sl55new

All, this is great info but don't know what to do for my mom's ride.

It's a 2001 CL600 and has only 60K miles on it. I looked on Craigs List and they go for $20K tops.

Car has ABC issues and I took the car to an MD dealership. Here is what they came back with!!! We have decided to just add fluids to the shocks and that's it.

Spending $10K on a car worth $20K makes no sense to us!

Should we just run the car to the ground, sell it , or is there a cheaper way to go around the ABC issues. We live in the Bay Area, California.

From MD dealer/service guy:

ABC system needs the folowing parts, two fluid lines, right rear strut and the pump to be replaced. The hoses are what's causing the leak of hydraulic line, the rear strut has an in ternal issue and the pump is not supplying the correct pressures consistently.After replacement of failed parts the ride height would need to be adjusted and a four point alignment.
Parts:
Strut $1800
Pump $1250
Fluid $87.45
Hose $250.92
Hose $735.00

Parts $4123.37
Tax $381.41
Labor $4981.00
Total $9485.78

tarantula001

My 2001 cl500 drops in the front when I am driving, but computer tells me to change the REAR valve block.
Is this possible?
Now the technitian cannot calibrate the shocks without the rear valve block

tarantula001

contact arnott inc. see if they have ready the suspension kit to change the car to a normal suspension.

tarantula001

WHERE CAN i BUY THE NEW VALVE BLOCKS

Sher Judge

You will always need a close and dear friend in the DAIMLER BENZ AG fraternity when it comes to their ABC systems.

biker349

someone on e-bay sells rebuilt pumps. is there a way we can rebuild ours?

Nero Tenebre

I am so unbelievably glad to be rid of my 01 CL500, sold to the dealer for a pathetic $9k with not even 100k miles on it after a $100k purchase price new in 2000. It would have cost more to fix the car than sell it, there were many examples on the market for months that were only asking $12k and still won't sell due to well-known suspension troubles. So it only cost about $8k/yr in depreciation to own, not including the thousands spent on repairing the ABC system repeatedly. What a waste of money, I never want to own another car with Mercedes' ABC system ever again. The previous generation S and CLs had a beautiful ride quality, even if you couldn't change it on the fly between 2 settings. I'll take a good old fashioned set of adjustable coilovers or traditonal shock/spring setup anytime. One of the reasons I started looking at CLKs- less weight, less complexity, less hassle, and less money wasted on fundamental flaws that can never be repaired. Unsubscribing to this thread, and excited about the free time I will have not trying to research forever-elusive ABC problems on the CL! When it's time, the SL55 will suffer the same fate I'm afraid...

ch33sehead

I agree, the CL's reliability issues are alarming, but to compare it to the CLK is just madness. They're nowhere even close to being in the same class. One time I had the CLK floor mat in my CL temporarily, and I noticed how much gap there was between the CLK mat and the CL carpet. It's pretty tragic to see a 90% depreciation over 10 years. When you're talking about high end GT cars, Bentleys and Astons seem to hold their value much better. I've never owned one though so I can't say anything about reliability. I do know that fewer shops are inclined to even touch one though, so usually they'll have to be dealer serviced, or you'll have to learn how to do it yourself.

1995E320Cab

I love post like this, it discourages people from buying these great cars and drives the price down even more LOL.

I love buying high quality (no not perfect), lower mile, very well cared for and highly maintained $140K cars at an 85% discount.

Yes I am enjoying my CL600, but if I had bought it new I might feel as you do.

Nero Tenebre

Well I don't know about madness. They are both luxury coupes, pillarless design, familial good looks, etc. I understand that they are from completely different chassis which is a legitimate contention, but they still share a lot of similar traits. I know that CL buyers have to justify that the CL is the "top of the line" Mercedes coupe (at the time it was) and comparing it to a car based on their bottom line US model (C-class at the time) always raises owners' blood pressures here. My whole point is that in a lot of ways, the CL's "premium" goods comes with premium problems- and who wants to buy into premium problems?? I think the answer to that is, not a lot of people, which is why the values are so low. My CL stranded me over 4 times just on ABC related issues. Once on Valentine's Day while out, which forced me to rearrange my life once again so I could attend to my fragile little princess of a car. F#ck that frustration, I had enough so it was time to cut losses and move on.

I don't define a "great" car as one that barely functions as basic transportation. It's like a $100k leather couch at that point, usually on the back of a flatbed being towed into the shop. If it drops the values for future owners who want to put up with headaches then that's fine too, but realize the risk is that what you're not paying up front you will be paying down the road. One day it will be time to pay the ABC piper, among the others...

Sorry for the rant guys, I am not going to derail this thread about how to repair ABC stuff anymore!