2009 CL500 5.5 A few issues to sort on my new acqusition - help appreciated

[Submariner1]

Hi
Well I bought a C216 with 40,400 miles. And a service history 3 Merc dealers, up to 32,400 and then 3 Independants between 32,400 and 40,000.

Nice original bodywork, a few pin prick sized stone chips on front bumper, and a double stone scratch on the bonnet 4 mm long by 1 mm wide to white undercoat..



Issue 1
whats the best way to clean the engine bay, to remove all salt residue as this car lived 8 miles from the seaside for 3 years .
Some of the alluminium has that white oxidised look
Any ideas
Peter

 

[television]

Congratulations.

For engine bay cleaning

Get some de greaser can spray small area, agitate where you can with a small old paintbrush, rinse off with jug of water. That way you can keep the water off the electrics.

The trim bottom of doors will polish up with T cut, its plastic chrome, window trims should polish up with T cut lightly.

They look like 18" or 19" that are nice

 

[SL63 Mark]

Fab car, well done Sir. Glad you avoided the other one

 

[Craiglxviii]

Lovely car, congrats on the purchase. What state is the ABC fluid in?

 

[JBell]

For engine bay cleaning

Get some de greaser can spray small area, agitate where you can with a small old paintbrush, rinse off with jug of water. That way you can keep the water off the electrics.

Don't worry about the electrics too much they are well waterproofed, I did my and my fathers engine bays, used a spray gun on a hose to rinse after, no worries at all then use A303 Aerospace protectant all over to give it a nice shine

 

[Submariner1]

Congratulations.

For engine bay cleaning

Get some de greaser can spray small area, agitate where you can with a small old paintbrush, rinse off with jug of water. That way you can keep the water off the electrics.

The trim bottom of doors will polish up with T cut, its plastic chrome, window trims should polish up with T cut lightly.

They look like 18" or 19" that are nice

Thanks,
Yes it was supplied with 19" AMG 275x40? All around and appear to be almost unmarked ( so pretty wide for fronts my SL came with 255 fronts and 285 rears.)
The owner thought it had the AMG suspension pack but no body kit. No idea how to,find that out other than go to,a dealer and ask.

I think it has keyless go? no card just 2 keys ) but you just open the door with your hand and push a big silver push start button.

And he thought it had the Harman Kardon ?? Sound system upgrade, well its got that on the speaker grills?

I assume air ventilated seats are std on this model? As is a sunroof. Nice feature it shuts if it starts raining and you had left it open.

It has a few wrinkles

Imthinkmit was jizer engine bay cleaner that is harmless to pain. I know for sure Autoglyms Engine cleaner is highly toxic , nearly stripped the paint off my Honda lawnmower.

 

[Submariner1]

Fab car, well done Sir. Glad you avoided the other one

Thanks,
Its has a few wrinkles due to seaside location, such as pretty rough looking aluminium and things like brake calipers look worse than normal, but I think its a really genuine car bodywork wise, and 40,000 is not too bad and it is a late June 2009.

I found a wheel locking kit with one std bolt and a locking key that had lost the innner key


So I assume this pic shows the one remaining locking bolt, with the key part broken or ground off.
I Asked the owner if it undoes?, as the wheel brace does sort of engage. He said it did.
So I hope I can take this out, and put in the spare bolt.


Can one remove one single bolt without undoing the others? if you take some of the weight of the car on the jack?
Normally I like to do them all up criss cross style, and finish with a torque wrench.
Would they be the same torque setting as an SL 500?

 

[Submariner1]

The only real flaw
On the drivers side door cill the 2 Aluminium or stainless steel plates are scratched pretty heavily


The one with Merc is £171 and the other is £153!!! So £224 to get those and then respay the corner of the edge of paintwork. Owner must have steel heel savers!
This might be the only bodge I do on paint, namely a local under the first plate tomthe seam, and blend in the laquer at the end of each strip.

That price was a shock.

But then the car was £16,100 so I allowed for a few things to bring it up to scratch. But not this one.
I thought this was reasonable.

I wonder how hard it is to get them off. Would they polishout to some extent?

 

[Submariner1]

Fab car, well done Sir. Glad you avoided the other one

Thanks to you guys .... Woke me up to the cost of sorting issues especially ABC .
Plus the seller wouldnt sell cheaply and imo he needed to , just to get stuff put right.

The window and roof worried me ... You know how bad was it!!
Plus the great warning post explaining headlining down, they often or not never look right imo.

 

[Submariner1]

Other than the cill this is the only damage to paintwork - sadly on the bonnet



OK there are also about 5 pin prick size/type stone chips on the front bumper - and one more on the bonnet, and thats circa 0.25mm diam on laquer - all still silver.
But to me that just makes it a "real" car. Even my SL at 17000 miles had one of these on the bumper and one 2mm diam stone chip on the bonnet leading edge.
Hey 5 litres and no stone chips usually = its been blown over.

 

[Submariner1]

How she looks, minus the private plate now


Wheels seem unmarked but lets see when I polish them.

 

[Submariner1]

Lovely car, congrats on the purchase. What state is the ABC fluid in?

I dont know, where that is, or how to look at it.
I was going to clean out the engine bay before doing any work on that.

3 Merc dealers I know ... all say dont touch it?

Yet as they are so problematic, maybe thats because they dont!
After all robust Merc engines would have a crap rep if there were NO engine oil and filter changes, right?

But on one of the service sheets it show changing a high pressure line and 2 litres of hydrualic fluid. The owner said the steering got heavy and then they fixed it.

But what scares me is I saw a box thing with this Aluminium corrosion powder, and a strip of neon like green. When I told the parts guy the fliud part no, he said well at least they got the right colour of ABC fluid!! As your car needs green!
I am praying its just either some marker, or if it was liquid, just spalsh that stained the white corroision and not that the cooroison has eaten through this component and caused a leak. i cant beleive it would do that at 40K miles
But will take pics later, as its now one of my issues.

I didnt see it at the inspection/pick up , as the stinking train was 2 hours late and we had to make the bank. Soma bit rushed.

One other thing when I asked the owner to raise and lower the car it creaked and graoned a bit. But then tbh 3 of my 5 SLs did to some extent and they were all brand new.
Plus he seemed surprised and had to look arounf to see how you did it
Plobably not a good idea without cleaning off those struts as probably crunched over salty pistons etc.

 

[Submariner1]

Don't worry about the electrics too much they are well waterproofed, I did my and my fathers engine bays, used a spray gun on a hose to rinse after, no worries at all then use A303 Aerospace protectant all over to give it a nice shine

Thanks
Btw my local dealer said they stopped doing the steam clean and protectant at major services as they saw a sharp rise in things like corrosion on wirri g ends on the more complex electronics. And wont do it for me.
I was thinking balance heavy salt deposits verses clean water lol

What is A303 Aerospace protectant? Is it clear coloured.?

 

[andynpz]

The only real flaw
On the drivers side door cill the 2 Aluminium or stainless steel plates are scratched pretty heavily
View attachment 32332

The one with Merc is £171 and the other is £153!!! So £224 to get those and then respay the corner of the edge of paintwork. Owner must have steel heel savers!
This might be the only bodge I do on paint, namely a local under the first plate tomthe seam, and blend in the laquer at the end of each strip.

That price was a shock.

But then the car was £16,100 so I allowed for a few things to bring it up to scratch. But not this one.
I thought this was reasonable.

I wonder how hard it is to get them off. Would they polishout to some extent?

Noticed this - might save you some cash!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes-...264709?hash=item281fbe6ac5:g:oREAAOSwGtRXxCid

Had my CL a couple of months now and loving it

By the way - quite safe to remove one wheel bolt - no need for jack. Looks like it will be tricky getting the busted one out though. Good luck

 

[television]

Cool seats are an extra, only with certain leathers, if there, the symbol will be on door switch.

It is a waste of time changing the sill kick plates with original as they are plastic, far better stainless steel versions from the USA for about £45 the set of 4

The bonnet mark can be touched in with reasonable results.

There are special tools now for broken wheel bolts.

 

[Craiglxviii]

Don't let the price be a shock. It's a CL500, this isn't indicative of engine size but actually the average single job repair cost. Allow £500 or multiples thereof for anything you need to do, it's a good yardstick. Being serious too.

 

[JBell]

Thanks
Btw my local dealer said they stopped doing the steam clean and protectant at major services as they saw a sharp rise in things like corrosion on wirri g ends on the more complex electronics. And wont do it for me.
I was thinking balance heavy salt deposits verses clean water lol

What is A303 Aerospace protectant? Is it clear coloured.?

Steam can be a bit too harsh whereas using a hose with spray nozzle on a light setting works well.

After it has dried spray 303 AP all over and buff off

https://www.amazon.co.uk/30308-Aero...8823&sr=8-1&keywords=303+aerospace+protectant

My engine bay before and after


My Fathers

 

[Submariner1]

Noticed this - might save you some cash!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes-...264709?hash=item281fbe6ac5:g:oREAAOSwGtRXxCid

Had my CL a couple of months now and loving it

By the way - quite safe to remove one wheel bolt - no need for jack. Looks like it will be tricky getting the busted one out though. Good luck

Thanks thats a brilliant link
Yeah re the bolt I do hope it comes off!!
God knows what one does if it doesnt!

 

[Submariner1]

Cool seats are an extra, only with certain leathers, if there, the symbol will be on door switch.

It is a waste of time changing the sill kick plates with original as they are plastic, far better stainless steel versions from the USA for about £45 the set of 4

The bonnet mark can be touched in with reasonable results.

There are special tools now for broken wheel bolts.

God Malcolm you are a star!
Re the cill plates domthey say Mercedes like the top one ( not overly fussed tbh. ) as the seller said beware he was gutted that they are plastic with a stainless steel effect on them.
Thats crazy to put a part in that will definitley get scratched, and at that price its obscene of £175 ! Should be £25 if they are plastic.
Where do you get these stainless steel ones from?

Yes there is a button on the door next to the heated seat button... So thats a bonus.

 

[Submariner1]

Don't let the price be a shock. It's a CL500, this isn't indicative of engine size but actually the average single job repair cost. Allow £500 or multiples thereof for anything you need to do, it's a good yardstick. Being serious too.

I think you are right, one of the reasons I listened to you guys ref rejecting the other one .... It adds up so fast you could end up paying much more than the cost of an immaculate one. And a good standard of care is hopefully an indicator of less probs in the future.