Bargain basement Mercedes S600 bi-turbo - Am I mental?
Discussion
Answer no, with a but....
This S600 was referenced over on the Barge thread, as I umm'd and ah'd about it, the ad was taken down. I mean, whats cogitate over? Its a 100+ grand car new, for less than the price of a Corsa, with basically no service history, a condition that could best be described and 'honest' Straight enough but a little rough around the edges. But it had one big advantage - A V12, the second last engine configuration to own..... Did a bit of research but thought nothing more of it really. Oh, did I mention it was a Cat N write off? Yeah that too.
Anyway, it reappeared on Gumtree, I girded my loins and drove to Birmingham to have a look, and eventually bought it after some bartering. Hoping I didnt make a fool of myself....
So probably about now, you're asking why? Who on earth would choose to buy the most unloved example of its species, a car as quoted on the Barge thread as "an internet legend to produce huge bills"
Well to prove that they aren't scary at all, that anyone with a garage, tools, Google and a bit of knowhow can happily keep one maintained and on the road. And a V12, with 2 turbos.
Here it is
This S600 was referenced over on the Barge thread, as I umm'd and ah'd about it, the ad was taken down. I mean, whats cogitate over? Its a 100+ grand car new, for less than the price of a Corsa, with basically no service history, a condition that could best be described and 'honest' Straight enough but a little rough around the edges. But it had one big advantage - A V12, the second last engine configuration to own..... Did a bit of research but thought nothing more of it really. Oh, did I mention it was a Cat N write off? Yeah that too.
Anyway, it reappeared on Gumtree, I girded my loins and drove to Birmingham to have a look, and eventually bought it after some bartering. Hoping I didnt make a fool of myself....
So probably about now, you're asking why? Who on earth would choose to buy the most unloved example of its species, a car as quoted on the Barge thread as "an internet legend to produce huge bills"
Well to prove that they aren't scary at all, that anyone with a garage, tools, Google and a bit of knowhow can happily keep one maintained and on the road. And a V12, with 2 turbos.
Here it is
Sooooo onto the car, 2004 S600, V12 twin turbo, 5.5 litre. Im no expert but seems to be fairly well loaded, soft close doors, extended and exclusive leather, heated, massage front seats, heated electric rears, sun roof, upgraded Bose, etc etc etc You get the point
Drove home without issue, as you'd imagine very comfortable with LOTS of urge. Interior is very clean for the miles, some trim panels need replacing but otherwise good.
EVERYTHING WORKS!!! Well apart from the A/C lol, soft close doors, keyless go, all of it, working fine.
Drove home without issue, as you'd imagine very comfortable with LOTS of urge. Interior is very clean for the miles, some trim panels need replacing but otherwise good.
EVERYTHING WORKS!!! Well apart from the A/C lol, soft close doors, keyless go, all of it, working fine.
So I'm going to address 3 points in the first few posts -
ABC suspension
Tubo chargecoolers
General maintenance
2 things these big old Merc's are known for - ABC hydraulic suspension woes and coil pack woes. (Car has 24 spark plugs ergo 24 coils, in 2 big slabs of 12. Retail from Mercedes 1200 quid. Each)
On the viewing I plugged my trusty Snap On in and voila, I wasn't disappointed, 3 pages of suspension codes. 3 PAGES.
I knew the car had battery problems, it was parked for a long time but used sporadically, so I took a gamble, potentially ruinous gamble. Before I departed for Lincoln I cleared all the codes off, drove back, did some more loin girding and checked the codes again. NO CODES!!!!! The gamble paid off. Apart from a noisy ABC pump with could be down to a pulse damper fail, it works, no alarms, no codes, goes up and down fine.
ABC suspension
Tubo chargecoolers
General maintenance
2 things these big old Merc's are known for - ABC hydraulic suspension woes and coil pack woes. (Car has 24 spark plugs ergo 24 coils, in 2 big slabs of 12. Retail from Mercedes 1200 quid. Each)
On the viewing I plugged my trusty Snap On in and voila, I wasn't disappointed, 3 pages of suspension codes. 3 PAGES.
I knew the car had battery problems, it was parked for a long time but used sporadically, so I took a gamble, potentially ruinous gamble. Before I departed for Lincoln I cleared all the codes off, drove back, did some more loin girding and checked the codes again. NO CODES!!!!! The gamble paid off. Apart from a noisy ABC pump with could be down to a pulse damper fail, it works, no alarms, no codes, goes up and down fine.
Edited by swampy442 on Tuesday 28th July 07:51
I've done more research on this car than any other Ive bought, and unsurprisingly there's TONS of information out there. All of it said the engine and gearbox are bullet proof if maintained obviously. The car didnt throw any engine or box codes other than these 2 for O2 sensors which I think, will be linked to a fault I found, more on that later, drove perfectly.
No misfires, on happy camper.
No misfires, on happy camper.
swampy442 said:
Car has 24 spark plugs ergo 24 coils, in 2 big slabs of 12. Retail from Mercedes 1200 quid. Each
When I read this at first, I read it as 24 x £1200 and let out an audible "Woah!" 
I assume you mean 2 x £1200, which is 12x better! Result!Buying this though... what a silly thing to do. I love it! Best of luck.
So what do I plan to do with it? Other than annoy people who think they have fast cars, daily it as much as possible and prove that cars like this aren't as scary as they appear, using standard garage tools and Youtube/Google.
I'm starting a new job with a 15/20 mile commute instead of my current 150 mile, so if anything does bork itself Ill be near my garage haha.
I'm starting a new job with a 15/20 mile commute instead of my current 150 mile, so if anything does bork itself Ill be near my garage haha.
Another Soarer to S600 convert? Haha, awesome!
Congratulations on the purchase - These things are absolutely mega value for money, I'm sure you're going to have a lot of happy miles ahead of you.
I'm surprised at the depth that the Snap on reader went into with the codes. I've seen virtually all of those Suspension at some point on my 220 especially when on low battery charge but never had a suspension issue. My "noisy pump" also turned out to be the pulsation dampener as you mentioned so fingers crossed on that front - I think LUK have stopped making the pumps now
.
As good as the Snap on one is, I'd still probably recommend looking into a knock off xentry/star if you're going to be DIYing (I have a second hand setup with Laptop+HDD available if you're interested).
Any plans to modify? That CAT code is virtually begging you to lop them off and go for a cat-less tune... I've heard 30-50rwhp to be gained by losing them
Oh.. and I didn't see price mentioned... Did you manage to beat my £3k?
Good luck and enjoy
.
Congratulations on the purchase - These things are absolutely mega value for money, I'm sure you're going to have a lot of happy miles ahead of you.
I'm surprised at the depth that the Snap on reader went into with the codes. I've seen virtually all of those Suspension at some point on my 220 especially when on low battery charge but never had a suspension issue. My "noisy pump" also turned out to be the pulsation dampener as you mentioned so fingers crossed on that front - I think LUK have stopped making the pumps now
.As good as the Snap on one is, I'd still probably recommend looking into a knock off xentry/star if you're going to be DIYing (I have a second hand setup with Laptop+HDD available if you're interested).
Any plans to modify? That CAT code is virtually begging you to lop them off and go for a cat-less tune... I've heard 30-50rwhp to be gained by losing them
Oh.. and I didn't see price mentioned... Did you manage to beat my £3k?
Good luck and enjoy
.TheDukeGTi said:
swampy442 said:
Car has 24 spark plugs ergo 24 coils, in 2 big slabs of 12. Retail from Mercedes 1200 quid. Each
When I read this at first, I read it as 24 x £1200 and let out an audible "Woah!" I assume you mean 2 x £1200, which is 12x better! Result!
One side of me wants you to have great success with this, spend pennies and have an epic V12 twin turbo'd barge for a few thousand.
The other side of me regrets not buying it myself and instead sharing it online with other barge lovers. So that side of me hopes that theres some big scary bills around the corner so I can say "phew, good job I didn't buy that".
Superb buy though, I will certainly be following the thread.
The other side of me regrets not buying it myself and instead sharing it online with other barge lovers. So that side of me hopes that theres some big scary bills around the corner so I can say "phew, good job I didn't buy that".
Superb buy though, I will certainly be following the thread.
Absolutely epic, 147k miles is right in the sweet spot for one of these; it's actually been used and it's still got plenty of life left. These engines are good for 27 mpg on a run, more fuel efficient in fact than the V8 Kompressor lump. A remap should take you from 493 bhp / 590 lb ft to as much as 590 bhp / 834 lb ft!!
https://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/index.php?threa...
Annoying people who think they've got fast cars is one of the reasons I bought a W211 E55. Unreal performance off the line and from a roll.
I'd also be interested to hear what it set you back. My guess is 4k.
https://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/index.php?threa...
Annoying people who think they've got fast cars is one of the reasons I bought a W211 E55. Unreal performance off the line and from a roll.
I'd also be interested to hear what it set you back. My guess is 4k.
STIfree said:
One side of me wants you to have great success with this, spend pennies and have an epic V12 twin turbo'd barge for a few thousand.
The other side of me regrets not buying it myself and instead sharing it online with other barge lovers. So that side of me hopes that theres some big scary bills around the corner so I can say "phew, good job I didn't buy that".
Superb buy though, I will certainly be following the thread.
Thats not very nice The other side of me regrets not buying it myself and instead sharing it online with other barge lovers. So that side of me hopes that theres some big scary bills around the corner so I can say "phew, good job I didn't buy that".
Superb buy though, I will certainly be following the thread.
But I know what you mean, theres been many times Ive done the same, generally with a Maserati badge hahaGassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff