05 CLS55AMG project brutus #2

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chris-durham

Active Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2015
Messages
174
Location
Scotland
Car
2005 CLS55 AMG
Hi guys,

As my original thread was destroyed by PB, i wanted to start it over again!
SO here goes...

I thought I would start a project thread on my cls55, sharing some of the repairs or improvements I make to the car along the way.

Heres a picture to start with...

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

Some of the jobs I've already done, but will write them up retrospectively anyway.

OIL COOLER

While replacing some front suspension components, I noticed some oil on the right hand plastic arch guard.

The source was the bottom union on the 2nd oil cooler.

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

A closer look reveals the stripped thread on the cooler,

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

With the help of a friendly forum member, currently looking for a suitable replacement.

A trip to mercedes to order the correct oem hose that goes between both oil coolers.

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

part no: A2115016382, £72...

more on this when the parts arrive

thanks guys,

the plan is roughly as follows:

2017

1) Replace Rear Michelin 295/30/20's with Falken 295/25/20's. The 30's were rubbing under acceleration.

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

2) Replace Intercooler pump.
The car was suffering from the common boost cut issue after a few WOT pulls.

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

3) Replace Airmatic pump.
suspension fault warning on dash - pump was timing out.

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

4) Refit front number plate plinth, fit rear number plate holder and matt black amg badge.

5) Rattle when closing drivers front door.

After stripping the door panel off, I discovered a small metal rod as shown below, this fits between the mechanical lock and mechanism. This was refitted.

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr
 
6) Tom Tom cable.

The was a cable fitted some time ago sitting loose on the dash top, so I wanted to removed this. It had been soldered into the wiring loom, so I carefully removed the solder and re-insulated the wires.

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

7) replace front suspension height level sensor link arms

Very worn and noisy. Both side have been replaced.

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

8) Front suspension overhaul.

When purchased, the car had an undiagnosed loud creaking coming from the front when maneuvering at very low speeds. Various garages had tried to diagnose but had been unsuccessful.

The car came with 2 x torque arms and 2 x bottom balljoints, all made by Febi. Keen to resolve the noise and also the car was now pulling hard to the left, I decided to start replacing things.

After fitting the right hand torque arm and bottom b/j, the noise was still there. I decided to investigate the lhs in more detail and found I could replicate the noise after disconnecting the track rod end and swinging the hub back and forward, the creaking appeared to be coming from the strut bottom bush. At this point I decided it would be safest to replace as much as possible, so I sourced some Lemforder bottom arms, upper balljoints and track rod ends.

more tomorrow.....

Heres the old parts removed, as you can see bottom arms were probably the worst out the lot

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

The process itself wasnt too hard, i found it best to take the whole swivel hub off and press the bottom balljoints out on the bench using this

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

On reassembly, I noticed one of the Febi torque arms had a manufacturing fault, so i decided just to buy two new Lemforder to be on the safe size.

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

I would not recommend anyone buys these Febi arms, when you compare the rubber bush to the OEM and Lemforder, the design is significantly different, allowing the arm to flex substantially, which is not really what you want here.

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

Steering tie rods were thoroughly cleaned of all copper grease! prior to fitting new track rod ends, wouldnt want these coming loose!

The most time consuming part was torquing everything up in 2 stages, firstly nm then degrees. Access to get the swing on the torque wrench can often be tricky when working on the drive. But we got there in there in the end....

Due to the issues with the oil cooler, I havent had the opportunity to test the car or get the wheel alignment adjusted, hopefully will do this next week.

hello bit of an update on the barn find, lol

bracket modified and painted for replacement oil cooler, i also had to remove 3 mount lugs that didnt work for my fan.

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

however......

my excitement at getting the car back on the road was short lived.. again...

the new OEM hose fitted the bottom port of the cooler ok, but the top one, which I hadnt actually noticed as being non OEM, wouldnt seal, due to the thread being too long (the thread pitch was also slightly out vs OEM).

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

I decided to crack on and fit the new bottom hose, then when I got to the small under radiator oil cooler, more evidence of bodgery.
Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr
Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

It seems this union had also been plastered up with grey sealant,

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr


Damage to the port. Think this is long overdue replacement...so added to the list for the main dealer as the original part no couldnt be cross referenced.

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

Two new oilfilter housing to cooler pipes ordered along with the second oil cooler, these are only available from Merc, £550.

The junk pile is getting bigger, lol

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

The long pipe was a bit tricky to manouvre out, but after 5 mins was free.

While i was at it, I wanted to resolve the interesting repair that had been made to the oil cooler mount bracket at some point...

The 4 old rivets were carefully drilled out, bracket cleaned of all sealant, and re fixed to the base of the radiator.

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr
 
new pipes ready to fit

cls55amg by chris pollin, on Flickr

I soon realised it would be quicker to remove the rad cooling fan to get better access

cls55amg by chris pollin, on Flickr

cls55amg by chris pollin, on Flickr

cls55amg by chris pollin, on Flickr

New cooler ready to go in
cls55amg by chris pollin, on Flickr

oh and one last bodge... sheared screw head, from whenever this was done last, drilled this one.

cls55amg by chris pollin, on Flickr

Treated it to some engine oil and a new filter which i just bought from dealer when i was in.

Both sump plug washers replaced, and torqued to spec, one still leaks.
 
Jeez you've been busy, but the car is certainly better for it, top work buddy :)
 
The amount of dodgy repairs you've found so far is astounding? Good work though with the proper repairs and fixes....:thumb:
 
The amount of dodgy repairs you've found so far is astounding? Good work though with the proper repairs and fixes....:thumb:

It makes me wonder how many Amg's are out there that people have owned and repaired like the previous owner has done :dk:

Why would you buy a car like that and try and run it on repairs of that quality is beyond me, Massive well done to Chris for keeping with it and sorting it out.

My car was also in a similar state although That suffered more from the Work being Charged for BUT not carried out :cool:
 
It makes me wonder how many Amg's are out there that people have owned and repaired like the previous owner has done :dk:

Why would you buy a car like that and try and run it on repairs of that quality is beyond me, Massive well done to Chris for keeping with it and sorting it out.

My car was also in a similar state although That suffered more from the Work being Charged for BUT not carried out :cool:

Mine was in even worse state. Rebuilt from the ground up over the last year and a half. I've seen it all now, believe me. The Brutus curse is on all 3 of our cars and possibly a lot more out there :crazy::D
 
The Pump is for the Heater exchanger, The alloy rad in the Wheel arch is the Aux Oil cooler for the Engine.

Thanks merc. I was referring to the long cooler in the picture the one with yellow caps, it looks like a intercooler?
 
Thanks merc. I was referring to the long cooler in the picture the one with yellow caps, it looks like a intercooler?

Sorry buddy , i believe it tobe the Cooler for the Transmission, The early cars like mine dont have them and just rely the Radiator to cool the Atf.
 
Hello, small update,

As per my suspension thread, the garage that damaged the brand new bottom arms agreed to replace them, but i fitted them. I ended up having to put 2 x new bottom balljoints in as the cheepo ones that came with the car mushroomed when they were pressed out.

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr


I refitted all 4 arms with the std bolts, which I thought would be a good starting point. After toe adjustment we got the following.

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

Then with the lower arms put in the -4mm position to help camber, another reading was taken after toe adj. Finally to try and bring caster a bit closer the offside torque arm was also put into the -4mm position then toe readjusted.

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

This was final result. am going to give the arms some time to bed it and then see where we go from there. The car still pulls quite badly to the left....
 
hello.

So tonight's fun job was to remove the bolt that the wheel alignment place had stripped the head off on the rear right lower arm. Without sorting this, the rear end cant be adjusted.....

To get access, the full exhaust system had to come off, it was leaking very badly anyway, so i can resolve this on reassembly.

After trying an assortment of different approaches, i used a mini air die grinder with a reamer (lol) on the end.

After 20 mins of slowly cutting away at the head of the old bolt, it was free. I could then remove the plate from the car and remove the remainder of the bolt on the bench with plenty of heat.

After cleaning up the threads and removing the loose rust, the arm was fitted back with a new bolt.

3.5 hours all in, exhaust to fit back tomorrow.

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr

Untitled by chris pollin, on Flickr
 
Nice work Chris, good to see your keeping with it, Brutus mk1 has also been living upto its name :/
 
It makes me wonder how many Amg's are out there that people have owned and repaired like the previous owner has done :dk:

Why would you buy a car like that and try and run it on repairs of that quality is beyond me, Massive well done to Chris for keeping with it and sorting it out.

My car was also in a similar state although That suffered more from the Work being Charged for BUT not carried out :cool:

Gav, just for clarification, the car was definitely not run on a shoestring budget, indeed far from from it. Yes, it belonged to me and whenever it needed anything doing, it got done. Granted some parts used were not always OEM but were high quality alternatives made by Lemforder etc.
Most of the work was carried out by a reputable indie and have invoices to the tune of a good few thousand pounds, as well as some of the work being carried out by a trusted local garage (not trusted anymore I hasten to add) when my indie was fully booked and I needed the car on the road.
The beast was always cherished and pampered (full correction detail incl ceramic coating, washed using Daqua filter etc), although not modified engine wise, it had been to MSL for the exhaust mods and had other minor upgrades like the CLS63 wheel.
I must admit, I have never checked any of the work carried out by either and take it on face value and trust that it has been done as it was certainly paid for (lesson learnt), as I do not have the technical ability to work on such complicated beasts myself.
It's unfortunate that Chris is experiencing some of the perils he is of shoddy workmanship, but again, prior to him purchasing the beast (it wasn't actually up for sale) I had already bought several parts (Uprated IC pump, airmatic compressor, suspension link rods, etc) for the next visit to the indie, which went with the car.

For those that have seen the car or met me in person/dealt with me on here, I would like to think would know me enough to know I wouldn't be knowingly hiding any issues I was aware of, let alone selling it to a like minded forum member.

Apologies for the thread hi jack, but felt as though I should clarify a few things, as there seemed to be numerous threads on here relating to the car, in Chris's pursuit to make the car free from any defects. Have been away from the forum (in depth) for a while and am playing catch up on some threads I have come across.
 
Apologies Abb, I didn't relise this was your car and perhaps i should have thought before making that statment,or at worded it better, sorry if i've caused offence it was not my intention.

Brutus suffered a similar fate from a Garage charging for a Work which in MY case was not carried out. Whether the previous owner of mine knew this i dont know.

I do wonder how,many garages charge for sub standard work or work not being carried out. unbeknown to the vehicles owner.
 
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How can you be so cruel Merc? Expected more from you. :eek:



:D:D
 
How can you be so cruel Merc? Expected more from you. :eek:



:D:D

Tbh this would be my worse nightmare, Selling a car to a Forum member who then finds more money is required to sort issues that wasnt known by me/the vendor, I'm a Genuine person, I dont Bull*** i do what i say i do and treat people how i like to be treated.

I should have thought before making the statement i made and not make assumptions.

At the end of the day its all nuts and bolts and can be sorted. Apologies once again if i came across rude and implying.
 
Gav, you didn't cause me offence (I have stopped sobbing now :D), just wanted to clear it up, that's all :). Chris is doing a cracking job and hats off to him. I felt your pain on your journey with Brutus, so thought I would share my experiences. Unfortunately it seems no matter how loved these beasts are and how much they get under your skin, there's always something that needs doing, due to the age/mileage and complexity of them.
Mine would be stood a month at a time (as I work away), but seemed to constantly need things doing, guess it was lack of use that contributed to it in my case. Had over £21K in it (incl car) when I parted with it!!
 

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