oigle
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2005
- Messages
- 3,476
- Reaction score
- 923
- Age
- 83
- Location
- Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia
- Website
- members.optusnet.com.au
- Your Mercedes
- 2003 ML270 sold but not forgotten. 2022 Kia EV6 RWD LR
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We bought an old (2005) Mercedes C180 K Classic from our son about 6 weeks ago. We live in France so we brought it over here and started the process of importing it. this involved getting new lights (to dip the other way). Our first problem was that the lights we bought (not Mercedes own brand) didn't work. Let's go back to that some time later.
Having got our local garage to try, and fail, to fit the lights, we then filled up with petrol (the right sort - 98 octane, not diesel or 95) and took the car home. The next day it was sluggish starting and the engine was missing while driving slowly. All OK if you drove fast. We took it back to our local garage who declared it beyond their expertise to deal with - they didn't have the right tools either. So they sent it to another garage (not Mecedes as they had a 3 week waiting list). The other garage compression tested it and said there is no compression on one cylinder. They spoke to the nearest Mercedes dealer who said they'd never come across this before and didn't feel there was any point in investigating it - just scrap the car!
We are baffled as to how something so serious could come out of the blue like this. The car was driving beautifully until the morning after the topping up of the petrol. There were no warning signs of any problems - no black smoke, no funny noises, nothing. Admittedly, there is black smoke now. We drove it home from the local garage yesterday - only a mile - and it barely made it. Again, when driving fast no problem, going slowly it could barely get moving.
I'm hoping for a bit of advice. We've no faith in the garages in France and we would have to pay to get it transported to one of the main Mercedes dealerships anyway. At which point they would probably say it was uneconomical to repair, without even knowing what the real problem was (like the local Mercedes garage). For £500 we could get it shipped back to the UK where our son owns a garage. He could maybe fix it. Alternatively we could buy a reconditioned engine and get that fitted for about £1,500 - also in the UK. Or are we throwing good money after bad?
We bought an old (2005) Mercedes C180 K Classic from our son about 6 weeks ago. We live in France so we brought it over here and started the process of importing it. this involved getting new lights (to dip the other way). Our first problem was that the lights we bought (not Mercedes own brand) didn't work. Let's go back to that some time later.
Having got our local garage to try, and fail, to fit the lights, we then filled up with petrol (the right sort - 98 octane, not diesel or 95) and took the car home. The next day it was sluggish starting and the engine was missing while driving slowly. All OK if you drove fast. We took it back to our local garage who declared it beyond their expertise to deal with - they didn't have the right tools either. So they sent it to another garage (not Mecedes as they had a 3 week waiting list). The other garage compression tested it and said there is no compression on one cylinder. They spoke to the nearest Mercedes dealer who said they'd never come across this before and didn't feel there was any point in investigating it - just scrap the car!
We are baffled as to how something so serious could come out of the blue like this. The car was driving beautifully until the morning after the topping up of the petrol. There were no warning signs of any problems - no black smoke, no funny noises, nothing. Admittedly, there is black smoke now. We drove it home from the local garage yesterday - only a mile - and it barely made it. Again, when driving fast no problem, going slowly it could barely get moving.
I'm hoping for a bit of advice. We've no faith in the garages in France and we would have to pay to get it transported to one of the main Mercedes dealerships anyway. At which point they would probably say it was uneconomical to repair, without even knowing what the real problem was (like the local Mercedes garage). For £500 we could get it shipped back to the UK where our son owns a garage. He could maybe fix it. Alternatively we could buy a reconditioned engine and get that fitted for about £1,500 - also in the UK. Or are we throwing good money after bad?