6000 dollar repair! Fix it or not?

[maybatch2000]

Hi everyone, I have a 95 C220 with 132K miles. I just found out i need some major work on the car including head gasket, wireharness, drive shaft flex disc, tie rod assembllies and some other small things. The whole thing with parts and labor is close to $6000. I dont think the car is worth that much. What would you do if you were in my position? I recently purchased a NSX which set me back few thousands of dollars. I cannot drive the NSX during the winter time. Should i try to cut corners and fix some of the problems or trade it. Advice please :(

[Proven Guilty]

Dump it. The resell on that car is about $6,000 with the year/mileage you've got on it now.

[allirroz]

how much can you get if you trade it in?

[EDM6VIP]

$6000 is enough to buy another 95 C220, you purchased a NSX and youre telling us you can't drive it on winter time? HAHAHAH

waste of money.....

why do some people get anal about driving their car in winter time....

its got rubbers and engine drive it all year....


hypathetically......
thats like buying a house and you cant live in it in winter time

[matt09]

I think is a reasonable thing to do in order to avoid rust.

[maybatch2000]

Originally posted by allirroz
how much can you get if you trade it in?

Not sure how much I will get. Probably 3500 or less. There is considerable oil leakage now. Will stop by carmax to see how much they will give me.


I know I am being paranoid about the NSX. It is just a car and I need to drive it. I still cant imagine myself driving arround the snowy/salty ohio roads.

[timmyj51]

Unless you find a stool pidgeon chances are you'll have a hard
time even selling the car with all those problems,
even for $3500. Does it still run well? Transmission shift
smoothly? Interior/exterior in good shape? Might
want to consider doing some repairs, if only to make it more
saleable. $6K
sounds pretty steep. I'd get quotes from at least half a dozen different independent
shops. If you know the precise problems get
quotes on individual repairs, not a package quote for all
repairs. May find it'll cost you only half as
much.

[allirroz]

Originally posted by maybatch2000
Not sure how much I will get. Probably 3500 or less. There is considerable oil leakage now. Will stop by carmax to see how much they will give me.


I know I am being paranoid about the NSX. It is just a car and I need to drive it. I still cant imagine myself driving arround the snowy/salty ohio roads.



Ok then clean/ degrease the engine bay before heading to carmax...he he ...you never know may get you a couple more hundred dollars ... do the bottom end too. with $3500 you could find a nice beater for the moment and keep the NSX parked.

[maybatch2000]

Originally posted by timmyj51
Unless you find a stool pidgeon chances are you'll have a hard
time even selling the car with all those problems,
even for $3500. Does it still run well? Transmission shift
smoothly? Interior/exterior in good shape? Might
want to consider doing some repairs, if only to make it more
saleable. $6K
sounds pretty steep. I'd get quotes from at least half a dozen different independent
shops. If you know the precise problems get
quotes on individual repairs, not a package quote for all
repairs. May find it'll cost you only half as
much.

Besides this gasket leak, the car has ran pretty trouble free for the past 110,000 miles. Got the car in 2000 with 20k miles from the dealer. The transmission is pretty smooth and the interior and most of the exterior is in good condition. The guy who gave me the quote seems to be ripping me off. He quoted me 16hrs labor for the gasket. His parts price seemed to be about 25-50 percent higher than dealer or online.

[timmyj51]

Sounds like this guy's ripping you off. You can find out
pretty easy by asking other mechanics about the head
gasket. Ask them how many hours it will take them
to do the repair.

[OzC36]

As allirroz said, clean it up and get a quote to sell.

While it is cleaned up, get a strong flashlight, digital camera and mirror and crawl over and under the engine and take lots of photos. A pristine clean engine will allow you to precisely identify the leak area (it may not be the head gasket). While it is clean get a second opinion on what needs repairing from another repair center and quote for work.

I am suspicious that you need a new wire harness especially if the car is running well apart from the oil leak. If the car had the old bio-degradable wire harness, it should have failed at a much earlier time.

A new flex disc is about $100 on eBay and would take less than one hour to fit.

A new draglink assembly is about $85-125 on eBay and would be about two hours to change. Front suspension ball rod ends and bushings etc, are about $25-60 on eBay (these jobs needs special tools and a wheel alignment after fitting).

When you have re-costed the sale value and repair costs vs the quality and purchase price of a replacement car, you will be able to make a better decision on what to do.

Look after your NSX!

[Abuimad]

Originally posted by EDM6VIP



hypathetically......
thats like buying a house and you cant live in it in winter time

well thats just the point of a summer house....but neways i really suggest you do as the other members tell you, and clean the engine bay, and try to identify all the problems, take it to another trusted mechanic and have him look at it....if the cost of fixing it is still very high, then you might wanna look at selling it....

now post some pics of the NSX ;)

[maybatch2000]

My other baby!

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m57/maybatch2000/Picture003.jpg

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m57/maybatch2000/Picture_029.jpg

[sig425]

sounds like you went to the stealership. Most of that stuff is not a MUST do.

Head gasket?? is the car spewing oil or just oozing? leave that one alone all together. Cars car run for 50k miles or more witha leaky head gasket. Land rovers leak from the factory!

Wiring harness??? A wiring harness never needs to be replaced unless you had an engine fire. Most electrical gremlins are caused by aftermarket installations that will more than likely not be corrected by a new harness. How do they diagnoss that you need a new harness? Without a diagnosis it sounds like BS to me.


Flex disk.. well that is pretty easy to diagnose but unless you are having major issues, leave until it goes.

Tie rod.. hell everyone wants to replace your tie rods and they hardly ever NEED to be replaced unless you plan to abuse older ones. IF the wheel doesnt bonk when you shake it.. leave it untill later as well. Should and need is very different. Although this one could represent the biggest safety issue if indeed it is endanger of failing.


I got a $6000 quote from a guy who said every suspension component I had needed to be replaced... 40k later and everything is still the same as it was back then.

Drive it till it breaks not until some mechanic looking for a big job says you should replace that. IMO At the very least get a second opinion on that stuff as I'd be skeptical even if you are due at 123k


BTW Im with you on not driving the NSX in the snow. I have a summer time garage queen too.

[sanf]

no,

if it drives.. sell/trade it.

[allirroz]

Originally posted by sig425
Drive it till it breaks .



Ha! are you serious? On a Benz...to each his own i guess.....

[DirectLA]

You definitely should ask other shops for a quote. Also, the best way to find a trusted repair facility is by asking your friends and family who they have had good experiences with. I have had several semi-exotics and am no stranger to being taken advantage of by unscrupulous repair men but I have also had great luck, including one shop who didn't charge me a thing because it turned out the distributor cap was loose so they tightened it and that was that.

As for the NSX, I think you are wise to garage it in winter, why risk the rust or possibility of sliding something with that much power around on the ice and into another car, light pole, etc.

Good luck and let us know what other shops quote you!

[sig425]

Originally posted by allirroz
Ha! are you serious? On a Benz...to each his own i guess.....

Guess its different for me. I have a c43 that I dont plan to sell anytime soon. I cant wait for the motor to pop as I'll drop in a 55 :D

I’ll say true, that when faced with large dollar major repairs if you have the option to sell versus repair... I'd sell if the repairs were greater than the cost of another car. All Im saying is that I dont think I'll be sinking big dollars into repairs on the advice of the stealership. Unless its broken, the repairs he listed sound largely preventative and probably dont urgently need to be done. If in fact they do need to be done.. sell it before repair it.

[maybatch2000]

I have an update. Found a mechanic in town who says he will fix my car. His hourly rate is a very reasonable 49 dollars per hour. To my surprise, he worked at the local mercedes dealer for 7 years. He looked at the car and confirmed that it was the head gasket. He said the wire harness might not be required. I will get the oil leak fixed first. If any of the suspension is really bad then, i will get it fixed. Hopefully this will work out and I will not have to sell my car. I just couldnt imagine selling her and driving another crappy used car. Thanks for all the input and suggestions guys. :)

[Sulaco]

Originally posted by sig425
Head gasket?? is the car spewing oil or just oozing? leave that one alone all together. Cars car run for 50k miles or more witha leaky head gasket. Land rovers leak from the factory!

...

Flex disk.. well that is pretty easy to diagnose but unless you are having major issues, leave until it goes.

A flex disc that fails completely while the car is at cruising speed will almost certainly ruin more than is worth fixing. Imagine your driveshaft being turned into a sledge hammer that's spinning at high velocities underneath your cabin? Remember whichever end with the flex disc that DOESN'T fail will allow this motorized jackhammer to PIVOT.

Having a head gasket leaking that badly can really cause problems if you let it go too long. The coolant and oil start to mix. This results in having to check your oil daily. Even if you manage to top oil from leaking on the exterior of the engine, it can be disappearing into the cooling system. With a bad head gasket, you also run the very high risk of small amounts of coolant AND oil mixing in the combustion chamber. Say goodbye to your O2 sensors and CATS at that point. Say hello to a repair bill that's been doubled or tripled now. Also, if it completely fails while you're out one day, you run the risk of having a hydraulic lock before you can get the car safely pulled over to get towed. Hydraulic lock = valve job, warped head, possibly even a ruined engine altogether. However, THIS scenario doesn't put you in any danger.

I'm also the proud owner of an old, dying 202. I've had ALL these problems on my '94 C280.

But I'd rate things from "NEEDS FIXING NOW" to "CAN WAIT"

Priority one should be repairing either (or both) of the 2 flex discs. Read above... You can get them for $46 at www.importeccatalog.com.

Next I'd focus on the head gasket. As stated earlier it can wait, but is most crucial for your engine's health. Those engines are bulletproof (except for the factory head gasket). And 16 hours for the repair of this on the 4 cylinder C220 is a complete lie (especially from a professional shop that's done it before). I had never done anything like this and it took me about 12 total hours to do the job myself on my C280 (with a bigger, heavier everything).

All the suspension problems don't carry near as much weight. They are mostly comfort problems. You can drive for many thousands of miles (as others have stated on this board) with completely shot suspension and suffer nothing more than slight discomfort and/or noisey ride. I've needed new shocks, pads, ball joints, lower control arm bushings, tie rod ends, etc since 45,000 miles. That's when my local shop told me they were all dead and I needed to spend $1500 PER SIDE to "fix" my suspension. They wanted around $800 for all the shocks. I found the exact same shocks (also at www.importeccatalog.com ) for $68 each. I'm at 190,000 miles now and considering new shocks. Car is starting to get bouncy.

And I don't remember ever hearing that the C220 ever had the factory installed faulty wiring harness. It's a commonly known fact that the m104 straight-6 that came in the 94-96 C280 and E320 came with the biodegradable wiring harness. But I can't imagine why the hell your car would need a wiring harness unless it's suffered some kind of catastrophic event (ie, fire or serious front impact).

Sounds to me like the original quote was aimed towards the star on your hood. I've had more than several shops try to quote me ridiculous repair bills on things I ultimately had fixed (or somewhat easily) fixed myself for FAR cheaper. Just at least take some of what everyone on this forum is telling you and at least ACT like you know what kind of work will be done on this thing and maybe they'll give you a more honest quote :)