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I just got a 1998 E430. bought it from work cheap. it needs some work which me and my dad will be doing. we cleaned it up and detailed it over the weekend. one small rust spot on the lower fender 1/2 the size of a dime. it was rear ended at one time and the RR quarter is buckled slightly. the guy at work said he can pop it out cheap (I work part time at a body shop) my dad is the head technician there!. It needs 4 tires and front lower BJ`s and outer tie rods. We ordered those over the weekend and they should be here tomorrow! My dad is going to paint the wheels while he has the tires off. leaving the outer lip the cleared aluminum and the center will be painted the same black as the body. I also ordered black and chrome Mercedes center caps. should look good. Here are some pics.
You can see the 1/4 panel here. not too bad! and we need to figure out the bumper cover. we may just repair it for now until I can find a replacement.
It still needs a few things. the sunroof doesn't work, sounds like it may be cables sticking. we will probably take that apart this weekend. It had a really bad oil leak. my dad found it, it was a $2 oring on the front of the oil filter housing.
Now I just need my license (A few months). I can`t wait! My dad I`m sure will be posting here and will have more info than what I have given.
congratulations on your nice car...and having the advantage of being able to work on the
sheet metal AND a lift. nice also that you have folks who can help you with this project.
the car may need a little more TLC than an old Nissan or Toyota et al, but it sure rides
nice. I almost sold mine but drove it 'one last time' and thought "what was I thinking of?!"
so I drive the truck most of the time, but on nice days, the E320 comes out and even though
it is a little old, it's a classic steady ride...idiosyncrasies and all.
Other great E320 places to hang out and learn about your ride:
Hello. I see my son has been posting here. Looks like he's got it down pretty good. He is very excited about his first car. He should be, my first car was a 1975 Pinto! LOL
Today we got the car titled and licensed. We will be doing the front lower BJ's and outer tie rod ends tomorrow. Tonite I had him chase the threads in the rear license plate rivnuts and installed the plates. Then I had him change the oil. We have got all 4 cabin filters ordered along with a trans filter/gasket kit.
For now everything is going smooth.
Just had the wheels painted at work. Turned out pretty good.
He loves how they turned out. We've got chrome lugnuts and he ordered some nice black centercaps with a chrome MB insignia. I will get the tires mounted up this week. And then flush the brake fluid before they go back on. Lots of little things that will make a big difference in its reliability.
Thanks again!
One more thing. Was there a change to the FSS? I tried resetting it and it seems to be at 8900 miles. The manual says 10k, but I thought I read somewhere that there was a change to it that shortened the miles? I followed the procedure, but can't get it to change from the 8900.
it sounds a little odd but if it were my car, I wouldn't sweat it. FSS is suppose
to monitor oil temp, sediment, hours as well. But if you're saying that upon
immediate reset after fresh oil change it returned 8900 that seems weird.
hopefully someone else can shed light on this further. i usually change the oil
less than 10k since I drive the sparingly and don't come close to 10k every
1 or 2 years (more like 3-4 yrs for me)
Yes, I do my synthetic oil changes at the 5k mark. It never did show reset. It just kept showing 8900. So maybe it didn't go into reset mode. I have a booklet of reset procedures at work so I'll go through it again.
ok i get it. the way you worded that post wasn't clear that when you attempted
to reset FSS counter, the odo remained at the [previous] reading. if this is the
case, you're not alone. there are many folks feeling a little frustrated because
the FSS reset isn't working as described...almost as if you have to close one
eye and whistle Dixie, and only during the harvest moon.
I've been successful more often than not though according to many, requires
more than one attempt.
Yours should be same reset sequence as my 1999... (varies by model year)
LEFT HAND / RIGHT HAND
turn ignition key to position 2 (position 0, turn click, turn click)
within 4 secs press 0 twice quickly
within 10 sec turn ignition key to position 0
press/hold in 0 key.....
turn ignition key to position 2 again (click, click)
...continue to hold 0 key....
and you should be greeted by the odo reset to 10,000
release 0 button
Last edited by raymond g-; 01-23-2017 at 11:37 AM.
oh, p.s..I also remember someone being very emphatic that the doors must be
closed and the car has 'gone to sleep' which i think means, cabin lights turned
off and the dash readout has extinguished. I've not experienced this though
Yes, I've noticed on some of the newer MB's that come through the shop the cluster won't let you in if the door is open. I tried it with the door closed. I printed out your directions above and I'll try those in a little bit. Right now I'm helping my son paint his calipers red. He asked if we could make them look better, so I said we'll clean them up real good and paint them.
Welcome to the family, and leave tip by the door on the way out...just kidding.
Congrats on your ride! As your dad mentioned most of us remember our first car, and some never had that opportunity. Love the wheels, center caps , and we know dad going to make sure you treat it like good. ..That's how we repay our dad's for helping us out. Plenty of informative, and smart bright minds in the W211 forum, so keep your eyes and ears open helpful tips. Again, welcome. FWIW first car was mom's 1978 Dodge Aspen!
R,
2merks
Thanks guys. my dad got the FSS reset last night. so that's all good. he got the tires mounted and we put the wheels on the car last night. looks great. we also flushed the brakes with new fluid and painted the calipers red. looks great!
We are still waiting for the center caps so for now we painted the old center caps. the chrome lugnuts he found at work he said wont work because they are tapered instead of cone shaped??? so the old ones will do for now till we can get new ones.
<snip> ...
We are still waiting for the center caps so for now we painted the old center caps. the chrome lugnuts he found at work he said wont work because they are tapered instead of cone shaped??? so the old ones will do for now till we can get new ones.
no no...they need to be ball shaped, and with the proper radius, which should
be 12 and not 14 as used by w211 et al. that is presuming that you are also
using the 210 wheels.
Brandons dad here. Yes they are the 210 wheels. The OE lugnuts are cone shaped or as you stated ball shaped. So those are what we need to find. The ones I had found at work are a straight taper which would be bad if used! So we are using the OE lugnuts for now till we can get the proper chrome ones.
Quick question. Anyone know which light is used for the rear fog lamp? The 2 lenses in the Trunk have sockets missing. I know they only use one bulb. So where does the rear foglamp light up at. I hate getting the bulb out message when you pull the headlamp switch out to far!
Another thing. Why does the 210 not have auto headlamps?
Nice! Why buy a new car when you can just rebuild an old W210? I commute 70 miles a day one way to high school in a w210 and there is nothing I'd rather be in. One of the best choices for a first car!
01-18-2017, 11:01 PM
