2009 E63 P30, 108k miles, head bolts done by the PO at the dealer

Very much like my 09 E63. My daily driver. I put about 15-18k miles/year on it. Have made some hefty investments in the car over the past few months - some cosmetic, some mechanical upgrades, some necessary but costly repairs.

Cosmetic - about $6k
My front bumper cover was showing wear and tear from 100k miles, so I bought a new MB bumper cover and all fasteners and chrome corner strips (after market cover was never a consideration) and had it painted. Re-used the Parktronic sensors. Bought new fog lights, new lower fog light grille surrounds and new lower center mesh grille. New hood grille. Also bought a new set of Hella OEM headlights because my plastic lenses were showing age and "while the bumper cover is of...". I previously bought a pair of headlight lenses and will install them on the used set of headlights and keep them as spares. After the paint cured on the bumper cover, I had PPF installed as well as Lamin-X film covers for the headlights and fog lights.

Mechanical Upgrades and Repair items - about $9k
I had noticeable cam adjuster rattle at start up. I knew my adjuster plates were galling out from the pins in the cam phasers. I bought a set of aftermarket hardened and coated adjuster plates, pins and ARP cam bolts (the MB cam bolts are one-time use bolts). As M156 owners are aware, MB does not sell cam adjuster plates separately - you have to buy the entire cam adjuster gear assemblies. The PO, when he had MB replace the head bolts, had new valve lifter cups installed, but I wanted better, so "while we had the valve train out" I replaced the lifter cups with SLS Black Series lifters. Fortunately, my cam lobes were in good shape. Replaced 8 fuel injectors and spark plugs. I also had smoke at start-up and wanted to fix this embarrassing issue. The PCV or crankcase breather valve is know to easily rupture on the M156 allowing oil to pass into the intake manifold with vented crank gasses. This oil accumulates in the IM and when the car is parked, the oil settles to the rear of the IM and eventually oil makes its way into the combustion chambers (particularly #8) and you get oil burn at start up. So, I replaced the shot PCV valve and the shop opened up the IM to clean out the oil residue inside. While the IM was taken apart, other issues were revealed. The IM is made up of the 3 main components - the upper IM shell (that you see when you open the hood and that has the little AMG engine builder's name plate glued to it), a middle IM plate that holds the two throttle bodies and the lower IM plenum that sits in the block V-valley. All three of these main parts are made of magnesium, which corrodes relatively easily when exposed to things like heat and oil and fuel.....The center TB plate corrodes to a point where holes appear in the perimeter of the plate. This is common enough that there are aftermarket steel plates sold on eBay. My lower plenum was also showing signs of corrosion and the two rear bolt tabs were snapped off (probably from a ham handed MB mechanic). Luckily my shop had a couple M156 parts engines and we took a lower plenum as a donor and had it ceramic coated to provide corrosion resistance. Moving on, I had Black Series motor mounts and tranny mount installed. Rear MB air bags were replaced with Arnott bags and a new air pump (I had replaced my front MB air springs last year with Arnotts). Finally, I replaced all four Keyless Go door handles I bought a couple years ago in my body color.

So the above is about $15k in the last 6 months and doesn't count a new set of Michelins and TPMS sensors last week @ $1,500 and full set of new brake rotors/pads @ another $1,300 or so early last year.

Big investments, but a car I do enjoy and will drive for many years. It's a shame about some of the engine related issues - head bolts, lifter cups, cam adjuster gears, magnesium IM corrosion and PCV valve. But, all high performance cars have their trouble areas.

 

Most excellent information that will be of use to others. *If* I were to sell my E55, my first choice would be another E55, then a W211 E63. Information such as yours above makes it easier for me to evaluate my options.

I still think, "Who chose magnesium for the intake manifold?" It probably seemed like a good idea at the time...

EDIT: Interesting list of cars that you own. There's a 500SEC parked at my local Indy shop; beautiful lines on that car.

 

Definitely not cheap to maintain these cars but they do offer a great driving experience and even after repairs/maintenance they seem a much less expensive option than a new car. Not too many high revving NA V8s left.

N

 

Since owning my 07 E63, I have spent a ton of money, more so than the car is worth. But, I love the E63 and the M156 engine. Although, I have replaced similar things as you, my list is a little more extensive; battery, radiator, expansion tank, upper/lower oil pan, engine &tranny mount, lower control arms, head bolts, lifters, oil dipstick tube, oil cooler line o-rings, air compressor, front air struts, rear air springs, air distribution block, idler pulleys, belt tensioner, spark plugs, serpentine belt, headlight covers, IM gaskets, valve cover gaskets, cam adjuster gaskets, and new rotors and brakes, wheels and tires. I think that covers all the mechanical stuff, minus a few odds and ends.

Then, I spent a bit load more on cosmetic stuff like carbon fiber splitter, roof spoiler, trunk spoiler and rear diffuser.

Now to the interior; new Alcantara steering wheel, full carbon fiber trim, instrument cluster. Now to the stereo; alpine amps, Audison digital sound processor, focal speaker, JL Audio Subwoofer, db tweeters. All in, I have about $26-28k invested into this car.

So, I especially understand the passion with these cars. 🤔

 

Yuille,

I can totally understand why you'd invest the money in the car. It's a unique driving experience and a somewhat rare car - not a financial investment. Your car sounds *awesome*. What could you get that's better for the price? Not much if you want a powerful NA luxury sedan in great condition. That's barely above new corolla money - what a lot of car for the small difference!

For me the question is how do you insure the car? Is it on a collectors policy? I tried to put my E63 on my Hagerty policy but they didn't deem it a collectors car. It would suck to spend $10k over what a car is worth and then get a fraction of that paid back if it's totaled through someone else's negligence.

N

 

That is always a worry for me, I have too much money invested into this car, than what it’s worth. Insurance would only give me what’s the cars residual value is about $9k. But the car is worth more to me than that. If I had to place a value, it’s worth about $25k to me.

The only thing that, I haven’t changed yet if fuel injectors. But there aren’t any issues with them yet.

I truly have a fond appreciation for AMG’s, I have owned three of them with the M156 engine.

I would love to own a CLK63 BS. 😁