Mercedes-Benz C216 CL500
Discussion
Having kicked off a thread on my toy car: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
I might as well start another on my daily driver...
I'd been running a BMW 320D Touring for 3 years, which remains possibly the best allrounder I've ever owned - It survived a 2500+ trip to Spain / loop around the West of France, and didn't shed its timing chain/ ingest its swirl flaps, like all N42-engined cars do*
The more observant may notice the Irish number plate - I'd registered it in the ROI, as it spent the vast majority of its time at my house over there.
A change in employment during late 2018 meant I was spending more time in the UK (effectively Mon - Fri), and the 320 wasn't being used other than at the weekend. Thus, I decided to flog the BMW and get something completely stupid to use while in the UK (I rent a flat there for during the week).
I've always wanted to tick the V8 box, having owned various engine configurations, but nothing larger than a 3.0 V6 (A Renault Avantime, no less!) - It's been discussed often on here, but I think opportunities to own a huge engined NA petrol car are diminishing rapidly, as we move to a bright new EV future, so now is the time.
(I don't dislike EV's, having covered a good few miles in a Renault Zoe - However once the thrill of instant torque wears off, it was a pretty dull 'white goods' experience).
I set quite a low budget, as I didn't want to have a fortune tied up in something I really didn't need, plus I wanted to keep some funds back for the inevitable repairs. Various options were considered - VXR / Audi A8 / BMW 7 Series, but eventually I settled on a C216 CL Mercedes - To me, they were pitched as a rival for the Bentley Continental GT / Aston DB9 when new; even if the CL didn't quite live up to that measure, they're around half (if not a third) of the price of a comparable Continental GT / DB9.
They're definitely a 'brave pill' car - Repair bills can run into the thousands, so it makes sense to buy one with a cast iron service history (and still keep everything crossed), which is exactly what I didn't do
This mega mile CL600 caught my eye - 180k on the clock, but fully specced and had been to MB for all its servicing. An elderly gent had owned it from new, and was selling as he'd bought the new-shape model.
While it was the cheapest CL600 on the market, I just couldn't get my head round having £9.7k tied up in a V12 Bi-Turbo with 180k+ on the clock, plus the seller wouldn't budge on price.
A very cheap CL500 popped up on eBay, first owner a Mr James Dyson, but sold quickly before popping up on a traders website at the same price (which rang a few alarm bells that they wanted out ASAP).
In the end, good old Pistonheads came up trumps with a factory AMG kitted CL500 at a sensible price - Only problem was that it was located in Reading, and I was in Aberdeen...
(It was also listed on Gumtree).
The seller seemed honest, almost to the point of his own detriment and it had the optional factory AMG bodykit & 20" wheels, along with Distronic (Radar) cruise control and the massage seats - It also appeared to have been serviced within the MB main dealer network up until 2016, and a respected specialist thereafter, and had just 97k on the clock.
So I did the only sensible thing under the circumstances, having never viewed / driven any other CL's - I flew down from Aberdeen to Heathrow after work to pick it up, arriving at 22:30, where the seller collected me, buzzed round to a garage forecourt for me to view the car under the lights, ran me back to his to make the internet banking transfer, and then I took off North - Exactly the way you buy a car which cost £91k back in 2007...
Thankfully it made it up the road without issue, covering 400 miles at an average of 30 mpg - Not bad for an old-skool 5.5 Litre petrol V8
It was treated to a full machine polish, and came up quite well:
Before heading off to the MB main dealer, for a big service (plugs / brake fluid etc) and an opportunity for them to make a huge list of everything that's wrong with it, Hoovies Garage style.
Surprisingly, they didn't flag anything other than the discs & pads being low - Especially the rears, so Carparts4less came up trumps at £24 for a set of Brembo rear pads :P
Of course, having lavished effort and £££ on the CL, it then went repaid the favour by doing what elderly CL's often like to do, from time to time...
I might as well start another on my daily driver...
I'd been running a BMW 320D Touring for 3 years, which remains possibly the best allrounder I've ever owned - It survived a 2500+ trip to Spain / loop around the West of France, and didn't shed its timing chain/ ingest its swirl flaps, like all N42-engined cars do*
The more observant may notice the Irish number plate - I'd registered it in the ROI, as it spent the vast majority of its time at my house over there.
A change in employment during late 2018 meant I was spending more time in the UK (effectively Mon - Fri), and the 320 wasn't being used other than at the weekend. Thus, I decided to flog the BMW and get something completely stupid to use while in the UK (I rent a flat there for during the week).
I've always wanted to tick the V8 box, having owned various engine configurations, but nothing larger than a 3.0 V6 (A Renault Avantime, no less!) - It's been discussed often on here, but I think opportunities to own a huge engined NA petrol car are diminishing rapidly, as we move to a bright new EV future, so now is the time.
(I don't dislike EV's, having covered a good few miles in a Renault Zoe - However once the thrill of instant torque wears off, it was a pretty dull 'white goods' experience).
I set quite a low budget, as I didn't want to have a fortune tied up in something I really didn't need, plus I wanted to keep some funds back for the inevitable repairs. Various options were considered - VXR / Audi A8 / BMW 7 Series, but eventually I settled on a C216 CL Mercedes - To me, they were pitched as a rival for the Bentley Continental GT / Aston DB9 when new; even if the CL didn't quite live up to that measure, they're around half (if not a third) of the price of a comparable Continental GT / DB9.
They're definitely a 'brave pill' car - Repair bills can run into the thousands, so it makes sense to buy one with a cast iron service history (and still keep everything crossed), which is exactly what I didn't do
This mega mile CL600 caught my eye - 180k on the clock, but fully specced and had been to MB for all its servicing. An elderly gent had owned it from new, and was selling as he'd bought the new-shape model.
While it was the cheapest CL600 on the market, I just couldn't get my head round having £9.7k tied up in a V12 Bi-Turbo with 180k+ on the clock, plus the seller wouldn't budge on price.
A very cheap CL500 popped up on eBay, first owner a Mr James Dyson, but sold quickly before popping up on a traders website at the same price (which rang a few alarm bells that they wanted out ASAP).
In the end, good old Pistonheads came up trumps with a factory AMG kitted CL500 at a sensible price - Only problem was that it was located in Reading, and I was in Aberdeen...
(It was also listed on Gumtree).
The seller seemed honest, almost to the point of his own detriment and it had the optional factory AMG bodykit & 20" wheels, along with Distronic (Radar) cruise control and the massage seats - It also appeared to have been serviced within the MB main dealer network up until 2016, and a respected specialist thereafter, and had just 97k on the clock.
So I did the only sensible thing under the circumstances, having never viewed / driven any other CL's - I flew down from Aberdeen to Heathrow after work to pick it up, arriving at 22:30, where the seller collected me, buzzed round to a garage forecourt for me to view the car under the lights, ran me back to his to make the internet banking transfer, and then I took off North - Exactly the way you buy a car which cost £91k back in 2007...
Thankfully it made it up the road without issue, covering 400 miles at an average of 30 mpg - Not bad for an old-skool 5.5 Litre petrol V8
It was treated to a full machine polish, and came up quite well:
Before heading off to the MB main dealer, for a big service (plugs / brake fluid etc) and an opportunity for them to make a huge list of everything that's wrong with it, Hoovies Garage style.
Surprisingly, they didn't flag anything other than the discs & pads being low - Especially the rears, so Carparts4less came up trumps at £24 for a set of Brembo rear pads :P
Of course, having lavished effort and £££ on the CL, it then went repaid the favour by doing what elderly CL's often like to do, from time to time...
martin mrt said:
Stunning, there’s something so right about a CL
If you are in Aberdeen I know an excellent Mercedes tech that works after hours on a cash basis, if the need arises.
That would be much appreciated, Martin - I've found a decent specialist in the Central Belt, but someone local to Aberdeen would be far more convenient If you are in Aberdeen I know an excellent Mercedes tech that works after hours on a cash basis, if the need arises.
spaceship said:
Looks awesome. Nice big waft-o-matic!
Do you think that a V8 will be something worth hanging onto for years to come? Or give the upsurge of ev’s will they become the great unwanted?
I think NA V8's are already heading well towards great unwanted status - The CL's very thirsty & despite having 388bhp its not especially fast compared to modern turbo charged stuff.Do you think that a V8 will be something worth hanging onto for years to come? Or give the upsurge of ev’s will they become the great unwanted?
It does make a nice noise when you bury the throttle, which remains a large part of the attraction for me, but I'm increasingly in the minority these days (it doesn't make a ratta-tat-tat noise which you lift off, which seems to be de rigueur for performance cars these days
)It's not all about out & out performance, obviously - The CL is a waftmobile, very much a GT made for covering long distances at speed and in great comfort (which is something it's very good at, thankfully!)
So, to where I left the last post... "Of course, having lavished effort and £££ on the CL, it then went repaid the favour by doing what elderly CL's often like to do, from time to time..."
I'd decided to take it over to Ireland for a fortnight in late August last year, to use for a trip to Connemara as part of our 2019 summer holiday.
I set off to catch the morning ferry from Cairnryan to Belfast, which landed me right in Glasgow's rush hour - Sat crawling in slow traffic I thought I could smell the faint sweet whiff of glycol, but put it down to the ratty old coach which was next to me.
Then I get the CL chime of death, with the dash telling me that I've had an ABC suspension failure. This is followed moments later by another chime telling me that my battery is low. Next up was a check coolant and top up - see owners manual.
By this point I was quickly coming to the realisation I wasn't going to be making the ferry
I wacked the heater on full and limped across to take the next exit, realising at that point the power steering had also failed. As I coasted up the slip road and wrestled the car into a housing estate the warning message directed me to switch off immediately, as the engine was overheating...(!)
I was lucky that from first chime of death to switch off it was less than 5 minutes - When I came to a halt, there was a puddle of coolant forming under the front right wheel and the engine fans were roaring away. I popped the bonnet to find coolant venting from the expansion tank, as well as this:
Bugger
This serpentine belt drives the alternator, water pump, ABC suspension pump, power steering pump and air conditioning pump. The idler pulley at the top of the picture had collapsed, shredding the belt in the process. (Thankfully the shredded belt hadn't torn up the surround pipework & wiring loom!)
Recovery was a right hassle, as the hydraulic suspension being shut down had settled the car on its bump stops - The AA had to use a low-loader with special 'low' ramps (which, incidentally, they mainly use to recover McLaren's which have suffered suspension module failure ). I'd identified a Mercedes specialist in Glasgow while waiting, and made contact to arrange dropping off the car for repair.
The whole process of doing that took about 3 hours (from breakdown to gingerly driving the CL into the Mercedes garage), and I was then forced to dash to catch the flight to Dublin I'd had to arrange that afternoon as a ferry substitute.
Cue a few days of worry that I shredded something / cooked the engine / was about to receive a £5k bill...
...but thankfully they were able to clean the belt residue from the pulleys, fit a new idler pulley / belt, and replace the coolant - All for under £220
The engine wasn't overheating and making normal power, so it seems I managed to shut it down just in time (I've since covered several thousand miles with no engine problems).
On picking the car up, I noticed that the stereo had no sound - My CL has the Harmon Kardon Logic 7 system (an £800 option in 2007), and it appeared the amp had died. Secondhand Logic 7 amps seem to go for £600-700 on eBay, and they are a relatively common failure - Especially on the diesel S Class, as the cooling fans suck in the soot from the exhaust through a poorly located rear vent, and gum up the fans causing the board to overheat.
I did some research on the MB boards, and found that the amp's MOST loop can also cause problems, if the battery goes flat - Which mine did, during the breakdown.
I pulled the boot panels / pulled all the leads, then reconnected - Result; music was restored! (Love a free fix on a CL )
It did take me a couple of months to get around to doing this (I can't easily work on my car where it's usually parked) so it was nice to not have to rely on my puny bluetooth speaker for Radio 4
I'd decided to take it over to Ireland for a fortnight in late August last year, to use for a trip to Connemara as part of our 2019 summer holiday.
I set off to catch the morning ferry from Cairnryan to Belfast, which landed me right in Glasgow's rush hour - Sat crawling in slow traffic I thought I could smell the faint sweet whiff of glycol, but put it down to the ratty old coach which was next to me.
Then I get the CL chime of death, with the dash telling me that I've had an ABC suspension failure. This is followed moments later by another chime telling me that my battery is low. Next up was a check coolant and top up - see owners manual.
By this point I was quickly coming to the realisation I wasn't going to be making the ferry
I wacked the heater on full and limped across to take the next exit, realising at that point the power steering had also failed. As I coasted up the slip road and wrestled the car into a housing estate the warning message directed me to switch off immediately, as the engine was overheating...(!)
I was lucky that from first chime of death to switch off it was less than 5 minutes - When I came to a halt, there was a puddle of coolant forming under the front right wheel and the engine fans were roaring away. I popped the bonnet to find coolant venting from the expansion tank, as well as this:
Bugger
This serpentine belt drives the alternator, water pump, ABC suspension pump, power steering pump and air conditioning pump. The idler pulley at the top of the picture had collapsed, shredding the belt in the process. (Thankfully the shredded belt hadn't torn up the surround pipework & wiring loom!)
Recovery was a right hassle, as the hydraulic suspension being shut down had settled the car on its bump stops - The AA had to use a low-loader with special 'low' ramps (which, incidentally, they mainly use to recover McLaren's which have suffered suspension module failure
). I'd identified a Mercedes specialist in Glasgow while waiting, and made contact to arrange dropping off the car for repair.The whole process of doing that took about 3 hours (from breakdown to gingerly driving the CL into the Mercedes garage), and I was then forced to dash to catch the flight to Dublin I'd had to arrange that afternoon as a ferry substitute.
Cue a few days of worry that I shredded something / cooked the engine / was about to receive a £5k bill...
...but thankfully they were able to clean the belt residue from the pulleys, fit a new idler pulley / belt, and replace the coolant - All for under £220
The engine wasn't overheating and making normal power, so it seems I managed to shut it down just in time (I've since covered several thousand miles with no engine problems).
On picking the car up, I noticed that the stereo had no sound - My CL has the Harmon Kardon Logic 7 system (an £800 option in 2007), and it appeared the amp had died. Secondhand Logic 7 amps seem to go for £600-700 on eBay, and they are a relatively common failure - Especially on the diesel S Class, as the cooling fans suck in the soot from the exhaust through a poorly located rear vent, and gum up the fans causing the board to overheat.
I did some research on the MB boards, and found that the amp's MOST loop can also cause problems, if the battery goes flat - Which mine did, during the breakdown.
I pulled the boot panels / pulled all the leads, then reconnected - Result; music was restored! (Love a free fix on a CL
)It did take me a couple of months to get around to doing this (I can't easily work on my car where it's usually parked) so it was nice to not have to rely on my puny bluetooth speaker for Radio 4
My uncle had one of these & it was bulletproof & only cost him a two window regulators on top of normal servicing (his had a pair of direct replacement filters X Pipe map & lowering links) it was faultless, he only replaced it with the later 4.7TT CL500 which is another great GT.
Nice weekend car there is one thing that make you think your bottom end is knocking & that's the A/C unit when the bearings (this is a Mercedes thing not just a CL thing) go it sounds like the bottom end has gone.
Enjoy you're wheels they look so much better with the AMG kit on.
Nice weekend car there is one thing that make you think your bottom end is knocking & that's the A/C unit when the bearings (this is a Mercedes thing not just a CL thing) go it sounds like the bottom end has gone.
Enjoy you're wheels they look so much better with the AMG kit on.
d_a_n1979 said:
Lovely car and project
That was a lucky save re the pulleys & engine, thankfully you did what was necessary etc...
Any future plans for it, or just drive it and leave it as it's meant to be?
I'm in two minds, to be honest - A breakers yard about 10 miles away advertised that they had taken in an '07 CL63 AMG a few months back, so I was thinking of trying to snare the rear diffuser and full exhaust system, assuming it wasn't completely ruined. (The car looks to have been rolled). That was a lucky save re the pulleys & engine, thankfully you did what was necessary etc...
Any future plans for it, or just drive it and leave it as it's meant to be?
I quite like the CL63 wheels too, but that would look like I was trying to create a full-on replica (not to mention highlight my puny standard brake calipers & discs), so I'll probably give them a miss.
Following my last update, I'd been driving around in an attempt to re-gain some confidence in the car before spending any more money on it - Thankfully the pulley incident didn't seem to have left any lasting damage, so I dipped into my current account once again.
The wheels were kerbed on each corner (it's a wiiide car) and the tyres it sported were a mix of 'Imperial' and Nexen brands - They did have a reasonable amount of tread left, but were rock hard with little grip in slippery conditions last October.
I looked at the various options and plumped for a full set of MO spec Pirelli P Zero's, at just over £600 delivered - Not bad for 275/35/20 rears and 255/35/20 fronts.
It made sense to get the wheels refurbed prior to fitting and I used a mob in Aberdeen who were also happy to accept delivery of the new tyres / dispose of the old. Unfortunately my existing valves were badly corroded, and being TPMS-specific, meant an additional outlay to replace all four.
The Pirelli's really do make a huge difference - Much better ride and more traction. The refurbed wheels have also improved the look no end.
Next up were the batteries - Like its early W221 brother, the early C216 has two of them - A 'starter' battery in the engine bay and a 'consumer' battery behind the rear seats. (Later cars only have the 'starter' battery and a small auxiliary battery in the fusebox side of the dashboard).
The 'starter' is a MB branded unit made by Varta and a bit of an odd size, apparently being specific to the CL / S / SL (shorter in height to allow the bonnet to clear) - I noticed in sub-zero temperatures the car sometimes cranked a few extra times before starting, so stuck a cheap eBay drop tester on:
(Was rated at 520CCA new, so not awful, but the battery is of an unknown vintage).
Next up was the 'consumer' battery:
Hmmm.
This battery is often over-looked, as it's a pain to get at - You need to pull the boot trims apart, and wrestle a 30kg battery from its slot, transferring over various cables etc to the new battery. It's also important that you follow the correct sequence of disconnecting the earth on the starter battery first / reconnecting last, otherwise you can knacker the charge controller (which modulates charge / power distribution between both batteries).
When it gets tired, this is the battery which causes all the weird error messages to appear on the dash display and can go as far as to actually disable some of the car's functions.
As the car was regularly spending weekends sat in the long term car park of the airport, the last thing I wanted was a starting issue (or pile of electronic gremlins) when I arrived back to collect it at 21:00hrs on a Sunday evening, so I elected to change both.
The 'starter' battery was £180 delivered, and a Bosch S5 AGM 'consumer' was also £180 - Thankfully they aren't coded to the car in the way my old E91 3 Series was, so it was just a matter of connecting a slave battery to maintain the settings and changing them over.
Next up were the brakes - It's a heavy old lump, at over 2 tonnes and the MB main dealer had declared the front discs and pads 70% worn during its service in August 2019.
One of the online parts stores had their usual super-dooper discount weekend, so I picked up a set of 350mm Brembo OEM-spec discs along with matching pads for £170 all in (the CL63/65 AMG front discs are around £500... Each!)
(Dirty mark - Not paint damage!)
These were swapped out, along with new wear sensors for piece of mind.
Having spent £500+ on batteries & brakes, the CL again showed its gratitude by suffering a parking brake failure - I'd pressed the button to engage it, and was met with a horrible repetitive ratcheting noise, punctuated with a loud metallic bang. The hill hold function became disabled, and the dash flagged this cheerful message:
Thankfully it failed 'off' rather than jammed on, but this happened around the time lockdown started which means I haven't been able to get anywhere to have someone look at it yet.
(You require access to STAR / DAS MB diagnostic software to place the parking brake motor into maintenance mode, in order to adjust the shoes / change out the motor, so I can't do anything with it myself).
The car still drives fine and is happy to be left in 'Park' - I've been keeping it on a trickle charger and squeezing in a 15 mile motorway run to Tesco once per week to keep it ticking over (C216's do not like to sit idle!)
Now that garages are opening up again, I'll get it booked in ASAP (not that I'm using it much at present).
What does PH reckon? Knackered parking brake motor / cables (£8-900 for the part only) or parking brake shoes out of adjustment, meaning the gearing is fully wound one way? (About an hour's labour) - Betting starts now!
Loving the reviews of the various CLs on PH as I'm tempted to sell something to get into one. Sorry to hear about the belt snap on your way to the ferry. It's a lovely sailing that when the weather is kind. I just love driving off at the other side, I'd be going NI to Scotland, then exploring the open road.
How did you get on with the braking system? Hopefully it was just a tap with a rubber mallet a squirt of lube and away you go sir.
However being a Merc owner it was probably two fortunes.
Soon forgotten about once you're on the road again
How did you get on with the braking system? Hopefully it was just a tap with a rubber mallet a squirt of lube and away you go sir.
However being a Merc owner it was probably two fortunes.
Soon forgotten about once you're on the road again
MercedesClassic said:
Loving the reviews of the various CLs on PH as I'm tempted to sell something to get into one. Sorry to hear about the belt snap on your way to the ferry. It's a lovely sailing that when the weather is kind. I just love driving off at the other side, I'd be going NI to Scotland, then exploring the open road.
How did you get on with the braking system? Hopefully it was just a tap with a rubber mallet a squirt of lube and away you go sir.
However being a Merc owner it was probably two fortunes.
Soon forgotten about once you're on the road again
I did my usual trick of buying a keenly priced one and then spending a fortune to bring it back to a standard - The plan was to take it on a 2500 mile European road trip this Summer to get the benefit of the expenditure, but that's not happening now for obvious reasons. How did you get on with the braking system? Hopefully it was just a tap with a rubber mallet a squirt of lube and away you go sir.
However being a Merc owner it was probably two fortunes.
Soon forgotten about once you're on the road again
After 15 months of ownership I now find myself think of parting with it at some point soon, as my working arrangements have changed and I find myself in ROI more often - I could VRT / register it there (£3k ish) but I refuse to pay £2k per year for the road tax (and likely a similar figure for insurance, if I could find a provider willing to cover it).
It's a fantastic waft-mobile - The ABC suspension is amazing in the way it can make a 5+ metre car shrink into something much more wieldy on a twisty road, but still cruise along around the M Way in supreme comfort and near silence.
Regarding the parking brake - That was a fairly straightforward fix, but during the repair a few other issues were flagged so it's been receiving some TLC over the past few weeks - Nothing major; more a case of waiting for parts / ramp time.
I hopefully collect it this week, so will update this thread on its return.
Thanks for the reply and yeah I tend to buy good ones too and find they still need work.
I live in Northern Ireland and was a student in Dublin, not quite living there full time but I think you should be fine as you are.
Check it out for sure but I reckon you have up to 90 days EU cover, not sure if that's consecutive or the total in a year or whatever.
The road tax etc is extortionate but if you're a UK visitor then you'll not need to pay it.
I mean today I saw plenty of rough looking BMWs and Mercedes flying about, right hand drive with Romanian and Bulgarian plates on them. How does that work for UK RT, MOT and insurance?
I live in Northern Ireland and was a student in Dublin, not quite living there full time but I think you should be fine as you are.
Check it out for sure but I reckon you have up to 90 days EU cover, not sure if that's consecutive or the total in a year or whatever.
The road tax etc is extortionate but if you're a UK visitor then you'll not need to pay it.
I mean today I saw plenty of rough looking BMWs and Mercedes flying about, right hand drive with Romanian and Bulgarian plates on them. How does that work for UK RT, MOT and insurance?
The initial lockdown period wasn't especially kind to the CL – As often said by those much wiser than me, old S Classes do not like to sit around unused and often repay such treatment by throwing a hissy fit or two when pressed back into regular service.
In addition to the Parking Brake failure mentioned above, it developed an intermittent “Restraint System Malfunction” with the SRS, which brought a warning message to the display and illuminated the airbag light.
(It had popped up a couple of times last year, but I’d attributed it to the dying consumer battery, as it hadn’t came in since that was changed out for a new one).
I grew up driving cars which only had an engine temperature light (indicating you had head gasket failure when it illuminated) and an oil pressure light (indicating you’d starved your bottom end and kippered your engine when it lit up).
The issue with this type of car is that it has umpteen different ECU’s / Signal Acquisition Modules (SAM's), and as it ages / wears, it has potential to register a different warning every time you fire the thing up. Recognising what’s relevant is the key to ownership without constantly worrying that there’s a wallet-bursting bill with every chime of the dashboard.
A slot at the workshop became available, therefore the CL headed off for some much needed TLC.
With a long hit list, they quickly got to work and found:
The parking brake pivot mechanism was completely seized – The parking brake motor was fighting a losing battle against it, hence the nasty crunchy noises
The parking brake shoes within the hub were heavily worn
The rear calipers were partly seized – They use phenolic pistons (i.e. plastic) which can swell over time, even if the piston seal is intact – This had led to the pads lightly dragging on the rear discs (which were heavily lipped) and the new Brembo pads I fitted last summer were already ground down to 50%
Diagnosis complete, they stripped / cleaned / lubricated the Parking Brake mechanism and managed to reset it via STAR (MB dealer diagnostic software) – Thankfully the electric motor hasn’t shredded all the fragile cogs within. They also replaced the rear calipers / discs / pads and Parking Brake shoes and cleared all the fault codes, returning the Parking Brake to full service and re-enabling the ‘Hold’ function (handy at traffic lights).
The Airbag light was traced to a faulty acceleration sensor on the passenger side of the car, located under the front slam panel / radiator support (thankfully a relatively cheap part to replace).
It made sense to get an ‘A’ service completed while the car was there, as well as a good check over after its long period of inertia – The ABC system thankfully got a clean bill of health, with no leaks / worn components flagged.
An unexpected work trip to a quarantine-list country meant I had to isolate on my return for 14 days and couldn't collect the car, so I asked them to use this additional time to have a look at the non-functioning Distronic Plus (adaptive cruise control) and Multi Contour seats (numerous air bladders which inflate / deflate).
When shopping for a C216, the AMG styling package was first on my wish list, closely followed by the Distronic Plus. The vendor of my car reckoned the radar unit had been replaced just prior to his purchase and needed a simple calibration - I thought this was fine, I’d run around just using cruise control as normal and get it calibrated later – Alas, no Distronic = No cruise control either. Not ideal in this sort of car.
When plugged into STAR it did appear the unit simply needed calibrated – It was in ‘learning mode’, but remained so even when attempting to calibrate using the proper calibration tool & method. STAR Online indicated a FW update was available, but when attempting to apply this update to the DTR unit, it would fail around the 80% point every time.
Reckoning the unit to be faulty, I searched eBay for a good used replacement, eventually picking up a DTR unit from a 2012 CL (same part number) and had it shipped directly to the workshop – Success; once fitted / calibrated I now finally have working adaptive cruise after 14 months of ownership.
I was sure the seat issue was down to a ruptured air bladder which would have been completely uneconomical to fix (MB only sell the entire set of bladder chambers, at £600 a seat I believe…!) – As luck would have it, it turned out that the air pump fan was completely seized and responded to a strip down / clean / lubricate and reset in STAR to return it fully to service.
With the car back to rude health, it was about time for a Staycation road trip…
In addition to the Parking Brake failure mentioned above, it developed an intermittent “Restraint System Malfunction” with the SRS, which brought a warning message to the display and illuminated the airbag light.
(It had popped up a couple of times last year, but I’d attributed it to the dying consumer battery, as it hadn’t came in since that was changed out for a new one).
I grew up driving cars which only had an engine temperature light (indicating you had head gasket failure when it illuminated) and an oil pressure light (indicating you’d starved your bottom end and kippered your engine when it lit up).
The issue with this type of car is that it has umpteen different ECU’s / Signal Acquisition Modules (SAM's), and as it ages / wears, it has potential to register a different warning every time you fire the thing up. Recognising what’s relevant is the key to ownership without constantly worrying that there’s a wallet-bursting bill with every chime of the dashboard.
A slot at the workshop became available, therefore the CL headed off for some much needed TLC.
With a long hit list, they quickly got to work and found:
The parking brake pivot mechanism was completely seized – The parking brake motor was fighting a losing battle against it, hence the nasty crunchy noises
The parking brake shoes within the hub were heavily worn
The rear calipers were partly seized – They use phenolic pistons (i.e. plastic) which can swell over time, even if the piston seal is intact – This had led to the pads lightly dragging on the rear discs (which were heavily lipped) and the new Brembo pads I fitted last summer were already ground down to 50%
Diagnosis complete, they stripped / cleaned / lubricated the Parking Brake mechanism and managed to reset it via STAR (MB dealer diagnostic software) – Thankfully the electric motor hasn’t shredded all the fragile cogs within. They also replaced the rear calipers / discs / pads and Parking Brake shoes and cleared all the fault codes, returning the Parking Brake to full service and re-enabling the ‘Hold’ function (handy at traffic lights).
The Airbag light was traced to a faulty acceleration sensor on the passenger side of the car, located under the front slam panel / radiator support (thankfully a relatively cheap part to replace).
It made sense to get an ‘A’ service completed while the car was there, as well as a good check over after its long period of inertia – The ABC system thankfully got a clean bill of health, with no leaks / worn components flagged.
An unexpected work trip to a quarantine-list country meant I had to isolate on my return for 14 days and couldn't collect the car, so I asked them to use this additional time to have a look at the non-functioning Distronic Plus (adaptive cruise control) and Multi Contour seats (numerous air bladders which inflate / deflate).
When shopping for a C216, the AMG styling package was first on my wish list, closely followed by the Distronic Plus. The vendor of my car reckoned the radar unit had been replaced just prior to his purchase and needed a simple calibration - I thought this was fine, I’d run around just using cruise control as normal and get it calibrated later – Alas, no Distronic = No cruise control either. Not ideal in this sort of car.
When plugged into STAR it did appear the unit simply needed calibrated – It was in ‘learning mode’, but remained so even when attempting to calibrate using the proper calibration tool & method. STAR Online indicated a FW update was available, but when attempting to apply this update to the DTR unit, it would fail around the 80% point every time.
Reckoning the unit to be faulty, I searched eBay for a good used replacement, eventually picking up a DTR unit from a 2012 CL (same part number) and had it shipped directly to the workshop – Success; once fitted / calibrated I now finally have working adaptive cruise after 14 months of ownership.
I was sure the seat issue was down to a ruptured air bladder which would have been completely uneconomical to fix (MB only sell the entire set of bladder chambers, at £600 a seat I believe…!) – As luck would have it, it turned out that the air pump fan was completely seized and responded to a strip down / clean / lubricate and reset in STAR to return it fully to service.
With the car back to rude health, it was about time for a Staycation road trip…
weebaws said:
Car looks great - if you do decide to sell, let me know. I'm just down in Edinburgh but need to sort out a new daily ahead of the winter
Thanks and I will do - My office in Aberdeen looks to be shut for a while longer, so I'm contemplating registering the CL at my folks place in Stirling and storing it there for a bit. I'm planning to MOT it in October and decide what I'm going to do then.The masterplan for my CL ownership had always been to work through whatever niggles I picked up on since purchase, assure myself of its reliability, then take it on a similar trip to France / Spain, which I made in my old E91 in 2018.
I’ve always wanted to make such a journey in an old skool V8 GT and, given the surprisingly large boot / rear cabin space in the CL, intended taking my folks along to share the experience.
Current circumstances obviously put paid to that plan, therefore an alternative staycation (sorry – I don’t like the term either!) road trip was plotted and we headed off in the last week of August.
I’ve put around 8,000 miles on the CL over the past 18 months or so, but most of that was on the A90 between Aberdeen and Edinburgh Airport, for my weekly commute.
This roadtrip was the first opportunity I’d had to take a significant trip for pleasure / leisure, and I was interested to see how the car performed on a mix of motorway / A & B roads.
I already knew it could take the motorway stuff in its stride – The fact I now had working cruise control helped a lot too. It took a little time to build trust in the adaptive cruise, but it works surprisingly well for a first gen system. The main issue I found is that when you’re overtaking in lane 2 or 3 and someone dives in the gap between you and the car in front, it slams on the brakes (a bit dramatic for whoever’s following / tailgating you) and then drops right back to whatever distance it’s set to (50yds / 100yds etc), which encourages the dawdler who cut you up to stay in lane ahead, bimbling along at 10-15 mph less than whatever you have your cruise set to.
Sweeping / smooth NSL ‘A’ roads were a revelation – At one point I followed a Gen 2 997 for about 30 minutes, who was driving in a spirited but sensible manner and it was easy enough to keep up without pushing anywhere near the limits.
I remember watching the Chris Harris YouTube review of his S63 AMG Coupe, in which he waxed lyrically about the ride and ability to travel at great pace in great comfort with minimal fatigue. His car was a later C217, but the same DNA is definitely there in the C216. It has huge reserves of grip and when you catch slower traffic / the many camper vans, it was easy to dispatch them with minimal drama.
It’s also extremely quiet in the cruise, the HK stereo sounds pretty good to my ears and NVH levels are so low, you end up skipping planned rest stops as you’re genuinely not tired.
Flicking through the various drive modes was interesting - In ‘Comfort’ it softens off the suspension and damps down the throttle response / willingness to drop gears (it pulls away in second). In ‘Sport’ it stiffens everything up and makes the car much keener to drop and hold gears. ‘Manual’ is much the same, but activates the flappy paddles to let you select the gear you want.
I’m used to the low down torque of turbocharged cars, so it was a learning for me that you actually have to drop a couple of gears and rev out the engine in the CL to fully tap into the performance. For something so large, it can really get a move on and the V8 growl is addictive.
Tighter ‘B’ roads were slightly tricky (we drove on a few single track roads too) – At 2.2 metres wide you found yourself almost running in the gutter to stay on your own side of the road at times. You also start to notice the weight of the car (2 tonnes +), especially on fast approach / hard braking downhill sections into tight bends. I drove fairly circumspectly on these sort of roads, as it’s not a hot hatch (and my missus is a bit of a nervous passenger )
Final scores on the doors after near 900 miles:
I came away from the trip with a huge amount of newfound respect for the car – Especially on ‘A’ roads, where it really comes into its own as a big GT. It was extremely comfortable and practical. It does have a reasonable amount of road presence on the move, but I didn’t have the same fear parking overnight in the streets in some of the busier towns we stayed in, that I would have had in a DB9 / Continental GT.
Downsides – It’s a big car on small roads. I met a few hired campervans on single track roads, and no matter who was closest to a passing place, it was always me who had to reverse to give way. (I was ever conscious of dropping my back left wheel into a ditch – a reversing camera might have helped, but that option wasn't ticked in my car).
The media system is great for its age (nice big / high res screen), but things have moved on a lot – Despite it running the latest 2019 maps in COMAND, I still tend to use Waze or Google Maps on my phone for navigation. Same for music – Spotify would have been nice, but I was stuck with CD’s or the radio. (Mercedes did sell an iPod adapter kit for the C216, but it was/is fairly pricey).
There is a third-party Carplay kit available via Ali Express for just over £300, but I can’t find any solid reviews regarding it.
Finally, the tax situation in Ireland if I were to bring it over and register it there – If you dropped €140k+ on a new S560 Coupe, the €2k+ annual road tax would be a comparatively small cost in the scheme of things. A CL of this age is in limbo; that €2k+ is a much larger proportion of the value of the car, and enough to make you just not bother (which I suppose is the intention – drive you into a small engined car).
Anyhow, a few snaps from the road trip:
I’ve always wanted to make such a journey in an old skool V8 GT and, given the surprisingly large boot / rear cabin space in the CL, intended taking my folks along to share the experience.
Current circumstances obviously put paid to that plan, therefore an alternative staycation (sorry – I don’t like the term either!) road trip was plotted and we headed off in the last week of August.
I’ve put around 8,000 miles on the CL over the past 18 months or so, but most of that was on the A90 between Aberdeen and Edinburgh Airport, for my weekly commute.
This roadtrip was the first opportunity I’d had to take a significant trip for pleasure / leisure, and I was interested to see how the car performed on a mix of motorway / A & B roads.
I already knew it could take the motorway stuff in its stride – The fact I now had working cruise control helped a lot too. It took a little time to build trust in the adaptive cruise, but it works surprisingly well for a first gen system. The main issue I found is that when you’re overtaking in lane 2 or 3 and someone dives in the gap between you and the car in front, it slams on the brakes (a bit dramatic for whoever’s following / tailgating you) and then drops right back to whatever distance it’s set to (50yds / 100yds etc), which encourages the dawdler who cut you up to stay in lane ahead, bimbling along at 10-15 mph less than whatever you have your cruise set to.
Sweeping / smooth NSL ‘A’ roads were a revelation – At one point I followed a Gen 2 997 for about 30 minutes, who was driving in a spirited but sensible manner and it was easy enough to keep up without pushing anywhere near the limits.
I remember watching the Chris Harris YouTube review of his S63 AMG Coupe, in which he waxed lyrically about the ride and ability to travel at great pace in great comfort with minimal fatigue. His car was a later C217, but the same DNA is definitely there in the C216. It has huge reserves of grip and when you catch slower traffic / the many camper vans, it was easy to dispatch them with minimal drama.
It’s also extremely quiet in the cruise, the HK stereo sounds pretty good to my ears and NVH levels are so low, you end up skipping planned rest stops as you’re genuinely not tired.
Flicking through the various drive modes was interesting - In ‘Comfort’ it softens off the suspension and damps down the throttle response / willingness to drop gears (it pulls away in second). In ‘Sport’ it stiffens everything up and makes the car much keener to drop and hold gears. ‘Manual’ is much the same, but activates the flappy paddles to let you select the gear you want.
I’m used to the low down torque of turbocharged cars, so it was a learning for me that you actually have to drop a couple of gears and rev out the engine in the CL to fully tap into the performance. For something so large, it can really get a move on and the V8 growl is addictive.
Tighter ‘B’ roads were slightly tricky (we drove on a few single track roads too) – At 2.2 metres wide you found yourself almost running in the gutter to stay on your own side of the road at times. You also start to notice the weight of the car (2 tonnes +), especially on fast approach / hard braking downhill sections into tight bends. I drove fairly circumspectly on these sort of roads, as it’s not a hot hatch (and my missus is a bit of a nervous passenger
)Final scores on the doors after near 900 miles:
I came away from the trip with a huge amount of newfound respect for the car – Especially on ‘A’ roads, where it really comes into its own as a big GT. It was extremely comfortable and practical. It does have a reasonable amount of road presence on the move, but I didn’t have the same fear parking overnight in the streets in some of the busier towns we stayed in, that I would have had in a DB9 / Continental GT.
Downsides – It’s a big car on small roads. I met a few hired campervans on single track roads, and no matter who was closest to a passing place, it was always me who had to reverse to give way. (I was ever conscious of dropping my back left wheel into a ditch – a reversing camera might have helped, but that option wasn't ticked in my car).
The media system is great for its age (nice big / high res screen), but things have moved on a lot – Despite it running the latest 2019 maps in COMAND, I still tend to use Waze or Google Maps on my phone for navigation. Same for music – Spotify would have been nice, but I was stuck with CD’s or the radio. (Mercedes did sell an iPod adapter kit for the C216, but it was/is fairly pricey).
There is a third-party Carplay kit available via Ali Express for just over £300, but I can’t find any solid reviews regarding it.
Finally, the tax situation in Ireland if I were to bring it over and register it there – If you dropped €140k+ on a new S560 Coupe, the €2k+ annual road tax would be a comparatively small cost in the scheme of things. A CL of this age is in limbo; that €2k+ is a much larger proportion of the value of the car, and enough to make you just not bother (which I suppose is the intention – drive you into a small engined car).
Anyhow, a few snaps from the road trip:
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