[Meowjin]

I'm thinking of purchasing my brother's cls. He is giving me a family deal, but I'd have to get rid of my TL, which would probably cost me (in this economy) around 2 grand to get rid of.

Anyone know of anything I'd have to watch out for around the 3 year mark? How badly will I get assraped by maintenance?

[nosaj]

ehh...since he's ur brother...isnt it better/ faster to ask him urself if theres anything wrong with the car?

no offense...but the way ur posting here asking us sounds like ur not trusting ur brother lol

[gilly]

^ what he said. You could ask him how much it costs to maintain car. You would most likely get a more accurate number than any of us.

[Mugen EvOlutioN]

indeed, afterall he is ur bro. he would know it first handed

[Bender Unit]

OP was asking for common problems such as failure of AT Transmission after 80000km; Center Console light burnt off; Trunk release hook recall;
Will it cover under warrantees…etc.
Those kind of watch out on others MB CLS.

Take it easy~Guys! ;)

[AsBannedAsItGets]

i'd register at a MB forum because I don't doubt there's many members here with entry level mercedez models, however cls is a pretty ballin car which is geared towards those individuals with plenty dough. not to mention its a sweet ride.

[Meowjin]

ehh...since he's ur brother...isnt it better/ faster to ask him urself if theres anything wrong with the car?

no offense...but the way ur posting here asking us sounds like ur not trusting ur brother lol

there is nothing currently wrong with the car. it has 60k km, I'm just curious to know what will come up that I will be "OH MY GOD 40 GRAND FOR A FUCKING ALTERNATOR CHANGE!?!?!" or at 100k the car will blow up into a million pieces

I do know though that the brakes were recently changed (cost a g) and that most services were kept up to date. Maitence is not an issue but I don't want a car that constantly prone to fail.

[godwin]

Engine is generally bullet proof.. however a lot of the electronics are from the previous E class era.. ie prone to have bugs.. if you don't have any problems with them now, they should be okay.

As with any car with "lifetime" transmission fluid.. you should get it changed at a reputable 3rd party shop.. nearly all dealerships theses days only drop and replace transmissions.. they don't service it themselves.

If you haven't picked out a shop.. make sure they have a STAR computer... I think a few people on this forum are MB techs.

[J____]

what year TL do you have

[Meowjin]

08

[kc1337]

Do maintenance yourself, if shit goes wrong, swap in domestic parts.


Berz Out

[Prostrho]

Good luck... really. Cause when electrical stuff breaks, it does so without warning.

[orange7]

wow! you have a 08 TL and getting a benz now.. baller!!!

i want a tl...

[racerman88]

don't have to take the car to the dealer for maintenance

[J____]

08

and u want 2k for it? dibs :D meet up with cash right now.

[Iron Chef]

06 was the first year for hte CLS
Main things to look out for is valve covers are prone to leaking.

06 cars still use SBC braking which needs software updates as regulare maintence. Also SBC pumps have a service life on them and need to be changed and they are expensive.Service in general for the SBC system is very expensive which is why they phased it out in 09 or 08.

60km is due for transmission service,

theres only 20000km left on warranty unless he got extended warranty which is a must.

06 would probrably be the worst year CLS to get.

[Harvey Specter]

I would rather buy a new car instead of dropping all your cash into a used Mercedes.

[Drift_Monkey]

I'll give you 3 grand for TL =p

[Meowjin]

it's a lease, I insuinated that I would pay 2 grand to get rid of it, but my boss is goign to take it over for nothing.

[taylor192]

Its the first year for the CLS, take it from someone who has the 1st year of a new MB engine... stay very far away! MB's quality of late has been terrible, even the new W204 C-class is showing big problems within a year.

[orange7]

check for white stains on the back seats! :D

[slammer111]

CLS actually existed in 2004 (2003 according to Wikipedia). It just wasn't available in Canada until MY2006 ;) So you're not buying a 1st-year car or engine.

Speaking of that, I have not heard of ANYONE having a MB tranny blow up. Some shift a bit roughly once in a while, but definitely nothing that will kill the car. Is yours 5spd or 7spd? The 5spd is pretty much bulletproof.

Taylor192 - nice to see you here. Sup? :D

[taylor192]

Is yours 5spd or 7spd? The 5spd is pretty much bulletproof.

Taylor192 - nice to see you here. Sup? :D
The trannies are bulletproof unless you get a leaky rad that ruins it with coolant. Damn W203 C-class has soooo many major problems.

Nice to find a local Vancouver forum to meet other car nuts, the MB forums can be stale at times. Are you going to the Mar 22nd meet?

[Prostrho]

My parents 06 E350 with 7G shifts rough.. So they replaced the tranny at 32000km.. and it still shifts rough. YAY for Benz engineers!

[Supafly]

thats usually a valve body problem if it shifts hard on kickdowns.

welcome to the MB family.....just hope you never get the SRS airbag light.

[slammer111]

The trannies are bulletproof unless you get a leaky rad that ruins it with coolant. Damn W203 C-class has soooo many major problems.

Nice to find a local Vancouver forum to meet other car nuts, the MB forums can be stale at times. Are you going to the Mar 22nd meet?RS is more for entertainment if anything ;) Not too much useful Euro-specific info here.

Not sure about the meet, but might go if I'm not doing anything on that day. You?

[Prostrho]

thats usually a valve body problem if it shifts hard on kickdowns.

welcome to the MB family.....just hope you never get the SRS airbag light.

Actually we did get the SRS light.. Wire harness problem, luckily car is still under warranty and it only took them 1 hour to change the wire harness :haha:

We had the transmission reprogrammed 2 times, then changed valve body, then reprogrammed again, then finally changed the tranny.

Also our alternator voltage regulator was faulty when the car was new and caused the AC Blower to overload and cut out on hot summer days.

German engineers :thumbsup:

[Meowjin]

I'm still on the edge. I'll probably make my decision when i come back from asia.

[Supafly]

Actually we did get the SRS light.. Wire harness problem, luckily car is still under warranty and it only took them 1 hour to change the wire harness :haha:

We had the transmission reprogrammed 2 times, then changed valve body, then reprogrammed again, then finally changed the tranny.

Also our alternator voltage regulator was faulty when the car was new and caused the AC Blower to overload and cut out on hot summer days.

German engineers :thumbsup:

Me too... I just got my srs light fixed aswell. B107a and B107c faults.. (wire to the SOS was broken). My car is now out of warranty so all i did was get a mb tech to turn off the SOS feature and the faults went away...

I also had to swap out my valvebody once, had the tranny reprogrammed 2x, replaced the backup alarm/battery 2x and had a step motor fail on me, A/C module fail, passenger seat mass sensor fail....

The amount of money spent to fix these faults = exeeds the value of most peoples cars...hahaha

next time i'll learn to not love my mb so much so i can unload her before warranty runs out...

theres a nice CL63 parked infront of mb richmond....;)

[thumper]

wowow... after reading all of this i can't help but ask what your yearly income is and what is your credit card limit because MB ownership sounds like a deep money pit :(

[taylor192]

I also had to swap out my valvebody once, had the tranny reprogrammed 2x, replaced the backup alarm/battery 2x and had a step motor fail on me, A/C module fail, passenger seat mass sensor fail....

The amount of money spent to fix these faults = exeeds the value of most peoples cars...hahaha

next time i'll learn to not love my mb so much so i can unload her before warranty runs out...
I have $12K into repairs on my car outside of warranty:

- hole in piston (there's a TSB about piston wall damage) blew the HG and ruined the entire motor and the primary cat, $7K for a used motor/exhaust manifold installed
- MAF/O2 sensors from leaking cam sensors
- leaking diff
- rust! Its been painted twice under warranty, third time was paid 75% by MB as goodwill cause warranty was done
- AC condenser, crappy quality that was replaced on later models

I made the same mistake of loving my MB too much rather than unloading it after the lease was up.

[Mugen EvOlutioN]

holly shit, MB's maintenance billl is scary

$12g? wow


mind if i ask which model of Benz that u are driving costing this crazy amount of money to maintain?

[turbomelon]

For the 06 cls i'd watch out for some navi problems, didnt have navi in my 06 cls55 so can't speak first hand, but I did have some strange issues from time to time with my audio system not working then inexplicably working again.

taylor192, while the previous gen w203 may have been plagued with issues, there's only a handful of w204's I've seen/read of with serious issues these days. My c63 so far has been problem free (knock on wood :P)

I know the c230 kompressors have had an overabundance of issues, but you have to remember it is in the lower regions of merc's model lineup, and made during the era when merc really started sacrificing their QC. I mean I had a friend with a c230 kompressor, and his interior trim was falling apart left and right not to mention rust everywhere. These days they're making efforts to improve their reliability and they did catch a few saboteurs, who were purposely damaging vehicles so that local shops could reap in money from merc, in their QA lineup a few months back.

[Adsdeman]

Check for dead people in the trunk i think there was a recall for that

[taylor192]

taylor192, while the previous gen w203 may have been plagued with issues, there's only a handful of w204's I've seen/read of with serious issues these days. My c63 so far has been problem free (knock on wood :P)
Lets hope so, yet the posts on MBW and BW don't give me any warm fussies that the W204 is that much better.

The W203 was significantly tested using computer models, the W204 was tested using an actual production vehicle.

I know the c230 kompressors have had an overabundance of issues, but you have to remember it is in the lower regions of merc's model lineup, and made during the era when merc really started sacrificing their QC. I mean I had a friend with a c230 kompressor, and his interior trim was falling apart left and right not to mention rust everywhere.
Its the era that's the problem.

MB cheaped out on rust proofing on a range of vehicles. There were 3 early 2000s S-classes in for complete repaints while I was there, stripped down to the frame. For the C-class they are admitting rust, yet won't go that far to repaint and treat everything like on the S-class. The shop manager told me to sell it after this last round of warranty paint work, cause he knows the rust will come back.

The early 2000 ML had tons of problems, and the first W211 E-classes were prone as well. Basically anything made 2000-2003 sucked from MB.

These days they're making efforts to improve their reliability.
The product maybe, yet my problem is with how cheaply service treated me.

I found these problems online and confronted my service adviser about them. The Service Adviser knew of the problems, yet wasn't authorized to fix them unless it fit a narrow list of engine builds (which mine was not a part of, yet obviously affected) or not at all.
- leaking cam sensors ($80 of parts prevents $1K+ in damage). My car went through 2 O2 sensors under warranty, then another out of warranty before I found the problem and the fix online. When I confronted the SM, he admitted to knowing the problem yet my engine build wasn't in the TSB so his hands were tied.
- cracked vacuum hoses, recall was in the US, Canada wouldn't honor it until recently. 6 hrs of labour to fix, glad I at least did this one myself.

All cars have problems, its how the company stands behind the product that builds a reputation. MB did not admit to and fix the problems with my car, that's terrible treatment especially when they know the car is plagued with issues and would rather wait until they fail outside of warranty.

[taylor192]

mind if i ask which model of Benz that u are driving costing this crazy amount of money to maintain?
That's unscheduled repairs that should never have happened.

Maintenance is about the same as any car, repairs suck.

[Chuck Norris]

Pretty much if you want something reliable don't buy a benz.

[Mugen EvOlutioN]

Pretty much if you want something reliable don't buy a benz.

if so that goes the same for BMW and AUDI


guess Lexus is the way to go if u want high end + reliablity