Taking My £500 Mercedes To A Main Dealer - Everything Wrong With My CL500! 

Well done, Mark! Nice to know there are still decent people out there.

The cat has better things to do 😂

I was loaned one of these cars by a friend a few years ago. He had more cars than space to park them, and he was a generous man who got pleasure from sharing great cars with other petrol heads. Other than the CL500 he loaned me an XKR and a V8 Vantage - each for a month at a time. All great cars, but the CL500 was the one I was least keen to borrow. It was also the only one I didn’t want to give back. I said to him that it wasn’t a car, it was a spaceship with an orchestra in the boot. It was so quiet and effortless it was like being teleported in silence between destinations and the audio system 😍 It is a car that doesn’t grab you from the outside like the XKR or Vantage. But once you have driven one …

How about the boys at SPR Auto Mercedes for a potential assist for stuff you can't manage in your driveway? Love their channel, they seem very straight ahead stand up guys.

I had one of those so called called main dealer checks when i took in my old Honda accord for an airbag recall. They produced a massive list of things that they said needed doing. My M.O.T was due the following week so I put the car in with local independent guy. He looked at the sheet and declared most of it nonsense. They had also missed a completely knackered front suspension lower arm!

I replaced the gearbox sump on a 2007 E350 with the 7G box with the cheapest Ebay sump - about £60 with a new gasket and it was fine. Febi do W220 and CL front arms for about £150 a pair and you may find they are Merc parts with the logo and part numbers ground off.

The part I'm most surprise about is that MB don't stock parts for that car already. They used to keep spares for their cars right back to the year dot.

Looks like you've landed on your feet this time Jack, those ball joints are £25 each on eBay; I replaced them both on my R129 in a couple of hours after a bit of a fight.

Deja vu. I had the same issues with my CL when I bought it; the sump and the front ball joints. Get the sump sorted. It will leak. It is made of paper thin steel and will go soon. Mine did not look as bad as yours and started leaking. Same for the front joints. You can do it yourself in an afternoon, just have some map gas to hand and maybe consider having replaceable grub screws (4 of them) for the bottom of the shock. They tend to cease and are a bit of a pig. While you are in there, replace all you can. It's relatively inexpensive. You will do that job in your garage for less than £250 and it will feel much better to drive when done.

mechanic here, i'm struggling to see excess play on those joints, but the clip is a bit short... anyway, a man of your talent will be able to do them for about £100 [vid please] undershields only slightly affect the car's balance at over 80mph, it's mainly noise they supress looks like you bought a good old smoker this time, fingers crossed keep it up young man

Love the cat strutting about. Great car too.

Undertrays are readily available and cheap and reasonably easy to fit

Anytime you buy a used high mileage luxury car, be prepared to spend the same amount as the purchase price on repairs.

The CL500 is a fantastic used car and in my experience so far has not followed the trend of breaking the bank in repairs. mine came with ABC deleted on coilovers but i absolutely love my CL and i also paid quite a lot more than you for my example

Hilarious ! Jack cheerfully advises us "don't worry, there's likely to be plenty of pain and expense shortly" .... as if that's why we watched his channel !! 😂

When I drove Mercedes I always used an Independent in Gloucester Robin Lamb. I've known Robin since 1991 when he was service manager at the local main dealer. Definitely speak with them as they are really good and reasonable on labour rates.I remember when I owned a 190E Robin was at the main dealers when my car was serviced. They picked up on service that the exhaust manifold had a crack which was a £400 job. He told me not to bother fixing it as it was a common thing and would not cause any issues. I never had it done and did another 30,000 miles before selling the car quite happily (in those days there wasn't an independent locally). I know in the past that Richard Ashcroft and Steve Winwood among others used him rather than a main dealer for maintaining their cars. His labour rate currently is £60 an hour. If you decide to contact him tell him Les Abbott sent you.

£178/hour labour is not so exorbitant for a main dealer - even twenty years ago, VW main dealers were charging €110/hour in the Netherlands...

How can that car be worth only £1500? It's a fabulous car...

This bloke always puts a smile on my face.

Ball joints are £10 each, my local garage fitted them for £100. The hubs have to come off to replace them.

Bravery comes in many forms, and going to a Mercedes MD with a £500 car is one of them.

Great to see a different "took to main dealer" video and that not all dealers are complete pirates :)

My local Volvo dealer charges £150 per hour and that's their minimum charge for diagnostic work. On a recent service they advised I needed a track rod end. Their quote - £414! I also needed trailing arm bushes which they quoted over £600 , to replace. Had bushes and track rod done by my local garage for under £600 including alignment The difference is that main dealers have a shiny showroom to pay for and staff earning much more than the local guys pay

It makes sense once you understand that the service manager job position is in the sales department.

My S500L, Yes R7MBA went to the main dealer last week. I gave in had the ABS pump replaced with a brand new one. While there I asked them to carry out an MOT..! Well, obviously it failed, on a balljoint , plus windscreen water washer spray, which wasn’t as good as it could be. Not bad for a Mercedes 17 year old barge. Wanted just under a grand on top of the 2k, I paid for the pump and ran. Had the extra work done for £400, including the retest. Not paying £145 plus vat for labour, unless I need to.

Here in Australia older Merc parts are very scarce and theres like nobody willing to work on them BUT i still bought a beautiful SEL280 W126 for 300 dollars and the entire SLS was shot the engine was cooked as was transmission ,i replaced the entire SLS with retrofitted springs and shockers and replaced the M110 straight six with a LS V8 and 6 speed manual transmission,theres enough room in engine bay for a couple 98mm turbos but thats a later project ,the brakes are stock as is the rear end ,done near 15thousand kilometres and all ive done is a minor oil change and a couple filters ,my cars name is Otto and hes my daily driver

Under trays are a pain in the ass. Don't worry about them not being there.

I enjoyed that Jack, looks like a good car then! I remember taking a Golf GTI for a health check vw Newcastle.....yeah they missed that the car had very little break fluid 😮. Excellent stuff as always buddy 👍

Congratulations, Mark! The news for your little _pocket battleship_ was sehr gut! 😎👍

"As part of my cheap luxury car series...". 😂😂Admit it none of them have turned out to be cheap

If I were to do a cheap luxury car, I'd run home to mama and get another '94 LS400. But I'd manual swap it and tune it. Anyway, great score on your CL! Show it videos of cars being crushed and you'll never have an issue with it.😅

TY J! 🙏🙏 Happy & cheap barging!

The 500cl is a solid car. Luxury, smooth, looks lovely, well built. An example like the one you have here is worth keeping.

My local Ford dealer charges £160 per hour, it’s a national rip off.

I found your channel tonight. Only this year I finally send to the scrapyard my beloved 2002 Mercedes C200 Kompressor Coupe. I loved that car but not the ruinous repair bills. Liked and subscribed!

Loving the CL content Jack! I'm into all the Benz's of this era but always thought the CL is especially gorgeous. I'd love to add a CL55 AMG to the fleet someday to keep my '06 E55 company... 😁

Second hand undertrays can be a nightmare to deal with. Big, bulky, fragile and often cracked. I’d be tempted to put fresh ones on if they are necessary. They might not be though.

Hi Mark .. rear boot lid and passenger has had a rear shunt.. the close up of the badge showed this.. body filler used to give a strange edge to boot lid and quarter.. so a body shop not fixed possible bent hinges..boot lid sitting high.. cheerio

Great video. My CL500 had a similar issue with the boot lid. Be careful if you decide to try and adjust it yourself. I had a go and with the multiple times of opening and closing the boot with the soft close engaging, I managed to burn out the air pump that runs the soft close, massage seats, central locking etc 😢😢

I owned one of these for a year and put 18,000 miles on it. It was a money pit but it was a great car fundamentally.

That's a clever way to save on chocolate sprinkles. 😁

Well done to Mark for stepping up and helping, great to know that there are still some decent people out there. You are probably right with the valuation that site tends to offer the minimum price they have to make some money at the end of the day. I think you have a good car there Jack. 👍👍

recently watched a video on SPR Auto's and they replaced ball joints if required - they said it's not something that Mercedes normally can do - may be worth a watch !! Great video as always !!

I owned one of these - rear boot >> the bushings / pins wear in the hinges and the front edge of the boot lid sits proud. Replace the hinge with a good used one for £40 or so.

I love these types of vids.....they save me from myself😂😂

Thank you for this video. I never knew Mercedes-Benz used that type of suspension!

A year or two back when I sold my car I found that We Buy Any Car's valuation was so very near what I could get selling it privately that I let them have it. It was a huge amount more than what the garage had offered me in part exchange.

The ball joints can be done but changing the camber arms is easier and not overly expensive. You also get new bushes with them. My 2002 S320 camber arm change quote was €1350 at an independent Mercedes specialist. Lemförder camber arms from Autodoc for €180 for the pair and €60 labour at my usual garage. Job’s a good ‘un.

Ciao Jack! I sincerely hope that after you get those couple of repairs done, that you won't have anything major to deal with. This CL500 just seems like wonderful enjoyment (Bismerc the Third 😊)!

Hey Jack, the boot issue seems to be a problem with the soft close system. You should be able to let the boot close under its own weight, and the vacuum soft-close system will pull it in that last 2-3% and latch it for you. If you experience a battery drain, then I'd put money on it being the vacuum system. If it has a leak, the pump will run and run (as it can't create the vacuum and close the system). I had this problem on my w120 CL600.

Ive been watching a mercedes channel, guy is a mechanic and has a garage up north, merc specialist, and even at very low mileage Mercedes have major issues, proper money pits

Independent mechanic charges me sooooo much less…..and I’m definitely buying one of these

I took my son in law's SLK into the local Merc dealer to have the rear subframe replaced under their 20 year rust warranty. When I picked the car up I asked them what their hourly rate was and they told me for new cars it was £340 plus VAT.........😮 For older cars it was less but I believe there was a 2 in front of it. So at these rates running an older Merc and taking it to a main dealer is totally uneconomic.......! No wonder perfectly good cars are written off

Never had a really positive experience with my local Sytner dealership. Found an excellent independent BMW garage, no silly prices, knowledgeable staff and virtually the same service. Happy.

Springs break on the boot lids and they are side- specific too

I had a CL 600. More or less the same (… mine was even silver) but with a twin turbo V12. It was amazing when it ran, but it usually didn’t. It was just one problem after another. Even with me doing most of the work myself (… including replacement of the ABS pump - twice 😫), it just didn’t make any sense to own.

I was awaiting this episode with interest. I look forward to the continuing saga.

A fantastic car and a great video, I hope you enjoy the Mercedes and that you get loads of decent content out of it!

Parts and service are even more in the states. Looks like you did really well on this purchase.

Hmm. Basically, it sounds like a Benz with a Citroen Activa suspension.

Love this style of video, be good to see if you can DIY some of the issues 👍👍👍.

You can just change the joints but the whole arms are pretty reasonable tbh

I'm a Management Consultant that keeps companies compliant with regulations and I don't charge near to £178/hr. Tossers.

Definitely pays to find a good Independant Mercedes specialist when owning one of this age. That way your running costs are more reasonable and you generally get a more knowledgeable realistic service as they have more knowledge of the older models 👍 Super car for very little money, very underrated

How's the De Tomaso coming along? I'm desperate to see it fully restored!!!

Top video. Got curious and took my s124 on we buy any car, £250! 😂

I occasionally buy spares for my 33 year old 190e from Dronsfield breakers in Oldham and see plenty of relatively new 12 or 15 year old cars being broken for parts and i just think the expensive compexity of these newer Mercs leads them to an untimely death.

I've always liked CLs, especially the slightly simpler 500. Enjoy, Jack!

I like this. Skilled and goodhearted people should be rewarded.

Giac, I had to replace my front suspension last year, the ball joints were an integral part of the links. The car is a 2008 C Class estate diesel. I brought it to a local tyre fitter who does other work, they did the job in record time (1/2 day) and I was pleased with the price. I would look at someone like that in your area or do it yourself.

your white cat is kool ive tried that its hard ,SPR Stockport cant go wrong .Williams BMW manchester on my 1999 E38 they want £187 an hour labour .

Frank Sytner started with a little showroom on Mapperley top in Nottingham in the 60s or early 70s. I used to go and look at the sport cars he had in the window. I believe he got the BMW franchise and from there it took off.

My gorgeous 2015 S350 with only 34000 miles on it needed a new steering column. I was so disgusted at that I flogged it!!

Where did the designers of this car go? It's dropdead gorgeous. In Belgium only rich people can afford to drive such a car (maintenance costs and taxes). The new Mercs aren't as pretty anymore.

Enjoyable video on the CL Jack. It's still a fantastic car.

From memory lower ball joints from Mercedes are the complete arm only, not sure if ECP would sell ball joints only.

Fun video. You should try (but not buy?) a Series 5 (2008-2012) Maserati Quattroporte with the ZF 6 speed auto trans. They can be heaven and they can be hell...but they are sure to be fun.

Maybe I latched onto an urban legend but I thought Mercedes had some thing going on where they would guarantee that a part could be available for any car they ever made...?

Beautiful car. I was looking at them but went for the CLK instead. Just a bit easier to fit places.

Great car ,,,absolute bargain and you will probably continue to be surprised by just how good it is and how few problems it gives you. Many problems are caused by owners who think all the car ever needs is an oil change.

Will you follow up on the trunk lid? You've got me curious....

Dealt with Sytner Sutton Coldfield. They replaced the rear brake pads and didn't tighten the caliper bolts. This resulted in the caliper jamming onto the disc within the next 10 miles almost causing an accident. They said the bolts had sheared off causing the problem. I told them they were liers. They replaced the bolts with very red faces.

Its friday morning here, fire is going, breakfast and a coffee. Nothing better than watching No27 👍

I think that is a great looking car and definitely worth putting some effort into

We buy any car valuation differ considerably once you take it in knocking a thing from 10-15% off the initial valuation!

Looks like you have a good car and your the man to make it even better

Enjoyed that These are my favourite videos 👍

To cover overhead, idle time, &c. an employer needs to charge 3x the employee pay rate. I.e, in this case, 60/hour, or 120k for 2,000 hours in a year. The boot closing problem could come from a gentle-closing mechanism that is not working. Iain Tyrrell mentioned a case of that in a recent video. Do the Merc doors automatically pull themselves in?

Can you just throw on coil overs and delete the problematic suspension?

Charles Hurst Jaguar in Belfast wanted £193 per hour to look at my 2004 XJR. Needless to say I told them where they could stick their prices.

Always enjoy your videos. The old Merc seems honest. A lot of car for the money. Prefer the looks of the XJ myself.

Very nice jack definitely found a diamond in the rough 👍

Good on you Jack glad you ignored the naysayers

Sounds like the previous owner spend a lot of money on this car but got sick of it when the suspension went bad

I can't get over how cheap used cars are over there. Around here anything that price will be rusted out and barely running. CL500s are listing for over $10K.

A nice used set of AMG alloys would much such a difference compared to what its sitting on just now.

Dunno about CL boots, but Volvo bonnets fail to close properly if not greased... Worth a try innit?

Replacement of gearbox sump might be included in a gearbox service

Please get it fixed and go to We Buy Any Car and see what they actually offer you in the flesh. I'd love to see that video!

Can't believe how cheap luxury cars are in the UK!! There's only one non-AMG CL500 of that era for sale here in Australia (which is actually a 2002) and it's AU$24,000!! (a bit over £12,000)