Acquired a 2006 Roadster, checked owners manual...found maintenance schedule calls for air and fuel filter changes at 60k, coolant at 100k, spark plugs at 100k...every two years check body paint, of course you change oil and keep fluids topped off...Not much self entertaining maintenance...Still have my MG though.

...Gary

 

Your Crossfire should run like a perpetual machine as compared to your MG. Sorry, love those little MGs, but keeping them running is a chore and a half. A buddy of mine had a 1961 in high school and when he wasn't out in it, he was working on it. That is before he wrapped it around a telephone pole. He was OK though, car was not.

 

But that is the secret...keeping them running is not a chore, it is high entertainment...each to his own... Gary

 

You would do less maintenance on 10 crossfires than you would do on 1 MG. At least MGs were easy to fix.

 

Talk about not much fun, I decided to get my oil changed at the dealership for my first time, $105! $85 for the oil and filter and $10 for labor?? I could have done it myself for less than half that, with Mobil 1 oil.

Is it just me or does that seem a little outrageous?

Sorry to thread jack, I just didn't want to make my own thread.

 

they better of put mobil 1 synthetic in there or you better change it again... check you manual, synthetic only 0w-40 ...

you can do it for much less yourself and is as easy as any car. but with a 7k change interval, sill not very entertaining...

 

You can always fool yourself into thinking it has Lucas Carbs and Electrics. The you'll be fixing something every weekend !!! Now that's entertainment !!!

 

Lucas ... Prince of Darkness!

 

Changing oil on the M-B SLKs and Chry Crossfires is so very easy. You don't even have to crawl under the car, just buy yourself a good hand pump that holds at least 8 quarts. Search on Amazon.com or just about any auto parts site or store for "Fluid Evacuator" or "Oil Pump". Good ones cost about $60.

Use an "oil filter wrench" which is available at any parts store for a few dollars and remove the oil filter cover from the top of the engine, then remove the old oil filter. Next take out your dip stick, snake the hose from the oil pump into the dip stick tube and pump out all the oil. Many dealers now use a pump to evacuate the old oil as it is so much easier and actually gets into the lowest area of the oil pan which dumping the oil from the pan does not. I bought a "Mityvac 7201" and it works great.

Once you've pumped all the oil out of the pan replace the dip stick and put the new "O" rings on the shaft and install the new oil filter cartridge, put cap back on hand tight and install the recommended number of quarts of synthetic oil. Of course disposal of the old oil is a bit of a hassle as you have to take it to any place that changes oil. By law if they change oil they have to accept old oil and some recycling centers also accept the oil.

After the one time cost of buying a pump and oil filter wrench you are going to find out it is incredibly easy to change your own oil and over the years you will save bundles on oil changes. Plus it does give one a sense of accomplishment to do it yourself

Sheldon

 

I think the oil filter needs to be taken out prior to draining the oil. There have been some issues with a lot of oil being held in the filter area. If you put 8.5 quarts in, and then take the oil filter off - another 1/2 quart may go back in causing the oil light to come on because of overfilling.
There is a post somewhere on here about it.

 

I guess I wrote that too late at night. I do always remove the filter first. So there would be no confusion I went back and edited that posting to put things in the correct order.

Sheldon

 

Sheldon - how do you like your Crossfire so far?

 

I do love my new Crossfire, but with caveats. I did find a buyer for my SLK and the new owners picked it up last Saturday. Hated to see it go, but I can’t afford to have two similar toys. Because my Crossfire is a 2006 “Special Edition” it is mostly a base unit so that are quite a few things that the SLK had that I will miss on the Crossfire. The AMG Sport package was very nice indeed, and I will certainly miss the retractable hardtop. I’ll also miss the Bose Premium Sound System, the “Homelink” garage door opener, the headlight washers, heated seats, leather interior, and a bunch more things. But, the tradeoff is that I now have a brand spankin’ new car. I spent a year looking for the right SLK for me and after all that time I had to make some compromises. Because I wanted the “Sport” package it somewhat limited me in colors. I really wanted a Firemist Red one with a black interior, but could never find one that fit my other criteria, so settled for silver which is a classic Mercedes color. Now I’ve finally got the color combination that I originally wanted in my Blaze Red Crossfire with black top and interior, and I now have the 6 speed, which is a huge plus for me as I really value performance over luxury.

Everything on the Crossfire that is Chrysler is just a step down from the Mercedes equivalent. The cruise control looks the same but is not nearly as precise or smooth. The manual transmission is a bit “notchy”, the radio (at least on the Special Edition) is terrible. They could have at least put a port for plugging in an MP3 player. Where the SLK had carbon fiber on the dash, sills and console the Crossfire has really crappy plastic. It is definitely a step down from the Benz, but I do love it and am enjoying the heck out of it, well, except for...

When I first saw the car it was still wrapped from the factory and fresh off the truck, and that day the dealer sent me home in it to keep overnight. When I got home and pulled the key out of the ignition it was so hot that I was afraid there was a short. The next day when I took it back to them it didn’t do it again and they felt there might have been something in there from the factory shorting it but they couldn’t find anything when they checked and it hasn’t done that since. I bought the car the next day and waited while they finished all the prep work and cleaned the car. When I went to drive it off the lot it wouldn’t shift out of first gear. I had to leave it overnight and picked it up the next day. The shift linkage had apparently come apart and they easily fixed it. Then last Friday I was out and about in it and when I got home I pulled in the driveway and noticed the engine sounded extremely loud, as if it were still running at 3,000 RMP or so. Looked at the tach and it seemed normal, so popped the hood and the coolant fan was spinning madly away. I thought that was odd, shut the car down and didn’t drive it all weekend because I had a customer project I had to get done over the weekend. Monday I had to run some errands and fired it up only to find the same problem so instead of running my errands I drove to the dealer and sat there for two hours while they tried to figure out what was wrong. They finally re-flashed the memory in the computer or some such thing and the problem went away. So, in the 700 miles I’ve driven it so far it has already had its share of problems.

Do I “like the Crossfire”? Simply… YES, I do. I’ve owned well over 100 vehicles in my life and there have only been a few that I can’t stop staring at. This is one of those. I love the looks. I love the Mercedes V6 with the 6-speed and am having a blast running through the gears. For what I paid for this thing ($23,600 new) I feel like I’ve gotten the deal of the century. In spite of it coming in just shy of the SLK in some areas I am quite happy. I plan on putting in an aftermarket sound system and will be adding a Wind Restrictor soon. Then I’m thinking a Borla exhaust system would be a nice addition and I plan on enjoying this car for a very long time.

 

Sorry to hear that you had those initial problems.

I have 4,000 miles on my XFire and have not had a single problem.

Hope you have better luck, and enjoy one hell of an automobile.