Oxygen

I was driving and minding my business, all of a sudden CEL comes on and I loose lots of power, the exhaust sounds really strange and the car feels like it's running on 6 cylinders. I promptly pull over, pop the hood and check everything out.

Coolant looks good, oil level check comes back okay, ECU harness is all plugged in, IC's are cool to the touch, etc...

I let it sit for about 10 minutes, fire it up, all is normal.

I get on the on-ramp of the GCP and as soon as I merge I see a trail of smoke/steam coming from my grill. Immediately pull over on the shoulder, shut down and the steam gets worse and worse.

I opened the hood cautiously and the coolant was jetting out of the drivers side of the radiator right below the air intake. This was going on for about 8 minutes finally ending with a pool of coolant under the car.

Called MB roadside and they informed me that they could not tow me directly, since this is a State Parkway, only an authorized tow truck could come and get me, and I would have to pay for that myself, and they would come get me once I was off the highway. I said okay no, I'll call you back. Tow truck comes and they wanted $110.00 to pull me off the highway. No thanks again.

I let the car cool down to about 80*C and fired it up, the exit was about a tenth of a mile ahead of me. I made it there no problem, pulled over and a MB tow truck was there in literally 8 minutes.

At this time it was about 5:15PM on a Friday, we got to the lot and dumped the car with the rest of the cars in their service lot.

They advised me that they will not be able to look at the car until Monday afternoon and that I could not get a loaner because they only give loaners to "Scheduled Service Appointments"....

My SA calls me Monday at around noon advising me that they have pressure tested the cooling system and that the leak is the result of the aluminum on the side of the radiator splitting open.

They ordered the radiator and also a new cluster since there is an open recall on the cluster. Gee thanks, my AMG cluster arrives tomorrow with no car to install it into.

He said they will need to take apart the whole front of the car to get to the radiator since it's behind the ABC oil cooler, IC HE and A/C condenser.

I would have probably tackled this myself but I can't with my rust bucket.

Next time something breaks on this car it's getting torched....

Quadcammer

That sucks.

Are they gonna look at your a/C compressor as well?

This could turn into a nice $5k service visit.

LAWYER2

ya that sux, any idea of repair cost?

Reckless

Sorry to hear that... I had some problem with a coolant line last week, it was taking away from power delivery. It cost about $700 to fix and now the car is running smooth as silk.

chibenz

Scared the hell out of me..any suggestions to avoid this problem so others dont have to deal with this..thanks and good luck with repairs.

Oxygen

I have no idea why it happened (yet)... I will be taking my old radiator back and I'll post here once I inspect it.

Oxygen

Yes - I told them the story, they said they will recharge and lubricate the compressor.

Oxygen

I ordered the S65 AMG radiator, today I found out that it's the same exact part number as the S600 radiator..

Oxygen

The SA kept saying "okay I'll give you a holla" at the end of every conversation.. I told him he can "give me a call instead" LOL

S500 Man

does he think your ghetto or something?i mean you drive an s600 for christ sakes....

illmeth0d

Wouldn't that mean same part number = same part ? so the amg radiator isn't different?

I think when you drive hard these kind of problems you have been experiencing are expected.

I know the s600 is fast but any car pushed around will be problematic. I think they build it for the odd time you push it to the limit not the constant pushing of limits. Kind of likes its there when you need it but sometimes if you keep going to the cookie jar its empty.

Oh yeah are you running the stock thermostat?

Quadcammer

I really can't imagine that AMG, a division known for blasting down the Autobahn at 3a.m. doing high speed testing, would build a car that can't withstand fairly constant punishment. In my opinion, these cars are built, and tested, to be run at WOT for hours on end.

That said, its a car, and cars break. Maybe the radiator had a weak spot or a bad weld, and finally let go.

Sometimes **** happens, so fix it and enjoy it.

GARY JAVO

Damn. Sorry to hear that. Knock on wood, mine has been rock solid so far, and I'm certainly not afraid to get in the throttle. Good luck with the fix and please let us know how it goes.

Oxygen

Correct... I looked up the part for the S65 AMG radiator and ordered it. When it came in yesterday, I looked up the part for the S600 and it was the same exact part number.

Prinz Eugen

Really sorry to hear of your problems. I always enjoy reading your posts about your S600 as it looks like you really like and truly enjoy the car . I hope you won't torch it in the end .

I saw that you had the ABC pump replaced also. Two big problems in a short time. Good thing you have a warranty.

This kind of stories scare me more than watching a horror movie . I have no warranty unfortunately (cannot have it here if not with a new car).

I hope you'll be able to find out what happened to the radiator ...

Oxygen

Car is ready for pickup, going there now.

They left me the old radiator in the trunk to inspect as I requested. Nice.

Quadcammer

good luck.

let me know if your AC noise is gone.

thanks

benz_addict

keep us updated man !

Oxygen

I've never been to this dealership and came here only because they were 3 miles away from where my mishap happened. They could not give me a loaner because those are only for "schedule service appointments".. and the *****y **** at the reception desk gives me a NASTY attitude when I told her that I was trying to get there as fast as possible, but was stuck in traffic. I begged her to wait 5 extra minutes for me.

I get there, get the car, it's dusty, dirty and has greasy hand prints on the hood. It's 6:15 already and no one to complain to. Okay so I take the car to my friends to inspect.

After about 5 minutes with this car this is what I find...

- Headlight bracket is snapped off on the passenger headlight.
- Driver's side airbox is not fully connected to the turbo charger. It was "just chillin" there...
- The pressure sensor on the driver's side airbox is not connected. Once again, just hanging out there.
- Coolant spilled all over the place, no attempt to clean up.
- Greasy/dirty finger prints on the dashboard from the cluster swap. Grease all over the plastic face of the new cluster.
- Cluster/Interior lighting is SUPER DIM. Can't adjust as the adjustment on the cluster has no effect.

Here's where it get's interesting...

I received my new European AMG cluster from Steve at MBenzNL yesterday, so when I got home I swapped the cluster. I found out why I could not adjust the lighting... there is a plastic frame around the cluster, that has the R button and the knob for brightness... well they guy working on my car obviously had no idea what he was doing, because he snapped one of the plastic tabs off the cluster and also broke the plastic rod from the knob to the actual cluster.

I took pictures of everything and I am preparing everything to bring over there.

newton22

Holy **** I scrolled down and for a split second thought that CLK was a silver S600. My heart skipped a beat.

cheez80

wow, that's unacceptable. here's to hoping they'll take care of everything.

hstmercedes

Really sorry to hear about your problem and the big(ger) headache having it repaired.

By any chance was this the Mercedes dealer on Northern Blvd. near the Throgs Neck bridge?

I'm in CT but want to know which dealers to avoid.....

Gondon

Ahh thats terrible

Oxygen

Yup.

Oxygen