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

[Submariner1]

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

Fabulous improvement ... Hope mine gets better like this ... But the salt sea air effect on the aluminium parts is a sad story.
I do wish the original owner had gone this :-/
But hopefully I can improve it.

Gosh your engines dont look anything like mine shape covers ets. ?

 

[Craiglxviii]

You have the V8, which comes in two guises, what you see there are an I4 and a V6.

V8's either have complete or partial covers... some have exposed heads/ rocker covers, others don't

 

[Submariner1]

Your link didn't work
Is this the same stuff?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/30308-Aero...0888&sr=8-1&keywords=aerospace+303+protectant

 

[ajlsl600]

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.?

whilst not saying its the best this is what has worked for me for more than thirty yrs .when i travel i empty one tin of wd40 on the engine and around the engine bay. when i return i drive the car to my very good/clean jet wash place about fifteen min away. then i hot jet wash the engine and engine bay, not manifolds and thats it done till next time . i have no white powder on any alli parts and NO corrosion of any kind under the bonnet of my cars a bonus here is it keeps the plastic mint looking as well . make sure the wash off is not jet point but fan and dont concentrate on any particular area . by the time i get home all is completely dry ,i often mist coat again with wd40 when i get back. i have never had a wiring issue doing this , and mice dont like wd40 either so they seem to stay away from my wiring ect when the car is parked up .

 

[television]

Look on EBay USA for the sill plates

 

[Craiglxviii]

Excuse the shortness as I'm a bit pressed for time, so will comment in your post.

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? They would do. The same people that came out with transmission fluid for life. Trust me on this, change that fluid and ensure you use the new 3mu filter every 2 years or 20k miles, whichever comes soonest. Use Pentosin CHF.11S ONLY, it is dark green in colour and smells of money £16/litre from Opie Oils.

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? Too right although these V8s are pretty bulletproof, very lazy low stressed engines.

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. HIgh pressure line is ABC, not power steering which is very definitely low pressure. ABC will operate at around 180 bar, higher than your engine's internal cylinder pressure.

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. Hydraulic fluid shouldn't corrode ali like that, likely it's stained some porous crumbly alu oxide. It is quite a dark forest green colour.

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. Hmm, my CL did this before it had its fluid flush. I personally think it is indicative of crud in the system between valves and struts. Now I've had a valve strip, clean, rebuild and flush through it's silent on moving up and down
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. Agreed, get them wiped down with soapy water to remove the salt, then keep them clean. Make sure the gaiters are in good condition. Remember you are allowed misting of the strut but not leaking- Malcolm has a strut that is permanently misty but doesn't leak and requires no fluid to top up.

 

[Submariner1]

You have the V8, which comes in two guises, what you see there are an I4 and a V6.

V8's either have complete or partial covers... some have exposed heads/ rocker covers, others don't

Here is mine ... A sorry state ATM



I do Hope I can make it look a lot better.
Especially the exposed fined Aluminium component in the middle of the plastic cover, maybe a wipe over will improve it and then polish with autoglyms red?

and the u or v shaped finish .... Wierd it looks like a sort of stone effect? MayBe once it was a speckled silver finish ... Looks Naff at the moment.

 

[Craiglxviii]

You'll be astonished what a good clean will do for it.

 

[Submariner1]

Excuse the shortness as I'm a bit pressed for time, so will comment in your post.

Thanks so much for the detailed post reply ... Really appreciated, as you can see I really never got involved before , but now finances dictate , I cant just slam it in the service shop!

Re cleaning it I was going to Karcher powered wash it ( with some fairey liquid in the Karcher shampoo intake, underneath - first in the down position ( as I assume the pistons will be retracted in the struts), and then raise it , and repeat carefully power wash those struts and the rest of the underneath with ph neutral Autoglyms body shampoo.

When I said I was worried about it eating through the green marked area ... I meant could the salt air have eaten through the Aluminium part.
I will take detailed pics before cleaning and after cleaning it.

 

[Submariner1]

You'll be astonished what a good clean will do for it.

Hmm that mark is a Forest green colour, lets hope it was just a splash on the oxidised aluminium, and not a leak :-/

 

[Submariner1]

Look on EBay USA for the sill plates

Thanks so much

 

[television]

 

[Submariner1]

Very jealous thats what I call great condition

Is that the starter battery? We can see in these pics
Where is the other one?

 

[television]

Very jealous thats what I call great condition

It was not when I bought it, thats after cleaning, I live less than ½mile from the sea. I did that with an engine cleaner and water jug

 

[television]

Yes in mine its the starter battery, they changed in middle of 08 to one battery up front only, my main one is in the boot.

 

[Submariner1]

whilst not saying its the best this is what has worked for me for more than thirty yrs .when i travel i empty one tin of wd40 on the engine and around the engine bay. when i return i drive the car to my very good/clean jet wash place about fifteen min away. then i hot jet wash the engine and engine bay, not manifolds and thats it done till next time . i have no white powder on any alli parts and NO corrosion of any kind under the bonnet of my cars a bonus here is it keeps the plastic mint looking as well . make sure the wash off is not jet point but fan and dont concentrate on any particular area . by the time i get home all is completely dry ,i often mist coat again with wd40 when i get back. i have never had a wiring issue doing this , and mice dont like wd40 either so they seem to stay away from my wiring ect when the car is parked up .

Thanks

 

[JBell]

Fabulous improvement ... Hope mine gets better like this ... But the salt sea air effect on the aluminium parts is a sad story.
I do wish the original owner had gone this :-/
But hopefully I can improve it.

My trim round the windows has discoloured, I also live by the sea, I will be having it all wrapped in matt black soon.

Just search "303 Aerospace protectant" on Amazon, it will come up

 

[ajlsl600]

thats pretty clean malc , will stick some of mine on in december. will take me that long to work out how to do the pic upload ,worked once ,never since.

 

[television]

I must have done that 2 years back at about 55 k miles

 

[Submariner1]

It was not when I bought it, thats after cleaning, I live less than ½mile from the sea. I did that with an engine cleaner and water jug

Was it a seasinde car before you bought it and gave it constant tlc?
And how long did it reside by the seaside?