kcobean

Hey all, just picked up a beautiful 2008 E63 AMG yesterday. Enjoying the car a lot so far. Of course, no 10 year old car comes without issues....

My wife was driving it last night and within about 15 minutes the CEL came on. I pulled the code and it's P0170, fuel trim, both banks. It seems that dirty MAF sensor is a common issue with these cars, so today I pulled the MAF sensors and sprayed them both down with MAF sensor cleaner and reinstalled. Cleared the code and went and put a few miles on it and so far the CEL is off, but we'll see. Both front marker lights are bad too. Little stuff.

On my list of "to-do's" is oil and coolant (it says it's a few days past B service according to the computer. Any other "must check/do" items y'all would recommend?

Racin_fool

check to see if it ever had the headbolts replaced. Check with the past owner or a dealership VMI if it might have been done at a dealership.

tw2

Also check the cams and lifters if there is no evidence the head bolts were done already.

6172crew

Transmission service at 40,000 miles is another one.

hachiroku

how many miles on her?

Doug427

I've read many times that these E63's have head bolt issues, but what exactly is the issue? Do they break, come loose....what happens? What issues does it cause, and why does it happen? What is the fix for it? After reading about it so many times I'm just curious as to what the issue is.

Thanks!

hachiroku

a google search as well as forum search will give you all the information you need. most of those threads have addressed all answers you may have.

some threads are over 100 pages. so you're not asking a simple question.

kcobean

This one has 110K miles on it, so 40K was a LONG time ago. I think there are some service records in the Carfax report. I'll look there and see if there's any indication of if/when it was done and will check with my local dealer. Thanks!

Redwood415

Oil quality and frequency of oil changes is absolutely critical for those motors, so as not to exacerbate any issues with cam lobes / followers..
Mobil1 15W50 is all I run and have had other motors well past 320K miles with zero issues..

kcobean

Interesting. I think the manual indicates a 5W40. Do you live where it gets cold? I'd think the 15 would be awful thick on cold startups in the winter.

Redwood415

California, we can run 15W50 all year. It will RARELY drop below 35 or 40 here even in the dead of winter.
If I was in the East I would probably roll with the 5 or 15W40

6172crew

Long story short is the original head bolts can fail, break or pop the heads off enough to allow the head gasket to fail and the engine will ingest coolant and bend a rod or three before you can do much about it. If you have that many miles I’d think you are safe. If you were wanting to throw some $$ into the head bolts you may want to look at a valve service at the same time. I’m not sure if you are a DIY type person but removing the valve covers and inspecting the tips of the intake cams would tell you a lot about the other owner and if the car was taken care of. Watching the M156 YouTube videos will explain the cam issue. Assuming you are willing to spend the time or money on the inspection then you can do the transmission, engine mounts, etc. mounts fail at 40k from what my benz tech buddy says. I’m sure yours have been replaced at least once, unless the car was neglected.

cetialpha5

MB specs a 229.5 oil which is only in 0w40 or 5w40 for Mobil 1. I believe your other oils don't meet MB 229.5 specs.

oneslow55

I wouldn’t go past 7500 for a oil change if the car is driven little hard and normal ,and 5 k of driven hard all the time!Those 10 intervals are insane they call for

cetialpha5

Did you do a used oil analysis? People send them to blackstone labs all the time and it's fine with 10k oil changes. Remember in Europe, they sometimes do 15-25k oil changes. Everyone in the US is just used to changing it every 3k when they're just throwing out perfectly good oil. MB even used to recommend 13k oil changes but I guess owners were too freaked out over the that so it got lowered to 10k.

hachiroku

This isn't a BMW...you shouldn't need to run such a heavy weight oil unless you plan to thrash your engine on the track for long periods of time. Even at that point running a GOOD synthetic oil will provide adequate protection assuming your oil pressures do not drop.

Solo wing

This is from Mercedes fluid specs site:
http://bevo.mercedes-benz.com/bevoli...?language_id=1

I wonder if the M156 clearances are tight or if it's due to catalytic converter warranty and ZDDP stuff? Anyway, 5w-40 is what I use. Used 10w-60 once, it was almost like honey and the weather gets insanely hot in here -> 50c.
Finally, check the belt and the pulleys, these engines go thru them like there's no tomorrow.

billy smart

Be ready to buy intake manifold or go ahead and add Magnuson supercharger. Faults will return once it has idled long enough. Can check with smoke machine. I would also see if pumps and sender have been replaced by campaign.

bbirdwell

Put the car on a lift and check the following:
-Flex discs and center support bearing and bracket on the driveshaft. Any cracks in the discs, replace it all while you have the driveshaft out.
-All ball joints and bushings front and rear plus the tie rod ends up front. YouTube has videos on how to check the ball joints. A bad ball joint will destroy tires and make your car unsafe to drive.

SleepersRock

I had the same issue after I bought mine. Drove it back to the Bay Area from LA and the CEL came one with the exact same code P0170 code. Tired cleaning the MAF, but the code kept coming back. Turned out to be the manifold gasket and bolts were shot. You can check for this by taking the air boxes off and seeing if the manifold bolts are loose. You may need Torx Screw set for this. I bought a set from Autozone. Typically the bolts in the front to the block will be looser than the ones in the back. You can hand tighten them enough to pass smog if need be, but the bolts and the gasket will need to be replaced. You can also replace the head bolts while you have everything out which is what I did.

kcobean

Thanks for the tip. It's been a week now and the light hasn't come back on, so I think the cleaner did the trick.

hachiroku

my friend had the same issue and repaired it 3 times...it got to a point where he got fed up and sold the car...

i personally have never experienced this.