rev up your engines okay here's a cute little 2008 mercedes-benz SL k 55 AMG v8
engine although it's really dirty today what kind of shape is it customer wants
to know you said it for three years hasn't put any money in it yet is it
worth putting more money into it oh it's time to say bye-bye
now you gotta consider the original person paid about 64 grand for this
think he bought it for about $18,000 three years ago hasn't put any real
money into it now he likes the power it's got 355 horsepower it's got a pretty
good 7-speed automatic transmission in it being that it's really small it's
also really heavy if you put a couple of fat guys in a thing the way it'll be
over two tons as you can see it's not that long not as a fast little sports
car but because of the weight and the power he gets about 13 miles a gallon in
the city 99 highway so it's pretty much a gas hog for tiny little car but the
three years he's owned he's very happy with it he hasn't had to put any real
money another thing so out comes a serious scan tool plug it in as you can
see it's no different than any other car you just find a plug now it's on you can
see the lights are glowing well just turn the key on
so the idiot lights are on and it's not running pal go to Mercedes automatically
search you get all kinds of information but we tell here it's not a fake mg
sometimes guys stick badges on but by the serial number this is an actual amg
we'll do a system scan and away it goes waiting for the skin I mean it's the
typical Mercedes even though it's all waiting someone older there are switches
buttons all kinds of controls here here we have the adjustments here it's a
convertible but it's metal it's a true two-seater
when you look at the dash we can see it says it's got 78,000 miles on it can see
on a dead eye on the top 78,000 96 miles no one's cheated on the speedometer on
this one like people often will so this is the real mileage 12 years old till he
got 78,000 miles that's a good sign scan didn't finally
wrong odds going through a health report but see if there's any codes on anything
I like many other cars of Mercedes have various steps and various levels of
analytics if some clown at an auto parts store plugs a machine in this thing and
says oh no it's fine there's no trouble codes that doesn't mean anything that's
the tip of the iceberg there's various levels that you need these fancy
machines for to really analyze one of these cars see there's red things coming
up now they're all green on the other chest but now there's things we're gonna
look at okay let's check it out we got a lot of reds three four five six seven
eight sixteen 26 36 37 38 4 45 48 50 so it's got 53 codes going on here let's
see if any of them are serious we got probably the electronic stability
program is typical on these control module not identified can't
communication is faulty that the electronic ignition switch has under
voltage the roof has voltage problem the overhead control panel can reception the
controller area network that's the computer wiring system problem with the
mirror automatically dimming patrol unit supplies to lo troll panel fault switch
is closed apply voltages to law we're getting a lot so it's obviously some
type of electrical short we're not getting enough power short circuits and
some of the lighting then there's 10 for the Sam that's the signal acquisition
mode then the audio system has five things I see that all the time he's
audio gateway they're so complicated or modular is a little problem electronics
seat adjust with memory has problems convenience automatic air conditioning
fan temperature sensor problem supply voltage is low but all these other ones
here they're normal now what is all that say well that says it's a typical
Mercedes that's 12 years old it has electronic flaws but the guy is
pretty much happy with the way that the thing runs
hey Riley this isn't like the g-wagon I checked out last week where stability
controls a big thing because it's high this baby's low to the ground it's not
something you have to worry about these things flipping over it's not that big
of a deal on something like this as it is with a big up near g-wagen that's
heavy that could flip over this thing that's not really a problem if you drive
normal he used to drive fast he says with the
grandkids now he drives normal so I started up you get some of the live data
there's so much dead on these things make your head spin test engine at idle
speed there's a dad it's all pretty normal
nothing weird now we'll check the values at idle speed you finally think sod ball
here everything's pretty normal big advantage of these machines the fancy
ones like this they're color coded if there is a fault it's gonna be different
color it's not gonna be that boom I can see that right away that there was in
specs but I can look at them individually too and analyze them with
what I know I don't trust the machines all the time now I do notice under the hood when I rev it up
you hear low groan when I turn the wheel power steering pumps
groaning a little bit just got a typical on these as they aged if it's not low on
fluid yeah these things often grown a little bit if you're an absolute fanatic
you replace the pump but I've seen them go years in years and they whine steer
fine who cares all that further to data signal from the
cams okay everything so far is pretty good for a vehicle of its age so that's
going to the hood check that out we roll the window down so we don't get locked
out we close the door that's an important thing well we need a Rob that
doesn't work hydraulics cost a fortune this cost $0.50
so stick one in your trunk nice and solid now
it's full of fluid who cares it runs fine
why spend all that money on something that's still work perfectly
fine now as we look around other than this bird found there must've
been a cat around here somewhere it's in pretty decent shape there's no major
leaks or anything front looks pretty clean there's no crack plastic parts and
being wrecked and smacked up now the headlights out a little fade on them
that's typical you can polish them off if you want but for a 12 year old
Mercedes Benz what's that real mileage that's actually
low shape that it's in other than those nitpick the electronic crap but they all
do as they age it's a pretty decent vehicle actually considering that he's
at it for three years and back then he paid less than one quarter of what the
original list price was I'd say it's actually a decent car now it's fine
you don't get a two-seater at all people around there's no backseat you want a
cute little two-seater to toy around with for that kind of money if you don't
pile the mileage on can actually be a decent way to fool around with sports
putting brakes on it eventually it's gonna need struts on it it rides a
little bit sloppy but it's nothing outrageous so let's check the
undercarriage pretty ladies got those fancy tires on it gotta say it's a
decent car no I'm not a fan of these low-profile tires because they have a
tendency riding a little bit rough the handle great but they ride a little
rough and they cost a fortune when they finally go up this guy has cheapy
Taiwanese one time cuz he didn't wanna buy the super expensive one since he's
not dragging anymore he's happy with these it tells me they're not leaking
air they don't get flats so they're decent original muffler still in good
shape clean rear end decent car yeah speaking of trunk it's inside here whoa
that's one heavy trunk we'll have to do that over again
oh not the biggest joints in the world but this one's clean you can see all the
fancy convertible top stuff that folds in here when you put the top in but it's
clean it's never been wrecked either now comes the real fun of driving around see
how it rides these are sporty little cars step on the gas again where it goes
and sure on this old one as your corner you can feel a little more bumps more
than you should I mean it's a relatively small wheelbase to begin with struts
are worn if he wants to get to ride like new I'd advise changing all the struts
on it but it's totally drivable the way it is so here's a shocker for ya scotty
says this really isn't that bad of a deal you did pay a lot less sport so that's got some
life left in it and here's some bonus questions and answers dude
said Scotty there's currently a 1990 BMW 535i for sale on my street with such
tremendous money picked back even in the 1990s well actually it wasn't back in
the 1990s but it will be today you're talking about a 13 year old BMW they are
and less money pits now back in the day those are actually pretty good cars I
had a few customers with and they loved them they were luxurious but they
handled well and one guy at 180 and it was still going strong and hadn't had
all that much worked on you talk about any car that's thirty years old
especially a German car it gets expensive and the parts on those are
super super super expensive yeah nineteen nineties for it or something
it's gonna have problems too but the parts are gonna be pretty cheap because
they mass-produced them there's an endless supply the aftermarket stuff
with the BMW especially 535i nothing easy to get parts for I would stay away
from that unless you want an endless repair toy that you can play with on the
weekend and you know you got time on your hand you want to be working on a
new Smith says Scotty I purchased 08 Lexus is350 190K I don't use a
cigarette lighter in a car so I wonder if it's good idea swap the USB
so I can charge them yes realize that those cigarette lighter things are made
for what lighting cigarettes you're better to swap it out to an actual USB
port hardwired in because when you plug the ones in they're relatively
inefficient someone can get too hot they don't work all that well and the
radiofrequency can actually mess with if you have a keyless ignition system get a
good one have it hardwired in a quality one and then you
won't have problems much better than some rig thing you just plug it in for
so if you never want to miss another one of my new car repair videos remember to
ring that Bell