High Mileage GLS63 Issues?
Thread Starter
Newbie
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 7
Likes: 0
2008 F250
High Mileage GLS63 Issues?
Good morning, everyone.
We have a 2017 GLS63 and love it. It currently has 80,000 miles on it and no issues. We picked it up about 2 years ago as a CPO and added 2 additional years of Mercedes warranty for $4500. We have already gotten our money's worth out of the warranty and are protected through 8/26. We have started to look at what's next but aren't getting excited about the turbo V6's that are dominating the market now. I can do most repairs, but we can't have the car out of commission while we wait for parts and a weekend to tackle the jobs due to the GLS being my wife's daily driver.
I would like to hear from owners with more than 100K miles on their GLS63's. What issues are you seeing? How solid is the car after 100K? We are considering just keeping it and having a repair fund to cover the issues that are outside of my skillset.
We have a 2017 GLS63 and love it. It currently has 80,000 miles on it and no issues. We picked it up about 2 years ago as a CPO and added 2 additional years of Mercedes warranty for $4500. We have already gotten our money's worth out of the warranty and are protected through 8/26. We have started to look at what's next but aren't getting excited about the turbo V6's that are dominating the market now. I can do most repairs, but we can't have the car out of commission while we wait for parts and a weekend to tackle the jobs due to the GLS being my wife's daily driver.
I would like to hear from owners with more than 100K miles on their GLS63's. What issues are you seeing? How solid is the car after 100K? We are considering just keeping it and having a repair fund to cover the issues that are outside of my skillset.
Member
Joined: Jun 2024
Posts: 191
Likes: 57
E320
I’ve worked on a few GLS63s that crossed the 100K mark, and overall, they hold up fairly well as long as you stay on top of maintenance — but there are definitely some patterns to watch for. Common post-100K items I’ve seen include valve cover gasket leaks, active suspension (AIRMATIC or ABC components) starting to act up, and wear in the transmission conductor plate or valve body causing erratic shifting. The M157 engine is solid, but carbon buildup and oil consumption can creep in, especially if it wasn’t maintained with regular oil changes and high-quality fluids. If it’s your wife's daily, I’d say keeping a repair fund is a smart move — parts availability and downtime are usually the biggest headaches, not the repairs themselves. Also, having a full system scanner on hand, like the YOUCANIC scanner, is a lifesaver when these cars start throwing soft faults in submodules without triggering the CEL. It's saved me a lot of time digging into issues that weren’t obvious with a basic scan tool.
Member
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 84
Likes: 18
S65 GL320CDI GLS63 80 Series Landcruiser
We have just over 165K miles on our 2017 GLS63. It's still a machine. Only thing I hate is buying tires. We bought CPO with 10K miles and got warranty coverage up to around 117K miles. Would have been a lot higher except Covid kept the mileage down. Big things all covered were coolant hoses (plastic I hear) gave out at 106K and got the radiator replaced at 116K. The radiator had just a small amount of "crud" at side tank and they agreed it was leaking so replaced it. Replaced engine and tranny mounts at 80K - not sure if it was needed or not. DS airmatic strut went out at 146k miles. I guess because of the direct injection, we have had several injectors replaced and coils to solve misfires but it usually didn't help. What I learned was to run a can of BG44 Fuel cleaner whenever we get a misfire and that has always worked (carbon buildup I assume). Then I clear the code. Get a misfire code probably every 9 months or so. I change oil every 5K miles and suck out and replace the hydraulic fluid in the reservoir at the same time. The reservoir doesn't hold much but it keeps it fresh and doesn't have the burnt smell. Compared to other MB we've owned I would rate it highly reliable. For some reason it goes through rear pads. We only get 15-20K miles out of a set. I do my own maintenance so the only thing I really hate, as I said, is buying tires.
