Today one of the cars we're working on is a 2011 Mercedes-Benz CLS 550.  This car is pretty clean without much wear and tear on it.  We were called when the owner thought they noticed something was wrong. The car came in with a ticking noise and the check engine light was on.  In order to diagnose it, we had to hook up our scanner, which is by Mercedes-Benz, and we have to look at timing.  We found out that the timing was a little bit off and one of the things that was causing the timing to be off was this right here, called the cam adjuster (see video above). This adjusts the timing and advances or retards the timing to keep the timing correct.  The spring inside this mechanism failed so therefore there was no tension on cold startup, when there was oil pressure build-up.  What we had to do was take off the valve cover, the spark plugs, injectors, and set the base timing of the engine and then remove this Vanos on the front (see video above).  It's basically a valve that holds oil pressure, and then replace the cam adjuster.  It sounds simple but, it's a lot of little knick-knacks that you have to be aware of and be clean with the work.  Then we put it all back together and hopefully it fires right up. Do you have any questions about any noises you might be hearing, or any repair work that you need done on your Mercedes-Benz?  Or, perhaps you need help with repair or servicing on one of the other foreign car makes that we accept, which are BMW, Audi, Mini Cooper and Porsche.  We would be more than happy to help get your car back on the road or get it running smoothly without noises or clicks or anything else that seems off. You can give us a call to talk with us, or just schedule an appointment through our website with the 'schedule an appointment' feature. If you're looking for a top of the line Mercedes-Benz auto repair specialist, one that is less expensive than dealer prices, consider giving us a try.