Got my 10 year old S-class serviced at the ASC: Here's how much it cost

Having to redo the control arms is a bummer but the rest of the items are not too bad considering the age of the car. Speaking of age, the car tries its best to hide it.

BHPian androdev recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

As much as the smooth ride offered by S Class is a big plus, it also makes you very OCD about it. I observed some very mild/hushed suspension noise while going over rough patches and had to get that addressed immediately. The best or nothing business has become an expensive affair :-)

Took the car to the dealer (Sundaram) myself as I was worried they'd send back the car saying the noises are in my head. I'm not a noob to fall for that SOP (standard operating procedure). I was worried I may not be able to find a suitably wretched road to demonstrate the noise issue. How wrong I was! The service advisor took to me to a stretch not too far from the service centre that looked like a purpose-built test track for researching suspension problems. My relief of being able to demonstrate the suspension noise didn't last long as I started getting anxious about developing new suspension issues!

My experience with the service department at Sundaram has been fantastic. SA told me he doesn't want to order parts on a trial-and-error basis, instead he would take sometime to fully diagnose the issue and suggest the right remedy. I believe him because all the recent fixes - two check engine light errors (one due to faulty mass airflow sensor and another due to faulty intake manifold actuator) were diagnosed very systematically and resolved to perfection in the first attempt. So a couple of days later, I got a call informing me that control arms need to be replaced due to ball joint failures.

The unfortunate part is that these control arms were replaced as part of the air suspension replacement job as a preventive maintenance done in an outside workshop. Airmatic struts I personally imported from the US but control arms I allowed them to source and ensured they are OEM brands. Either counterfeit parts (or parts from a bad batch) were procured or the fitment was done with incorrect torque settings resulting in things going bad in just few months. I am going to stick to A.S.S - no appetite for experimenting to save few bucks.

New control arms in place:

The car showed an error to replace AUX battery. It has a small aux 12V battery to handle emergency functions like shifting the transmission to neutral in case the main battery is dead.

New aux battery:

The car is back from the workshop with the following jobs taken care of:

1. New control arms: 1.7L

2. New xenon bulbs as old ones were getting dull: Rs 20K per piece

3. AUX battery replacement: Rs 12K

4. On the day of supposed delivery, the car shows "speed sensor" error. New speed sensor: Rs 20K

I requested them to allow me to import the control arms as that's a big ticket item to which they agreed. I paid 80-90K (landed cost) to import them from FCPEuro. Grateful for the small mercies!

Speed sensor:

Having to redo the control arms is a bummer but the rest of the items are not too bad considering the age of the car. Speaking of age, the car tries its best to hide it.

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