Hi I am new to this site. I recently bought a 84 300SD for a comuter car and fell in love with the Benz. My wife now want's one of her own. I am looking at a 97 E320 with 126k on it. All of the maintaince done by Mercedes. Nothing major done to it except a air flow sensor recently. I do all my own maintance so I was hoping it wouldn't be too costly? How reliable is this model? Anything I need to be worried about? Any help would be great

First year for the V6. They're known to have a problem with the harmonic balancers I think. You need to do a search on W210 or E320 as many people here have already posted on such topics. The most important thing about buying such a car is a PPI.
Thanks
David

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2000 Honda Accord V6 137k miles

1972 300SEL 4.5 98k miles

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The V6 engine was introduced in 1998 for the E320's. The 1997 E320 has the straight 6 engine. Strongly recommend a PPI (pre-puchase inspection) by a tech trained to work on MB vehicles and knows the weaknesses of each model.

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Fred Hoelzle

Make sure the mechanic doing the inspection SPECIFICALLY states, in writing : No leaking headgasket, no leaking cylinder head front cover, no leaking differential, auxillary fans working properly.

Gilly

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Gilly, perfect CYA... never thought of that....

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1995 E320 smoke silver / parchment

The general consensus, by members with far more knowledge than I, is that you are not going to be repairing that vehicle yourself. If you want a vehicle that you can repair yourself, better stay with the diesels or a gas engine before 1995 or so. That vehicle is going to the dealer as soon as it has its first electrical problem. If you doubt this, do some further research on this site with the ongoing troubles of these vehicles.

Thanks for the information guys. I'm really getting a bad feeling about this car after reading all of the problems on this forum. I did notice as mentioned above that one of the auxillary fan's wasn't working, I believe there is suppose to be a belt connecting them, and the rear differential was leaking. Minor problems but kind of silly for a car this old. I spend enough time at work fixing electrical problems. I don't need to be doing it on my day's off. I also don't want to be dumping a lot of money into a car right now.

Thanks again..

Just curious where you got this info about electrical problems on this car.
If you have facts, I would appreciate links or sources for this generalization.

I have a 96 W210 with the same motor and electrical system and it runs great with no electrical problems. Maybe the models from 98 and on may have more problems with electrical but I doubt it on the 96 and 97 as they have very little computer controlled items.
By the way my car has 148,000+ miles on it and I have not had any electrical or head gasket problems (knock on wood).

HELP! '98 E320 - engine dies, won't restart for 20+ min.

94 E320 Failed Emissions Test

Reliability of 1995 E320

misfiring, rough idle, poor mpg, undriveable!

Sputtering transmission on my E320

Headgasket e320 1995

Help! Car is dead in drive way.

Codes P0700 &P0715 ?

95 E320 engine stumbling


That's just back until July. You can certainly find more if you go back further. I'd keep knocking on that wood!

This is the internet, we don't need no steenking facts!

Gilly

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The M104 inline six is an AWESOME engine, despite the headgasket problems. It's from the "old school" Mercedes designs, meaning way-way-way overengineered. We have it's cousin, the M111 in our C230, and it's "dad" the M103 in our 190E, and they are terrific engines. At nearly 400K our M103 runs tight and strong.

The main reason I would shy away from a 1997 model is the early build 722.6. If it's been replaced sometime, then you're probably safe, but if not, then you're likely headed for work on the transmission.

The 1994 and 1995 W124 E320's are CHEAP now, and great buys. They have their quirks, but they are terrific cars at low prices. The trick is to find a well cared for car.

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John Shellenberg
1998 C230 "Black Betty" 240K

http://img31.exs.cx/img31/4050/tophat6.gif

Make sure your coolant reservoir does not look like this. This is one of my "customers" that I am changing the head gasket on. I just hope the head is not damaged. This is a 1993 300E showing 170k miles. This will be the third head gasket for this engine. Note the 1/8" thick layer of oil on the fluid in the reservoir.

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Jim

Jim,

Do you believe that this vehicle has required three head gaskets for reason of neglect?

Or, is the head gasket a poor design that is prone to constant failure?

Brian,

Only one of those links are for model year 96 or 97 and that was for a transmission problem.

Other links were mostly for W124 models with one exception being a 98 which is a different motor entirely.

So, are you saying that the W124 is the same as the W210?

I can't tell you the history of the car. I've just picked this guy up since the local independent quoted him $3900 to replace the headgasket and reseal the tranny. This will be the third head gasket (counting the original as the first one). The reason I can tell it has already been into is because the sealant on the front cover is some kind of clear silicone stuff - it is not the original sealant.

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Jim