---
title: 'My Cheap Mercedes AMG GTS Is Unfixable'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=EZZmCnYpsbc'
video_id: 'EZZmCnYpsbc'
date: 2026-07-21
duration_sec: 1583
channel: 'Hoovies Garage'
---

# My Cheap Mercedes AMG GTS Is Unfixable

> Source: [My Cheap Mercedes AMG GTS Is Unfixable](https://youtube.com/watch?v=EZZmCnYpsbc)

## Summary

The video follows the owner of a 2016 AMG GTS, purchased for $50,000, as he attempts to unlock its hidden performance potential through modifications and a tune. Despite extensive work including exhaust upgrades, rear main seal replacement, and multiple tuning attempts, the car suffers from persistent mechanical and electronic issues, ultimately failing to achieve the desired power gains.

### Key Points

- **Cheap AMG GTS as a Project** [00:15] — The owner bought a 2016 AMG GTS for $50,000, significantly less than the Black Series, with the goal of modifying it to unlock higher horsepower.
- **Engine and Modifications** [01:25] — The car has a 4-liter twin-turbo hot V V8. Planned upgrades include downpipes, exhaust, and an ECU tune to increase power.
- **Full Titanium Exhaust** [02:20] — A full titanium exhaust system (10-piece) from Valvetronic is installed, expected to improve sound and performance.
- **Rear Main Seal Replacement** [07:06] — The old rear main seal was redesigned and replaced due to an oil leak. The new design is thicker and more robust.
- **Dyno Tuning Attempt** [14:25] — With a Eurocharged tune, the car is dyno-tuned but shows torque management issues, pulling timing and limiting power. Only 479 hp is achieved initially.
- **Software Issues** [17:35] — The car has an outdated software version, causing error codes (intake manifold pressure sensor, short circuits) that hinder tuning. Eurocharged recommends a dealer software update.
- **Persistent Misfires** [21:19] — After the software update, the car develops a hard cylinder 3 misfire, even on the stock tune. Spark plugs and ignition coils are replaced, but issues persist.
- **Unresolved Problems** [24:15] — Despite multiple repairs and tuning attempts, the car cannot achieve over 600 hp. The tuners suspect a transmission tune conflict, but the car remains unfixed.

### Conclusion

The project to unlock the AMG GTS's potential has been plagued by mechanical and electronic failures, leaving the car with unresolved issues and lower-than-expected power. The video ends on a cliffhanger, with the owner planning to send the car to Texas for further diagnosis.

## Transcript

automotive channel in all of YouTube. And the most powerful AMG ever that isn't a hybrid is actually a few years old now. The AMG GT Black Series had 720 horsepower, but it's basically the same thing as this, a 2016 [music]
AMG GTS that I bought for only $50,000. Now, the Black Series is worth a lot more, but like most platforms, they start with lower horsepower and then slowly dial it up to the R, in this case 577 horsepower, to the Black at 720
horsepower, but it's all just right here in the car ready to be unlocked. So, in the case of this decade-old AMG GTS, there is so much power to be unlocked with just some small modifications and a tune, which is what we're going to
attempt to do today. Unfortunately, this is my car and my channel and everything that can go wrong has gone wrong, unfortunately. But, in addition to that, this car when I bought it, and that [music] was a major oil leak. The
task cuz he's done this exact job before and it's easy for him. For Christ's nightmare and everything went wrong. So, nightmare and everything went wrong. So, let's get into it.
better. Yeah, that's before. In addition to making this thing sound better and have more power, there is an oil leak from the rear main seal that we need to address, but it's kind of two birds, one stone.
This is going to be fun. Yeah. So, 4-liter twin-turbo hot V V8, there's the two turbos right there. But, an easy upgrade to do is the downpipes and the exhaust. But, in order to get to the exhaust and the downpipes
has to come out, >> Mhm. which needs to come out for the rear main seal, the main oil leak. So, we're doing it anyway, we might as well >> we have to drop the transmission from the back.
>> Mhm. Oh, this sounds It's complicated. Wow. 5-minute video, but >> No. No. No. Ah. >> Yeah. That is not snow. Still leaking. It's
That is not snow. Still leaking. It's still very much leaking. Okay. And these >> Yeah, right here. And the full exhaust? Yep. So, you think Valvetronic sent me all of it. Should we take a look?
>> Yeah. But, this one's supposed to be real pretty. required. Oh, baby. Full titanium exhaust. 10-piece.
but what's the first order of business? >> Oh, obviously the carbon exhaust comes out. Yeah. So, these Everything, yeah. Braces? Yep.
tube come out together? Usually, that's what I do, yes. I'll do it over there, and then use my table long table to stabilize it. All right. Off a little shake and bake here. You're getting your hands dirty. Wizard doesn't
getting your hands dirty. Wizard doesn't let me do this. Oh, please do so. I've been unwrapping my Christmas present, and Johnny's been unwrapping the exhaust here. Woah! Good morning.
that way to clear the pipes, and then I'll go down, and then it should come out. please. Ninja's getting very friendly with the
Ninja's getting very friendly with the AMG GTS. Well, I think that's smarter than bending over and just killing your back. Yeah. Just making a game plan here. Now that
the cats, they're cold, finally. Pretty dirty trans fluid there. Pretty dirty trans fluid there. Yeah, it's not the cleanest. Been a few years since you've needed this table for me. Yeah, actually.
think. Yeah, it's been Valve seals. Yeah, it's been a couple years. Yeah. But, really cool machine. So, you can put those hooks wherever you need it. And then, have a very controlled descent
of this very long, heavy thing. >> [laughter] >> You guys getting a little chocolate rain >> [music] >> A little little bit.
Yeah. Yeah, we need to go straight down straight down? Should be able to.
Okay. Now that those down pipes should wiggle out. If we For sake, now what? My mechanic clearly snack, let's check on another project, my 2013 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid
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ninja's in a better mood. Oh, he's assuming the position again. Yep. So, these things didn't fall out like we expected. No.
Oh. Oh. >> 5-year-old. Poor kid. Yep. So, I think I'm going to leave you to it. You can let me know if any of the
fun stuff happens. Absolutely. I'll film it for you. All right. You're going to film it like that? >> [laughter]
How about that? That is a Tinder profile pic or something else. Right there. Jeez. Happily married. I know. I'm back. I got something for you.
Oh, is that the old rear main? Yep. It's a thick one. It's totally redesigned. Really? Much better design. So, was there anything >> just the wearing tear. Okay, so it wasn't like
blown out. It was just seeping. Okay. >> And it's all back together. >> And it's all back together. Yeah, torque tube's back in. I see the old downpipes are out. You bought that. >> We did, yes, but Okay.
we're about to put your downpipes. So, installing the exhaust. Mhm. And then I've got a really woken up AMG GT once I do the ECU tune. Yeah. Oh, you got it all the way on. You didn't get
those Okay. All I got to do is the shields and downpipes and we're done. I missed all the fun stuff. Yeah. How is your boy? Oh, he's fine. Antibiotics, you know. My receptionist has it, too. Really? Yeah, she's sick.
The same thing? Same thing. Did Liam give it to her? No, they never had any contact with each other, but yeah. Perfect weather to pick up a yeah. Perfect weather to pick up a supercar.
That's it. Whoa. >> Okay, yeah, that sounds very V8 muscular.
Sounds great. Geez. That'll do. That That'll do nicely. Thank you. You want to see what it looks >> Oh, sure. Okay. Okay, well, the very pretty part's covered up,
>> It's almost zero clearance cuz they're so thick, you know. >> Look how nice it looks. Yeah, I mean, that looks almost factory there cuz it matches It does match. >> the insulation there.
Very cool. And a rear main that's not just Yeah, dumping. It's perfect. You drove >> Yeah. You want to go drive it? >> Yeah. Going for it.
I do not want to fishtail into another car, though. Try the race this for a little bit. You still have traction, trust me.
still have traction, trust me. There it is. Not Not No, No. Yeah, not really. Back Back to though. Well, thank you so much. About how long did that take?
Oh, almost till the end of the next day. So, like a full day cuz I dropped it off midday, so Yeah. Like 8 10 hours total labor, you think? At least, yeah. Oh. Well, I will be anticipating that bill.
The exhaust, I mean, that took a hot minute. Yeah. All right. There it goes.
That is awesome. Okay, well, next step, tune. And then this thing's really going to wake up. So, get No, we're not going to do anything stupid. >> Nope.
meantime, the weather cleared up, but remember this really stupid thing I did remember this really stupid thing I did right after Christmas?
caught on the door of my house because I wanted to put it in my living room for tree, and I darn near rip the door off. Thankfully, I didn't, but I did do a lot of damage, and it's been at the body shop ever since. But, Dallas recently
check things out because we've made quite a bit of progress." So, let's head down there. That's a real Mercedes there. Doors fully intact. Unlike the one over here, Dallas.
It's been a couple weeks. Couple weeks. And >> there's been some progress. So, tell me what happened here cuz I I was surprised to see this. Well, what happened was our client
decided to straighten out the door with pliers, which is something you don't do. I needed to close to get down here, but I was so distraught cuz the thing was so turned in and also wasn't closing that I decided to grab it with pliers, and now
door itself, but I mean, no harm, no foul. So, it's about to go into the paint booth. We have the window totally out. Was that hard to do? No, actually simple. I mean, I thought it was going to be
>> Yeah, okay. That closes nice. That closes nice. Yeah.
match, which is very hard on this silver, and that for you, right? Yeah, yeah, make sure the paint matches 100%, so it's difficult. It's a lot of spray outs. We did about 10 so far, and surprisingly
the closest color paint code wise comes off a Hyundai Elantra that we had tweaked a little bit to make work. So, this this is Hyundai paint? I So, this this is Hyundai paint? I believe so, yeah.
over, and then after I dropped it off, you pointed out that there was a big cuz I was too busy screaming about the door. Yeah. >> And turned out it was my big butt slamming into this trunk to try and push
it back into my house that caused even more damage that required like a day of PDR work to get my butt print out of my gull wing. This is This is
a I shouldn't own this car, honestly. >> I'm way too dumb to own this car, but you are fixing all of my mistakes, so things looking? By the end of the week. Okay. I'd like
>> going to go back to fooling around with another Mercedes that's much newer and no butt prints or any stupidity marks on it for me at least. Moment of truth and I'm getting some help from an old friend here, Dave Polk,
Polk Performance. How's it going? Pretty good. How y'all doing? This is a little fancier than a Superbird. Any Superbird that you were fighting a couple of years different. >> This is something different and it's
last time I used Eurocharged, I had to take out the ECUs and send it to Texas and now it's all remote, all by computer. You download an app, they send you a little OBD connection and then you just run a program. Boom. Usually just
have to hook up our OBD-II port and do some full tuning and this was just easy on a normal car, but when you're doing modifications, then you need the car and go through and do all these different things. When it's something
super custom. Uh but this, you know, stock car, pretty easy, plug and go. But where Dave's really going to help is we have the dyno behind us to see if this thing will actually be more powerful than any production AMG uh with these
you ready to find out? >> I'm not scared. Let's do it. Okay. The most powerful AMG ever that's not a hybrid is the Black Series version of this same engine and it does about 700 horsepower. Let's see if we can get
close to that or maybe beat it. You got to be or maybe beat it. You got to be optimistic, right?
Hold on to your hats. Spoiler deployed.
>> 400? 479? >> I think since the tune got flashed, it needs to be driven a little bit and learned in.
and say, "Hey, this is what we're seeing." There's some data to go off of. seeing." There's some data to go off of. >> Okay. Try it again.
Well, I can see torque management's kicking in and it's pulling all the time in and out of it. So, you can see it start out really good and it pulls timing down to like -9 6° up in the higher RPM, and then it's killing the
So, we got something we're fighting here. It's not killing all the boost Throttle's staying open. It's just pulling timing. Mhm. So, we're still getting 16-17 lbs of boost.
just pulling all the power back by ignition time, and that's how it management, through the timing table. Interesting. >> So, we'll have to see what they have to say, and maybe he needs to reload the
file, or maybe we're finding a problem. And we have the car in dyno mode, right? Yeah, you're missing a You're missing a ton of power. There's something holding you back? There's a the accept button. Mhm. Okay, I mean I'm going to need the
the cord. We have tried another tune and we cleared out all the fault codes. The Euro charge guys say that I'm also on a very very old version of the software which could use an upgrade that might be our problems. Nothing's ever
might be our problems. Nothing's ever easy with me.
in blue it started to go when we reset it once. It's starting to hit and then just cut itself right off. So, it is the same three codes intake manifold pressure sensor two, short circuits,
the same three codes. So, to summarize the Euro charge tune, it's not producing more power because something is cutting off the engine from giving full boost or pulling back the timing or whatever. And we're on the
phone with Euro charge for about 5 hours off and on and they can't help us. They think it has the oldest software version of this car possible like it's never seen any dealership before for any software issues and they want that
updated before they try again with the new tune. So, I'm going to take it back updated and hope [clears throat] that the new tune with the latest software doesn't have the error codes that's cutting back the horsepower. I also have
the check engine light on because of the exhaust, but that'll be fixed with the new tune. It's currently back on the stock tune and throwing that error code, but that exhaust does sound fantastic.
And it's perfect because at normal cruising speeds, it's soft, it's easy, it's quiet, it's reasonable, it's not obnoxious at all speeds and the exhaust cutouts do work. So, that should make it louder in
theory. Anyhow, this is all getting taken care of while I'm gone because the going is fixed and it's being shipped down to Moto Miami. It's first car show with me as an owner. And when I return, we'll
that takes care of all the bugs with this thing and then we have a very powerful AMG. Now we're at Moto Miami with a very very fixed looking going here in the Mercedes display and they're doing 140 years of Mercedes here
starting with the Benz Patent Motor Wagon, the very first Mercedes all the way to the new AMG Project One and everything in between. Nate's running around here, did a video with April a little while ago, but here's the crazy
gigantic screens in the Mercedes display, which is I don't think conducive to selling cars to be honest, but here she is and here is a very very fixed door.
fixed door. Thank goodness. think the color match is quite perfect like it's a little bit lighter. maybe it pops a little bit. So it is going to go back to him at some point,
looks looks mighty fine to me. Oh, here's the toy vendor. That's right. A lovely selection. You can leave Moto Miami with your own personal going. Yeah. Actually, at the end of this, if
there's one left, we're selling your car to the highest bidder. I don't think so. Right as the 100 Club showing up with all the hypercars. >> There they are. They're the chasing the cars. The running of the bulls. Anyway.
Kansas to hopefully get this AMG GT tuned. Please. We are back with the latest software installed and the tune loading. This one stage two big burble, the most gains.
>> [clears throat] >> Yes. Here we go. It's going to work. >> Yes. Here we go. It's going to work. It's going to work.
I felt it. You could see where it went into limp mode kind of up there and killed the boost. >> We now have a hard cylinder three misfire with the stock tune loaded back on, which means this car
this car just doesn't want to go fast. It is what it is. It just It just doesn't want It's It's my car, so of course everything's going break. It's going to fight every step of the way because that's why I started Two
like a therapeutic thing for me to like document this stuff and you all seemed it's it just never stops. I took a fixed car and made it broken.
It is way down on power now with a flashing check engine light. That's Yeah. Yeah. It's It's missing really badly now.
yet? It's It's been a journey, huh, between the rear main and that oil air separator. Hold that. That uh uh huh. And then the spark plugs, which we did
cuz it was showing misfires, and then it just totally crapped the bed. So, what happened? Well, first of all, that PCV valve, especially on that side, I think it has to be an engine out because it was a nightmare.
It took me all day to do it. All day. >> Okay. And then, first time was a bad spark plug, fixed that, even though it was Happens. On the second time, bad coil. So, just
jiggling that old original coil ignition coil was enough for it to let go. >> one. Yeah. Yeah, where is this thing? That took all day. It is right
behind the this pipe here. there. That was the real job. Turns out it was easier to replace the rear main >> PCV valve. 100% yes. Which was needed because that would put pressure on the
it out. So, it needed to get done. But, which was suggested because we were on the dyno run at first we were seeing some misfires. And then it just completely crapped itself. So,
it's it's crazy. So, an ignition coil What do you think? Probably just got just took it out. >> wasn't its last leg I mean, but everything on this car is not easy to work on. I don't get it. And it has the
codes when it has the tune on it for like the intake manifold pressure and the torque control unit or something like that. The tuners think it might have a transmission tune already on it and that would be causing it problems,
but that doesn't explain the intake codes which go away when it's on the stock tune. I couldn't tell you so. They're offering Texas and figure it out. And I guess that's the only solution to see if this
thing will get over 600 horsepower, but we've been working on this video for hoping there'll be this amazing payoff of this monster 600 plus horsepower AMG GT and it's it's it's fighting me. It's
>> But, you're still smiling about it which means just cuz the bill gets bigger. you some money. Well, I really didn't want this video to putting out huge power to show how smart I am for buying the cheap version and
dialing it all up. And obviously that didn't work out. So, where do we sit? It them to look at it and see what's going the power? Why is it not boosting? And hopefully they can figure out and fix
unfortunately. Despite Dave Polk's best efforts and the car ninjas, this car just will not unlock all of its horsepower. It is totally stuck. And this car, well, it's back from Florida mercifully. And actually right after I
filmed that Miami segment, a huge storm came in and it was like a mini hurricane course and unfortunately a few cars. Thankfully the TVs that were sitting good to the stage so they didn't come toppling down onto the car and have had
to deal with more damage. So this video I guess is a to be continued. A typical sometime soon this car's going to get figured out and it's something stupid. So until then, thank you so much for watching.
I'm the fastest. [music] I'm the fastest. I'm the fastest. Hoovie dumbest.