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Suspension parts should be here this week. Looking forward to documenting the rear spring removal (should be a piece of cake), and replacing the bushings on the sway bars and steering rack. Due to the wealth of knowledge on this site, it should all be relatively simple.
Good news. My son found a 4runner he liked and he bought it this weekend. 1997, white limited, no cancerous rust, and it has the e-locker on the rear. Might be getting rid of this ride soon. No room at the house for 6 cars and 4 people who drive..
Good news. My son found a 4runner he liked and he bought it this weekend. 1997, white limited, no cancerous rust, and it has the e-locker on the rear. Might be getting rid of this ride soon. No room at the house for 6 cars and 4 people who drive..
That's great.
I hear ya, I have enough trouble storing 4 cars with 3 drivers.
New rear spring is on, steering rack bushings (what a PITA), and also front sway bar bushings. The most noticeable improvement was the sway bar bushings. I still have the rear bushings to do and am going to get the wheels balanced tonight, time permitting. They are good up to 60 mph and then get a nasty wobble that mostly goes away at 80.... mostly.
Made an appointment at Discount Tire to get all 4 wheels balanced and dropped the car off. Went back 40 minutes later and it was done. Went to pay and they wouldn't take my money. They did it for free! I love this place!!
I drove the car into work today and its a totally different beast. Very smooth ride, no shimmy, no shake, tracks straight and true, and is fun to drive. I'm averaging 23.2 mpg on my drive in to work which most of it is at 83 mph on the turnpike. I'm sure it would be better a little slower and with a longer drive. That's an average of town and highway driving.
I also ordered 2 new Toyo Proxes STIII tires for the rear of my ML500 and they will be here Monday or Tuesday. Discount price matched an ebay deal on that as well, saving me $25 per tire.
Made an appointment at Discount Tire to get all 4 wheels balanced and dropped the car off. Went back 40 minutes later and it was done. Went to pay and they wouldn't take my money. They did it for free! I love this place!!
I drove the car into work today and its a totally different beast. Very smooth ride, no shimmy, no shake, tracks straight and true, and is fun to drive. I'm averaging 23.2 mpg on my drive in to work which most of it is at 83 mph on the turnpike. I'm sure it would be better a little slower and with a longer drive. That's an average of town and highway driving.
I also ordered 2 new Toyo Proxes STIII tires for the rear of my ML500 and they will be here Monday or Tuesday. Discount price matched an ebay deal on that as well, saving me $25 per tire.
All sounds great and appears as if the car is now officially done, ........ at least for now?
Still wanting to sell?
I don't want to sell it but also can't have a used car lot on my block A few blocks from work, the right brake lamp warning came on so I'm going to buy new bulbs tonight and replace them. Always something, isn't it!
My 16 year old expressed an interest in wanting to sell his X5 and get something else like a 2003+ 4Runner so he might list it and drive the car for awhile. I think its foolish as his X5 is nice and fun to drive, but he is like his dad and doesn't like keeping anything too long.
Tightening up the steering linkage on the ML500 did the trick. No more small clunk on bumps!
I agree. After all the work you have put into it, you need to have some time to appreciate it! Can we have a current pic please? Thanks for keeping the thread going.
I agree. After all the work you have put into it, you need to have some time to appreciate it!
^^^ X3 - DO NOT SELL IT! Now you have addressed most, if not all issues and you know what you have, as you have bonded with this car while doing the needed repairs and giving it the much needed TLC.
Car looks great on the most recent pics. However, I do think you should remove the black protection pieces on the doors, it will give the car a much cleaner look.
I'm still plagued with low rpm after cold start to where the car almost dies while backing out of the driveway and then once it warms up, it has what I would consider a slightly erratic idle. It runs great on the freeway with no hiccups or problems whatsoever. Scanned it and no codes are present. I'm going to remove the throttle body and clean it this weekend. I've never even checked the plugs on this vehicle either, so who knows what condition they are in. I did have a misfire on cylinder 6 a month or so ago, but that was right after my son cleaned the engine with simple green and a hose and it hasn't come back, so I figured water got into the boot but has now boiled out.
Haven't done plugs yet, but I did remove and clean the throttle body. Very little change. Opened up the side cover and it was spotless. Electrical contacts were clean.
C230 Sport Coup + 2006 W164 ML350 + 99 Ford Escort (What the heck, it gets 38 mpg!)
Ewww! No before an after?
Yeah, I cleaned mine once because of people who said they've had problems but didn't notice
any difference. Supercharger has a separate throttle body which I did have to replace.
Damn things are 'pensive! But after much research, I got the most recent bosch pn and got one
from Rockauto for ~350 vs $1500 from the dealer. Still, 350 bucks!
Clean all the bulb the contacts with a pencil eraser while you're in there.
Don't sell it!!!! You will regret it.
I forgot to mention, when i checked the bulb, i did what you suggested and it worked.. for 24 hours.. then started doing the same thing. working part time, then not at all.. So i picked up a fiberglass pencil, scrubbed the contact to get it really clean, put in a new bulb, and that appears to be working now 100%.
C230 Sport Coup + 2006 W164 ML350 + 99 Ford Escort (What the heck, it gets 38 mpg!)
I have nowhere to work on my car...too bad I'm not closer, I could help you work on your
projects, and you with mine...
I would so like to do an engine swap, newer engine, motor mounts, and new
suspension bits + a little TLC. Interior is all good, but I have
head gasket leak, leaking coolant outside the engine mostly that's getting worse.
Man I gotta get out of the city. It sucks!
Other than that, just some paint on the rear bumper, and It would be good as new.
I keep thinking, you know...new car? But heck for a grand or 2 I could have this thing
cherry again and even as 'old' as it is, it's still a very nice car, no rust, no CEL's
and no malfunctions on the dash. And I've driven a lot of newer cars.
Only thing I miss really is Bluetooth connectivity, which I could hookup, with Parrot unit at some point. .
The only other thing is fixing the sunroof, but that's a big project, disassembling the roof...and reassembling
I'll get to it...someday.
Last edited by C230 Sport Coup; 04-10-2019 at 09:00 PM.
I ended up not getting it. It was a 2002 ML320. Looked good from a distance, but had been rear ended at some point and some of the bumper lines didn't match up correctly. It had 262k miles on it and sounded good, but things like the radio didn't work, the shifter mechanism was completely disconnected from anything. It wasn't the brake switch problem that plagues these vehicles, it was something physically broken in the shifter mechanism. The windshield was cracked in a couple places, the spare tire carrier was missing (But the spare tire was in the back), and just in general, it needed a lot of things and they guy didn't want to budge from $950.. I told him I'd think about it and a couple hours later he called me and said he changed his mind and was going to fix it and keep it. Good enough, I don't need another project right now anyway.
I haven't done anything lately. With the weather warming up, I've been doing a lot of home maintenance, yard work, etc. I got the jetskis out and ready to hit the lake, the dirtbike is ready to go, and I have a couple small trailers I'm fixing up to sell (new tires, lights, etc). I still need to do the other side of the valve cover gasket on my ML500 and put the bumper back together and some interior work (ashtray replacement), etc, but that's about it right now. I also need to get the boat summerized and cleaned up/waxed, and that's a 2 day job.
I ended up not getting it. It was a 2002 ML320. Looked good from a distance, but had been rear ended at some point and some of the bumper lines didn't match up correctly. It had 262k miles on it and sounded good, but things like the radio didn't work, the shifter mechanism was completely disconnected from anything. It wasn't the brake switch problem that plagues these vehicles, it was something physically broken in the shifter mechanism. The windshield was cracked in a couple places, the spare tire carrier was missing (But the spare tire was in the back), and just in general, it needed a lot of things and they guy didn't want to budge from $950.. I told him I'd think about it and a couple hours later he called me and said he changed his mind and was going to fix it and keep it. Good enough, I don't need another project right now anyway.
I haven't done anything lately. With the weather warming up, I've been doing a lot of home maintenance, yard work, etc. I got the jetskis out and ready to hit the lake, the dirtbike is ready to go, and I have a couple small trailers I'm fixing up to sell (new tires, lights, etc). I still need to do the other side of the valve cover gasket on my ML500 and put the bumper back together and some interior work (ashtray replacement), etc, but that's about it right now. I also need to get the boat summerized and cleaned up/waxed, and that's a 2 day job.
03-25-2019, 10:41 AM
No room at the house for 6 cars and 4 people who drive..
A few blocks from work, the right brake lamp warning came on so I'm going to buy new bulbs tonight and replace them. Always something, isn't it! 
