Feasability?- CDI drivetrain swapped into E320 wagon - Page 6 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

sam735 · #76 11-11-2021, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROLLGUY

"The mileage on my car will all read as the donor (I believe it was right at 102k whereas the wagon was somewhere in the 160k range)."
If that is the case, I probably won't use the CDI I now have as a donor, as it has 300+K miles, my wagon only has 155K. If in fact the ECU records the mileage on the car, and the ECU goes with the engine, then I would need to find a donor with similar mileage. What about the key and EIS? My wagon only has two buttons, and the sedan has three.

I would suggest finding a totaled one from IAA or copart, plus you could utilize leftover parts for the higher mileage CDI. I figure it might be hard to justify taking apart a running and driving car.

I think both of the wagons i've owned have had three button keys. I figure it could be either using the key/EIS from the donor along with other module(s) or some outside ecu programming.

sam735 · #77 11-11-2021, 03:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROLLGUY

Another thing I thought of, is that the wagon has sensors on the rear seats. If your donor sedan had folding rear seats, (pass through) the harness would probably change over without issue. However, the wagon also has other features that the sedan does not have, so it would seem that the wagon rear SAM and wiring may need to remain. I wish MB made these cars more modular, it would make swaps like this much easier!!!

So I got pretty lucky, the donor I am using for the swap is pretty loaded compared to most CDI's I have owned/seen and does actually have the folding rear seat option. Not sure that it will 100% be plug and play, but more likely to make it work.

In looking at part numbers, the sedan and wagon do list a different rear SAM. I am going to first try using the sedan one to test/get the car started but try to utilize the wagon one depending on what I find. Also interested to look in star, see what can be coded in/out. More to come there soon hopefully!

sam735 · #78 11-14-2021, 05:30 PM

Well it runs! Took a little bit to figure out why the key wouldn't turn, but it looks like the EIS looks at a few more things than the ecu. It turns out it looks at the steering column and shifter assembly in addition to the ecu. Might help to answer more of what would be needed to move over!

Car seems to run good, have a handful of smaller things to try and figure out how to make work and what not. I did go ahead and switch to the wagon rear SAM. I was able to plug the wagon specific wiring that goes to the liftgate and tail lights into the rear SAM, all lights and the handle seems to work well there.