Ghennes13

Found a CLK550 coupe but the front fog light lens is broken on both sides. Is it hard to replace those? How do you do it?

Anker

A piece of cake. Get the fog lights from Pelican. You can do each in well under an hour. I did it in Florida without a jack.

Ghennes13

Do these break often? How do you replace them?

nkx1

One of the CLKs I looked at had a broken one, too, so I'm guessing it's not too uncommon based on your and Anker's experience.

No idea how to replace them, sorry. Would live to find out for future reference, though.

Rudeney

On the CLK550, you remove some Torx screws holding the black plastic grille panel to the bumper. Then you can access the screws holding the fog light to the inside of the bumper. It's really easy - no jacking or special tools (other than Torx drivers) are needed.

Ghennes13

I found a CLK550 with 63k miles on it and I was close to getting it until I noticed the bottom of the front bumper was cracked and the spacing of the tail lights against the body panels were not even. I would’ve been fine with the broken fog lights. The carfax says no accidents or damage. Why is it so hard to find a garage kept low mileage CLK550?!

Is there a way to tell on these cars if they have been in a wreck or have been repainted? Every Clk I have looked at seems to have issues! (Especially with the body panels around the headlights not looking right)

nkx1

I think that's just the way a lot of the CLKs are. Mine supposedly has never been in an accident (and thus far I haven't identified any evidence that it has, including careful evaluation of the paint), but the body work around the headlights isn't a work of perfection if I look very closely.

Regarding how to tell if one has been repainted, it's the same as any other car- just go on YouTube and watch a few videos. You can use a paint thickness tester, look for over-spray, look and feel for paint lines on the edges of body panels, etc.

Rudeney

Honestly, by the time a car is 10+ years old, it's going to be very difficult to find one that has not had some body work. Repainting and replacing bumpers is a very common thing because even a tiny "kiss" will damage most of them. Really, body work does not bother me as long as it was done well and all parts were replaced. If you find uneven gaps, then that could be an issue, but a cracked front bumper lip? That's going to happen because people pull up against curbs.

Ghennes13

It’s frame damage I’m concerned about. Is carfax reliable? Says no accidents or damage reported.

Everythingsfast

I have a CLK500 2005 with 86k miles. I purchased it brand new. I let my girlfriend drive it most of the time since I'm in love with my Gen 1 Acura NSX. She has been hit twice. First time she was driving down a one way street in the left lane. A young girl pulled out a parking space on the left side of the street. Just clipped my front fender. They could have straightened out the fender. But I paid a bit extra for a new one. It came out perfect. Then several years later a guy backed into my drivers and door. They wanted to put a used door on it. It was cheaper to put a complete door rather than repair mine. I said no to that idea. They replaced the complete door. Used all my original interior parts. You cannot tell anything has ever been replaced. All gaps are perfect. My body guys knows what I expect. He knows if it not perfect. He'll be doing it again.
. There are a couple of rock chips on my hood. (Clear bra first 24 inches) other than those few chips it is in perfect shape. Has 2 carfax hits & I wouldn't take less for it because of the Hits.
. I'll get some pictures soon.
my granddaughters named it "Rock & Roll Blue Dog". The reason is its Cadet Blue Cabriolet. I always have Rock and Roll on the radio. I guess I'm older than most.
Hell. I have children in there 50's

Rudeney

Carfax is far from accurate. If there was no public accident report, as is the case with an incident on private property, or if the municipality that process the report does not have a contract with Carfax, then it won'r show the accident. One thing it definitely does not report is "bumper refinishing" often done by a contractor at a car dealership. These guys sand and respray bumpers to cover up chips and dings. The bumper will looking great for a few years until their spray-on clear coat starts to crack and peel. This is why I say I am not concerned about car with good quality body work.

Everythingsfast

I've had mine for 14 years. Never had a chip, crack or broken head or fog light.
I need to remove my front belly pan. My front bumper has a small tear in it. My girlfriend went past a parking block. When she backed out. It caught my lower front bumper and tore it a bit. I'm going to plastic weld it back together. Then I'll just re-shoot it in color. I've seen some pretty nice Carbon Fiber front lips for these cars. I would really like to have one. But "she" would definitely tear it off when parking.

. Anyone know where I can find the front CF lip & a rear spoiler. Hopefully one that is a bit larger but lays down more?

C280 Sport

I would have a body shop look at it and get it up on a lift.

Everythingsfast

Any time u buy a used vehicle. You should always put them up on a lift. Check every inch with a paint guage. Pay for an oil change take a magnet to it.
. Pull all 4 tires while it's on the rack. Check the inside of the fender wells for any kind of paint over spray. Check every jam for tape lines. Like I said about mine. I had everything that was painted pulled off the car and shot in a both. This way there are no pain't or tape lines...

C280 Sport

100%. You just never know and there are way too many things that can be wrong with it. Even if it is little things it adds up to be a pain in the neck and ruining the experience of the buy.

Everythingsfast

The Experience.....

. If you buy a car with a lot of miles on you can expect to have little things wrong or go wrong with it. When you buy a car with 60 to a 150,000 miles or even higher. If you pay 5,000 to 10,000 dollars. Take it home & drive it. That's when you'll find out why the last guy sold it. Very few people get a new car because they are tired of the one they have. This old car to them is just costing them to much money. They are putting out 300 or 500 dollars a month in repairs. They figure they can get a new or newer car for the same money going out.
. I've had my clk500 sense new. It's the first car other than one of my muscle cars that I've kept this long. It's a 2005 what I call low mileage (85000) .
. 15 or 20 years ago I always had 3 or 4 cars in my garage along with 9 Harleys & my Hayabusa.
at one time I had 2 Acura NSX's a Cadillac XLR all my Harleys then I picked up new in 2005 my clk500. Then in 2008 I purchased my Hayabusa. I always expect to put a couple to a few thousand dollars in the car after I purchase it. You have to take care of those little bugs that drove the old owner crazy. Most of the time the old owner couldn't afford to put out enough money all at one to fix it properly. Hopefully you do have that 2 or 3,000 dollars to fix what ever it was.
. Sorry. I got off there for a bit.

Kelvin Bellrose

I bought my CLK in the winter and it was cold as hell. I took the bus from Edmonton to Calgary and got the dealership to come pick me up from the bus depot. I looked at the car for 5 minutes and then paid the man and drove it back home. It is almost perfect condition with no door dings or scratches. It has 126 000 km on it and it is the nicest driving car I have ever driven. It seemed to develop a slightly rough idle, and then I got DAS and ran a compression check. Number 2 was slightly low, but once I played with the idle mixture it seems to be fine now. You can lean out or richen the idle by a few percent, and this will pinpoint a poorly operating cylinder by watching live values. I wojld have never picked this out on a test drive.
I bought my 2012 C class in the summer time, and it looked like it just came off the showroom floor. The seats looked like they have never had someone sit in them. I don't even think I heard it run, I just handed over a pile of cash and drove off. The car has no issues whatsoever. The CL was a different story. I took it for a long test drive, but never looked underneath it. It ran real smooth, and that was all I was really concerned with. It had 64000 km on it. Not bad for a 2003. It has the most little things wrong with it, but nothing major so far. Out of all of them, the CLK is the most fun to drive, the C class is the most usefull ( 4 door, 4 matic) we seem to get 9 months of winter, so gotta have an awd. The CL is nice if I want to feel my organs move around inside of me as I hit warp speed. If you add up what I paid for all my cars it still doesn't equal the price of a new car.

What I am trying to say is just go out and buy several of them and enjoy! If one breaks, you still have two to drive. These cars are for people who like to work on their cars themselvs, or for the very wealthy. I fall into the first group.