mzg23

how can i tell if my e320 has a supplementary electric heater ?

kajtek1

Run Data Card for your VIN.
It is good thing to have

mzg23

ran it on http://www.vindecoderz.com/EN/check-...UF26J76A972000
did not see anything saying about it but then again I am not sure what I am looking for.

marc hanna

When looking at the heater and AC assembly, it looks as though it's standard equipment on all W211s.

kajtek1

Learning the MB equipment codes would make a trade, but you have US model and I think only Canadian models do have cold weather package with 200 amp alternator and electric heater.
Maybe a Canadian owner can come with a code for the package?

isthisit

You are going to love this car. I drove a tdi before this as well.
Here are a few things that i came across since i bought mine ( i bought it cheap because it needed these repairs). I realize that you are not experiencing all these issues but if they creep up don't panic.
1. The thermostat. Very easy job, it's right on top of the engine and you loose minimal amount of antifreeze. BE SHURE to use MB fluid and not regular antifreeze to replenish. The MPG improved tremendously after replacement. Display shows 37-40mpgafter an hour on highway at around 70mph.
2. Heater exchange valve (no heat in the cabin even after thermostat). Bit more PITA but also doable. It's in the fire wall under the wipers. i should have done it at the same time as the thermostat.
3. Ball joints were squeaking. Not too bad with the right tools.
4. Bearings had play in them that adjustment nut couldn't get rid of. Very easy since I got the whole hubs.
5. Glowplugs. started with one then they all went over a few months. In hind sight i should have replaced all of them. pretty easy just use finesse and penetrating fluid.
6. Accessory belt. Easy. just like TDI.

I HIGHLY recommend spending the cash and buying the Star software. I bought mine on Aliexpress. It gives you access to every part of the car and you'll need that to do brake service. Speaking of which.... learn about the SBC.... some freak out about it but i don't. It does an awesome job. if it ever does crap out on my car I'll happily replace it.

Also, Listen to everything Kajtek says. I've never seen him be wrong.

mzg23

great info, thanks isthisit. I am very happy with the purchase, the car does drive great, the only issues I am gone work on at this time will be the glow plugs before winter and thermostat, I found that my head liner in the back is sagging pretty bad found a shop to fix that for a good price so I will have that done next summer. So far no front end noise yet and brakes are relatively good with new tires . I like this car way more then the golf I had night and day difference in ride quality.

ptkacik

My E320 CDI is around 160,000 miles and has been my favorite car of all time. Be careful when replacing the glow plugs as they can break off and that is a major PITA; however, mine came out just fine. Fuel filters need much more frequent replacement than gas cars but it is not horrible.

With all that diesel torque and rear camber, you will be tempted to gas it and spin the back tires but trust me, don't. The inner shoulders wear out quickly and the tires are not cheap. Plus, the inner shoulders are hard to see and you can wear them totally out without realizing how much risk you are in. I am **** about tires and had to start losing air before I realized the problem. Yikes.

I am an old sports car guy but my CDI would out corner, brake, and accelerate better than my first five two seater sports cars. And my CDI carries four people, gets better fuel mileage, and has WAY BETTER ride. The problematic EBC brake system is incredible and mine has never given less than absolutely fantastic stopping abilities. Forget comparing to non ABS brakes. It absolutely blows away any standard ABS brakes in stopping ability.

Issues? Over the last eight years of my ownership, I've had a few glow plugs, an EGR valve failure, several tires, brake pads, and a battery (a bad battery will generate SBC electric brake complaint lights). I'm pretty careful about maintenance and also replaced a few fuel lines and coolant hose that wept slightly. I also replaced a connector to the steering wheel airbag but was later given my money back and told that if the dealer did it, the labor would have been free.

One niggling problem a couple of years ago was the SOS light. Always a pain. FWIW, mine turned out to be water running down the back window, trickling into the rear window antenna wire and corroding the little connector in the matchbox sized antenna splitter in the LR fender. That seemed to confuse the SOS communication system even though I don't have SOS. Go figure. Anyway, I cleaned it and filled the connector with light bulb grease to keep out water and it has never been a problem since.

mzg23

thats pretty great for that many miles. I was finally able to drive mine more and more frequently, so far I have fixed my temp issue, I replaced the thermostat and car seems to be running hotter finally, the temp stays about one to two bars above 80C so that to me seems ok, it does not get to 50C on highway anymore, next thing to fix is the glow plugs and the car should be ready for winter. I did notice a few annoying things with mine such as the cd player is not spitting out discs and sometimes I feel like the transmission has a lag/ hard shift or a thud i guess I would call it, it isn't anything major just very little not sure how to go about that yet. I did notice some smoke on a cold start but then goes away after a few min, what else can I say, I love driving the thing it is butter smooth on the highway and has a lot of power that you don't really feel in the car very easy car to speed in and not know that you are doing well over the speed limit.

kajtek1

With bad GP some smoke on start is perfectly expected.
The transmission shifting might be warm-up program MB makes on all digital cars.
Now we own 2 of W211 with 1st one over 3 years in the family and never tried CD in them ;(
Our Bluetec is closing on 173k. I am still trying to figure out why 6.7 second rated car takes over 9 seconds to reach 60 mph.
I am doing straight start with no reving and no pushing against the brakes, so I wonder if that is how official data is recorded.
BTW I made 6.5 acceleration today, but that was in 320 hp rated SL500

mtrevelino

You can try a transmission reset as follows:
Just Put the key in ignition, turn to pos 2, floor pedal for 5 to 20 seconds (nobody really knows who long it really takes), turn key back to off, leave it in the ignition though, then release gas pedal, wait until your cluster goes off (that's when your CAN-B CAN-Bus shuts down) and remove the key. Lock the car if you want or need to so you can go back inside the house.
Mike T.

mzg23

Thanks guys, I did try the reset I will report back with that later today. Does anyone know if it is needed or recommended to idle the car before turning it of after its been driven for a while to let the turbo cool off and oil flow back? Also when I did my thermostat does anyone know if its okay to mix green coolant with blue? The MB spec coolant I had ordered is blue and the coolant in the car currently is green any info greatly appreciated.

rapidoxidation

Turbo: Treat it like you would any car, unless you've just made a hard run to the top of a long hill and you KNOW the engine is hot. Then let it cool down for a minute before shutting it down or you may leave some very hot oil in your turbo and turn it to coal.
Coolant: If it isn't the Benz coolant (blue) I'd dump and fill it. Then you KNOW you're good to go for another 150K miles. But that's just me and I'm sure someone will come along shortly and say "no worries".

kajtek1

Use common sense with turbo. MB doesn't require cool down, but as above reply says, when you floored it on the freeway and pulled over in short period, let it idle for at least a minute.
Ditto on dumping green coolant and do at least double flush with distillate water before refilling MB coolant.

ptkacik

Mine came with blue coolant and that is what I use; however, MB has a new version with another color that supercedes blue. Intermixable but different. I can't remember the color but it might be the old MB orange color. The dealers now carry it.

Peter

kajtek1

The older MB coolant was "pee" color. >>> yellow/orange.
They changed it like 3-4 years ago so I assume you can't buy it anymore.
They were mixable with new one, but lot of dealers hesitate to do so.

mzg23

okay so I just mixed my blue with green seems to be working fine, but eventually I will do a flush, on the other note my light came on for visit workshop turns out I need an aux battery replaced, a shop quoted me 250 out the door, what do you guys think about this? He said that the battery or system needs to be programmed or something along those lines for the battery to be accepted or for it to work correctly, anyway I want to find out if all I have to do is swap in the new battery and I am done save myself some cash, anyone have done this before?

kajtek1

I think you can buy aux battery for about $40 on Amazon.
About 5 minutes to replace and never heard about need to for resetting anything.
I can do it for $250

mzg23

lol!! I can do it myself for 250 haha. I spent some time reading online saying that If I disconnect the main trunk battery that I may have to synchronize all the options such as sunroof, seats, windows, ect so maybe I can do the switch without disconnecting the main battery.

kajtek1

There are lot of myths how the emergency battery works, but I recall somebody posting actual WIS saying that in normal operation, the control module connects the small battery to charging system short time after engine start and once the small battery is fully charged, it never gets reconnected with the car till next engine start or emergency.
Meaning with key out, the cables are dead.

marc hanna

I replaced mine with the best AGM battery I could find. I got it from a power sports supplier and it cost me about $80.

The switch out was done in about 45 seconds. Then I spent a half hour cleaning and polishing the engine bay

No resyncing, no programming, no nothing.

mtrevelino

It is easy to replace. If I did it, anyone can!
Mike T.

mzg23

thats great, how did you do it? I keep finding posts on forum saying some had to synchronize everything and some didn't have to do anything so where do I find out exactly what will happen? Also read that some people change it with the main battery left connected and that way they do not have to worry about doing the synchronization.

marc hanna

With the car off, I popped out the old battery and popped the new one in. That's all!

As ar as detailed instructions, I have a wagon, so the cabin air filter cover is located directly above the battery. It's held on by a single nut - just take the cover off, and the battery will be located down there. If memory serves me right, there may be another cover over the battery itself. Take off the terminals>remove old battery>put in new battery> reconnect terminals.

I assume, if others had to resync, they may have run their main battery down too much as well - but that's just speculation. I've never had to resync after a main battery replacement either, and I've done that twice on this car.

mzg23

okay thanks, I will try to do it today and see what happens, hopefully nothing bad.