I had one of those so called called main dealer checks when i took in my old Honda accord for an airbag recall. They produced a massive list of things that they said needed doing. My M.O.T was due the following week so I put the car in with local independent guy. He looked at the sheet and declared most of it nonsense. They had also missed a completely knackered front suspension lower arm!
The naive seem to forget that main dealer service departments have rigorous sales targets placed on them just like the new car sales department has. These 'free' health checks are just a way of drumming up business, nothing more and nothing less!
Had a very similar experience with my local Lexus dealer after buying a very cheap '01 GS300. I'd had a run of old Lexus and had a good relationship with them so asked them to check an EML that kept popping up. Long story short, the car was worth more as scrap according to them. Popped along to my local independent who sorted the issue in about 10 minutes. He also looked at who'd done the dealer report and said "Used to work with him. He should know better".
Ive been using the same independent guy for years. I unfortunately had to use the guys at my workplace once for a tyre change (i work at a large car dealer) the mechanic tore my old car to bits, producing a massive list and of course an estimate of the costs to put it right. I know my car and knew it was nonsense, so next MOT me and my mechanic had a jolly old time going through their list while my car was on a ramp and laughed at them being utter scumbags
True. I took my Y reg c200 elegance to my main dealer and they wouldn't even look at the car. Made me sit in the reception, "while an engineer became available" and after being ignored for half an hour I left.
I was loaned one of these cars by a friend a few years ago. He had more cars than space to park them, and he was a generous man who got pleasure from sharing great cars with other petrol heads. Other than the CL500 he loaned me an XKR and a V8 Vantage - each for a month at a time. All great cars, but the CL500 was the one I was least keen to borrow. It was also the only one I didn’t want to give back. I said to him that it wasn’t a car, it was a spaceship with an orchestra in the boot. It was so quiet and effortless it was like being teleported in silence between destinations and the audio system 😍 It is a car that doesn’t grab you from the outside like the XKR or Vantage. But once you have driven one …
@@2icelollys1goat You could always have offered to do it cheaper! 🙂 Genuine question then, from someone who's not clued up on Merc ABC, what do you reckon it should've cost?
Deja vu. I had the same issues with my CL when I bought it; the sump and the front ball joints. Get the sump sorted. It will leak. It is made of paper thin steel and will go soon. Mine did not look as bad as yours and started leaking. Same for the front joints. You can do it yourself in an afternoon, just have some map gas to hand and maybe consider having replaceable grub screws (4 of them) for the bottom of the shock. They tend to cease and are a bit of a pig. While you are in there, replace all you can. It's relatively inexpensive. You will do that job in your garage for less than £250 and it will feel much better to drive when done.
I replaced the gearbox sump on a 2007 E350 with the 7G box with the cheapest Ebay sump - about £60 with a new gasket and it was fine. Febi do W220 and CL front arms for about £150 a pair and you may find they are Merc parts with the logo and part numbers ground off.
The part I'm most surprise about is that MB don't stock parts for that car already. They used to keep spares for their cars right back to the year dot.
With the ability to order parts and have them delivered overnight, it doesn't make financial sense to keep a large number of replacement parts for numerous models in stock. It ties up a lot of money because the parts could be sitting on the shelves for what could be potentially months or years before they are needed.
@@williamegler8771 I probably didn't get my point across well. What I kind of meant is that you could get them, even if they had to order. I'm not sure that's the case any more.
Looks like you've landed on your feet this time Jack, those ball joints are £25 each on eBay; I replaced them both on my R129 in a couple of hours after a bit of a fight.
The CL500 is a fantastic used car and in my experience so far has not followed the trend of breaking the bank in repairs. mine came with ABC deleted on coilovers but i absolutely love my CL and i also paid quite a lot more than you for my example
mechanic here, i'm struggling to see excess play on those joints, but the clip is a bit short... anyway, a man of your talent will be able to do them for about £100 [vid please] undershields only slightly affect the car's balance at over 80mph, it's mainly noise they supress looks like you bought a good old smoker this time, fingers crossed keep it up young man
My local Volvo dealer charges £150 per hour and that's their minimum charge for diagnostic work. On a recent service they advised I needed a track rod end. Their quote - £414! I also needed trailing arm bushes which they quoted over £600 , to replace. Had bushes and track rod done by my local garage for under £600 including alignment The difference is that main dealers have a shiny showroom to pay for and staff earning much more than the local guys pay
When I drove Mercedes I always used an Independent in Gloucester Robin Lamb. I've known Robin since 1991 when he was service manager at the local main dealer. Definitely speak with them as they are really good and reasonable on labour rates.I remember when I owned a 190E Robin was at the main dealers when my car was serviced. They picked up on service that the exhaust manifold had a crack which was a £400 job. He told me not to bother fixing it as it was a common thing and would not cause any issues. I never had it done and did another 30,000 miles before selling the car quite happily (in those days there wasn't an independent locally). I know in the past that Richard Ashcroft and Steve Winwood among others used him rather than a main dealer for maintaining their cars. His labour rate currently is £60 an hour. If you decide to contact him tell him Les Abbott sent you.
I speak fluent cat ( see avatar ) Believe me when I say that cat is mighty peed off that good money is repeatedly being spent on old tin boxes when it should be spent on Dreamies . When you know, you know .
Had a CL600 same shape. 2004 car. Your hydraulic boot closer needs to be reset in the Ecu. It pulls the boot lid closed and when not working properly the boot will never close flush without it working correctly. It's the button on the drivers door. Needs an ecu programmer to reset properly. (assuming of course that the hardware itself is working correctly).
I took my c220d 2012 to merc main dealer in 2015 for mot still under warranty no faults. One year later , I took it back for service over £3000.00 IN faults. So I took it to an independent passed mot no faults in 2022 sold car to jag as part Ex they said the merc was in excellent condition.
My S500L, Yes R7MBA went to the main dealer last week. I gave in had the ABS pump replaced with a brand new one. While there I asked them to carry out an MOT..! Well, obviously it failed, on a balljoint , plus windscreen water washer spray, which wasn’t as good as it could be. Not bad for a Mercedes 17 year old barge. Wanted just under a grand on top of the 2k, I paid for the pump and ran. Had the extra work done for £400, including the retest. Not paying £145 plus vat for labour, unless I need to.
CL a 24 year old design that still looks modern-beautiful, and not dated. Many of us fell in love with it seeing it as the safety car back in 2000. Michael's first championship win with ferrari.
It's a great car that is sublime when all is well. However it has the ability to drain your bank account - so the majority of motorists remain well clear of such vehicles.
It's a "consumable" at this time, put it in a barn somewhere and leave it sit for 50 or so years, maybe then it's valuable. I think of all the nice old cars we cut up to make "bush bashers" in the 50's and 60's as young kids.
Hi Mark .. rear boot lid and passenger has had a rear shunt.. the close up of the badge showed this.. body filler used to give a strange edge to boot lid and quarter.. so a body shop not fixed possible bent hinges..boot lid sitting high.. cheerio
Never had a really positive experience with my local Sytner dealership. Found an excellent independent BMW garage, no silly prices, knowledgeable staff and virtually the same service. Happy.
Second hand undertrays can be a nightmare to deal with. Big, bulky, fragile and often cracked. I’d be tempted to put fresh ones on if they are necessary. They might not be though.
Those labour rates are a .....joke. A mechanic on 40 hours a week is making them over 300 grand a year in labour. NO mechanic is worth that unless they are giving you a 200 grand car.
It's the price into which they calculate all their overheads of their well-equipped shop, their admin etc. Add all that up and at the end of the year, their profit margin will be below 5 per cent of all they are billing.
Lovely cars Mercs and can give you years of trouble free driving if serviced and maintained properly. The trick is to find an independent Merc specialist who will look after your car as if it was their own but still use original MB parts and service schedules. We were lucky enough to find David Stannard who owns Merc Services in Morden and was previously a Manager at Geyfords an established Merc dealership that went out of business many years ago. His team looked after my wife’s beloved 2003 CLK 200 for several years and we only got rid of it because of the impracticality of a 2door coupe. Swapped it for a C200 Sport saloon in 2012 which is still growing strong. No issues apart form the usual tyre and brake replacements and sails through its MOTs. Some cosmetic work needed on the alloy wheels and bumper which will be addressed soon but apart from poor fuel consumption no other complaints. Solid Merc petrol engine too instead of the inferior Renault diesel version
How about the boys at SPR Auto Mercedes for a potential assist for stuff you can't manage in your driveway? Love their channel, they seem very straight ahead stand up guys.
I've got an old 2008 Mercedes E Class, nothing has ever gone wrong since I bought it new. Brilliant car, with a massive range and 51 mpg economy on a run, no rust either.
Hilarious ! Jack cheerfully advises us "don't worry, there's likely to be plenty of pain and expense shortly" .... as if that's why we watched his channel !! 😂
What a motor! Remember going to motor show when they were new and being amazed sitting in the car, it just felt like pure luxury. I had a main dealer safety free check on my BMW 630i ( 2006 140k miles ) - only amber tick was for minor lacquer lifting on alloy wheels 😮 All down to good owners previously and proper servicing over the years which I will keep up. Its now my daily driver and set for serious miles ( maybe run to 170k ) before I am done with it, most of them motorway so should be an easy life for the car. Great channel, like seeing this sort of material, thanks 👍
Ive been watching a mercedes channel, guy is a mechanic and has a garage up north, merc specialist, and even at very low mileage Mercedes have major issues, proper money pits
I joked with a buddy about the cost of just replacing the battery on his BMW costing $500 being the German tax. The battery on my Silverado was $200 including fitting at a GM dealer because GM put a bunch of junk on top of it that I didn't want to mess with in sub 0 Fahrenheit temps.
@@raycroal all cars break etc, but it's just that toyota/lexus go on and on for miles and miles before having major issues, have you seen the million mile Lexus ls400? It's got the same engine and gearbox since it left the factory and it's still going on and on, you wont get that from German, British or any other make of car
The transmission pans do eventually corrode enough to leak. However, the quote to replace it essentially includes a gearbox service. Pan is ~£80, Service kit is ~£150 plus an hour plus VAT and that quote is pretty much spot on fwiw. The price for replacing the ball joints probably includes new arms. The consideration here is the condition of the inner bushes as well... New arms may be more cost effective. That said, if they were referring to the upper arms, the ball joints cannot be replaced separately.
I found your channel tonight. Only this year I finally send to the scrapyard my beloved 2002 Mercedes C200 Kompressor Coupe. I loved that car but not the ruinous repair bills. Liked and subscribed!
If I were to do a cheap luxury car, I'd run home to mama and get another '94 LS400. But I'd manual swap it and tune it. Anyway, great score on your CL! Show it videos of cars being crushed and you'll never have an issue with it.😅
I had a CL 600. More or less the same (… mine was even silver) but with a twin turbo V12. It was amazing when it ran, but it usually didn’t. It was just one problem after another. Even with me doing most of the work myself (… including replacement of the ABS pump - twice 😫), it just didn’t make any sense to own.
Here in Australia older Merc parts are very scarce and theres like nobody willing to work on them BUT i still bought a beautiful SEL280 W126 for 300 dollars and the entire SLS was shot the engine was cooked as was transmission ,i replaced the entire SLS with retrofitted springs and shockers and replaced the M110 straight six with a LS V8 and 6 speed manual transmission,theres enough room in engine bay for a couple 98mm turbos but thats a later project ,the brakes are stock as is the rear end ,done near 15thousand kilometres and all ive done is a minor oil change and a couple filters ,my cars name is Otto and hes my daily driver
Frank Sytner started with a little showroom on Mapperley top in Nottingham in the 60s or early 70s. I used to go and look at the sport cars he had in the window. I believe he got the BMW franchise and from there it took off.
Ball joints are easy to change out, just buy the hand press of EBay 3hrs will do both sides. No need to strip down, can easily be done in situ. Another great video.
I know a main dealer who sold a small car to an old gent. He managed about 5000 miles a year. He religiously took it to the dealer for all repairs and MOT,s. Every year the cost of repairs and maintenance was at least £1000. I take my wifes car to my local motor engineer for MOT with the instruction do what is necessary till the next MOT. After 13 years of ownership i have never had an annual.maintenance bill.of £1000. Some years its been just the £40 Mot fee. Main Dealer fleecers.
I enjoyed that Jack, looks like a good car then! I remember taking a Golf GTI for a health check vw Newcastle.....yeah they missed that the car had very little break fluid 😮. Excellent stuff as always buddy 👍
Had a defective air pump in my S class, not much more than a couple of hundred quid for an after market one. However leaks in the air system can be a problem. Turret air bags aren't too expensive, but an undetectable leak somewhere in the system could be a nightmare. I had a 2005 E320 CDI that I replaced the self levelling rear system with Springs. Greatly improved ride and handling. No more air problems
Had a W220 and a W215. Both were only 4 years old when I got them. Never had more unreliable cars. 5 year old Flying Spur was close (to being as dreadful on relability). ABC is the best suspension but you need a pump around 60k and the struts start to fail post 70k.
Hey Jack, the boot issue seems to be a problem with the soft close system. You should be able to let the boot close under its own weight, and the vacuum soft-close system will pull it in that last 2-3% and latch it for you. If you experience a battery drain, then I'd put money on it being the vacuum system. If it has a leak, the pump will run and run (as it can't create the vacuum and close the system). I had this problem on my w120 CL600.
A year or two back when I sold my car I found that We Buy Any Car's valuation was so very near what I could get selling it privately that I let them have it. It was a huge amount more than what the garage had offered me in part exchange.
Not anymore ! My son went to Motorway over WBAC & they give him £2k more than WBAC ! They are full on great white sharks ...I know others are sharks but WBAC are appalling but they are the feeders for BCA who owns WBAC !...hence their low valuations !
Loving the CL content Jack! I'm into all the Benz's of this era but always thought the CL is especially gorgeous. I'd love to add a CL55 AMG to the fleet someday to keep my '06 E55 company... 😁
I owned one of these - rear boot >> the bushings / pins wear in the hinges and the front edge of the boot lid sits proud. Replace the hinge with a good used one for £40 or so.
Giac, I had to replace my front suspension last year, the ball joints were an integral part of the links. The car is a 2008 C Class estate diesel. I brought it to a local tyre fitter who does other work, they did the job in record time (1/2 day) and I was pleased with the price. I would look at someone like that in your area or do it yourself.
It is the plastic pipe from the pump that breaks, than the pump starts pumping endlessly and fails. Avoid that and repair immediately when you hear the humming noise coming from the front
SPR Autos on TH-cam are a great source of honest knowledge on all things Merc. They have given a bit of time to those suspension arms and the cost to replace them. The ball joints cannot be replaced independently.
Dealer labour rates have to encompass a lot of overheads, I've had to pay $260 Au for oil changes on my 2021 Toyota for the past 3 years since I bought it, that's on a fixed price 5 year plan. But better than getting under the car myself, too old for that now.
I'm 71 and have used a 12v suction pump to change the oil for about 15 years. I can still work under the car when I have to - but not for an oil change !
The ball joints can be done but changing the camber arms is easier and not overly expensive. You also get new bushes with them. My 2002 S320 camber arm change quote was €1350 at an independent Mercedes specialist. Lemförder camber arms from Autodoc for €180 for the pair and €60 labour at my usual garage. Job’s a good ‘un.
Well done to Mark for stepping up and helping, great to know that there are still some decent people out there. You are probably right with the valuation that site tends to offer the minimum price they have to make some money at the end of the day. I think you have a good car there Jack. 👍👍
Mine leaked from the pump, it wasent the fitting it was the setting up that proved to be the bigest problem, you have to have "STAR" which costs over 10k+
In Australia I have the AMG CL55 my wife has a CL500, love this model great to drive and supremely comfortable and to look at, timeless classic style. However if you do not have deep pockets do not own one, my wife's car is getting a major service including work on the suspension, oil pump, rear seal, oil leaks and several other repairs, cost $9,200 AUD. A lot of money but wonderful vehicles when kept in top condition. In my humble opinion better than the new offerings from MB.
I took my son in law's SLK into the local Merc dealer to have the rear subframe replaced under their 20 year rust warranty. When I picked the car up I asked them what their hourly rate was and they told me for new cars it was £340 plus VAT.........😮 For older cars it was less but I believe there was a 2 in front of it. So at these rates running an older Merc and taking it to a main dealer is totally uneconomic.......! No wonder perfectly good cars are written off
Dealt with Sytner Sutton Coldfield. They replaced the rear brake pads and didn't tighten the caliper bolts. This resulted in the caliper jamming onto the disc within the next 10 miles almost causing an accident. They said the bolts had sheared off causing the problem. I told them they were liers. They replaced the bolts with very red faces.
I occasionally buy spares for my 33 year old 190e from Dronsfield breakers in Oldham and see plenty of relatively new 12 or 15 year old cars being broken for parts and i just think the expensive compexity of these newer Mercs leads them to an untimely death.
Ciao Jack! I sincerely hope that after you get those couple of repairs done, that you won't have anything major to deal with. This CL500 just seems like wonderful enjoyment (Bismerc the Third 😊)!
I’ve owned Porsche, Mercedes & now Audi & have never taken any of them to a main dealership for servicing.. Problem nowadays is, that many of these specialists are getting more & more expensive & tbh not much difference to the main dealerships..
Definitely pays to find a good Independant Mercedes specialist when owning one of this age. That way your running costs are more reasonable and you generally get a more knowledgeable realistic service as they have more knowledge of the older models 👍 Super car for very little money, very underrated
To cover overhead, idle time, &c. an employer needs to charge 3x the employee pay rate. I.e, in this case, 60/hour, or 120k for 2,000 hours in a year. The boot closing problem could come from a gentle-closing mechanism that is not working. Iain Tyrrell mentioned a case of that in a recent video. Do the Merc doors automatically pull themselves in?
recently watched a video on SPR Auto's and they replaced ball joints if required - they said it's not something that Mercedes normally can do - may be worth a watch !! Great video as always !!
WBAC offered £1500 on the internet but when you take it in will reduce that considerably probably to £500-700 because of fluid under the car and boot lid not fitting and paintwork defects. I used to work for them and that’s how they work. It was embarrassing to offer ridiculous prices for nice looking cars.
we buy any car offer the price but when you take it to them they drop the price massively after a quick look at the vehicle. A friend swapped the plates on two vehicles he had same model same spec just 18 months between the two vehicles and the price they estimated was about £5,000 more than what they wanted to give after the inspection yet the vehicle he took was only 8 days old with the older plates on the vehicle. He was never going to let them have the vehicle and just walked away selling it privately for £6,000 more than the WBAC original valuation.
I have a 53 plate 500 CLK that you could test, It was a compromise car my partner wanted something comfy but an S class or 7 series wont fit in the parking space. She would have dumped me I think if had bought an SL55 AMG I'm happy it's fast comfortable and not much worse mpg that my E46 325.
Labour rate at my local Jaguar main dealer is north of £200/HR justify that although they will charge pro rata if the job is less than an hour. Still wanted £70. To test for a bad O2 sensor😞
I'm weak in technical matters, so I'm not going to get philosophical on the matter, but in my entirely irrelevant opinion as a visual artist (whatever that means) I have to say that the level of design in all the Mercedes cars I know is a piece of quite good and solid A R T.
Great video. My CL500 had a similar issue with the boot lid. Be careful if you decide to try and adjust it yourself. I had a go and with the multiple times of opening and closing the boot with the soft close engaging, I managed to burn out the air pump that runs the soft close, massage seats, central locking etc 😢😢
I Checked the MOT history on your car. (Super simple to do for anyone. Just type in MOT history put in your Reg number and you can read the history) Quite interesting - no mention of slight play in the ball joints that Mercedes are discussing, But there is a BIG BUT, there are NO ADVISES which makes me suspect that the MOT was maybe not have been as thorough as it could have been? ( MOTs are ridiculously cheap at £54.85 a decent garage does not need to discount this price if you want a good MOT) If you look at previous Advises they mention chassis corrosion o/s and n/s this of course may have been repaired but I doubt it. I have been doing MOTs for 45 years - its always helpful to check the history.
I had checked previous MOT .. the chassis corrosion that MOTs mention in advisories is just surface rust. Previous owner has scrubbed clean and painted over with hammerite. Hence no mention in latest MoT.
Our local independent slated my wifes car on an interim service for several suspension components. I took delight in telling them the car had been at the main dealer for a recall and a clean bill of health just 9 days prior. Guess it depends on who you get on the day...
Fun video. You should try (but not buy?) a Series 5 (2008-2012) Maserati Quattroporte with the ZF 6 speed auto trans. They can be heaven and they can be hell...but they are sure to be fun.
I can't get over how cheap used cars are over there. Around here anything that price will be rusted out and barely running. CL500s are listing for over $10K.
Not sure what it is with main dealers and replacing suspension arms... but I had my old E39 into a BMW dealer a few years ago and they quoted me a similar figure (comfortably into four figures) to replace the two front control arms... I bought high quality OEM parts (Lemforder I think) and it was an hours work on the driveway as it's literally a bolt at each end and thats it... I just do not understand how they come with prices for some of this work but it makes you wonder how many people who don't know about what is considered reasonable, just pay up for this kind of work. It's crazy.
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I had one of those so called called main dealer checks when i took in my old Honda accord for an airbag recall. They produced a massive list of things that they said needed doing. My M.O.T was due the following week so I put the car in with local independent guy. He looked at the sheet and declared most of it nonsense. They had also missed a completely knackered front suspension lower arm!
The naive seem to forget that main dealer service departments have rigorous sales targets placed on them just like the new car sales department has. These 'free' health checks are just a way of drumming up business, nothing more and nothing less!
Bless all decent independents. They are worth their weight in gold.
Had a very similar experience with my local Lexus dealer after buying a very cheap '01 GS300. I'd had a run of old Lexus and had a good relationship with them so asked them to check an EML that kept popping up. Long story short, the car was worth more as scrap according to them. Popped along to my local independent who sorted the issue in about 10 minutes. He also looked at who'd done the dealer report and said "Used to work with him. He should know better".
Ive been using the same independent guy for years.
I unfortunately had to use the guys at my workplace once for a tyre change (i work at a large car dealer) the mechanic tore my old car to bits, producing a massive list and of course an estimate of the costs to put it right.
I know my car and knew it was nonsense, so next MOT me and my mechanic had a jolly old time going through their list while my car was on a ramp and laughed at them being utter scumbags
@@Ice-Ryu-15AR Facts. Main dealers have plush waiting rooms with designer coffee machines. And, that's about it...
Bravery comes in many forms, and going to a Mercedes MD with a £500 car is one of them.
or stupidity
True. I took my Y reg c200 elegance to my main dealer and they wouldn't even look at the car. Made me sit in the reception, "while an engineer became available" and after being ignored for half an hour I left.
@@lynwatkins9644 Book It in, don't just show up 👍🏼
Bravery or foolishness ?
@@garthhanson7923 touch of both I reckon.
I was loaned one of these cars by a friend a few years ago. He had more cars than space to park them, and he was a generous man who got pleasure from sharing great cars with other petrol heads. Other than the CL500 he loaned me an XKR and a V8 Vantage - each for a month at a time. All great cars, but the CL500 was the one I was least keen to borrow.
It was also the only one I didn’t want to give back. I said to him that it wasn’t a car, it was a spaceship with an orchestra in the boot. It was so quiet and effortless it was like being teleported in silence between destinations and the audio system 😍
It is a car that doesn’t grab you from the outside like the XKR or Vantage. But once you have driven one …
Thanks for sharing cool story
Well done, Mark! Nice to know there are still decent people out there.
At a grand I don't think that price was decent at all
@@2icelollys1goat You could always have offered to do it cheaper! 🙂 Genuine question then, from someone who's not clued up on Merc ABC, what do you reckon it should've cost?
Deja vu. I had the same issues with my CL when I bought it; the sump and the front ball joints. Get the sump sorted. It will leak. It is made of paper thin steel and will go soon. Mine did not look as bad as yours and started leaking. Same for the front joints. You can do it yourself in an afternoon, just have some map gas to hand and maybe consider having replaceable grub screws (4 of them) for the bottom of the shock. They tend to cease and are a bit of a pig. While you are in there, replace all you can. It's relatively inexpensive. You will do that job in your garage for less than £250 and it will feel much better to drive when done.
The cat has better things to do 😂
they always do...according to them. Better than listening to mere humans anyway.
What cat?
I saw the cat, perfect placement for a clean 🤣
@@steveb6676 I hope you mean seen the cat not saw it in half hhahaha.
Just think what a dog might of done in the same situation
I replaced the gearbox sump on a 2007 E350 with the 7G box with the cheapest Ebay sump - about £60 with a new gasket and it was fine. Febi do W220 and CL front arms for about £150 a pair and you may find they are Merc parts with the logo and part numbers ground off.
That deeper pan and bigger filter make a huge difference. As does the acceptance of alternative hydraulic fluids.
The part I'm most surprise about is that MB don't stock parts for that car already. They used to keep spares for their cars right back to the year dot.
Aye mate agree I can still buy parts for my unimog and it 30 years old
With the ability to order parts and have them delivered overnight, it doesn't make financial sense to keep a large number of replacement parts for numerous models in stock.
It ties up a lot of money because the parts could be sitting on the shelves for what could be potentially months or years before they are needed.
@@williamegler8771 I probably didn't get my point across well.
What I kind of meant is that you could get them, even if they had to order.
I'm not sure that's the case any more.
Looks like you've landed on your feet this time Jack, those ball joints are £25 each on eBay; I replaced them both on my R129 in a couple of hours after a bit of a fight.
My local Ford dealer charges £160 per hour, it’s a national rip off.
The CL500 is a fantastic used car and in my experience so far has not followed the trend of breaking the bank in repairs. mine came with ABC deleted on coilovers but i absolutely love my CL and i also paid quite a lot more than you for my example
mechanic here, i'm struggling to see excess play on those joints, but the clip is a bit short...
anyway, a man of your talent will be able to do them for about £100 [vid please]
undershields only slightly affect the car's balance at over 80mph, it's mainly noise they supress
looks like you bought a good old smoker this time, fingers crossed keep it up young man
Undertrays are readily available and cheap and reasonably easy to fit
My local Volvo dealer charges £150 per hour and that's their minimum charge for diagnostic work.
On a recent service they advised I needed a track rod end. Their quote - £414! I also needed trailing arm bushes which they quoted over £600 , to replace. Had bushes and track rod done by my local garage for under £600 including alignment
The difference is that main dealers have a shiny showroom to pay for and staff earning much more than the local guys pay
and greed !
Anytime you buy a used high mileage luxury car, be prepared to spend the same amount as the purchase price on repairs.
What £500?
That sounds about right by my experience.
Brilliant 😊❤
@@fasthracinglol deal
Two or three times more in reality, there's no limit.
Ball joints are £10 each, my local garage fitted them for £100. The hubs have to come off to replace them.
When I drove Mercedes I always used an Independent in Gloucester Robin Lamb. I've known Robin since 1991 when he was service manager at the local main dealer. Definitely speak with them as they are really good and reasonable on labour rates.I remember when I owned a 190E Robin was at the main dealers when my car was serviced. They picked up on service that the exhaust manifold had a crack which was a £400 job. He told me not to bother fixing it as it was a common thing and would not cause any issues. I never had it done and did another 30,000 miles before selling the car quite happily (in those days there wasn't an independent locally). I know in the past that Richard Ashcroft and Steve Winwood among others used him rather than a main dealer for maintaining their cars. His labour rate currently is £60 an hour. If you decide to contact him tell him Les Abbott sent you.
He's a legend. He fixed my EGR on the C220 CDi classic, Bristol Road. Really good bloke, decent prices too.
It makes sense once you understand that the service manager job position is in the sales department.
BRAVO 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾. It’s not just the car salespeople working on commission!
Totally! They have sales targets and the less they think you know, the more they will take advantage.
Love the cat strutting about. Great car too.
I speak fluent cat ( see avatar )
Believe me when I say that cat is mighty peed off that good money is repeatedly being spent on old tin boxes
when it should be spent on Dreamies . When you know, you know .
Had a CL600 same shape. 2004 car. Your hydraulic boot closer needs to be reset in the Ecu. It pulls the boot lid closed and when not working properly the boot will never close flush without it working correctly. It's the button on the drivers door. Needs an ecu programmer to reset properly. (assuming of course that the hardware itself is working correctly).
I took my c220d 2012 to merc main dealer in 2015 for mot still under warranty no faults. One year later , I took it back for service over £3000.00 IN faults. So I took it to an independent passed mot no faults in 2022 sold car to jag as part Ex they said the merc was in excellent condition.
My S500L, Yes R7MBA went to the main dealer last week. I gave in had the ABS pump replaced with a brand new one.
While there I asked them to carry out an MOT..!
Well, obviously it failed, on a balljoint , plus windscreen water washer spray, which wasn’t as good as it could be.
Not bad for a Mercedes 17 year old barge.
Wanted just under a grand on top of the 2k, I paid for the pump and ran.
Had the extra work done for £400, including the retest.
Not paying £145 plus vat for labour, unless I need to.
CL a 24 year old design that still looks modern-beautiful, and not dated. Many of us fell in love with it seeing it as the safety car back in 2000. Michael's first championship win with ferrari.
....or as Eddie Jordan used to say , " the saferty car " . Those were the days !
@@chris-xv4bn th-cam.com/video/PKNYUClqyYU/w-d-xo.htmlsi=JtGgO7SzkRoHZUXg
How can that car be worth only £1500? It's a fabulous car...
like you , i truly wonder why they undervalue it .....such a wonderful design
It's a great car that is sublime when all is well. However it has the ability to drain your bank account - so the majority of motorists remain well clear of such vehicles.
It's a money pit !!
It's a "consumable" at this time, put it in a barn somewhere and leave it sit for 50 or so years, maybe then it's valuable. I think of all the nice old cars we cut up to make "bush bashers" in the 50's and 60's as young kids.
British people may have a country run by idiots, but they also have very affordable second-hand cars.
£178/hour labour is not so exorbitant for a main dealer - even twenty years ago, VW main dealers were charging €110/hour in the Netherlands...
£ 60 for a better trained mobile mechanic .
Hi Mark .. rear boot lid and passenger has had a rear shunt.. the close up of the badge showed this.. body filler used to give a strange edge to boot lid and quarter.. so a body shop not fixed possible bent hinges..boot lid sitting high.. cheerio
I thought it might have had a accident 👍
I've always liked CLs, especially the slightly simpler 500. Enjoy, Jack!
Never had a really positive experience with my local Sytner dealership.
Found an excellent independent BMW garage, no silly prices, knowledgeable staff and virtually the same service.
Happy.
Well of course your brakes are fine. The cat checked them and had no issues. Your fog lights however...
This bloke always puts a smile on my face.
Second hand undertrays can be a nightmare to deal with. Big, bulky, fragile and often cracked. I’d be tempted to put fresh ones on if they are necessary. They might not be though.
I owned one of these for a year and put 18,000 miles on it. It was a money pit but it was a great car fundamentally.
Those labour rates are a .....joke. A mechanic on 40 hours a week is making them over 300 grand a year in labour. NO mechanic is worth that unless they are giving you a 200 grand car.
It's the price into which they calculate all their overheads of their well-equipped shop, their admin etc. Add all that up and at the end of the year, their profit margin will be below 5 per cent of all they are billing.
Jesus, if you don’t understand business don’t comment.
@@notroll12795% bullshite.
@@royfontaine5526
Go ahead, start a main dealership then and get rich quick.
Mechanics are on footballers wages. Its fantastic!
...can't rely on a "We buy any car" quotation...they say one thing and then nickle and dime it down when they see it...
Lovely cars Mercs and can give you years of trouble free driving if serviced and maintained properly. The trick is to find an independent Merc specialist who will look after your car as if it was their own but still use original MB parts and service schedules.
We were lucky enough to find David Stannard who owns Merc Services in Morden and was previously a Manager at Geyfords an established Merc dealership that went out of business many years ago. His team looked after my wife’s beloved 2003 CLK 200 for several years and we only got rid of it because of the impracticality of a 2door coupe. Swapped it for a C200 Sport saloon in 2012 which is still growing strong. No issues apart form the usual tyre and brake replacements and sails through its MOTs. Some cosmetic work needed on the alloy wheels and bumper which will be addressed soon but apart from poor fuel consumption no other complaints. Solid Merc petrol engine too instead of the inferior Renault diesel version
How about the boys at SPR Auto Mercedes for a potential assist for stuff you can't manage in your driveway? Love their channel, they seem very straight ahead stand up guys.
SPR have a good TH-cam channel, would be a great joint video to review the car and what repairs are required.
I've got an old 2008 Mercedes E Class, nothing has ever gone wrong since I bought it new. Brilliant car, with a massive range and 51 mpg economy on a run, no rust either.
Hilarious !
Jack cheerfully advises us "don't worry, there's likely to be plenty of pain and expense shortly" .... as if that's why we watched his channel !! 😂
What a motor! Remember going to motor show when they were new and being amazed sitting in the car, it just felt like pure luxury. I had a main dealer safety free check on my BMW 630i ( 2006 140k miles ) - only amber tick was for minor lacquer lifting on alloy wheels 😮 All down to good owners previously and proper servicing over the years which I will keep up. Its now my daily driver and set for serious miles ( maybe run to 170k ) before I am done with it, most of them motorway so should be an easy life for the car. Great channel, like seeing this sort of material, thanks 👍
Ive been watching a mercedes channel, guy is a mechanic and has a garage up north, merc specialist, and even at very low mileage Mercedes have major issues, proper money pits
I joked with a buddy about the cost of just replacing the battery on his BMW costing $500 being the German tax. The battery on my Silverado was $200 including fitting at a GM dealer because GM put a bunch of junk on top of it that I didn't want to mess with in sub 0 Fahrenheit temps.
lexus break, lexus rust, lexus get scrapped, lexus is just a car not a smug mobile
No not more than other cars. They have the highest miles of all brands on avarage before junked.
@@martinsvensson6884 that is a made up stat
@@raycroal all cars break etc, but it's just that toyota/lexus go on and on for miles and miles before having major issues, have you seen the million mile Lexus ls400? It's got the same engine and gearbox since it left the factory and it's still going on and on, you wont get that from German, British or any other make of car
The transmission pans do eventually corrode enough to leak. However, the quote to replace it essentially includes a gearbox service. Pan is ~£80, Service kit is ~£150 plus an hour plus VAT and that quote is pretty much spot on fwiw.
The price for replacing the ball joints probably includes new arms. The consideration here is the condition of the inner bushes as well... New arms may be more cost effective. That said, if they were referring to the upper arms, the ball joints cannot be replaced separately.
I found your channel tonight. Only this year I finally send to the scrapyard my beloved 2002 Mercedes C200 Kompressor Coupe. I loved that car but not the ruinous repair bills. Liked and subscribed!
If I were to do a cheap luxury car, I'd run home to mama and get another '94 LS400. But I'd manual swap it and tune it.
Anyway, great score on your CL! Show it videos of cars being crushed and you'll never have an issue with it.😅
I had a CL 600. More or less the same (… mine was even silver) but with a twin turbo V12. It was amazing when it ran, but it usually didn’t. It was just one problem after another. Even with me doing most of the work myself (… including replacement of the ABS pump - twice 😫), it just didn’t make any sense to own.
The 500cl is a solid car. Luxury, smooth, looks lovely, well built. An example like the one you have here is worth keeping.
Here in Australia older Merc parts are very scarce and theres like nobody willing to work on them BUT i still bought a beautiful SEL280 W126 for 300 dollars and the entire SLS was shot the engine was cooked as was transmission ,i replaced the entire SLS with retrofitted springs and shockers and replaced the M110 straight six with a LS V8 and 6 speed manual transmission,theres enough room in engine bay for a couple 98mm turbos but thats a later project ,the brakes are stock as is the rear end ,done near 15thousand kilometres and all ive done is a minor oil change and a couple filters ,my cars name is Otto and hes my daily driver
Worked at toyota as a mechanic and when any Merc came in we cheered as the bills would pay our wages !!!
Frank Sytner started with a little showroom on Mapperley top in Nottingham in the 60s or early 70s. I used to go and look at the sport cars he had in the window. I believe he got the BMW franchise and from there it took off.
He was a well known racing driver as well in the 60s and 70s
and his late brother was the founder of the Cavern Club in Liverpool.
@@zm321 excellent, didn't know that
Ball joints are easy to change out, just buy the hand press of EBay 3hrs will do both sides. No need to strip down, can easily be done in situ. Another great video.
I know a main dealer who sold a small car to an old gent. He managed about 5000 miles a year. He religiously took it to the dealer for all repairs and MOT,s. Every year the cost of repairs and maintenance was at least £1000. I take my wifes car to my local motor engineer for MOT with the instruction do what is necessary till the next MOT. After 13 years of ownership i have never had an annual.maintenance bill.of £1000. Some years its been just the £40 Mot fee. Main Dealer fleecers.
I enjoyed that Jack, looks like a good car then! I remember taking a Golf GTI for a health check vw Newcastle.....yeah they missed that the car had very little break fluid 😮. Excellent stuff as always buddy 👍
Yep, will be interesting to see what a specialist finds!
Had a defective air pump in my S class, not much more than a couple of hundred quid for an after market one. However leaks in the air system can be a problem. Turret air bags aren't too expensive, but an undetectable leak somewhere in the system could be a nightmare. I had a 2005 E320 CDI that I replaced the self levelling rear system with Springs. Greatly improved ride and handling. No more air problems
Had a W220 and a W215. Both were only 4 years old when I got them. Never had more unreliable cars. 5 year old Flying Spur was close (to being as dreadful on relability).
ABC is the best suspension but you need a pump around 60k and the struts start to fail post 70k.
Hey Jack, the boot issue seems to be a problem with the soft close system. You should be able to let the boot close under its own weight, and the vacuum soft-close system will pull it in that last 2-3% and latch it for you. If you experience a battery drain, then I'd put money on it being the vacuum system. If it has a leak, the pump will run and run (as it can't create the vacuum and close the system). I had this problem on my w120 CL600.
A year or two back when I sold my car I found that We Buy Any Car's valuation was so very near what I could get selling it privately that I let them have it. It was a huge amount more than what the garage had offered me in part exchange.
Not anymore ! My son went to Motorway over WBAC & they give him £2k more than WBAC ! They are full on great white sharks ...I know others are sharks but WBAC are appalling but they are the feeders for BCA who owns WBAC !...hence their low valuations !
Loving the CL content Jack! I'm into all the Benz's of this era but always thought the CL is especially gorgeous. I'd love to add a CL55 AMG to the fleet someday to keep my '06 E55 company... 😁
I owned one of these - rear boot >> the bushings / pins wear in the hinges and the front edge of the boot lid sits proud. Replace the hinge with a good used one for £40 or so.
Giac, I had to replace my front suspension last year, the ball joints were an integral part of the links. The car is a 2008 C Class estate diesel. I brought it to a local tyre fitter who does other work, they did the job in record time (1/2 day) and I was pleased with the price. I would look at someone like that in your area or do it yourself.
Great to see a different "took to main dealer" video and that not all dealers are complete pirates :)
It is the plastic pipe from the pump that breaks, than the pump starts pumping endlessly and fails. Avoid that and repair immediately when you hear the humming noise coming from the front
Top video. Got curious and took my s124 on we buy any car, £250! 😂
SPR Autos on TH-cam are a great source of honest knowledge on all things Merc. They have given a bit of time to those suspension arms and the cost to replace them. The ball joints cannot be replaced independently.
Dealer labour rates have to encompass a lot of overheads, I've had to pay $260 Au for oil changes on my 2021 Toyota for the past 3 years since I bought it, that's on a fixed price 5 year plan. But better than getting under the car myself, too old for that now.
I'm 71 and have used a 12v suction pump to change the oil for about 15 years. I can still work under the car when I have to - but not for an oil change !
The ball joints can be done but changing the camber arms is easier and not overly expensive. You also get new bushes with them. My 2002 S320 camber arm change quote was €1350 at an independent Mercedes specialist. Lemförder camber arms from Autodoc for €180 for the pair and €60 labour at my usual garage. Job’s a good ‘un.
Well done to Mark for stepping up and helping, great to know that there are still some decent people out there. You are probably right with the valuation that site tends to offer the minimum price they have to make some money at the end of the day. I think you have a good car there Jack. 👍👍
TY J! 🙏🙏 Happy & cheap barging!
Congratulations, Mark! The news for your little pocket battleship was sehr gut! 😎👍
How's the De Tomaso coming along? I'm desperate to see it fully restored!!!
Springs break on the boot lids and they are side- specific too
Mine leaked from the pump, it wasent the fitting it was the setting up that proved to be the bigest problem, you have to have "STAR" which costs over 10k+
In Australia I have the AMG CL55 my wife has a CL500, love this model great to drive and supremely comfortable and to look at, timeless classic style. However if you do not have deep pockets do not own one, my wife's car is getting a major service including work on the suspension, oil pump, rear seal, oil leaks and several other repairs, cost $9,200 AUD. A lot of money but wonderful vehicles when kept in top condition. In my humble opinion better than the new offerings from MB.
I took my son in law's SLK into the local Merc dealer to have the rear subframe replaced under their 20 year rust warranty. When I picked the car up I asked them what their hourly rate was and they told me for new cars it was £340 plus VAT.........😮 For older cars it was less but I believe there was a 2 in front of it. So at these rates running an older Merc and taking it to a main dealer is totally uneconomic.......! No wonder perfectly good cars are written off
Cracking video review
Looking forward to seeing your follow-up video
Was in main dealer yesterday getting parts (suspension bushes) for BMW mini, their hourly rate is £180 an hour?
Dealt with Sytner Sutton Coldfield. They replaced the rear brake pads and didn't tighten the caliper bolts. This resulted in the caliper jamming onto the disc within the next 10 miles almost causing an accident. They said the bolts had sheared off causing the problem. I told them they were liers. They replaced the bolts with very red faces.
Thank you for this video. I never knew Mercedes-Benz used that type of suspension!
I occasionally buy spares for my 33 year old 190e from Dronsfield breakers in Oldham and see plenty of relatively new 12 or 15 year old cars being broken for parts and i just think the expensive compexity of these newer Mercs leads them to an untimely death.
That car is way under valued.
Parts and service are even more in the states.
Looks like you did really well on this purchase.
Ciao Jack! I sincerely hope that after you get those couple of repairs done, that you won't have anything major to deal with. This CL500 just seems like wonderful enjoyment (Bismerc the Third 😊)!
I’ve owned Porsche, Mercedes & now Audi & have never taken any of them to a main dealership for servicing..
Problem nowadays is, that many of these specialists are getting more & more expensive & tbh not much difference to the main dealerships..
From memory lower ball joints from Mercedes are the complete arm only, not sure if ECP would sell ball joints only.
Definitely pays to find a good Independant Mercedes specialist when owning one of this age. That way your running costs are more reasonable and you generally get a more knowledgeable realistic service as they have more knowledge of the older models 👍 Super car for very little money, very underrated
To cover overhead, idle time, &c. an employer needs to charge 3x the employee pay rate. I.e, in this case, 60/hour, or 120k for 2,000 hours in a year.
The boot closing problem could come from a gentle-closing mechanism that is not working. Iain Tyrrell mentioned a case of that in a recent video. Do the Merc doors automatically pull themselves in?
You can just change the joints but the whole arms are pretty reasonable tbh
recently watched a video on SPR Auto's and they replaced ball joints if required - they said it's not something that Mercedes normally can do - may be worth a watch !! Great video as always !!
WBAC offered £1500 on the internet but when you take it in will reduce that considerably probably to £500-700 because of fluid under the car and boot lid not fitting and paintwork defects. I used to work for them and that’s how they work. It was embarrassing to offer ridiculous prices for nice looking cars.
we buy any car offer the price but when you take it to them they drop the price massively after a quick look at the vehicle. A friend swapped the plates on two vehicles he had same model same spec just 18 months between the two vehicles and the price they estimated was about £5,000 more than what they wanted to give after the inspection yet the vehicle he took was only 8 days old with the older plates on the vehicle. He was never going to let them have the vehicle and just walked away selling it privately for £6,000 more than the WBAC original valuation.
I have a 53 plate 500 CLK that you could test, It was a compromise car my partner wanted something comfy but an S class or 7 series wont fit in the parking space. She would have dumped me I think if had bought an SL55 AMG I'm happy it's fast comfortable and not much worse mpg that my E46 325.
Labour rate at my local Jaguar main dealer is north of £200/HR justify that although they will charge pro rata if the job is less than an hour. Still wanted £70. To test for a bad O2 sensor😞
This is why I would love to lease. With the right plan they can do as much work as they want, the price doesn’t change.
I'm weak in technical matters, so I'm not going to get philosophical on the matter, but in my entirely irrelevant opinion as a visual artist (whatever that means) I have to say that the level of design in all the Mercedes cars I know is a piece of quite good and solid A R T.
yes this one one of the best after the classic 70's and 80's era ended.
Great video. My CL500 had a similar issue with the boot lid. Be careful if you decide to try and adjust it yourself. I had a go and with the multiple times of opening and closing the boot with the soft close engaging, I managed to burn out the air pump that runs the soft close, massage seats, central locking etc 😢😢
I Checked the MOT history on your car. (Super simple to do for anyone. Just type in MOT history put in your Reg number and you can read the history) Quite interesting - no mention of slight play in the ball joints that Mercedes are discussing, But there is a BIG BUT, there are NO ADVISES which makes me suspect that the MOT was maybe not have been as thorough as it could have been? ( MOTs are ridiculously cheap at £54.85 a decent garage does not need to discount this price if you want a good MOT) If you look at previous Advises they mention chassis corrosion o/s and n/s this of course may have been repaired but I doubt it. I have been doing MOTs for 45 years - its always helpful to check the history.
I had checked previous MOT .. the chassis corrosion that MOTs mention in advisories is just surface rust. Previous owner has scrubbed clean and painted over with hammerite. Hence no mention in latest MoT.
Our local independent slated my wifes car on an interim service for several suspension components. I took delight in telling them the car had been at the main dealer for a recall and a clean bill of health just 9 days prior.
Guess it depends on who you get on the day...
Fun video. You should try (but not buy?) a Series 5 (2008-2012) Maserati Quattroporte with the ZF 6 speed auto trans. They can be heaven and they can be hell...but they are sure to be fun.
I much prefer the ZF auto version than the Meserati fitted with the Cambiocorsa. The latter can be really 'painful'.
I like this. Skilled and goodhearted people should be rewarded.
I can't get over how cheap used cars are over there. Around here anything that price will be rusted out and barely running. CL500s are listing for over $10K.
where?
@@raycroal Midwest US.
Not sure what it is with main dealers and replacing suspension arms... but I had my old E39 into a BMW dealer a few years ago and they quoted me a similar figure (comfortably into four figures) to replace the two front control arms... I bought high quality OEM parts (Lemforder I think) and it was an hours work on the driveway as it's literally a bolt at each end and thats it... I just do not understand how they come with prices for some of this work but it makes you wonder how many people who don't know about what is considered reasonable, just pay up for this kind of work. It's crazy.