TheInfuse

I recently purchased a 2010 E350 sport with abour 95,000 miles for an awesome price.
So far the only issue I have had is a dead battery about a week after I purchased it. After contacting the dealer and exploring my options I decided to replace the battery myself and I am VERY glad I did. Battery only cost me $155 and I had the whole job completed in under 20 mins.
My question is this.. I know I will need certain services and maintenance soon and I'm wondering if I can complete most of the service myself or if there are some thing that absolutely MUST go to the dealer. I am very mechanically inclined and have always performed all the maintenance on my past vehicles, although this is the newest vehicle I have owned. I'm confident I can change the plugs, coil packs, oil and filter as well as the cabin filter and aux battery.
Are there any other services that I should look into due to the age and mileage of my car that you guys would recommend? Any services that you guys have tried to complete but ran into problems??

cetialpha5

The only reason you probably need the dealer is for diagnostic of complex problems although you could get a cheap X431 Launch EasyDiag code scanner to get MB specific trouble codes. You could also have an indy mechanic do the work for 1/3 to 1/2 the price at the dealer, but then you miss out on roadside service and the free loaner from the dealer when getting service done at $150-$200/hr. You can get a knock off copy of the WIS on eBay which go for around $10 or pay MB $60 a day for access to their Startek system which has all their repair procedures.

KEY08

Of course you can do the work yourself. Future purchasers may have a problem with this, but since this car has one foot in the grave you will probably be the last owner. So. go for it.

TheInfuse

Perfect! You answered a few of my questions. I knew some of their trouble or fault codes were specific to those cars so obviously when problems arise is when I was assuming that I would end up at the dealer. It's nice to know that I can get access to some of their dealer tools.
I'm definitely interested in the X431 you mentioned. Will this for sure pickup all mercedes specific codes? and does it display any other data other than the fault codes?

TheInfuse

Haha I would really like to NOT think of this car as having one foot in the grave but yeah I see what you mean. I'm definitely in the minority here with an older car and higher mileage, but to me this is by far the nicest car I've ever owned.
I started with a $2,500 1989 Chevy truck when I was 16 years old and slowly stepped my way up to this. This car is the 9th vehicle I've owned and right now I have over 70% equity in it. Hopefully it will hold it's value over the next 3-4 years and I'll sell it and move onto bigger things.

It does bother me that any future owner may have an issue with not having service done at the dealer so that's something I need to consider and maybe use other ways to document the service procedures when I complete them.

KEY08

Just document everything you do and if you unload it in the future it will help. It could be a $5,000 car when you go to sell, so I cannot imagine it would have a big impact on the purchase situation. Parts can be expensive (like $200 for a thermostat,etc), so keep that in mind and only put quality into the car as you repair it and you should have many years of fun motoring. Good luck!

g4benz

Use the dealer for complicated issues. Changing the oil on this car doesn't take any special skills despite the dealer acting like it does. Oil changes, brakes, tires, plugs, etc., I would use Indy.

I just spent over $1100 last week at the dealer because my car wouldn't start. They replaced the starter. I was more comfortable towing to dealer vs Indy in this case.

I am not mechanically inclined.

TheInfuse

ouch.. this is exactly the type of repair costs I wanna avoid, but I assume the part cost alone was pretty high not to mention the labor.
I'm comfortable diagnosing things further as long as I have the correct tools, but I guess i'll have to make that call when problems arise.

g4benz

They made the work sound very complicated. The exhaust had to be removed, and the starter is in a hard to get area. They said the labor would be 3.5 hours. The part was half the cost and the other half was labor.

I couldn't help it in this case as the car was a sitting duck on my driveway.

Oh well at least I know that a dealer replaced a very critical part of my car. Stuff happens.

Good luck with your new purchase.

cetialpha5

There's no way for me to tell if it does all of them, but it sure seems like it, left and right headlights, seat belts, steering etc. The quicktest takes several minutes for it to go through all the sub systems. It's very basic, reads the codes and lets you clear them. Haven't played around with it for other things. About $48 on eBay, ships from China so it takes a while. Get the Plus version which comes with software for 2 vehicle manufacturers, the basic one is cheaper but won't read MB specific codes. If you check the threads, there's a few other readers out there too, but they're in the $100-$200 range and of course the big one is a knock of MB Star system, but those range from $400-$600 on aliexpress and not all of them work as advertised.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Launch-X431-...2&var=&vxp=mtr

beejAMG

if youre tool handy, shouldnt be a problem.
ive been using ELM 327 OBDII wifi and works like a charm for under $20 for all my cars.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ELM327-OB...AAAOSwBahVWcPH

belarus27

aye BeeJ , does it support those MB specific codes , that were discussed just 1 or 2 posts above? that looks pretty neat , wireless is an advantage. if so im get one myself. thanks.

beejAMG

ey mate, i dont know what happened to the link i attached on my original post. lol when i clicked it it was an adidas shoe wtf?!

anyways, i updated my original post to show the correct link. it does support MB specific codes, i use it on all my 3 cars and works really well, ive diagnosed an error code from it, searched google about the error and did the repair myself. solenoids on the sedan. easy fix and saved a few hundreds i reckon.

cetialpha5

That's a generic OBDII scanner. You will only get OBDII error codes. Not MB specific error codes.

thefisch

I have one of the BFAX bluetooth readers from Amazon. Haven't had any codes yet but it works great with the car. Use it with torque pro app and you get a lot of info including speed tracking on map, etc. But I don't know if it can read all the MB codes.

OP, I heard that the ATF service can be quite complicated on this car compared to the other fluid changes but haven't really looked into it.

beejAMG

my ELM 327 works well so yeah...
paired with Dash Command app. more than what i need.

i just had a look at the link you provided, mine does all that. only difference is half the price and connected via wifi.

just had mine done from my indy. something i wouldnt mind paying for.

belarus27

lol yea i was like wtf , is he trynna convince us into buying addidas shoes and not the scanner or what. hah
yea i might do some more research , but for 16 bucks cant beat that.

beejAMG

yeah i couldnt complain. does what more expensive readers does and for that price, i actually have 3 of them, one on each car. sometimes i leave it plugged in but most times its just in the center console.

TheInfuse

Yes your right. I've actually done quite a bit of research on these 7G Tronic transmissions and even watched a few hours of breakdown and disassembly of the entire thing to understand it a little better. The fluid should be re-filled via a machine that automatically checks the level and pumps the fluid into the fill tube. This would obviously be a huge challenge without the right equipment so I'll probably look into an indy shop if I need to do that.
I've also watched the full procedure for removing the valve body which houses all the valves and most of the sensors along with the main board. It really doesn't look nearly as difficult as you would think as long as you follow every step. Hopefully it will never come to that.

TheInfuse

If you guys can confirm that the ELM does in fact pickup ALL codes then I'll grab one on ebay. I would like to stick with a bluetooth or wifi version as I use my phone for everything else anyway. I would also like to view any other data possible. I'll take all the info I can get as far sensor readings and whatnot

beejAMG

not sure what other codes it will or will not pick up but i can assure you that it works perfectly fine coupled with the DASH COMMAND app. will provide you all the live data you need.

cetialpha5

Read it carefully. I also have an ELM327, it only reads OBDII error codes which is basically engine and emissions related codes. That's why I got this one. OBDII codes set of the CEL light, other subsystems can have faults, but won't set off the CEL light.

The link doesn't mention manufacturer specific subsystems, because that varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. I just ran a quicktest on mine, systems checked include: ECM, TCM (transmission control module), ESM, ABR, TPMS, CGW-Central gateway, EIS, SRS, WSS, SAM - passenger and driver, rear sam, Xenon headlamp, OCP Overhead control panel, UCP, LCP, right and left emergency tensioning retractor, system diagnosis, IC instrument cluster, Steering column module, parktronic, audio gateway, keyless go, trunk lid control, air conditioning and driver/passenger seat adjustment.

beejAMG

^wow, you can open your own MB repair shop with that.

OP, id definitely go with what he has. mine is crap.

TheInfuse

Wow, ok well if it checks all of those systems that's probably the best bet.

aquinob

I do my own service on it. As long as you have good documentation and your wrenching skills are up to snuff you shouldn't have too many issues.

As mentioned, leave the tranny alone since they have pretty much made that serviceable only with the Star diagnostics, but pretty much everything else should be okay. I cut my MB teeth on a c230 and that car had a few things that needed repair over the time I had it. These are more complicated, but in some ways are simpler too. The older cars with their reliance on using vacuum to operate everything were always fun to keep up with.