Hi, I have a 2007 E63 with 100,000 miles. Best car I have ever had, hands down! I would like to own it for the next 100k miles. I have two general questions for the forum.

1. Do folks think the car can last until 200k miles without some catastrophic repair like having to replace an engine or something? The head bolt posts on these forums make me nervous.

2. What happens to amg's when they get that high mileage? I hardly see for sale listings for cars that old. I don't know if many people would buy a high maintenance performance car with that much mileage on it. Do the cars hit the wall at some point soon and get taken out back like Old Yeller? Or is there a resale market? Or do people never worry about this because the car won't last that long?

Any thoughts or experiences with high mileage amg's?

Thanks.

 

Have the head bolts changed if it makes you nervous. I'd imagine it will be cheaper now than when it blows your head gasket and potentially causes other issues. You could shop for the best deal or DIY. There is no reason it couldn't go 500k miles or more if you take good care and don't abuse the engine.

 

Agreed ^^

There is no set time limit on engines. It comes down to use vs abuse, preventative maintenance and the occasional hardware failure which can be hard to prevent.

 

I truly don't see any reason why not. I took my 2002 Audi B5 S4 from new up to 184,000 miles before selling it. When I sold it, I was still on the original turbos and the car needed nothing more than routine maintenance on longer term wear items. I would've dumped the money in and kept the car except after 9 years I wanted to look at a different dashboard. That car is still on the road.

 

Should be able to. Had a guy come through the shop a couple weeks ago and he had an E55 with 450,000km on it. Said he hasn't had to do anything with it outside of his service schedule.

 

If my wife's Pontiac Montana we just trashed made it to 198,500 miles with almost no maintenance, I can't see why the E63 maintained couldn't? I think I have read the E63 transmission is a tad weaker than the 55's? Maybe that would be the only concern??

 

E63 transmission isn't built to handle the torque the E55 puts out and since the E63 doesn't put out as much torque, it doesn't have any problems in the E63. There are mod kits to up the power and torque on that car, I just don't know what that does to the life of the transmission.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys! I'm still trying to figure out whether I should keep my E63 (preferred), or sell it before I can't keep up with the repair costs anymore. The preventative maintenance is a great point; unfortunately, it's personally a hard decision to sink in $1,500+ to replace those head bolts. I'll think about it some more.

I don't track my car or drive heavy, so I'm hoping the transmission sticks with me.

Thanks again.

 

depends on the driving conditions, location and servicing... But YES under the right circumstances.

 

if you've had good luck with the car and you really like it, keep it. just keep on top of scheduled maintenance and hope for the best. if there is some cash burning a hole in your pocket and you're looking to get something new, that's a different story. but i'd stick with the E63 if you really do like the car. maybe even trade it in for a 2011 model if you really like the M156 platform.

 

my work truck is a 97 Ram 2500 GAS (NOT DIESEL) w/ exactly 350k miles. Other than (2) rebuild trans and common maintenance, runs great, even does its own oil changes.

 

Lol!

 

You might want to find out the cost of repairs after a head bolt failure.
My understanding is that it is a corrosion problem and not related to maintenance or the way the car is driven.

 

Head bolt failure is rare, approx 20 reported failures mostly C63's, an SL63 and one E63 last time i looked. Lets say only one in five people mention it on the forum.... Out of the thousands and thousands of M156's made. Its just (very bad catastrophic) luck of the draw.

 

Hate to be the naysayer here, but these late model Benz cars simply do not have the quality of materials necessary to go those kinds of mileage. Trannies, AC evaps, and some electricals will make it cost prohibitive. They have done a superb job of capitalizing on the history of the old cars and their superior quality and durability. No more. Technology simply advancing too fast, and repairs and parts are cost prohibitive. Bean counters in charge now, not engineers.
If you expect to recover ANY money at all, you've got to get out now. Otherwise, you will own it forever. You may be OK with that, you just need to know.

 

Tell me what about a Mercedes or BMW isn't cost prohibitive? If there were people well off enough to purchase them, there will be those well off enough to maintain them into high mileage numbers.

Don't ever expect to recover money from a car - they are depreciating assets in 99.5% of cases, that cost money in repairs, insurance & gas. Best you can do is go and buy the cheapest & most basic POS you can find to run down your cost of ownership per mile. What fun would that be

 

^^ Yep.


I would think the people that drive cars like these who pay $2k for a brake job are the same people not worried about depreciation of a car.

 

At 145K miles I am sure I will go to 200K, no problem.

For the cost of the brake disk changes, I could go to solid front rotors and save $1K on my next brake change. However, keeping the 2 piece rotors is much cheaper than maintaining a second track day car.

The one thing I think many of these M156 engines will need is an intake manifold gasket change. I did mine recently. learned some tricks, but have not had the time to write up.

Since these miles are going on at the rate of 20K/yr, I avoid many potential issues. This includes having the car sit often allowing the lifter/tappets to bleed down. I have done engine oil analysis every for the last 80K miles with no significant wear indicated.

 

Hi, I have a 2007 E63 wagon. I bought it at 91k miles and the engine cratered at 94k. Not sure yet if it was the valvetrain, headbolt or other subpar quality part that let go.
Like you, I love the car and will probably rebuild the engine, after figuring out which crap design/manufacturing parts to replace with aftermarket items.
The M156, being an AMG design, does not appear to have gone through the full MB testing program. Like you, I don't see a lot (any?) high mileage E63's, which is probably an indication that they weren't made to last much beyond the warranty or original lease period.
If you're at 100k, my guess is that you're on borrowed time... At least change out the headbolts and look at the known valvetrain issues, before they give up the ghost.
Erik

 

Just curious, was that a W210 or W211?

 

a lot of these cars get totaled before they can get those miles ... I wonder how many are still on the road compared to how many manufactured ?

 

Why do people think Mercedes are low mileage cars? **** almost any car built in the last decade can make 200k with proper maintenance and the 200k number is just a stigma anyway. People have torn these motors down at 150k and have seen no wear.

 

If you can't handle a $1,500 maintenance expense, you shouldn't own any AMG or nicer luxury car for that matter.

Heck they depreciate more than that in 1 month for years and years.

 

when I was shopping for my amg Mercedes I found a bunch of high mileage e55s even found one with 230k miles... e63 not too many... I have 118k on mine...

 

My C55 had 220K miles on it when I totaled it last month. car ran like new. Only issue I had, that I was going to repair the weekend after I crashed it was, RR the RMS.
my wife's not so high performance SLK320 has just shy of 300K miles and only burns a quart every 10K miles. As long as you keep on top of maintenance and fix issues that are known to cause problems down the road (i.e. Headbolts). IMO any MB will run forever! if you are worried about resell go buy a toyota, or make sure you don't buy one new. I never buy new. the 04 E55 I pickedup was a fraction of the original window of $89k. I will say the newer models are holding values better. I was looking to replace the C55 with a C63 but couldn't find a decent one for less than $30K. If you are not or don't want to learn DIY these cars can be very expensive to maintain. but our membership is very helpful and it is easy to learn to work on these cars if you have the right tools.