Sup Seth, its "Mansa"

 

Hey Mansa, all good, and yas are well too. This week praying to get my 06 CL55 AMG back with Yellow Speed Sport coil overs, W220 power steering pump and front and rear sway bars. Next is Quaife LSD, then on to 82 mm TB and 550 injectors...cause 550 at the wheels is what's required to stay close on the ***-end of yer TT V12, lol
Say the word when you want to meet up for the rebuilt ABC valve blocks etc.

 

I've decided not to keep this car as the work effort is a bit too much for me. If anyone is interested in buying it as-is, I will let it go for what I paid for it which is $8k. I'm not going to part out the car but if someone else wants to, that is up to them. I'm sure there is 8k worth of parts at least on it. It does have a Renntech upgrade of some kind. PM me if interested.

 

is the car drive able? did you drive it?

 

Its not drivable. Its missing some engine components. There is no drive belt, radiator or fan. Looks like someone tried to do some engine work, gave up and slapped it back together.
Just got the car early today so haven't been able to go thru it yet in good detail.

 

Pics of the engine damage?

Sucks you already shipped it out there to find that. If it was still in FL I'd offer to help if I could.

 

Wow savory advice here...does the same mod hold true for W216 CL63?

 

Any updates with the car? I hate to be captain obvious, but there is a reason you became high bidder, without a running motor, you are almost forced to part out or maybe swap a cheaper more available 600 motor. That would most likely need a 600 ECU. I would really consider parting it out. Even if it meant splitting some of the money with someone who has more, tools space and mechanical knowledge. Having a partner could teach you a lot about the car and prepare you or discourage you in a future purchase.

 

I had a mechanic come and do some diagnostics and he basically confirmed the worst. 7 of the 12 cylinders are bad, water pump is seized, intercoolers have been removed (I think there are 2 of them) and probably sold.
So yes, I am selling the car for parts. I don't have the tools, space or time to part it myself so selling the whole car as-is.
Here is the CL post if anyone is interested: https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cto/6148982613.html

The price is $5400. I'm sure there are enough parts in there to make some profit.

 

A friend of mine had the exact same issue with a W216 he bought from Copart. It needed far more than he anticipated. He broke even by having the car towed to Sac to a part out guy and got 100% of the money he spent and was out of a $200 tow only. I'll try to post the name of the establishment for you if I can find it for you if you still have the car. There are about three Mercedes only used parts houses in the 916 area.

Quiet as its kept, I would pull those wheels off first and replace them with the cheapest rollers I could find. Thats $2000 that you will have back in your pocket that you would lose selling to a yard. It's not like they would say "Hey! you've got AMG wheels so well up our offer....". They're basically 30% of your investment right there. The wheels are the easiest sale item from your car because they are desirable and fit just about any Benzo ever made.

 

Thanks CL63wide. That's an idea worth looking into. I'll contact some part out companies out there too.

On a side note, I called Copart to dispute the sale and they said the car satisfies their definition of "Run & Drive" because it moved by its self. Their definition is so loose it covers everything and they hide behind that. I have filed a complaint with the BBB, contacted the Attorney general for the state of Texas where Copart's corporate office is located. This company is a total SCAM, stay away from them. Some high level people are getting paid off to allow this fraudulent corp to do business and continue to rip off consumers.

 

Copart sells cars that were "totaled" by the insurance company, if you thought you were buying a good running/driving car, that's on you.

I agree that they set their system up to protect themselves, but you should think, if the car was totaled, there's gotta be something major wrong. It's not like it just needs maintenance at that point.

 

I just think he took a gamble, lost, and is cutting his losses. Simple.

I seriously doub't he's holding his hands over his face saying to himself "Whyyyyy meeeee?"

Am I missing something? Ohh I see it now...Calling COPART a complete SCAM. I guess he's not cutting his losses then....Full on legal assault.

 

If the OP didn't have the time, space, tools and ability to fix a salvage car, he had no right buying it.

Sad to say you get what you pay for, there's a reason it was being sold as salvage. Lesson learned, "as is" means as is, not everything in this world is Amazon with free returns. Copart didnt become so big by ripping people off. Salvage buyers know what to spend to make money. You out bid them, more than others thought the car was worth, that's the hard truth.

There is probably not a lot to make, but working for free or getting a partner may allow you to break even. You are simply wasting your time going after them, put that effort into finding someone to split the car with you. You could probably get your money back and junk the rest in a few months. Litigation can go in for years, requiring an attorney with no guarantees. Good luck in moving foward.

 

He's doing it for the principle. If no one in the future ever gets burned by Copart in the future, it's been worth the effort.

It's just not right to buy a smashed up car thats too smashed up.

Seriously though, OP, Had you needed say, a set of wheels and two complete doors for another car you were rebuilding, you'd be way ahead of the game. It doesn't take too many parts to total $5k at Mercedes parts dept. Realize in the future that the time to hire the mechanic is before you bid. There is a list of guys that register with Copart whose sole purpose in life is to inspect the car for you, provide a video of all damage they see and to let you knownwhat it would take to get you car running again, For $150.

 

So Copart doesn't just sell Insurance cars. Anyone can sell their car thru Copart. Its just a service. This car was not involved in an accident. It's a privatelly owned clean title car where someone blew the engine and decided it was too costly to fix so they cut their losses and auctioned this car.
As an option, I can try to resell the car for a $600 fee plus 1.5% of the auction price the same way.

With regards to Coparts inspection service, been there done that. I tried arranging them before and many of them are not set up to accept online payments, the list that Copart provides is way out of date and some don't even exist anymore. Also, Copart only gives you a small window of time to perform the inspection prior to the vehicle's auction date.

I called them a SCAM because they call every vehicle that manages to move on its own power a "Run & Drive" vehicle which is not accurate. They bolt on parts, or hold them in place for pictures and when you get to look at the car in person, they are not what they looked like. When I had this car delivered, front bumper was not even attached but in the picture it was. They are misrepresenting their vehicle conditions to buyers and that is wrong and they are getting away with it big time. This needs to stop. They are ripping off hundreds if not thousands of individual consumers everyday. There needs to be better regulation here and some consumer protection.

I've filed complaints with the BBB, I have informed the Attorney General for the State of Texas where their head office is located but was told that they would rely more on Dealer Association to govern/police them. I will be reaching out to the State DMV dealer licensing to file complaints too with DIY info, diagrams, How-to's, guides, etc. Looking at getting WIS.

I have nothing to gain from doing all this. I am stuck with this massive pile of metal, I purchased this car on the basis that it "Runs & Drives" with some mechanical issue that can be fixed. I rolled the dice and I lost. I've called dismantlers and they are offering me scrap metal prices so that is not an option. The only other options left are part out myself, try to sell it as a parts car, re-consign it for auction, or try to rebuild the car on my own.

I'm looking into rebuild costs and also trying to find some DIY info if possible online too.Not finding much at all for this type of car. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

If you weren't on the other end of the country i'd offer to help or buy the car, but at this point shipping it back alone is a huge loss. I also have nowhere to keep another partial car until my BMW and Cobalt sell and I finish the turbo swap from my crashed toyota into the donor shell and scrap the crashed shell.

 

Thank you ItalianJoe1.

 

I doing some work on the car and I don't have any engine diagrams or WIS or DAS at this time. Would anyone be able to tell me what missing parts would go there? See pics.

On the front drivers side, it looks like the thats where the ABC pump would be. Is that correct?
On the passenger side, I see hoses that have been cut and a space for something where that gold hole is supposed to go.

Also the radiator return hose is dragging on the ground. How would that be that held up?

Thanks in advance.
Ather

 

Also looking for air intake hoses but can't find any specifically for a CL65. WIll CL600 hoses fit? I do see a couple.

Cheers,
Ather

 

holy ****! if you can fix what needs to be done cheaply you got the deal of the decade! hard to believe these CL65s were closer to $ 200k when new

 

Can you be more specific about that? Did the mechanic perform compression tests on each cylinder, or did he just read diagnostics? If it was the former, then yes, you've probably got a bad engine.

If it was the latter, and you've got assorted misfires, which is so common as to be inevitable, then it's probably the ignition.

To be clear, is the engine running or not?

Nick

 

First picture, you're missing the front valve bock - the whole assembly including the frame. Same part as any contemporary CL55, Cl600, S55 or CL600 or S65

Second picture you're missing the secondary engine radiator. You can probably do without that if the hoses are capped off, but again it's the same as CL600, S600 or S65

The auxiliary electric water pump is also missing - there's just a joining pipe in there. Needs a pump and a bracket.

Third picture, the hose that's hanging is probably the aux radiator hose, but it's not clear.

The engine inlet hoses are shared with the 600's.

All those things are readily available on ebay.

If the ABC pump is missing it's a bigger deal, but it's not visible in the pictures. The pump sits on the front left-hand corner of the engine, above the AC compressor.

If the engine starts and idles OK (with the poly-V belt removed if need be), it would be worth keeping. If not, no.

Judging by the seller's determination to get a better price, it sounds like he thinks it's not all bad. You may yet have scored a hit there. The seized water pump worries me a bit, though. Not because they're expensive and difficult to fit, but because that may be the root cause of the sale.

Nick

 

He did an engine diagnostic with his skanner and said there are 7 misfire codes. He also said that there is about 40% compression showing up on these. I don't know how he managed to assess that with just the scanner. He was only here for about 45 minutes and I am guessing doing a compression test on all 12 cylinders will take alot longer.

It does start and run on its own, there was some smoke and burnt smell after he ran it. He didn't run it for long because there was no way to tell if the engine had any oil. The dip stick cover is not there. So cautious about running it for a while not to seize the engine.

 

The "Mechanic" also said that the pulley connected to the water pump is turning very hard and looks like the pump has seized. This leads him to believe that caused the engine to overheat and eventually blow. He also believes that water has gone into the head but there was no test done to prove that. I have my suspicions about this guy's ability too. I am going to see if I can find another mechanic and get a second opinion.