May 13

2009 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG – A Service

Mercedes, Podcast

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Mark: Hi. It's Mark Bossert, producer of the Pawlik Automotive Podcast and video series, and of course we're here with Mr. Bernie Pawlik. Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, 20 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as voted by their customers and 38 years of repairing and maintaining vehicles in Vancouver. Of course, we're talking cars. How are you doing Bernie?

Bernie: Doing very well.

Mark: Today, a 2009 Mercedes Benz C63 AMG, A service. What was happening with this super high performance vehicle?

Bernie: Yeah, so the car just came in for us a basic service. An A service is the, I like to call it, the lower level of services. It's the simplest service that the car needs. That's why the car came in. No complaints, just basic maintenance.

Mark: What's involved in an A service?

Bernie: The A service, I mean the heart of the A service is an oil and filter change. What else is involved is inspecting all the fluid levels. We also put the vehicle up on a hoist, make sure nothing's loose suspension or steering wise. It's not a full steering or suspension inspection, but it's a basic inspection, adjusting tire pressures. Of course, these cars have tire pressure monitors, so they'll tell you long before you come in for service if your tires are low on air, but nonetheless we look, set the tire pressure to spec, look at the air filter and an under hood inspection. And light, the lights of course we look at, but again, these cars will tell you if your lights are are out. There's a lot of self-servicing these cars do, but it's all looking at the things that the car doesn't look at that we take care of too.

Mark: Anything extra required because this is an AMG?

Bernie: No. Really, it's not. The services basic. I mean the thing about the AMG is it's the performance package that comes along with it, but there's nothing extra that needs to be done. I would say, like an SL series that has active body control, those have hydraulic suspension, but actually even the non-AMG version has it, but those often will sometimes require fluid replacement in the suspension system. But this car doesn't have that, so it's a nothing that's required.

We'll just go into a picture here of the vehicle. You've got the car?

Mark: Yep.

Bernie: Beautiful. Awesome. Yeah, so there's our 2009 C63. Nice looking car. Fast as can be. What I like best about AMGs, not only do they drive nice, but the engines. It's a good looking engine. With so many cars, and this includes some Mercedes. A lot of Mercedes, you pop the hood, you just have this plastic cover that goes on top of the engine, you don't really get to appreciate the beauty of the engine like you did and I think that's some of the appeal of older cars. When you look under the hood, you go, "Wow, look at that engine. It looks neat."

2009 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG - A Service
2009 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG - A Service

With an AMG, you often get that a lot. Though I will say I'm an SL65 is a little disappointing. It's a V12 twin turbo and it has a big huge plastic cover over the top, so they didn't do such a nice job on that engine. But a lot of these AMGs, this one in particular looks really nice.

Mark: This is a V8?

Bernie: This is a V8. It's a 6.2 liter V8. They call it a C63. I guess it's pushing 6.3 liter, but it's actually classified as a 6.2. The other thing that's neat about AMGs is they all have this tag on the engine here, on these V8 engines, it actually says who built the engine and if you look on YouTube, you can actually find some neat videos in the AMG factory of them putting these engines together. It's a neat process to watch. I mean I've rebuilt, I've built a lot of engines in my time, but it's neat when the, you know, in this AMG factory, it's like a laboratory, so super clean.

Of course you want it to be clean, but I mean this is like extra, extra laboratory like, and because it's a large manufacturing facility, all the pistons come all labeled for the cylinders, and they all arrive on a cart, and it's kind of a neat step between someone building an engine in their small shop or a massive factory just manufacturing the engine.

It'd be kind of a cool job. It probably gets tedious after a while, but it's kind of neat thinking, "Hey, you built this engine yourself." Yeah. So so there we go.

And as I say, it looks beautiful. It looks beautiful afterwards. I guess if it doesn't work or blows up, you could always phone the factory and go, "Hey, Adolf. My engine blew up. He didn't do a good job." Or 10 years later you go, "Hey, that was a good job you did." Anyway, I digress. All right.

Mark: Did you find anything else that needed to be done on this vehicle?

Bernie: No, not in this particular service, actually, it was just the basic service, so it was good to go. Of course, the next level of services is the B service, which includes everything in the A plus brake inspection and looking at things in further detail.

The thing about the brakes on a Mercedes, of course they are monitored with a pad wear sensors which are accurate most of the time, so if the brakes were to wear out in between, a warning light will come on telling you you need to do something with your brakes. But we usually, the full brake inspection, steering suspension inspection is something we do at the V service. But yeah, there was nothing else required at this time.

Mark: And so we know you, obviously waxing quixotically about AMG engine building. You like AMGs. I know you have one of these, not necessarily this model because. Do they cost more to service than regular Mercedes Benz products?

Bernie: Well, the potential is there for a lot more expensive repairs, but for the most part the thing that's nice about an AMG is that it's still a factory, it's still a production level car. It's nothing. It's not really in the realm of exotic unless you get into an SLS or some car like that. I mean, they have bigger brakes, the brakes costs more, and some of them can be substantially more expensive in some models, but for the most part, they're not a lot more. I mean, the oil service on this car cost no more than it does on a lesser, you know, a C300. I mean, maybe 10 or $20 more, but there's not a lot more. I mean, you're certainly going to be paying a lot more money for gas in this car because of the large engine and that extra horsepower. But the potential is there to spend more money but for the most part, it's not a lot. It's not a lot worse than the base model.

I think that's the nice thing about AMG. For a lot of cars, it gives you that sort of almost supercar performance without the supercar hassle. You know, things like Ferrari's where things are, you know, it'll, or Aston Martins, where of course they're more exotic, but they're just so much more, I mean, so much more expensive to fix by magnitudes of like 10. It's kind of crazy and harder to get parts for it, so these are easier to deal with.

I think it's a good option, I mean, any of these. And of course BMW has their M series, and Audi has their performance line as well, but this is a nice car for sure if you want a nice four door that goes really fast.

Mark: So there you go. You need service for your Mercedes Benz in Vancouver, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at (604) 327-7112 to book your appointment. You have to call and book ahead, they're busy. Or check out the website, pawlikautomotive.com. On the blog, there's literally hundreds of articles and videos. Our YouTube channel, Pawlik Auto Repair. Again, hundreds of videos over the years of all makes and models and types of repairs. And of course, thank you so much for listening to the podcast. We appreciate it. Thanks, Bernie.

Bernie: Thanks, Mark, and thanks for watching.

About the author 

Bernie Pawlik

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