.Behold, our ebay/craigslist deal. A 2005 Mercedes S600. There are plenty of other trim levels of the S class that would be totally acceptable to just about every other human being on the planet.... except for Emilie. She finds a model she likes and she wants the damn top of the line (although there is an S65, but that's out of my price range). This beast is powered by a 5.5 liter V12 biturbo engine. It produces over 500 hp stock (underrated so AMG model would be more powerful) and over 600 lb-ft of torque. And it's only RWD. But, the kids can't be late!
As you can see.... the ML500 is having no issues. Especially considering this car weighs 4500 lbs and the ML towing capacity is 500 lbs
. 
Now, we got this thing WAY under the normal value of these cars. So, of course there is a major flaw. But, in the grand scheme of things, it's minor.
Someone must have pulled an insurance job and cashed out on this guy. Every panel is cut up on it. All of that beautiful hand stitched NAPA leather
. But, it's time to dive into the mechanicals first. Brawn before beauty! First thing was first. This had 2 engine codes for a misfire (something we knew about before buying it). It's a common issue with these cars. Generally remedied with replacing a coil pack. That may not seem like a big deal. But there are only 2 of them on the whole engine. Each cylinder has 2 spark plugs, so each coil drives 12 plugs. They are also $1400 each (or rebuildable much cheaper). So, I scan this thing and see cylinder 3 and 11. I think to myself "shit, that's both banks"... aka, both coils. I start on cylinder 3 and find a spark plug gapped totally shut. I regap that guy and scope the cylinder. All is well in there. So I put that side back together and work on the other side. Cylinder 11 has the wrong damn spark plugs in it! They are gapped too high as well. I think I hit the jackpot. So I regap them and switch them with plugs from another cylinder to see if the problem follows the plugs. Sure enough, as my luck would have it, it stays on cylinder 11. This bank has a brand new coil pack on it already. Problem is, the wrong plugs. They burned out the coils for that cylinder. Repairing it can cost between $130 and $275, so it shouldn't be too bad. They are also a lot easier to get to than one might imagine.
I've also fixed a couple of small issues with it. The driver side headlight did nothing. So, I had to remove the front bumper in order to address the issue. It really does help if they actually plug the headlight in. That's all it was.
Also, the switch on the driver front door would not operate the driver rear glass. I popped the switch panel off to find 3 cut wires. Slap them back together and it works just fine.
There are a few more wires that are cut throughout the car. So, I'm waiting on a factory service manual to arrive to help me trace everything. The door locks don't work, trunk doesn't auto open, and the privacy window shade in the rear doesn't roll down. They are all tied together in the same circuit, but I need the diagrams to help pinpoint the issue.
I already have a new water pump, heat exchanger pump, accessory belt, belt tensioner and idler pulleys, spark plugs, and fluids/filters to do. Then I'll work on other stuff. After it's all sorted, a nice ecu/tcu reflash will be in store. It will bump it up from 493 hp to a low low 620 hp... oh, and around 700+ ft-lbs of torque. That will still allow the kids to be late to everything!
