1995 E320 question
 

Not sure if this is the relevant place to post this, but I just test drove a 1995 Mercedes Benz E320. The car was immaculate and drove prefectly. One owner (little old lady) with 96,000 miles. Before I purchase, I wanted to find out about maintenance on Mercedes Benz. My wife is concerned as she has heard about something as simple as brake jobs costing much more than normal etc... I was hoping someone could share their experience about this type of car. Thanks

Derek,

If you're at all handy with a wrench and know the difference between a ratchet and a rat-tail you should be able to do most of the typical maintenance yourself with the help of this forum, a good dose of common sense and a good CD or DVD Service Manual. If you take the car to an MB dealer be prepared to pay upwards of $100/hr for service work and remember that the service writer is paid a percentage of all the work he gets you to agree to, so you know where his incentive lies. Make them explain to you and justify any additional repairs they recommend, then run it by this forum if you have any doubts.

Call your local dealer's service department and ask the price, with a breakdown of parts and labor, of a 90k mi. service and having the brake pads and rotors replaced. Then do the same with an independent MB or European car service shop and compare the difference. Then get a list of the parts they tell you that they install and price them here from the FastLane link at the top of the page and see if it makes you want to do any of your own work.

Btw, as an example replacing brake pads and rotors is quite easy for the DIY'er and, for the front, will run you about $202.94 in parts (1 set pads=$73.50, 2 brake rotors @ $62.45 each and 2 pad wear sensors @ $2.27 ea. If your rotors still have enough material that they can be turned on a brake lathe the $62.45 drops to about $10-$20 per disk. They can usually be turned once, maybe twice before they have to be replaced. Most shops will replace them every time, regardless of wear.

Ask in the Good MB Shops Forum for some reputable service techs in your area, both dealers and independents.

Ask in this forum for any known or typical problems with this year and model. I believe that one problem that the E320 suffered from in this year was a deteriorating engine wiring harness. Use the search function and look for "wiring harness" or "crumbling insulation". Specifically, read this post regarding the harness problem.

Ask the current owner to get a listing from the dealer that serviced the car what regular service work as well as what warranty work was done. Get photocopies of the service receipts if possible.

Ask the dealer what it would cost to have them evaluate the car from stem to stern lookig for existing problems or imminent repairs. Ask them to pay particular attention to the condition of the rubber bushings in the rear suspension and subframe.

This car utilizes a rubber-isolated subframe and a multi-link rear suspension with 4 subframe mounts and about 16 metal-rubber bushings in the suspension (2 each in 4 links on each side). When these are in good shape it provides a very stable, supple ride with excellent handling. As these begin to wear and deteriorate they introduce a looseness and sloppiness into the car's handling that can become quite disconcerting when it gets excessive. Unfortunately, though, the bushings can't be replaced separetely, you have to replace each of the control arms. Generally they don't all wear at the same rate and if any of them need to be replaced it will most likely be only a couple of them. When they wear it also affects the ability of the rear wheels to be properly aligned and can cause premature tire wear. If the previous owner had the car serviced regularly and followed the advice of good service tech these items would have been taken care of as they occurred, so just another reason to see the service records.

As questions come up, post them here and get reliable answers and perhaps more questions to ask.

Hope this helps

Gary

W124 arguably the best chassis for passenger cars in modern times....build quality on it blows any new car away. He's right too...pretty easy cars to DIY and other than the normal maladys the cars suffers from, it is as relaible as they come...

Your wife will forget the maint. bills after she drives one I'd like to think. :)

A ton of info here to search on the car; after a few hours you will be a most informed potential owner. Probably one of the biggest worries , as said, is the wiring harness; which isn't such a big deal IMO and cheap and easy enough to replace yourself in the garage in a few hours. Go for it...I'd jump at any W124 driven by a little old lady myself ! ;)

NO matter the condition SPEND at least $100-125 & have the car inspected for problems by a MB technician (dealer or indenpendent).

Thanks for the information...very informative. I do know that she had the factory wiring harness replaced some years ago. Since it was serviced by the same dealer and mechanic for the last 10 years, I will take to him and ask him to go over it. Thanks for the great information.

The REAL expensive issue is the A/C evaporator...OEM used an aluminum core that leaked and failed. Buried in the bowels of the dash, shop labor and parts will run around $2500. Replacements are copper and much longer lasting. See if the evap had ever been replaced.

Cooling system issues like the coolant pump and radiator will probably surface around 100K. Radiator is easy to replace, and the pump, most of an afternoon.

I don't recall if the 95s avoided the dreaded head gasket issues, but that's another cool grand if you farm out the work.

I've dealt with the first two issues on my car several years ago, and the clock is ticking on the third. I suspect I'll deal with it when the time comes to renew the timing chain.

Now that you know the big items to look out for, the rest of the repairs will involve mostly normal wear and tear items.

I have had my 95 E320 for 1 year, 4 months, bought it with 82K miles and now have 110K. put 28K in that time (1.8K miles / month or 21K / year average)....

Overall? Very happy, then again most of the things I have had to do to the car, I have ended up like most of us enthusiasts here, seeing as "maintainance" no "repairs" or "cost of upkeep" , or any other variety of words to make it feel better to drive an expensive to maintain car... :D, I love the car...

In that time, I had 2-3 problems with fuel relay and ovp(learn to carry a spare ovp and a fuel relay :D ), and had the water pump replaced 2 months ago ($700 , I think it was)...

Brakes? about $375 per axle to have it done, if you pay someone to do so or have nowhere to do it yourself as myself :rolleyes:

Overall, I am happy and love the car and have no intention in ridding myself of this car....first time I looked forward to rolling over 100K miles in a car and look forward to see the miles reach 200K :D


Get a ppi done b4 you buy it, have a dealer run the vin so you get the service records IN PRINT, if the service was done at any MB dealer, hopefully, as other have said (and was my case) , the wiring harness and evaporator were changed.

Good luck :)

Man! You gotta find a way to do this job yourself! Dirty, but satisfying. And around $250 for pads, sensors, and rotors all around.

I was grumbling a few weekends ago while banging the old rear rotor off my 300E, when my neighbor strolled over to watch my efforts and quipped that he just spent $1200 getting brakes done on his 97 BMW 735i! :eek:

I felt better after that... :o

Well I bought it! Drove it home last night. I have to say that it is definitely the most comfortable car I have ever been in. Thanks a lot for all the helpful information. I am actually a gas turbine mechanic so I figure with the help of this forum I can pretty much do it all...lol I'm still figuring out the car though....back seat headrests.....got 'em up.....have NO idea how to get 'em back down. And that is probably the most confusing climate control system ever. I'll get it down soon though. I have to add some rims to this car. Gotta make it look a little less old lady and a little more blingy. Well thanks for the good information and I look forward to learning more about the Benz through this forum.

Congratulations on your new car! Did the little old lady pass you the owner's manual? If not, you can buy one at the dealer, or call up MBUSA -- they'll probably mail it to you for free.

For the rear headrests, you raise them by hand, but press the button on the centre dash area to lower them. The button is marked with a seat (including headrest) symbol.

Some prior posts possibly require clarification:

You'll change brake pads more often than you change brake rotors.

I agree on finding a place to do it, but for a buck twenty five more..... so that's my excuse "only $125". That's the way I loook at it so it doesn't hurt so much , LOl

Congrats on buying it! :sun_smile

Now that you bought it, we'll tell you how it really is...... :D