Buying a '97 S420
 

All, I seem to have a bad case of W140 fever and I find myself about ready to sell my Crossfire and buy a '97 S420 with 85,000 miles on the clock. I have checked all the obvious stuff, like close assist, sunroof, heater/ac, etc. The car is pretty clean, with good paint, good leather, and no dinged metal.

The only problems I can see are that it has a floppy rear view mirror (easily fixed), and the brake pedal sticks a little bit at the top of its travel.

Any insight on the sticky brake? Is there anything specific to the S420 or the M119 V8 that I should watch out for. I'd appreciate any insight. Thanks

I just purchased a S420 and have the same floppy mirror and the same sticky brake at the top.. I will tag along..

I fixed the mirror in about 20 minutes. It was a pretty easy fix. Do a search in this forum and you will find a couple of really good DIY articles on the subject.

I'm still working on the brake stickyness, but not too hard. I've put a little over 2500 miles on the car since I bought it about 5 weeks ago and the brakes seem to work pretty good so It's going in the "minor annoyance" category right now.

My main DYI thrust has been with the suspension. I have been slowly replacing just about all the rubber bits under the car and its amazing how well the car rides and handles when all the bushings work like they're supposed to! So far I have replaced the shocks, sway bar links (front & rear), and the rear tires. That took car of about 90% of the issues I was having. I'm currently chasing down a clunk in the rear end when the suspension unloads. No clue there yet. Then after that I'm going to do the front lower control arm bushings.

Other than the suspension work, the car runs and looks pretty good. I'm getting about 20 mpg to boot, so I can't complain.