Had my 2012 Cayenne S rear-ended and totaled by a hit and run driver a couple weeks ago. The car was mint, so pissed. Was shopping around for a good "reliable" family hauler that could tow and was looking at another Cayenne (I'd never find another in the condition of mine for anything near what I paid for it) as well as other larger-ish SUVs (X5s, XC90s, X166 GLs, W166/C292 ML/GLEs, Q7s, etc). Had a Ford Flex I loved prior to the Cayenne, it too was totaled by a distracted driver, and loved that car and was considering an EcoBoost Flex.

So I churned through this for a couple weeks, wasn't really loving my low mileage options for under $25k, just need something for hauling purposes, biding time for kids to be done with college to purchase my mid-life crisis sports car. So many modern SUV engines are plagued with issues, and there's no way I wanted the risk of a hyper-boosted 4 cylinder that always seems like they are ticking timebombs.

I never really looked at older MB options, but this 2011 GL450 came up in one of my search filter alerts this morning, 70k miles, good carfax, $15k, 30 day warranty. Quickly did a search on the M273 E47 and thought "this is it!" a naturally aspirated v8 with seemingly great reliability.

Hope that's true lol? Cause I bought the car and it's being delivered this week. I have no knowledge of the 4MATIC system, I'm hoping it doesn't have issues like xDrive and past Audi platforms?

Anything I should know or do in my first weeks of ownership? I've had several German cars, I'm handy with the top half of the engine, suspension, brakes, cooling, etc. Electrical not so much, and not set up at home for complex drivetrain / transmission work.

Any MB-specific tools I should invest in?

Oil recommendations (which oil, frequency, etc)?

 

Watch your mouth!! haha

I've never had any issues with ANY quattro system I've owned. The 4matic system seems pretty good as well. No issues with the wifes GL.

Now that I've calmed down... congrats on your purchase. You will read a lot of different opinions on here about these vehicles. From my personal experience I've had nothing but love for my GL, even when I'm swapping new airbags around, its still an easy vehicle to work on. I haven't had to do anything too major mechanically wise on her yet, and I've owned it for over 8 years. I have the diesel version and towing my 27 foot trailer up mountain passes is effortless, steep grades, putting along at 1800 rpms and flying up the hill. I love to power of diesel.

 

My apologies lol! I thought there were issues with quattro over the years but maybe I'm thinking back to the 80s or 90s or something?

As far as I can follow it looks like at least some of the air suspension may have been replaced, I felt good about this purchase because it not only had low miles but looks like just about all service was by MB dealerships right up until it was listed for sale. With the concepts of "airbags" in the suspension it's hard to tell what's a safety air bag (Takata?) and what's suspension but here's what I saw on carfax, plus some other major items.

Is there a website where you can check MB service with a VIN?

04/15/2019 37,461 miles
Left airbag assembly replaced

3/30/2023 50,982 miles
Front strut(s) replaced
Steering/suspension checked

05/29/2024 65,106 miles
Antifreeze/coolant flushed/changed
Brake fluid flushed/changed
Brake rotor(s) replaced
Rear brake pads replaced
Rear brake rotor(s) replaced
Fuel system cleaned/serviced

06/17/2024 65,589 miles
Airbag replaced
Rear strut(s)/insert cartridge(s) replaced
Suspension serviced

 

The rear bags are the easiest, 45 mins or so. That includes getting tools and jacking up the vehicle!

 

As long as your car is dry inside, I.e no water leaks in through the cabin filter or third row sunroof you should have a good running car for a long time. I’m on my 2007 for 10 years and now at 268,000 miles.

inspect the car for wetness in the d-pillar area as well as under the front passenger and driver seats.

automatic is wear parts so do expect to change out air springs and compressor at some point in your ownership.

do the transmission service at 80k and every 40k thereafter.

check for oil leaks by the oil cooler

check for power steering leaks

Not much else that will kill this car other than sheer neglect.

 

Car arrived this weekend, 2011 450 w/ 70k miles. I got it through Carvana so I've got a 7 day return policy and a 3 month warranty. I'm going to try to get it inspected this week, my main concern is the engine and not too confident Carvana's inspection really gets in there and looks for leaks.

A few points of concern:

- The car sat for several months, possibly as many as 5 months at one of their Arizona locations. Any specific thing I should be closely inspecting or addressing?

- I'm assuming they've started the car at least a few times as they transported it, I live on the east coast so they've changed trucks at least once. As I watched them start it up on the flatbed upon delivery, a puff of whitish smoke came out of each tail pipe. It was quick, didn't really look deep blue to me and certainly not black. Possible oil/coolant leaks going on, or is this typical for these engines?

- To me the steering feels heavy. No belt noises or odd feeling through the steering wheel, the feel is even just heavy. Normal for this car?

- Currently has a Lenovo aftermarket touch screen, chrome based and horrible FM reception. The original radio is in the car, worth putting that back in or should I get an iOS based aftermarket unit? Any recommendations? It wouldn't be then end of the world for me if I couldn't hook up carplay so the original unit is fine with me if it gets good FM reception.

 

The steering is on the heavier side. I didn't really notice it until I got a ML550, which is first cousin to a GL but has a steering effort that is about 1/3rd that of the GL. I much prefer the GL's steering feel.

With an installation kit, and a MOST adapter to connect to the stock amplifier, any double din head unit will work. I prefer name brand head units like Sony/Pioneer etc. since they are less likely to have issues, but the Android based Chinese head units will work too and have features the name brand ones don't (the fact that they are Android based doesn't mean they won't work with an iPhone - most if not all offer Carplay). Getting the antenna to work properly requires more than just plugging an antenna wire into the back of the head unit. IIRC, it involves running a cable with the right plugs to a box under the rear seat. I think you need one of these: https://avinusa.com/5m-radio-antenna...ion-cable.html combined with one of these: https://avinusa.com/5m-radio-antenna...ion-cable.html to connect head unit with box, but search on here for details to make sure.

 

Congrats! Let's see pics. Agree water leaks (rear taillamps and liftgate) are one of the main things to watch out for on this platform.

 

Thanks for the info! I was able to hunt down a user's manual for the Lenovo unit, from what I can tell this may be a non-US market product. It does have CarPlay connectivity and it's got an antenna hookup but as you're pointing out it just may not be connected. I'll pull it out this week to look, could be the unit's connector wasn't a "match" for the 450's cable?

I'm totally fine with the steering being heavy, but yeah- going from a Cayenne S to this was quite a difference.

 

I mentioned this in my post above, when they started to car up to bring off the flatbed there was a puff of white smoke out of each tail pipe (didn't seem to have a black or blue tint to me). The car sat for months in Arizona, not sure if that's a factor but do these engines get a lot of oil in the air supply? I've had some German sedans that actually required catch cans. I'm just worried about head gaskets and coolant leaks.

 

The M273 is not known for a failing head gaskets. In fact, I’ve actually never heard of one. It’s a simple engine in terms of a German V8 and the only drawbacks or faults to it were corrected in the 2007/2008 production years. There are no coolant tubes going through the V section or any such nonsense, so coolant leaks will be readily evident at the front oil cooler or thermostat housings.

If your car has sat for a while, it could be that the valve stem seals are dried up a little and may a little a little bit of oil in, but I wouldn’t worry about it unless it continues to smoke bluish white. Unlike in similar year Porsche you don’t really hear a lot about a cylinder wall scoring on the M273, but in its successor, the M278 oh boy they chew through alusil like you read about.

since you don’t know what’s in it, put in 9 L of liquimoly and assess oil consumption - STAT.

your steering should be one finger light at low speeds and firm up at highway speeds. This is a function of the variospeed sensitive steering, which is enabled by having the correct OEM steering rack installed, as well as at least four functioning wheel speed sensors.

 

I was thinking it could be the valve seals but to me at least the smoke didn't look like an oil burn, more like coolant (white) but it was such a small quick puff that it could have had a blue tint. There are some "sealant" oil treatments, I'll give that a shot in addition to the oil.

 

I've used this before, seemed to work, kinda.

 

Just watched a Project Farm youtube review, the guy is very thorough. The AT-205 tested best, the Bar's Leaks I bought did literally nothing more to the seals than just plain motor oil. Bar's is going back, ordering AT-205 forthwith.

 

Don’t mess around with any of this.

just change oil and assess consumption.

 

Under most circumstances I get that and agree. I'm usually hesitant to add anything to the engine or fuel because of all the potential harmful chemical combinations/reactions. My concern was this car sitting for up to 5 months and seals/gaskets drying out. Just normal oil may be fine to relubricate everything, but seeing those puffs of smoke on that startup when they delivered it had me concerned. This AT-205 however really seems to not only be low/no risk, but to be scientifically and mechanically proven to be effective. I'm going to risk it, and even though the oil was just changed I'm going to do another one in 1,000 miles and not add anymore additives moving forward. I'll report any ill effects.

Not to stir a hornets nest, but I'm in the Carolinas and am going to use leftover Mobile 1 5w40 I have from the Porsche and might use 10w40 Moly after. The heat down here is brutal and it's rare I ever have to start the car below 32F.

I haven't looked into the specifics of oil changes for the M273 yet, any recommendations for oil filter brands and frequency of changes? How about frequency of other things like plugs, washers, pan gaskets, etc? The oil filter is on top??? Hallelujah, can actually get away with just extracting the oil and not getting under the car?

 

Yes, the topsider method is the prescribed oil change method. Very easy with an electric powered vacuum pump, and the filter is right there.

as long as you just use a good quality oil and I’m not even to get into what that is, but I use liquiMolly 5w/40 with no signs of consumption until about
5-6000 miles. That’s my interval and I am in Washington state where it doesn’t get brutally cold but neither does it get hot.

following the 13,000 mile interval factory recommendations increases the risk of cylinder wall scoring. I ran up to 10 K once and at that point the onboard computer told me to fill oil which means that it’s about 2 L low… But then again it takes 9 L so there is lots of oil circulating in there.