Thread: Mercedes ML270

Originally Posted by mudgripz

.. neighbour ..bought a 5-7 year old BMW with the V10 in it - 500+hp model...showed me one receipt from previous owner for a complete new gearbox - price was $34,000 plus change. Told me yeah the gearboxes have a weakness!!! ...

That's the one I had. Those sequential manuals were a pain in the arse and you really had to to drive it with manual selection (either the paddles or the little stick) as the Auto mode was laggy as hell. The clutch also didn't like slipping. We had a holiday house in Taupo at that stage and you had to back the boat up a steep driveway. I soon found out you had to carefully line it up and "drop" the clutch else there would be this terrible persistent burning smell.. I never had to have the clutch redone but it was a common issue.

While I'm at it, might as well tell you a little story about potential repair bills of which I had a lucky escape. I had sold it just out of warranty over the phone to a Russian in Akl for cash(!!) and was heading up to Akl the following day to deliver it. Driving sedately round town, the system gave a warning ding and the Engine symbol came up on the dash. Just another faulty sensor I thought. Took it into the dealership and they couldn't put a finger on exactly what it was other than the No.1 cylinder had shut down. BMW NZ had to get the tools in to pull it down as no-one had needed to do it before. Two weeks later, they arrived and the local dealership ripped the heads off which is a major with those engines. 40 valves with VANOS, bloody impressive to look at . Anyway, ultimate diagnosis was the spring on intake valve No.1 has collapsed. The valve had remained up ( must have slightly tweaked the stem) and hadn't pinged the piston. They consulted Germany and their advice was "Replace the whole engine" which was bullshit given the evidence. A crate engine was gonna be a mere $70K but before they tried to insist on that, I made it clear to the dealership and BMW NZ that it could end up a major PR disaster if they didn't come to the party. It took a top mechanic the thick end of a week to rip down both heads and replace -all- springs. The valve stems on those are only about 5mm diam (8250 redline) so he used a fair bit of motorcycle gear doing it. In the end, it cost me nothing other than about 6 weeks off the road so I had to drive the ute.

As has been said, if you can't afford to buy a new one, you probably can't afford to own an out-of-warranty one.