JimVonBaden

I finally changed the oil, oil filter, air filters and reset the service reminder. I used a pump to suck it out. It was very easy.

Reanimation

I need to invest in one of those pumps, I cant be bothered taking off that heavy undertray every time.

Rudeney

I can have the car jacked and the lower engine cover removed in about 5 minutes. But, I don't do that for oil changes - I bought a MityVac years ago.

daking1959

same here with the mighty vac..simple to do oil changes.

Anker

Was caravanning with my sister following me at night. She failed to follow me on a right turn at red, so I pulled to the side of the road to wait for her. When I saw her pull out I did the same, but hit the curb with the rear jack point on the passenger side. The jolt was hard enough that the roll bar deployed and the hazard light turned on. Fortunately we had the top down, so when we got to the restaurant I worked on getting the roll bar down. It was really, really hard to find the pressure plate with the hex wrench, which fortunately was in the glove box. Once the roll bar was retracted the top deployed, phew.

The only visible damage is that a smallish piece of the rocker panel shirt broke off. When I get home I'll get that fixed.

daking1959

worked in the garage during some spring like storms last night..even though my car is 8 yrs old the paint still pops. Clayed it last week, and cleaned the paint last night.
also bought this polaroid cube+..drove to the dentist last Thursday with it on the hood. video was great. I use it mostly for my bike ride

sailorben

MOT this morning, our annual inspection in the U.K.

Unfortunately it picked up a couple things! All on the near side front. Both ball joints on the lower control arms were gone, and the spring also had a very nasty snap; quite dangerous actually, the spring was hardly in the lower cup when jacked.

Lemfoerder for the control arms ( with a up to 50% off code!), and then no where stocked the sports suspension springs, so I had to go to the dealer for that, not too overpriced.

One thing that was noticeable was how many 'sold' cars there were in the dealership and car park. I suspect this is down to the HUGE increase in vehicle tax for new vehicles, arriving in April.

ALFAitalia

.....but when they are six years old there tax will be cheaper than ours....just £140 per year regardless of emission's. So anyone rushing to buy one now wants to think about how they are going to sell it in few years time when the same car a few weeks newer is going to pay a fraction of the road tax! Its a very strange new system imo. The only good thing is that the low/no emission cars will also pay £140 per year...even ones that pay nothing now. GOOD....The tree huggers cars wear out the roads too! LOL!

sailorben

For the majority of the car's new owners, I assume that'll be the second owner's concern at 6 years!

Road tax should be abolished and added as a percentage onto fuel cost. It makes zero logic whatsoever.

sailorben

The other thing that happened yesterday, I got the best fuel economy I've ever had! My turbo diesel is terrible on combined cycle usage. My old CLK met its fuel economy figures perfectly and that was with very heavy footed use, and it was a bigger engine.

However on a 140mile journey last night I managed 62.6 imperial MPG! Albeit on cruise control set for 50mph. Incredible figures. My best before that was only ever 58mpg (slipstreaming a lorry at 58mph), and even that was astonishing.

On a long motorway trip anything greater than 40-42 is a bonus for me, but I got rather infatuated with seeing what she could do when I saw it climb higher and higher!

It's incredible the effect of small changes in speed, on the amount of fuel consumed...

ALFAitalia

Exactly.....but who going to want to buy it when you can buy a month newer one and pay a fraction of a the road tax.....so its going to be worth quite a bit less. I would not want to by one with £500 plus tax when I could get a slightly newer one of exactly the same car and pay £140 a year. So it WILL be the first owners concern if he has to sell it cheaper to move it just because the tax costs will be so much higher. You gotta be mad to by a new car right now....IMO

sailorben

Not a good period for this car and my luck at the moment.


Had an imbecilic woman veer over into my lane on a small roundabout on the way to uni, had to swerve slightly to avoid collision. In doing so I caught a misaligned kerbstone. Blew out both near side tyres, scraped away the rim and put a golf ball sized hole in the tyre on the front, and put a big buckle in the rear alloy, scuffed the tyre enough to puncture.

So I was left with two wrecked wheels and only one spare...

I tried my recovery, but that only covered for mechanical breakdown, therefore they wanted a ridiculous sum of money to tow it, and get it repaired. They said they could claim it back through my insurance, but having claimed last year, I cannot afford the premium hike that would result. Particularly with my year's no claims discount being earned in a couple days.

So I tried the local salvage yards for a spare wheel, no one had one. Rang the Mercedes dealer nearby, very expensive, yet would have to be ordered; 5 days, useless.

I tried one more breaker's yard, they had a collapsible spare, but we weren't sure whether the overall diameter would be okay, however he did mention he had a full size wheel from a w211 E, £35. I assumed it was an alloy, which I had concerns about, since they use m14 rather than the m12 bolts on our cars. Brand new Pirelli tyre.

However it made sense then when my friend picked it up for me. It was a full size steel. I've 225;245r17, this was a 225/50r16. However over a mile there's only a couple rotations difference.

The next issue was that being a steel, the wheel bolts needed to be smaller, and I only had 5 for my spare. Therefore only two opposite each other on one, and three on the other. And because they were steels, not alloys, the short bolts did up very nicely in the bolt seats on the e class wheel, so the size difference was no longer a concern.

Thankfully, it was rush hour and I didn't exceed 5mph the few miles I was from home.

I've got the one front tyre booked in for tomorrow, but I'll have to keep the space saver on the rear until the buckled alloy is repaired, and tyre fitted. I don't think it's capable of a seal at the moment.

All in all a nightmare. The worst bit, ironically, being that had I not swerved and I allowed the collision to occur, I could have had an equivalent, new car for a few weeks while mine was in for repair, all at the other driver's cost. AND I only in the last couple months put on new Michelin tyre's all around!

Rudeney

Sorry to hear that, Ben. I have had similar situations where I should have just let the idiots hit me and deal with their insurance instead of damaging my car. I once had a guy pull out in front of me at about 2mph on a 45mph highway, in the rain. This was in the days before ABS, so I locked up the brakes and swerved, but then lost control and hit another car in another lane. The idiot's car had no contact in the accident, so it was my fault. The police office taking the report even said had I just scraped the idiot's car with one little bump, it could be his fault. But it's so hard to "remember" that and not "react" to an impending accident.

Reanimation

Could have been worst Ben, I say you did the right thing, No one wants a repaired car anyway. Was there any under-body/suspension damage?

Maybe a good time to get a new wheel set then

sailorben

Yes thankyou guys, it was the right decision, just a difficult one to reflect on.

It wasn't too fast a collision, probably 15-20mph. I had also just had its mot last weekend, and from the advisories, I changed the front left Spring (snapped, but *it was 'corroded') and the two lower suspension arms the following day.

So hopefully those new parts, mercedes and lemfoerder parts, were sturdy enough to handle the NSF impact.

I've also had the tracking done and rechecked two days before the incident. Fingers crossed it isn't too badly affected, since the impact on the front was more to the huge hole in the tyre, than the rim, so hopefully that absorbed some of the impact.

sailorben

I have been looking... The cost of repairing them might exceed the cost of a decent set on eBay... So it's something I'll consider still, although I am quite fond of the alloys I have at present, I've yet to see them on any other Mercedes. Only one other on auto trader had the same alloys- that I noticed anyway.

Anker

Not today, but earlier in the week.

When I was in Florida in April I hit a curb and broke the passenger side rocker panel skirt. Was able to find a used one on eBay for $150 including shipping. The clips needed to replace it were $90 at the Mercedes dealer and took over a week to arrive, next time I'll go Pelican. Once I had it all my body shop was able to replace it in an hour.

Really happy to not have to see that broken skirt.

Reanimation

Topped up the Engine oil and dropped the oil cap down the engine, had to take the engine cover off to get it back other than that Ive been loving the way this engine Powers down the motorway still feels strong and on 145k now but that's nothing is it.

megacrazy

I started installing a set of left/right/front/back parking cameras. Cut some carbon fiber to size to cover one of the vents in the front bumper and threw the camera in there. Great view of curbs and lanes next to you.

sailorben

Nice!

xsever

Replaced the parking brake set since it wasn't holding the car well. I'm still getting a cracking/squealing sound when applying the parking brake sometimes so I'm going to look at the cables next.

Used and new parts below:

JimVonBaden

Replaced the Crank Position Sensor. A bit of a pain, took 45 minutes.

Rudeney

Check the drum for cracks. That happened on my CLK.

Anker

Replaced the bulb in the left marker light and also replaced the right front fender liner.

Do NOT try to pry the marker light from the outside. It MAY work, but the tabs that hold it in place are pretty big and may be stronger than the light itself. Unscrew the front fender lined and you will be able to push the rear tab enough to pop the light out.

After getting this done I did a wash and vacuum.

Feels and looks good.

mrbobby

Broke down and bought the baby a new (2015) Nav. disc. It'll be interesting to see if there is any noticeable difference.