Mercedes C63 AMG

[JPS18]

Hi all,

Just wondering if you can help me..

Have recently (3 weeks ago) bought a C63 from Mercedes Benz Huddersfield. The car was priced well for age and mileage and with the added comfort of the manufacturers warranty i went for it.

The car has had a few niggles, which its been back to Mercedes to have done. The one issue that seems to keep coming back is a loss of coolant. Now, ive read the horror stories about the head gaskets, faulty head bolts etc etc - but Mercedes has confirmed they have had the engine checked for this known fault and it isnt that. They have done a pressure test and it isnt losing any coolant either through a leak or similar.

They had it for a week, thought they had rectified it and gave it me back. After 24 hours with the car it became apparent they hadnt solved it as i got the "Top Up Coolant - See Owners Manual" - ive since done 150 miles and its used about 1.25 litres of coolant..

Im just wondering if you guys had any ideas what the issue might be, its a 58 plate done 69k miles. Mercedes Huddersfield arent proving themselves very well if the problem has reoccurred again. The car is currently sat on my drive and they are collecting Thursday. Im also tempted to let another Mercedes dealer have a gander at it for a second opinion?

Any Thoughts would be appreciated.

[markbe]

JPS18 said:

Hi all,

Just wondering if you can help me..

Have recently (3 weeks ago) bought a C63 from Mercedes Benz Huddersfield. The car was priced well for age and mileage and with the added comfort of the manufacturers warranty i went for it.

The car has had a few niggles, which its been back to Mercedes to have done. The one issue that seems to keep coming back is a loss of coolant. Now, ive read the horror stories about the head gaskets, faulty head bolts etc etc - but Mercedes has confirmed they have had the engine checked for this known fault and it isnt that. They have done a pressure test and it isnt losing any coolant either through a leak or similar.

They had it for a week, thought they had rectified it and gave it me back. After 24 hours with the car it became apparent they hadnt solved it as i got the "Top Up Coolant - See Owners Manual" - ive since done 150 miles and its used about 1.25 litres of coolant..

Im just wondering if you guys had any ideas what the issue might be, its a 58 plate done 69k miles. Mercedes Huddersfield arent proving themselves very well if the problem has reoccurred again. The car is currently sat on my drive and they are collecting Thursday. Im also tempted to let another Mercedes dealer have a gander at it for a second opinion?

Any Thoughts would be appreciated.

Start by replacing the radiator and radiator expansion tank caps.

Mark

[matc]

Losing coolant at that rate and no visible signs of loss; my money would be on it having snapped headbolts unfortnately.

Get the dealer to get the rocker covers off to investigate any water in the oil.

[TackMEU]

matc said:

Losing coolant at that rate and no visible signs of loss; my money would be on it having snapped headbolts unfortnately.

Get the dealer to get the rocker covers off to investigate any water in the oil.

As Matt say, go to the dealer and insist (he should know, he is a Merc dealer). It is covered under warranty so don't lose any sleep over it.

[Aquanaut]

sorry to read that. Join mercedes amg private forums on the net, have your vin number handy and do a search on coolant leaks. This is run by amg germany

[magnum555]

Is it a grey one? If so that was priced well from a main dealer. Hope you get the issues sorted.

[JPS18]

TackMEU said:

As Matt say, go to the dealer and insist (he should know, he is a Merc dealer). It is covered under warranty so don't lose any sleep over it.

The dealer have said that no water was in the oil when they did the checks, he said you can normally tell straight away if water has entered there because of the cleaning abilities of the water but no such signs.

They replaced the expansion caps before they handed it back to me this time and no such luck, thats why im at a complete loss with it, all I want is a fully working C63 which is what i thought id bought...

[JPS18]

magnum555 said:

Is it a grey one? If so that was priced well from a main dealer. Hope you get the issues sorted.

No, it was a silver one (actually being wrapped in a frozen grey this week) car was well priced for age and mileage so didnt haggle with them on price, so the least i expect is to have proper customer service and a fully functioning car..

[matc]

JPS18 said:

TackMEU said:

As Matt say, go to the dealer and insist (he should know, he is a Merc dealer). It is covered under warranty so don't lose any sleep over it.

The dealer have said that no water was in the oil when they did the checks, he said you can normally tell straight away if water has entered there because of the cleaning abilities of the water but no such signs.

They replaced the expansion caps before they handed it back to me this time and no such luck, thats why im at a complete loss with it, all I want is a fully working C63 which is what i thought id bought...

We had the same issue with a customers car a couple of months ago - the dealer has to check the torque rating of the headbolts; on this particular car the headbolts on inital inspection were fine - the car continued to lose water. When we checked again the head of one of the bolts had actually snapped off letting in a similar amount of water to what you're experiencing.

Get them to do the checks again. You've just bought the car, so they should be doing everything to rectify the fault. If it's not the headbolts I would be surprised - the more you drive it, the more damage it's going to do!

[StephenP]

Out of interest, is the "bolt snapping" problem confined to a batch of engines fitted to the C63 or does it cover all the other models with that engine?

[JPS18]

matc said:

We had the same issue with a customers car a couple of months ago - the dealer has to check the torque rating of the headbolts; on this particular car the headbolts on inital inspection were fine - the car continued to lose water. When we checked again the head of one of the bolts had actually snapped off letting in a similar amount of water to what you're experiencing.

Get them to do the checks again. You've just bought the car, so they should be doing everything to rectify the fault. If it's not the headbolts I would be surprised - the more you drive it, the more damage it's going to do!

thank you for this, always helps when i have some sort of source that i can quote when i do speak to the service guys on thursday, as you said they should be intent on getting the car running 110% as im sure they want it out of the workshop as much as i want it in fully working order...

[magnum555]

Any update on this op?

[rubystone]

StephenP said:

Out of interest, is the "bolt snapping" problem confined to a batch of engines fitted to the C63 or does it cover all the other models with that engine?

Well I can confirm that I never get that message in my CLK63...now past 41k miles and still going strong. I do get this orange warning light appear a lot...it seems to be formed of a picture of a petrol pump....

[JPS18]

magnum555 said:

Any update on this op?

Hi mate,

Yes Merc have had my car now for well over a week, their head technician rang me and his words were "we have established everything else is running at 100% so we will go ahead and replace the head gasket" he also told me the cylinder heads (dont quote me on that im not a mechanic) are being removed, sent away to be re-machined and then placed back in the car, car will be ready to collect this friday touch wood.

He has told me that i will have a 1200 mile running in period now (no more than 4000 revs) so that the engine can gradually bed into itself again and i dont put strain on any of the new parts. i was a little disappointed that he has organised to do the head gasket because he cant think what else the coolant loss could be, id rather he rang and said "we've found the issue and we know exactly how to resolve it" but, i guess that with the new head gasket and everything else having been checked i should have happy motoring from now on.

Mercedes have also done my snagging list which i emailed them, new lower front grill (stone cracked a hole in it), new front number plate plinth (cracked down the middle), new rear indicator unit (faulty unit with error message on dash), new AMG mats (because im fussy and the old ones had a hole in them) and the cover plate behind the rear drivers brake disc (was making contact with the disc producing a horrendous grinding noise)

Hopefully, as of friday i can use my C63 as intended, had it a month and havent had a day where its been functioning 100%!!

P.S - ive swapped my 18" alloys for the 19" alloys, do you lot know where i would be best getting rid of these and what they are even worth?

Thanks Guys!

[Lynch91]

JPS18 said:

P.S - ive swapped my 18" alloys for the 19" alloys, do you lot know where i would be best getting rid of these and what they are even worth?

Keep the 18s and put some winter tyres on them so you have no problem in the snow. And hope the car comes back in fully working order!

[magnum555]

Thanks for the update OP hope it gets sorted.

[Gazzer007]

Anyone had any experience of the low pressure cooling system leaking? I just recently had a stone damaged this radiator the big one right at the front.
I had no warning of this system loosing its coolant, I only noticed the electric fan coming on at first then the gears were not changing smoothly and some what erratically. A quick call to the dealership, with no warning lights just a slightly higher oil and water temp there was no diagnosis ? apart from stop if any warning lights come on?

This happened twice on journeys into work, so I popped into the dealership for them to have a look, this is when the stone damage was discovered, and I was informed I must not drive the car and I could have cooked the gearbox.?

I was informed there is no warning on this particular system, bottom line is if your not careful you may damage your gearbox costing many thousands ? so watch out for this problem. My C63 is a 2016 Model

Edited by Gazzer007 on Wednesday 22 March 11:44

[jbc63]

Yes, you are not alone with that one my friend. I run my car with the AMG display on; I saw the gearbox oil temperature rising quickly, then I was aware of the fans working very hard. The low temperature system cools the turbo's and the gearbox oil only. The last of the coolant was leaking out as I stopped and there was no alternative but to call MB recovery, who provided a first class service, given that it was 5.45pm on a Sunday evening, just outside Braemar.