New car. 2003 S600

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restorer

Active Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2010
Messages
92
Location
Whaley Bridge
Car
2003 S600, 2008 Panda 4x4, 2012 Nissan NV400, Lexus RX300
1 owner from new. FMBSH. 59K miles. Bought it in Cardiff last week. My last car was a 2005 E55 AMG, and I loved it. But I sold it because I’m not getting any younger and there’s a lot of cars out there to be experienced and owned. Then I looked at a couple of Jaguar Super V8s, considered Audi S8 V10s and W12s, Cayenne Turbos, BMW 760iLs and V10 M5s, ML63.
My budget was realistically £10K, which ruled out M5s really.After my last cari was looking at E55s again. Went to see one remapped (and re-pulleyed) to 650bhp. Loved the engine but the car was a little tired.
Then I saw the S600. Never has a V12 before, and one with twin turbos intrigued. Drove it, loved it. So refined, so smooth, so relaxed, so outrageous when you floor the throttle! So comfortable.
Now, I enjoyed the 400 miles back to the Peak District, but I didn’t enjoy the gearbox seeming to lose all gears for a second or so the next day accelerating up the other side of a dip.
Now the S600 came with a e month warranty and the very nice guy in Cardiff was happy for my garage (Autotech Cheshire) to look at it, which they will do on Thursday. They’re brilliant by the way - looked after all my vehicles for the last 6 or 7 years.upload_2019-3-4_23-42-42.jpeg
I’ll let you know how this unfolds...
 
Whaley Bridge!

Now there's a name from my past.

Good luck with the car.
 
Thats a great car,shame about the gearbox problem,hope it is nothing serious.
 
Yes, nice car.
Can the gearbox be reset much like our 722.6 5sp Autos in he CLKs?
 
Great car. Hope everything works out OK. As others have already said, the first thing that comes to mind is gearbox oil, "learning gearbox" issues (reset), and the legendary coil pack replacement issue (which would give you general rough / lumpy running.

Phenomenal luxury V12 cars. Nothing like an AMG or M5. Smooth and incredible power, but very discreet.

.
 
Autotech said they expect low gearbox fluid, though they won’t be looking at it till Thursday.
If so my question is: why is it low? Is there a leak? One would hope it’s been checked with a full MB service history.
 
Very nice car! :)

I recently bought an s600 too but the w221 model ( next model up ).
As you mentioned the performance is something else! Even though you know it's a v12 twin turbo, when you look at the car you don't expect it to pick up speed the way it does. Stage one remap takes it up to 600bhp. 0-160mph 19 seconds, just thought I'd mention it to you in case you get bored of the performance :D. Quicker than a Gallardo, R8, Ferrari' s and other supercars
 
I contacted MSL and they said remap would give 550bhp and 590lb/ft. For £700.
X pipe and removing cats would give another 30bhp but make it an MOT failure.
Who would do the 600bhp remap, or is my engine too early for that I wonder?
 
I contacted MSL and they said remap would give 550bhp and 590lb/ft. For £700.
X pipe and removing cats would give another 30bhp but make it an MOT failure.
Who would do the 600bhp remap, or is my engine too early for that I wonder?

Remap: Understand the desire for bragging rights, but it might be wise to find out whether there are any expensive gremlins in your 500bhp S600 before coughing up £700 for the remap. It's more than possible that you could find a need to pull £2,000 - £3,000 out of your back pocket before the Summer to fix an unforeseen problem, in which case you might regret having sunk that £700 in so early.

And, other things might come up within those first three months. Suppose you find the exhaust is too quiet, and that really you would rather stick a Powerflow or equivalent on their to beef the sound up? I'd bid "get familiar" first, and then prioritise the list of things to do.

(Gawd, I really do sound like an old IT programme manager some times....)


 
Sage advice. And I’d already taken that view.
I’m not going ahead with any tuning any time soon - don’t feel I actually NEED more power - just thinking into the future.
Once I feel settled with her I’m probably going to have lpg/dual fuel fitted. I’ve done that with a V70 T5 and a BMW 545 before. It’s excellent, provided you use someone who properly knows what he’s doing and knows the requirements for your model. (This should cause some debate now!)
 
Autotech had a look at it today. They have a dipstick and said there was no oil in the gearbox (not enough to provide a reading on the dipstick). Leak was from the gearbox sump plug. They said there were marks there on the underside where someone had wiped around it with a cloth >:-(
They're waiting for Mercedes to get back to them with prices for the gearbox kit (Filter, plug and oil) and for a new door lock motor for the offside rear door (slow to lift or lock and didn't unlock at all one time).
Considering it's history I'm non-plussed that there was no oil left. Also paranoid as to what I may have done to the gearbox driving it 200 miles in that state. Guess I'll know in the next day or so.
Disappointing.
I'm thinking that a gearbox rebuild in one of these would be around £2000? Either way, if it comes to that then the warranty covers it, the vendor covers it or it goes back.
Fingers crossed. I DO like that car!
 
Ditto re the comment above about ATF.

I haven’t seen it but it might be that your lock is just slow from lack of use. Cars like this can get left for ages. Might be worth deferring it until you’ve opened and closed that lock s few more times, just to see if it frees up through use. We all get a bit stiff as the years go by - IF we don’t exercise.




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