer use ABC on MB's anymore. What's that tell you? If you could find a 2003 and later with the hydraulics removed and a shock/spring/sway bar setup, it's not a bad vehicle to own but ABC makes it a terrible vehicle to own. Unless you can DIY everything, the vehicle will cost you an arm and a leg. Even if you DIY, ABC will still cost you an arm or a leg due to the parts cost. Granted, it's not as bad as when I owned as there were no shock or pump rebuilders, but AAA almost cancelled me because the number of times the car had to be towed. No thanks!

 

They switched to a finer filter for a reason.

There are several additives one could add to the fluid to re-expand the rubber o-rings inside of the system.
The fluid does need to be meticulously clean before you do that however.

In conclusion, I partially agree with you. ABC is a risk, but then again, with proper maintenance I've seen cars go 450k km's with ABC.

 

Thanks for the updated responses. I can do everything myself so it would only be the cost of the parts.

I’m going to take a second look and pay particular attention for the infamous oil leak. If the leak is minimal I’m going to throw a low ball offer of $5k.