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What's an S Class ownership experience without an Airmatic failure? This is the first time I had a strut blow while I was driving it. Steering got a little squirrly but I was able to nurse it home.
It's at MB now, also getting a dash cluster display since it keeps going dark for no reason. I think this will put me into the black on the $4500 CPO extended warranty. She's got exactly one year of eligibility left.
It did look pretty mean lowered but the ride is completely degraded. It bounces around like my kid's 1999 Civic.
You talk highly about warranty extensions when buyers ask about pre owned S Classes and your warranty extension justifies when it comes to such glitches like this .
I am glad you got it covered
You talk highly about warranty extensions when buyers ask about pre owned S Classes and your warranty extension justifies when it comes to such glitches like this .
I am glad you got it covered
I'm a strong advocate of having the CPO extended warranty on for the duration of my ownership. On previous S Class I've gone 3rd party, which was a bigger hassle as far as getting repairs authorized and paying the deductible but ultimately was a smart buy, and I've gone self-insured and gotten killed.
I think, if you have the option, extended CPO is the most painless choice. If not eligible for CPO, then a good exclusionary warranty like Dave has.
well lucky you got the warranty. even my warranty company doesnt cover the repair of the strut. my next car for sure im looking into cpo extended warranty.
She was so low in the front he couldn't get the stinger under it to grab the front wheels, and the jack was too tall. He had to get the rears on dollys and that gave him enough room to jack up the front.
Mike,
You're scaring me. I was hoping to run my S550 for 3 years from 67k to the high 90's without a really major repair ( hoping is the key word, I will eventually get caught out and pay). I managed to avoid disaster with my 2005 VW Phaeton for 3 years, just one $500 repair and lots of maintenance ($3,000). I even managed to re-sell it for about $2,000 less than I paid almost 3 years earlier. No way will I be able to repeat that with this car, I expect it will be worth $14,000 30 months from now.
The S is a strange mix of nice materials, construction, and really well engineered performance, coupled with some lack of consideration on durability and modes of component failure.
Should one component in the optical ring of dashboard components cause all of them to fail to function? How about a filter on the torque converter or alter its design to avoid killing the transmission when it fails. How about some continuous product improvement.
These things affect resale, which, in turn affects ownership costs and lease rates.
A few grand for 3 years of CPO seems like a deal. I see some posts with S550s above 100k, and minimal issues, but it seems pretty typical to have a major issue.
You seemed to go a long way with only minor issues, now with 84k, strut failure and the cluster. And it's possible if one strut fails, the other may be close behind. And maybe that stresses the pump, and so it goes. And there's always the Mercedes torque converter that eventually grenades, sending a stream of flak into the transmission. Next time, if there is a next time, I think I'll go CPO.
Cary
2009 S550 AMG sport pckg. 2014 Ford F-150 Lariat Supercrewcab
Originally Posted by MrRat
Mike,
You're scaring me. I was hoping to run my S550 for 3 years from 67k to the high 90's without a really major repair ( hoping is the key word, I will eventually get caught out and pay). I managed to avoid disaster with my 2005 VW Phaeton for 3 years, just one $500 repair and lots of maintenance ($3,000). I even managed to re-sell it for about $2,000 less than I paid almost 3 years earlier. No way will I be able to repeat that with this car, I expect it will be worth $14,000 30 months from now.
The S is a strange mix of nice materials, construction, and really well engineered performance, coupled with some lack of consideration on durability and modes of component failure.
Should one component in the optical ring of dashboard components cause all of them to fail to function? How about a filter on the torque converter or alter its design to avoid killing the transmission when it fails. How about some continuous product improvement.
These things affect resale, which, in turn affects ownership costs and lease rates.
A few grand for 3 years of CPO seems like a deal. I see some posts with S550s above 100k, and minimal issues, but it seems pretty typical to have a major issue.
You seemed to go a long way with only minor issues, now with 84k, strut failure and the cluster. And it's possible if one strut fails, the other may be close behind. And maybe that stresses the pump, and so it goes. And there's always the Mercedes torque converter that eventually grenades, sending a stream of flak into the transmission. Next time, if there is a next time, I think I'll go CPO.
Cary
I plan on keeping mine forever or at least until the transmission or engine grenades. The rest i can fix. I had an 03 e320 and got rid of it at 190k miles. The major thing with car was the sensotronic brake control. It was awesome when it worked but if it failed you had to press the pedal down hard as hell just to get it to start slowing down. Luckily i had it replaced on a 10 year warranty. Thing still ran awesome but thats because i had replaced literally everything on it but the engine and transmission and did religious maintenance on it. Just got bored of it. Spent 5k on it in 11 years on parts. This car will probably be more but i think it will go well over 100k . I can manage to change all 4 struts for 2k if i get them remanufactured from arnott and put them in myself. And then about 1500 -2000 in suspension parts like bearings, bushings, upper/lower control arms etc. and it should drive good as good as new for at aleast another 10 years. Plus ive spent about 1700 on it so far so 5700 and i bet itll hold up for 10 years. Then by that time ill have saved up enough to get a w222 or newer or a SL63 AMG
Last edited by Nickthegreek; 12-07-2015 at 10:43 PM.
With proper maintenance the engine should hold up. On the electronics side, I've been looking at picking up a star compatible diagnostics tool with a dell 630. On the transmission I've been looking at the possibility of adding a trans filter, there were some threads I've seen on a Chrysler site where the filter caught the fragments of a failed torque converter and the transmission survived it. The strut failure is not tragic and and I've done struts twice before, with a not so great spring compressor, so the air strut may not be terrible to swap out.
But,
About $700 for the star xd4, and the transmission, front diff, driveshaft and transfer case is a worry. We really have no idea how poorly the cars are driven. I'm always gentle with it when fluids are not up to temp. Ill lay into it sometimes but I don't beat it to death. I've done track days with other cars but this is not the car for that.
If I get caught out on a transmission replacement, I'd be inclined to keep the car a few years more, since that's the killer expense. It would be nice to skip that expense, as Mike noted, on resale, the trans replacement adds zero.
Also, your mechanical skills far exceed mine. I haven't done wheel bearings since high school, and that was last Century. I'm not pressing in control arm bushings.
So far I "fixed" a noisy secondary air pump that sounded like it had a dry bearing. I used this wurth lubricant that's supposed to dry to a film and provide long term lubrication. I purchased it to try and deal with some squeaky bushings that would only make noise in extremely cold weather on the VW Phaeton I had. So far, the noisy pump is still quiet.
I'd take the heat and sun over snow any day. I guess that's why I migrate to FL so often. I'll be driving down there for a week in about 2 1/2 weeks.
Bring the 600. Stop at the Cracker Barrell on I75 in Gainesville for a nice lunch and don't get a seat near the window. Also, that Cracker Barrell has Valet parking, so just give the guy your key and enjoy a long lunch. No tipping at that particular valet stand but they really appreciate a full tank of gas.
12-05-2015, 12:05 PM
