C63 AMG

In today's video, guys, we will be road testing this C63 for the first time properly. Um it does need an MOT as well, so I'll have to book it in for an MOT, then do the test drive to make obviously things legal. Uh so, the only way I can do the test drive. Um but, yeah. Last video, we did the gearbox, um and we did the voltage regulator. So, I do need to obviously check that those things have both worked. I have a diagnostic laptop here, which I want to go through you uh with you as well, just to show you what we can do and what we're checking on this car to make sure it is good to take out on the road. So, as always, guys, thank you very much for watching these videos. If you haven't already subscribed, please do subscribe, and also follow me on Instagram at saving_salvage. Now, the first thing I'm going to do is actually uh clean the interior because it's mold everywhere. There's mold on the seatbelt, and I ain't going out anywhere. Yeah, it's just disgusting. So, I've got some like vinyl rubber care stuff. Uh so, we'll just clean up the seatbelts and the interior a little bit, make it a little bit more habitable. Yeah, look how disgusting that seatbelt is, look. Uh disgusting. Okay, so I've cleaned the interior up a little bit. Uh looks quite nice now, to be fair. It's pretty clean anyway. Just had a little bit of mold from obviously where it's sat for so long and not done anything. Uh main thing though is, yeah, the seatbelt. It now looks normal, and not disgusting. So, quite happy to wear that now. So, the car's now ready to drive. So, now I just want to go through the car system with the diagnostic computer, just to see if we can battery match. I'm not sure if we can cuz of the age of the car. Um and I want to see if we can relearn or readapt the gearbox values as well. See if we can just reset them. Now it's got new fluid, it might change a little bit. So, if we can reset them, that'd would be a bonus. And just have a look if any other codes are there before going on a test drive. And that is where Topdon have kindly sponsored today's video and supplied me with a diagnostic computer to have a look at the Merc. So, here it is. We have a Topdon Phoenix Plus Professional Diagnostic Tool with the all-important Bluetooth dongle, which it makes me very happy. Um so, what we're going to do is I'm going to plug this into the car now. We'll start up the computer and we'll get into the car systems. See, I've plugged the Bluetooth dongle into the OBD port and it turns green when it's connected properly and then it turns blue. Can't really see that on camera, but it is now blue, meaning it has connected to the diagnostic computer. See, that's a massive plus for me at the minute. Bluetooth uh dongle because there is no wires and I can have the device wherever I want it and it just makes life a lot more easier. So, if we just go back, I've just done a full system scan on the car and it's basically just gone through every control module and had a look. Ooh, lucky, look. No problems with my TCM, which is my transmission control unit, but I have a lot of others. So, let's just go into diagnostic plan and I'm not sure it's going to pick out very well, but basically, it's got all the stored fault codes and all the control modules. I have had a look through them. 90% are because of the battery was low. So, there's a list of things you can do in the maintenance section here and the first thing I want to try is BMS, which is battery matching um diagnosis. Now, I don't think this car was going to have battery matching cuz it's too old. It's 2008. I just don't think it's going to have it. And yeah, look. This This function is not supported on this vehicle, as I suspected. Uh yeah, it's a bit too old this vehicle for battery matching. Another thing I want to do is uh reset the gearbox values as well. So, obviously, with that old fluid, it's probably a bit iffy. So, with the new fluid, hopefully, reset the gearbox values and uh make maybe make it a little bit smoother. So, I've just gone into gearbox, selected the car and uh yeah, these are the options we've got. So, adaptation of gear shifts. We've got up shifts. And then it brings out a load of measured values. You've got the gearbox oil temperature here. Uh requirements, uh the engine's running. Um transmission is higher than 50°. Obviously, the requirements aren't right at the minute cuz my gearbox oil is only uh 19° and the car isn't running. But, when it is running, these are the things that we can do. And reset adaption. So, you can reset shift. Yeah, we'll reset the adaption values for shift. I won't do the torque converter because it does do Look, it says, "Was the torque converter uh replaced?" No. And then it should only be reset after repair work. So, I will go no in this instance and just leave it as the shift. And just in maintenance, look, there's loads of other options you can have from brake bleeding to uh changing brake pads. Although, I think my car's a little bit too old to uh benefit from most of the things that this thing can do. You've got a mobilizer, injection quantity, cruise control. There's just loads of other things you can do. Um yeah, just unfortunately, this car is a little bit too old to benefit from most of them. So, that is just a small snapshot in what the Phoenix Plus can do. The Phoenix Plus works on over 130 brands of cars. It has over 28 different special functions including DPF regeneration, airbag reset, and battery matching. It also has advanced ECU coding, so you can code replaced control modules. For example, you can also activate hidden functions that your car can have but hasn't had activated from factory. So, as I say, I've only scratched the surface of what this thing can do, but it will be featuring in videos going forward that require diagnostic work. So, if you're interested in the Phoenix Plus or any other diagnostic equipment Topdon do, please click the link in my description. They are currently doing a special deal for this week. So, a massive thanks to Topdon for sponsoring today's video. Right. It's freezing today. It's horrible. We have nothing left to do now. Booked in for MOT, so I can uh now drive it on the road. Absolutely mad how loud that is. The steering wheel now adjusts. That didn't work before. Interesting. Right, we have half a tank of fuel. And people ring me. Fantastic. Oh, we got the ones that don't work for us. Right. Now I've got my uh seat belt all right. Let's go for a drive. Now I've reset the uh values for the gearbox. It does feel a little smoother straight away. Doesn't feel like It hasn't grabbed. Like when I went for a quick road test uh in the last video and the ones before, when I put my foot down nothing would happen, then it would like grab a little bit and hasn't done that so far. Oh. It's a bit nervous now. First time going down the actual road. All right, I don't know what way to go. First time on the road. Please be okay. First time driving a a 500 brake horsepower rear-wheel drive C63. Not ideal in the wet, so I am going to go pretty easy. Oh. Oh, downshift it then. That was all right. I hate first road tests. Very nerve-racking. Especially when I don't know why this car has been written off. That's the worst bit because I still haven't really found anything wrong with it, have I? What I've done is change a voltage regulator and a battery. Gearbox all changed. I don't even know if that was an an issue. I think it was just probably it didn't help. I don't think it was a problem though cuz it still worked. So, effectively all I've done is fit a 60 lb voltage regulator and a 100 lb battery. And there's no way in hell you can write a car off for 150 lb worth of maintenance work. So, I still don't understand why this car was sold flood damaged at the Copart cuz there's nothing, touch wood, I should probably say this after the road test, nothing wrong with it. Everything seems to be working okay. I haven't had any problems either yet with the system shutting down. So, that's good. Seems to be driving nicely. Engine has been pretty much flawless throughout. And it's really quiet. Like, I don't know how it's coming across on camera, but um yeah, the exhaust isn't dry. I know it is a standard system with uh I think it's got secondary decats, but it's No, it's nice and quiet. So, now I'm going to put it in manual. Put it in manual. So, I don't know how I've got to do this. I've just got to use the paddles. Okay. Yeah. I don't want to put my foot down. I've never driven a C63 in my life. And I do not know how um What was that? I just lost something. It sounded like something just fell off. Um Yeah, and I don't know how sketchy these are at all. So, the last thing I want to do is put my foot down in the wet with a a stage two C63. So, I'm just going to go a bit easy on the old uh power until I'm in the dry. Right, let's give it another third gear pull. See that? That was a bit It got a bit thingy then. This is quick. Sounds awesome. Right, let's just take it in. Let's take her in. Don't know how to How about I just do that? Oh, there we go. Oh, it's got manual there then. There we go. Cool. Just press the button. Well, I think the first drive actually went pretty well considering. So, ideally now I want to get it ready for MOT. And I know there's two things I need to do. These front tires are pretty much on the legal limit, so we need to change those just so we don't get an advisory. And one of the headlamps didn't work, so the near side front xenon lamp did not work. I have just removed the bulbs, as you can see here, look, really easy to get to on these, so I'm quite grateful for that. Both sides are really easy. I've just put the bulbs there. And the reason I've taken out this one as well is because this bulb actually looks in pretty new good condition. So, what I'm going to do is I know that one to be working. So, to rule out the bulb, I'm going or to rule out anything else in the headlight like the ballast or anything, I'm going to swap them over and see basically where the the fault goes. So, if this light starts working and that one stops working, I know it is the bulb. But if that one continues to work and this one still doesn't work, then I know it's probably the ballast. So, I'm going to swap these over now and see what we get. I mean, to be fair, I don't even have to put that bulb in. I just need to put this one in. Right, so this bulb in here is the known working bulb. So, if it still works, then I know the ballast is okay. Oh, brilliant. So, it's not the bulb. Right, so the known working bulb now doesn't work in that headlamp. So, at this point I do suspect it is the ballast. So, I am just now going to confirm that by putting the the known not working one in this headlight here. So, there we go. Annoyingly, it's not the bulb. The bulb both bulbs work in the same headlight. Both bulbs don't work in the near side headlight. So, we know it's probably going to be the ballast at this point, which is rather frustrating because I can't nip to Halfords and just get a ballast. So, I managed to get the headlight out without actually removing the bumper. I'm not sure how. It was a very tight squeeze. I've just ended up removing the grill, which was just two bolts on the top and just removing this part of the bumper, and it did just about squeeze out, but I definitely don't think I'm going to be able to get it back in. So, I'm going to end up having to just remove the bumper there and just pulling it out anyway. So, yes, probably should have just done that to start with. But anyway, I've got the headlight out and over here to the headlight, the ballast is here. I've already removed it. Just three screws on the bottom of the headlight, and it has been replaced not too recently uh cuz this is like 2020. So, it's only 2 and a bit years old this ballast. However, looking in it, look, it's had water ingress. It's all corroded. Uh it's got some yeah, just corrosion on the pins and that's Looks like one of the main pins in this completely corroded. So, uh and yeah, a little bit on there, but mainly in the ballast. So, yeah, I'm I'm guessing Well, let's be honest, this is defective. So, we're going to need a new ballast. I have already ordered one. I've just ordered one. Um it will be here probably in a couple of days. So, there's nothing unfortunately I can do with the headlight. So, the other thing we need to do uh the this tire is borderline whether it will pass an MOT. Obviously, they do need changing, but I'm just thinking for MOT purposes here, uh it will actually pass. Although it's bald on the inner edge there, that isn't actually counted as part of the tread. It's only these three here. So, it's the center three quarters of the tire, and this bit here isn't on the legal limit yet. So, that would actually pass. This tire though, uh yeah, it's is not on the legal limit. So, no, that that one won't pass. So, it needs one tire to pass an MOT. Uh the rear ones are on like 3 mil. So, they do need replacing. No, I'm fully aware it does need four new tires, um but I don't know what to do yet about the wheels because obviously these are 18-in wheels. They don't look great. Um and there are a set of 19-in wheels on eBay. So, what I'm thinking is do I just get a like a cheap used tire to put on this wheel to get it through MOT just so we've got it MOT'd uh and then I can obviously go ahead and get some better wheels. Obviously need some new tires. Or do I just put four new tires on this? I haven't quite decided decided yet. Um it all depends on the new owner, I guess, whether when I sell it, would they prefer those alloys or the new ones. So, I haven't quite worked it out, which is why I just want to put a cheap second-hand tire on this just to get it through MOT. Another thing I want to do, I'm going to do that now, is clean up these exhaust tips cuz they are manky and I've got some nice sanding material. So, yeah, let's get them looking sweet. Hey guys, look how much better does that look? Just literally changes the appearance of the rear end completely. Two nice shiny tailpipes. Now, I know this ballast for this headlight isn't going to be here probably till early next week and I do want to do another road test now it is dry outside. So, for the time being, I am just going to put this headlight back in and yeah, I'm going to go out for another test drive. Let's go for another little drive. Every time. Brutal. Right, nice dry sunny day and I'm nearly up to nearly up to temperature. I've been driving a couple of minutes and yeah, this I mean so far it drives really nicely. I mean torque converters are notoriously smooth anyway. Um, but this is a really nice drive and the exhaust although it's loud and it sounds awesome, it's not intrusive. It doesn't it's not obnoxious. I was saying that, I've just got engine management light come on. My engine management is now flashing and it's now misfiring. Fantastic. Let's go back. Ah. It's now misfiring. I can feel it. In fact, I don't know if I'm going to get back. It's never misfired at all since I've had it. So, this is the first I mean I did have uh on the one of the first videos I did have a stored fault for misfire, but this is the first time it's actually misfired. No, still misfiring. No. Okay, right. Let's try and Sounds awful now. I'll try and limp it back. I'm not too far away. I just thought maybe an ignition reset might have fixed it, but Oh god, no. It feels It feels horrible. So, now looking at these faults, all the misfiring is on bank two. So, 5 6 7 8 and it says here position of camshaft is implausible relative to the crankshaft. Um, at this moment in time I well, I'm hoping it's just a sensor. So, I'm going to go for a camshaft sensor. Uh I don't There's no I don't think there's a misfiring issue Uh because obviously all four are having the same problem. I don't think it's a timing issue because surely then the timing would be out on bank one as well. Again, not 100% sure on that. The easiest thing to do I'm hoping the fault is going to be a camshaft sensor. So, I'm going to just clear the fault faults. I'm turning ignition off. Right, so it's now cleared all the codes and they have gone. So, I'm just going to quickly start it back up and see if it's still Not sure. No, no, starting misfire straight away. Right, so looking at bank two this side. I've removed one camshaft sensor. I believe there's an inlet and an an outlet camshaft sensor. It's really easy to get to that one. You can see where I've just removed it from there. And I believe the other one is this Let's move this out of the way. Is that one here. I can't see. There where my finger's pointing. So, I'm going to remove that now as well. And yeah, I'm going to have to replace both of those and hopefully that fixes it. Right, I've just removed the other one and I forgot to show you before I cleaned it but it had quite a lot of like gunk on it. I don't know if it's just a build-up over many thousands of miles but I've just cleaned it up and I'm now going to refit it to see if it's just cuz it was a bit gunked up and that's why it's done it. So, Right, I've just plugged them all back in and I've just reset the codes again. I don't know if this is going to work or not but might as well give it a go. No, straight back on again. Now, I've just had a look at the code again and it does specifically say exhaust camshaft on bank two. Which is Yeah, that's the second sensor I took out. So, luckily, the inlet sensors are different bank one to bank two, but the exhaust sensors are both interchangeable. So, I am going to swap the exhaust sensors around and see if the problem follows the sensor, and hopefully then that will narrow down our issue. Now, I've just taken out bank one exhaust sensor, and this is the Don't know if it's the the gunk that's There you go. You see the gunk that's around it? That's what I was talking about on the other sensor. I've just had a look online. It seems pretty normal. But, I don't know if that's just a mess up of the sensor or what. So, yeah, I'm going to swap those over now, and yeah, hopefully it follows the sensor. All right, third time lucky. Now, it's running okay. I mean, that's good. Yeah, for some reason it's now running fine. All I've ended up doing is swapping over exhaust camshafts from bank Well, bank one and two, I've just swapped them over. And now, weirdly, it's running okay. Now, that's a That is a very good sign cuz that just tells me that it is, in fact, a sensor that's the issue. The fact that it's running fine now just tells me there's no timing issue, which is obviously the worst thing it could be. Uh So, yeah, maybe a new exhaust cam sensor. Yeah, so, yeah, a bit of a weird one. Uh it's now running fine, but I do obviously need a sensor. It's just a matter of time before obviously it fails in the other one. So, um yeah, that's going to be the end of today's video, guys. Uh I've got some bits to to do before we go on another road test, but in the next video, it shall be a proper road test, MOT, uh and yeah, we'll get some proper drive-by videos and exhaust videos, but that does mean that uh it gives me a chance now between now and the next video to get everything done. So, obviously it's ready for MOT, and we can do some proper road tests. Um I'll get them exhaust I'll replace both sensors, so then they're both done. And then yeah, hopefully we've got no issues. So, as always guys, thank you very much for watching. I hope you did enjoy this video. It didn't quite go to plan at the end next. I wanted to get some drive-bys with the exhaust, but I don't want to end up taking it back out cuz what's going to happen? It's just going to I'm going to get 50 put down the yard, it's just going to come back on again the light and go into limp mode, and I don't want to damage the engine. So, yeah, next video guys, she will hopefully be 100%. So, as always, thank you very much for watching, and I'll see you in the next one. Cheers, guys.