Interesting problems appearing on my "low-mileage" 2000 CL500. I now have 13k miles. The last 4k put on in the last 6 months. The first 3 years, I hardly put miles on the car, but decided to make this car my primary driver for the last 6 months. Since doing that, I have discovered some problems.

The front window problem not going all the way up in express mode - dealer replaced "controller".

Left front turn signal lamp kept burning out. - dealer just replaced socket. Rear left tail lamps burning out (Not the lcd brake lights). - dealer just replaced whole unit.

This morning, started up the car, turned on lights, and the left "parking lamp" must have burned out. I joked with the service guy that it seems there is some bug running around the electronics because they replace one thing and it moves somewhere else. - have call into service. Don't want to get into the game of replacing bulbs every week or so if I can avoid it.

Window seals are terrible, lots of wind noise on freeway. - Seals on order.

Drivers door doesn't always "pull in". They can't duplicate as it happens only so often.

Since replacing the controller, the window doesn't always return closed after closing the door. They can't duplicate so only noted.

The gas tank gauge has never shown full, no matter how much I fill up. I've tried different gas stations, different pumps, all same result. Eletronic display shows full, but the actual gauge in cluster is about 1/4 inch from showing full.

The fuel pump (or whatever the pump is, which is located under car, under the left rear seat. Kept running. It was actually replaced twice.

Lot of little rattles, when driving over rough pavement, but I avoid bothering with those, just turn up the cd player.

If these light problems continue, at what point is this considered a "lemon"? Or is the lemon only applicable when it's the same exact component?

I love driving the car, I think it is the best looking Mercedes, but am starting to tire of taking the car to the dealer for such a low mileage, "gently driven" vehicle. I know I would have discovered these problems long ago if I had been driving as a daily driver.

I haven't seen these problems mentioned on this forum, but any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

The door closing problem is similar to that on my 2002 CL500 Sport. The driver's door failed to pull in on about every tenth close. The dealer could not duplicate the problem and there was no pattern that I could sight in the malfunction. The driver's window seal was replaced at about 10000 miles. In south Florida, where the car is kept in a concrete garage in the condo building on the beach, the front directional lights burned out. The assemblies were replaced because the contacts were corroded. I attributed this to the proximity to the salt air. Early on, after about 5000 miles, the ABC developed a leak under the driver's door. The fittings were tightened and the problem was solved. Otherwise, the car was flawless and performed very well. Dealer attention was above average.
My 2003 CL55 has had only one problem and that was with the squeak from the engagement of the supercharger belt. The pulley was replaced, but the slight squeak persists. It is not the minor squeak that bothers me, but the implications of a potentially misalligned pulley and belt that may fail with more mileage. The car has been flawless otherwise, although despite instructions not to touch the car with wax before delivery, some moron at the dealer used a power buffer on part of the hood. They subsequently hand buffed out the clearcoat at my insistance. MBUSA never followed up on my impressions or satisfaciton with service, which is lamentable. If they do not know what is going on in the field, they cannot possibly solve the problems. That is one reason that I take the time to post my experience on this forum. Perhaps MBUSA will see the comments here.

 

Thanks for your reply VictoryRoad. The dealer has looked at the door closing problem a couple times now and it still exists. The window not closing the dropped 1/4" after closing the door still exists. They did replace all the window seals, now I have this pin point (though I can't pin point the location) air noise. I love the car and the way it drives, but getting tired of all these little things, though thankfully they aren't major problems, just annoyances. Everyone that I've talked to who owns a CL00, from 2000 on says their cars are drum tight, no squeeks, rattles etc. When I drive over a bumpy road, or the lane bumps, the interior of my car sounds like a 33 year old AMC Gremlin, which brings me 360 degrees back to my cars gremlins. :-)

Thanks again for your reply.

 

lemme know, ill fix your hood. BTW, did u get a chance to try the aquapel?

 

thats the thing with german cars (high end) the same stuff will break no matter how you drive it- so you might as well hammer the thing... my 740il gets pushed hard- i maintain it in every aspect religiously and she keeps purring, yet stupid stuff does break... the same stuff as the people who baby there...

so lets here a cl500 slam the throttle for once