Well guys I promised back in October I would keep you posted as to my nightmare with my recent purchase of a 2001 S500.
After almost two months to the day in the shop,and $11,912 later I brought her home. Insurance covered only $1700 of this. Very happy to get to drive it for the second time.
To recap, I bought the car after shopping for several months. Back then, I did not do my homework for reliability of this model/year beyond a Carfax report. Nor had I known of this forum. Good things do happen in the most troubling times.
This is my fourth Mercedes and the most complex. But I had confidence because it was a Mercedes and "Built like no other". Plus I bought an expensive extended warrenty(Interstate) that covered ( according to the brochure) everything with no deductable. Yah right. Hind sight is 20/20 ya know?

The dealer in Valleo stayed open so I could make the late night drive from Sacramento.
The car is beautiful. Took it for a test drive. Paid cash for the car and drove it 53 miles home.
Two days later the car's suspension collapsed while parked in the garage.
Things went down hill from there. The dealer said I could bring the car back. As we all know with this problem, you cannot drive the car.
No one in Sacto was willing to tow the car the distance, nor was I wanting to pay the fees quoted if they did. The dealer did not offer to come get the car. My persistant phone calls subsequently were not returned. Then the owner of the dealership was never available. So I had the car towed two blocks from my home to a mechanic I had used on my W126. That cost $115!!!

Here's what was found. Of course the crack in the one strut caused the pump to burn out.
Insurance covered only one strut because of the total failure. I paid for the other strut to have a balance.
And I had to pay for all the other problems as we began eliminating one error code after another.
The crappy insurance company (Interstate) denied all other claims stating these problems (failures) were pre-existing.
New pump,fuse,relay and updated sensors that if a strut failure happened again would prevent the car from collapsing.

Check engine light came on. (Emmission control problem) Transmission,A/C,rear axle , and wheel sensors are all part of this system.
Installed new air injection pump.
Had all fluids changed, all filters.
Car would start intermittently. Then would die. But only sometimes.
Mechanic drove the car 178 miles over the two month time he had it.
This is how he was able to experience these intermittent problems.
Ignition switch and transmission control module replaced.
All codes except B1016 cleared. He was using Mercedes own scanner but Mercedes doesn't even have this code on their web site.
The code was found on another web site for independant Mercedes shops
indicating a signal loss from the ETC (electronic transmission control) to the EIS (ignition switch). The EIS needs to know the ETC is in park for the starter to engage. Even after the ETC and EIS were changed the "no crank" problem was present but not as much.
After much testing with the wiring diagrams it was discovered that relay K
in the K40/7 panel was intermittently sticking and not letting the signal go to the instrument cluster.
At the cluster,the light that says what gear you are in was not lighting up when the "no crank" problem occurred. This relay switched on the light but also interferred with the start signal.
This problem was posted on Mercedes web site that is Global. No one responded with a fix. Many suggestions, but suggestions that already had been done.
Performed B service. Reset FSS counter.
Transmission service which included adding four magnets to the pan.
Performed service campaign that replaced the alternator and voltage regulator with updated version.
Fixed right Xenon headlight's intermittent lightup by first trying new bulb.
But then traced the problem to the ignitor. They found a source from Porsche in Germany that provided just the ignitor. So I did not have to buy the $1500 light assembly. Only cost $407.
The final problem was the Navigation system. Sometimes it would not display. But radio was audible. A home made navigation disc was stuck in the unit as well.
Once the rebuilt Nav system was installed the 6 disc player in the trunk also came alive. It did not work previously. Did not recognize the magazine.
I have since bought a MB disc set.
So now she drives like a dream. Hopefully for a while so I can regroup.
I understand MBUSA was aware of many of these issues with the model years 2001-2005.
A VMI report for this car shows problems began at 10,000 miles.
I plan to draft a letter and ask they share the cost.
May not get any satisfaction other than venting my frustrations at this point. But I need to take next steps. Something.
Happy Holidays

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Selling used Mercedes parts on Ebay...always changing...
cdplayer51 take a look!
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