I'm thinking about a new daily driver. There's a 2006 e500 wagon locally. What can the hive tell me about these? How frequent are repairs, and how awful are they to do? It's got 106k miles on it and looks very very nice. I haven't driven it yet. It's AWD - I would prefer RWD but with a 300hp v8 it should still be pretty spirited. Anything in particular to check out while looking at it?
I had an 03 E55 AMG - similar but yet totally different.
Overall, the car was great. Build quality was fantastic, really nice to drive, super comfy. I only got rid of it because it was too good - and too boring.
These cars overall seem to hold up really well, check the motor mounts/trans mount (shuddering during cruise seems to be a common complaint, could be torque converter clutch or motor mounts) - they are easy to change on the RWD versions and plenty cheap. I would just budget for it.
The front suspension is known for getting creaky and all the bits will have to be replaced. Not hard, just expensive. The rear suspension is similarly complicated at least on the sedans. They can have toe bushings that wear out and then you get odd tire wear.
The brakes use the SBC system which has a pressurized whosits that actuates the whatsits and has a finite lifespan. You can check out how many actuations have been performed, and that will give you an idea of how much life the SBC system has left. Once it reaches the activation threshold, you get reduced braking power and lots of warning lights. The proper fix is to replace all wear components in the SBC system and do a power bleed with the Motive bleeder and the STAR computer. The ghetto fix is to use STAR development mode to reset the actuations counter and party on - knowing your brakes can fail suddenly.
Your best friend will be a laptop with Mercedes Star on it. I got mine as a clone from Ali Express, bought the C3 multiplexer which I found worked better than the C4 multiplexer, and joined MHH Auto forums to learn how to configure my clone to work. I am pretty good with computers and it still took me a few weeks of nights and weekends and multiple failed attempts to get it working and sort through all the jargon on MHH Auto. But the folks there were very helpful.
I rarely say this, but unless you want a money pit, a prepurchase inspection is not a bad idea.
The W211 is overall a super solid car. I've never driven an E500, but my dad has a W211 E320 bluetec (diesel), and my mom has an R500 that's the same drivetrain as the E500 4matic. His car has 120k on it, and the R has around 205k.
The W211 is in the running for the best overall car they've built. The R500 is probably the smoothest engine/transmission combo I've ever driven. The interiors on both cars have held up fantastically well. They're both almost like new, even on the seating surfaces (And on the R, that includes a hard life of carting the kids around in the back seat).
The contact plate in the transmission likes to eat itself, but other than that the drivetrains are very solid. Dad's car did the front-end-creaky thing, fixed with new ball joints.
On a car this complicated I'd certainly get a PPI, but there's nothing too scary to be afraid of.
Thanks for the input! Seller said this weekend is good so I will go test drive it then. If it's something I like I'll figure out a PPI. Haven't had one of those done in a couple decades!
I have a buddy with a similar vintage CL500 (very similar to the e-class except 2-door and rwd, I think). As others have said, we've replaced the trans and engine mounts for intermittent pulsing vibration at cruising and it hasn't really solved the issue. All of the mounts except the drivers side engine mount were pretty damn easy to change (resist the urge to take things out of the engine bay). There's a special wrench you can buy to help, but we just bent a cheap-o using a manhole cover down the street. We think the remaining vibration issue is because he skimped on the trans mount and bought a cheap-o. Oops.
He also had a bit of a "drone" at 2krpms. This was some sort of baseball sized accumulator behind the passenger front tire. In and out in 15-minutes.
His suspension used to sag after we parked it (the car would lower itself. first one corner, then the rest). He picked up an o-ring kit for a valve block just in front of his driver's rear tire and that stopped that.
I think we put in about a days worth of work in all and now this thing floats over the road like it's on a cloud and still grabs corners like it's its job. I'm pretty impressed with it.
He also has a laptop like this https://www.ebay.com/itm/MB-STAR-C5-SD-Connect-Compact-Diagnostic-Panasonic-laptop-for-Mercedes-vehicles/302542257324?hash=item4670ec7cac:g:OKoAAOSwVlVaGLlf and spends a lot of time making his car do tricks. I'm still trying to bribe him to come over and plug it in to my wife's 2006 S350
Good times
My CLS63 is the same platform. I’ve found it to be great to drive and logical to work on. Parts that are not AMG specific are very reasonably priced and readily available. The car seems well put together.
The only concern I would have is the SBC, which they did away with for 07+ like mine.
Oh one more thing - you can check how much life is left in the trans clutches using STAR. Longer apply times for the clutches = trans is wearing out. I think the screen in STAR has the recommended ranges. You want to be on the low end.
MB World W211 AMG forum is pretty good, lots of people have learned how to DIY these cars because no one buys a car at 1/10 its original sell price and takes it to the dealer.
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