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Hi everyone, I figured i would create a build thread for my newest addition, my winter beater, that i plan to sell come spring. I picked up a 2000 E430 4matic with 133,000 Miles off of craigslist for $1,200. It is a 2 owner (handed down from father to daughter so 1 owner to me) the car was lightly sideswiped on the rear drivers quarter and was told it had a clogged catalytic converter, Overall the car was fairly clean, it did had rust starting the both rear quarters and some at the very bottom the the passenger front fender. I hooked a diagnostic tool to it and sure enough the codes it was throwing confirmed it did and a misfire on cylinder's 7 & 8. Previous owner stated they had replaced all plugs and plug wires which i believe because the wires look brand new. I had it towed to my families auto body shop and ordered a driver side cat. pipe (Eastern catalyic brand) for it. noticed it had a flat tire when it got to the shop, and found a nail in it , pulled the tire off and patched it. Then swapped out the cat pipes out and no codes.
Side note - you can see on the new cat that the bracket is in the completely wrong place, not sure why they welded it there as there is nothing to attach it to when it installed, so i just cut it off and welded it in the right spot.
After 5 minutes of driving it around it the misfire got worse and worse and it had a code for the MAF. I replaced the coil pack's on cylinder 7 & 8 which seemed to fix the misfire. I sprayed MAF cleaner on it, and reset the CEL and now it dies as soon as i start it up. My father started to tap the MAF housing and started it, what do you know it idles fine while he is tapping it, once i give it gas it hesitates for a second then revs. Soo looks like i need a new MAF I'm assuming Bosch only?
Anyways here are some pictures of the car, I would love to hear what everyone thinks? i personally don't think it was a bad deal at $1,200 considering these go for between $4-5K in my area
I think you have wrong calculator.
It is not what you paid to get it to your garage, but what you will pay to get it on the road that counts.
Nice wheels.
Have fun on your project.
I think you have wrong calculator.
It is not what you paid to get it to your garage, but what you will pay to get it on the road that counts.
Nice wheels.
Have fun on your project.
oh i know, this isn't my first time flipping cars lol, i don't have to pay any labor because ill be doing it myself at my families body shop, so thats a money saver .
Yeah -and you are "between the jobs" with no kids and no house *****.
I love to watch such pictorials -don't take me wrong.
Have been guilty to devoting part of my live to "labors of love" but don't blame me for skepticism from time to time.
Good luck
Little update for everyone, did some maintenance on the W210 last weekend, Changed the oil & filter, installed new rotors and pads and did a coolant flush since the stuff that was in there looked like straight water Noticed my driver side rear window doesnt work at all, i took the door panel off and noticed that the motor wasn't even plugged in, fingered crossed i plugged it in and tried putting the window down... only to be greeted with a horrible grinding type of noise so looks like I need to order a new rear driver side window motor. I Also prepped the car to have some rust repaired and for paint.
Did you measure old rotors? Looks like they might have lot of life left, or you put new rotors just because?
I like the way you take care about body work.
Where are you again?
Mine SL500 could use paint restoration
Did you measure old rotors? Looks like they might have lot of life left, or you put new rotors just because?
I like the way you take care about body work.
Where are you again?
Mine SL500 could use paint restoration
I did measure them, i don't remember what thickness they were but they were under the minimum thickness, so i replaced them. The pads still had a lot of life left on them though. And my families body shop which is were im doing all this work is located in Warminster PA
one thing to consider, depending on your OCD quotient. if it is medium-high like
mine, the OEM brake pads, though very good stopping, produces brake dust like
crazy on the front...which you'll see within a day or two after you've washed the
car. drove me crazy. I replaced with Akebono EBC ceramic compound. it's
been a month now and I've not noticed much difference in pedal modulation....
but the wheel is CLEAN !!
Last edited by raymond g-; Oct 30, 2016 at 06:15 PM.
x100 on Akebonos.
I had them on several cars before and measure one after 80,000 miles showing about 30% wear.
Just yesterday put them on our Bluetec. The white car has nice 7-spokes so any dirt got "amplified" on them.
When I took brakes apart, the dust was everywhere. The old pads had edges covered with it, about 3 mm of dust on calipers and nearby hardware.
Used about 8-10 rubber gloves to stay relatively clean doing fluid flush and spend about 1 hr scrubbing back sides of the wheels.
But now I am happy camper and should not have to worry about brakes for at least 5 years.
It's been a little while but im back with another update for those who are following this thread.
In the past few weeks ive done a lot, also found out it needed a bit more work then i initially thought, the joys of flipping cars upon prepping the car for paint i found that the little bit of rust down low on the passenger right front fender was worse then it appeared... i took the side skirt off to be greeted by more lovely rust. i fix cars to do them right, i guess its because ive grown up around a body shop and have heard countless horror stories about botched repair jobs. so i started sanding around the rust to see just how bad it really was, luckily for me it was just the passenger rocker around the holes that the side skirt clips into, it didn't go any further such as the actual floor pan which would have made the repair much much more costly. I was able to find a website that sells a replacement side rocker panel and cheap! ($68!! found here at Eklers) ordered it on a Monday and was at my door by Wednesday afternoon. I began chipping away at the rubberized undercoating that covered the rocker panel weld, which Mercedes should have just coated the entire rocker it would have fixed this issue but i digress. besides having to fix this rocker the car is all prepped for paint which should be done this week and will hopefully be on the road by the weekend so ill update this thread later this week!
lovely!
Mercedes really should have rubber undercoated the rocker as well instead of stopping where the side skirt covers it
Mercedes really should have rubber undercoated the rocker as well instead of stopping where the side skirt covers it
Mercedes really should have rubber undercoated the rocker as well instead of stopping where the side skirt covers it
Mercedes really should have rubber undercoated the rocker as well instead of stopping where the side skirt covers it
After taking the jack pad out
rear passenger side
tapping off where im cutting the rocker
tapping off where im cutting the rocker
Part # for anyone else looking
removed the passenger seat in order to pull the carpet back when welding
How i left the car today, cutting the rocker out tomorrow!
i need 3 of these bulbs, they are the lights under the doors when they are open, puddle lights i think they are called?
I replaced those puddle bulbs with LED on my SL.
Energy saving is not crucial in this application, but I like the cold white light.
That might be the only bulbs on the car where you don't have to worry about errors.
Alright so the car is all put back together and road worthy. Passed PA state inspection & emission tests today and it drives great! i have noticed a few odd issues.
1) the heat only blows out hot air if it is turned onto the highest temperature setting, which is "HI" if i turn it to 84 degrees it blows cool air? doesn't matter what fan speed is at. im thinking blower fan/resistor?
2) the doors lock and unlock at random multiple times while driving, and the lock/unlock button on the dash will ONLY unlock the doors, not lock them. HOWEVER i think this may be because i have the rear driver side door skin off and it is causing the lock pin to move around, will start with that first.
3) The interior lights do not come on automatically when a door is open, if i press the button for them to they all come on (front and rear lights) but when i push the button off only the fronts go off the rears stay on unless i hit the button to turn the rear lights off?
Originally Posted by shadenfroh
Please edit out the word "beater" from the title!
This is a good idea, maybe one of the moderators can change the title
Alright so the car is all put back together and road worthy. Passed PA state inspection & emission tests today and it drives great! i have noticed a few odd issues.
1) the heat only blows out hot air if it is turned onto the highest temperature setting, which is "HI" if i turn it to 84 degrees it blows cool air? doesn't matter what fan speed is at. im thinking blower fan/resistor?
You can do a sensor reading from your a/c control display, and you will find one of your sensors is not working (possibly the indoor temperature sensor where the front dome light is))
2) the doors lock and unlock at random multiple times while driving, and the lock/unlock button on the dash will ONLY unlock the doors, not lock them. HOWEVER i think this may be because i have the rear driver side door skin off and it is causing the lock pin to move around, will start with that first.
Possibly one of your door close switches is not making a good contact.
3) The interior lights do not come on automatically when a door is open, if i press the button for them to they all come on (front and rear lights) but when i push the button off only the fronts go off the rears stay on unless i hit the button to turn the rear lights off?
Check your PSE module condition underneath the rear seat where the battery is. If water damaged or corroded connectors can cause this and also item 2.
This is a good idea, maybe one of the moderators can change the title
while enjoying Christmas dinner the alarm on the car went off twice in a 4 hour period, I searched around a bit today and took what Mrboca had to say about the door switches and came across this thread on another forum after reading that and with my car was doing the exact same. I figured why not check the door switches, since i did have the front and rear driver side door skins off. low and behold i forgot to put the plastic part that contacts the door switch on the rear driver door, screwed that in place and checked the drivers door and noticed i had screwed that piece in to much and it wasn't contacting the door switch at all. after messing with those two parts i locked the car and the lights flash three times, they didn't do this before hand so something did the trick!
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, pulled the tire off and patched it. Then swapped out the cat pipes out and no codes. 
I'm assuming Bosch only?
