Took a lengthy test drive in an '05 S55 AMG. 108k miles, Pewter on black interior with heated and cooled seats(cooling was inoperable), Distronic(inoperable),Rear sunshade(worked but was malfunctioning),Four place seating, Four zone climate control. Needed Pentosin topped up for the ABC pump to quit groaning and whining. Otherwise a very clean car.

Brutal is the only thing I can say about the acceleration! Brutal. My first time driving a 500hp car freely and without restraint. Euphoric and visceral when I used kickdown in 2nd and 3rd gears..

There were one or two times when I felt the torque was a little too much for round town passing, I never thought id see the day when less torque and more smooth would be better for me.

I daily drive a '00 S500 and of course am gonna be comparative. What the 500 has that the 55K doesnt is heavier, thicker, better quality feeling doors. Feels like a thick and wholesome clink and thud when I open and close the doors of the 500.
The 55K's doors felt light, flimsy and cheap feeling compared to the Series 1 car. I prefer heavier and thicker feeling things in my hand, others wont mind the light and feather-light doors in the Series 2 car but I do.

The 55K had a sloppy gear selector from the shaft, the knob was on tight(Keyless Go knob). The 500's knob and shaft are solid feeling.

The 55K's wiper stalk was flimsy as well, i flicked the left stalk to use the indicator and the Distronic stalk on the right wobbled, also Distronic didnt work(in retrospect I shouldve wiped the radar and grille clean, it was dirty).

What it had that my car NEEDS is the Alcantara headliner, leather wrapped dash, leather wrapped door panels and wood on the oh sh*+ handles. Such a nice place to spend time.
The seats were more plush than the 500's too.
Also liked the rear headrest power raise and lower feature(thought that was 600 specific).
Head unit looked way better and fresher too which I already knew.

What I didnt know was how powerful the brakes were! I could do so much with brakes like those! I figured the factory Brembos on the 500 were sufficient, but not with 500hp!
How do the folks with Biturbo 600s live with the "small" brakes' ability to scrub off runway speeds?!?

To sum it up what my NEEDS right now is an M113 55K motor, 55K brakes, Alcantara headliner, leather dash/door panels, and '03 headlights to be the perfect car!

I cant fathom what a tuned 600 or 65 feels like :-]

When I got back in my S500 I actually didnt feel like I was missing out, yes the 200hp/200tq difference was noticeable but once over 4k rpm the M113 E50 motor's two stage AMG intake manifold opens the butterfly flaps and releases enough power for passing and being a hooligan without the insane brutality of the M113 E55K's motor.

Obviously theres a time and place for everything. Gimme the brutal motor all. day.

 

Also the 55 didnt mind smoking both rear tires while dancing to the right all thru 1st gear and a little through 2nd. Seems like it had a sport diff? The 500's diff is open for days...

 

The 55's paddle shifters were really convenient, much better than taking a hand off the wheel to downshift before a corner.

Also liked when I pressed the ABC button, the information center in the cluster said "ABC Comfort" "ABC Sports" which was cool.

Didnt think the Series 2 information font was as upscale as the Series 1's. Also why is there no redline marker on the S55K's cluster!?

 

Those brakes also cost $5000 to do all 4 pads and rotors , compared to under $1000 for the s500

 

The brakes are just the start of it. That pretty ABC cluster notification will rape your wallet when it goes bad. The bi-pump whining is not a good sound but one that is costly. Anything that is AMG related is expensive, Just for fun call the dealer up and ask them now much for the AMG sign on the front seat backs are worth. That hopping under hard acceleration eats up the rear tires in less than 10K miles and replacement cost for the rear Michelin SS are around $400+ each. It goes on and on. If you at all serious get a PPI done. Don't try to save the $200. Get some service records. No service records - then steal the car or walk away. That's part of the bad stuff. I know what I'm talking about because I was there - no PPI, no service records and after 18 months a wallet that looked like it had gone 15 rounds with Ali in his hey day.

All that being said when I wasn't paying my Indie Gobs of money, that 18 months was the most fun I ever had with my pants on. Stupid smile on your face all the time.

I've found another one with 55000 miles and I'm semi seriously considering going to take a look. How stupid could I be?

 

I wouldn't spend one cent on ABC, id pull it and sell or toss it, find some S500 swaybars and a strutmasters conversion. LOL

This car was at a dealer, he was asking 15k, i got him down to ~13k out the door. No records.. I raped it during test drive then ran away!

Id find used AMG rotors with new pads, used matching set of tires.. champagne taste with beer pocket and a ton of ambition!

 

Is that what the dealer told you? Topping up ABC fluid is both trivial and essential. If the fluid is low, the engine should never be started, as it WILL damage the pump. Topping it up will not make the noise go away. My money says he already tried that, and it made no difference.

I don't like dissing other cars, but there are lots of warning signs with this one.

ABC can be made reliable and dependable.

Nick

 

2005 S55 new rotors and pads costs 300.00 for all four wheels at rockauto.

 

No thats what I told the dealer, he had no idea. I literally spelled it out for him on a piece of paper(maybe he was playing dumb??).

Rockauto is now on my list of sites to use for parts!

 

I was mistaken it's not the s55 it's the newer s63 that's $5500-9000 for a brake job

https://mbworld.org/forums/s55-amg-s65-amg-s63-amg-w220-w221/569509-brake-job-cost-2008-s63-amg.html

 

It sounds to me like it would cost $10k to $15k in addition to the purchase price to put the car completely right. Only you can determine if it is worth that much. I will say I have never had to fix something on my S65 more than once. On the W220 only the S65 brakes cost $5k to replace pads and rotors. I am getting about 30% greater mileage on the rear tires since I replaced the 275's with 285's.
FWIW my S65 is tuned to over 800ft-lb of torque, I can spin the rear wheels but they have never hopped. It may suggest something else is wrong in the ABC or suspension attachments on this car.

 

There was no wheel hopping at all. It lit up both tires and went sideways. Id consider this car for myself if it were silver on black and had records.

Are there any known catastrophic failures with the stock unmodified 55k engines? Can it be as reliable as a regular non sc M113? Ive never seen any with more than 205k miles.

 

There have been some unmodified 55k engine failures . Not many but it has happened

 

Not enough fueling, rod failure? What are the weak points of this motor?

 

It seems the failures occur during kickdown at top of 3rd gear (~130mph) @ 6500rpm.

Remedy is to back off the kickdown switch and let it shift sooner so it doesnt lean out and throw a rod...

 

The 55k engine is pretty much bullet proof. The trans is the weak point (other than ABC). If I keep my s55, I plan to do a strut conversion, with s500 sway bars. I'll probably throw some stiff springs on too! Overall, if you DIY, they aren't that bad in terms of cost. But they are $100k cars to start, so they have $100k car repairs.

 

engines don't throw rods because they run lean....they detonate (pre-ignition) when they are lean which damages the piston face/ring lands. An un-modified 55K motor should never run lean at any rpm or throttle position unless there's a vac leak somewhere.

One can only assume they have the same failure rate as the W212 platform which really isn't that high when running the proper A/F.

 

I mean no personal disrespect, but when Mercedes dealers start to become more trustworthy and believable, then perhaps you can get up on your high horse and expect Mercedes owners and prospective Mercedes buyers to be the same. Until then it is a question of "As ye sow so shall ye reap". I could go on and on about "Stealerships" and crooked dealer but what is the point?

 

Im sorry you feel that way but I was driving by when I saw and facelift 220 in my perifery with "V8 Kompressor" on the fender, had to pull in! Walked around the car for a minute until the salesman greeted me.

Asked him a few pertinent questions, if he didnt know the answer he was just winging it which was obvious, had him start it up, was ticking noticeably, asked him more pertinent questions, he was winging it, that was then when I decided I wanted to drive this car, HARD!

If its any consolation, the salesman had the porter/lot washer come along with me while he stayed at the buy here pay here lot.

C3deuce, that makes sense! Hopefully the common P0410 evap leak these M113s experience wont cause pre-ignition.
Thats an elusive code which is hard to fix on the 430..still fighting to get rid of that code. Cleaned the gunk out of the egr tube with an accelerator cable and still nothing, maybe a smoke test is in order!

 

+1!

You should also go check out that S55 w/55000 miles just to see if its worthy of your ownership.

 

Ahh gotcha. So it wasn't a brand dealer, it was a Buy here pay here. I apologize.

 

I always thought evap codes were fuel system (gas cap) related...

 

Thank God it's 250 miles away Vmax7. I'm sorry if I offended anyone it's just that "holier than you/I'm perfect" sorta sticks in my craw.

 

No worries Nashville sometimes you cant pass up an opportunity even if it may put a spoke in another person's day. Thats life.

C3Deuce I may be wrong my saying the P0410 code which reads a clogged egr pipe have anything to do with the evap system, probably was a poor choice of words. I remember my old 850 Turbo threw a code for the evap canister purge valve, related to the fuel system.

The p0410 code points to a faulty secondary air injection system too, like the air pump is faulty.
I dont think a faulty air pump will cause a motor to sustain damage under load..come to think of it, the 55k doesnt have an air pump! Correct me if im wrong.

Mrbobby, 250 miles wouldnt stop me LOL whats the color combo of this car? Yes that kinda attitude grinds my gears too but its only the internet and everyone wont be pleased by my actions so no biggie.

 

Hey VMax, we're close in Florida (Naples for the winter) however this babe is with a used car dealer about 400 miles due east of Detroit (Toronto Canada). Yes it is a Canadian version but the Canadian and American are identical except of the speedo and stickers.

On this page (wwa.autotrader.ca/cars/mercedes-benz/s-class/on/kingsville/?prx=500&prv=Ontario&loc=N9Y+3X4&sts=New-Used&oRng=%2c100000&yRng=%2c2006&hprc=True&wcp=Tru e) you'll find a number of S55's. Remember mileage is shown in Kilometers (to convert to miles multiply the Kilometers by .6 for a rough mileage.

You don't see too many S55s with less than 40,000 miles in the US.