oofie910

Hey guys, my dad just bought an 03 e500 with 49,xxx miles for $36k from the san diego mb dealer. Comes with sport package in alabaster white on black. The dealer also gave him a year of warranty. Coming from a w210, this car is gorgeous, has great power (compared to my 330i) and is very comfortable to drive.

I do have a few questions for those who have the car. Car's production date is 07/02 so I guess this is the early 2003s.

1) are there any problems to look for? are these cars problematic?

2) do you guys think he made a good purchase?

3) dealer is offering another 2 years of warranty for around $2500 making a total of 3 years warranty. Is it worth it?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

DWP

Since the deed is done, my opinion on questions 1) and 2) is pretty much moot, but FWIW, I have an '03 built in 9/02 and it's been reliable. A lot of people here think that the '03 W211 is the spawn of Satan and would never buy the first year of a production run. That's a legitimate opinion, although my experience doesn't support it. Seeing as how the car is already purchased, their answer to 3) would probably be "YES!"

Double Eagle

You have one of the first "03's and I also had one. These early '03's had a lot of problems but most were corrected during the first year. Since I had paid for the GPS, I was one of the lucky ones to get a new E-500, '03 at no cost in August '03. These replacements were made at the end of the '03 model run and had all the bugs fixed and had the NAV.

My initial, early delivery '03 ran fine when I turned it iin for the new one; however, the one thing that had not been corrected at the time of turn in was the overly sensitive throttle brake interconnect. I had written this up as had many other early '03 owners and it was fixed in the late deliveries. I believe there may have been a software fix but now sure. You can read early threads on this problem if you do a search on it. MAKE SURE that all recalls have been performed on your car AND that all TSB's that may pertain to it have also been done. Some of these TSB's are not recalls but should be done anyway. See the list that Konigster has provided for us at the beginning of this forum.

One problem I had with my current '93 was with noisy front brakes. Dealer claimed this was normal at first, but after showing them a copy of the TSB specifily addressing this concern, I got new front brakes with changes to the springs and problem went away.

If you can get a warranty for the additional two years that covers most everything, it would probably be good to get it. Please note that even the MB exteneded warranty doesn't cover the COMAND module (which it should in my opinion) but most other things are covered.

If car is still under four years old, be sure you get the free maintainence if you haven't already got it and get ALL of the TSB's done before the four year date is reached.

Enjoy the new wheels! By the way, one of my friends that lives in Poway, bought a 2003 from the Sand Diego MB dealer. A couple months back, he called to tell me they were no longer giving him a free car wash. Hope this doesn't indicate a pull back in perks for those of you living in San Diego.

konigstiger

W211:

Transmission (7-speed):
Bulletin P-B-27.60/61d JUN06 Rough Shift Quality – addresses any mechanical causes and performs shift adaptations.

Transmission (5-speed):
P-B-27.55/50f MAR06 Harsh engagement possibly followed by droning/buzzing noises during acceleration (1200 – 2500 rpm). This may be caused incomplete adaptation of the torque converter, the transmission EGS ECU software, or glycol contamination of the automatic transmission fluid.

Common Airmatic suspension problems:
(1) P-B-32.22/15 MAR03 Low ride height at one or more suspension points after the vehicle has been parked at cold temperatures – the affected air strut is replaced.
(2) P-B-32.22/32 AUG05 Sporadic knocking / rumbling noise from front left of vehicle when driving over rough roads – the compressor bracket is replaced.

MBUSA modifications:
(1) P-B-42.10/48 JUL04 Increased wear rear brake pads (part # A004420 44 20).
(2) P-B-42.10/51e FEB06 Squealing or grinding noise from the front brakes, even when the brakes are not applied – replace pressure retaining springs, piston damper, pads.
(3) P-B-82.30/366b JAN06 Windshield wipers chattering / noisy – replace wiper blades and wiper arms need to be adjusted to windshield angle (tool W211 589 02 21 00).
(4) P-B-82.62/387 SEPT04 Poor sound quality in Harman/Kardon Logic 7 Surround Sound – replace Audio Gateway and update software.
(5) P-B-33.15/16a JAN06 Steering wheel twitch (side to side during slow speed braking) – replace torque strut bushings (part # A211 333 11 14).
(6) P-B-82.62/499 MAR06 AM Radio interference – remove wiring to left, front brake wear sensor (eliminated).

Playing mp3s:
As long as the vehicle has COMAND the dealer simply needs to update the software. That it to say for early production 03 the vehicles were equipped with a cassette player in the head unit and optional CD changer. I believe these vehicles cannot be modified however I’m not certain. For later 03 vehicles equipped with a head unit that has a single CD (COMAND) rather than a cassette player it can be made to play mp3s by updating the head unit software.

Familiarize yourself with the recalls: https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w211/145960-w211-recalls.html

monstaloc

Mine is an 03 e500 with the prod date of 11/02. I have 60k on it now but got it with only 23k.

Here's a list of things that went wrong with mine.

1. Airmatic was leaking. Replaced via Warranty.
2. Replaced tranny cuz it blew. Warranty.
3. Some control module on the tranny or something broke, twice. Starmarked warranty both times.
4. Driver's side head rest wouldn't adjust.
5. When doing the one touch to close the sun roof automatically, it would close then reopen itself a few inches.
6. In dash 6 cd changer would lock up cuz I had a burned cd-r loaded in there. FYI, doesn't matter in which slot you put it in.
7. And all your recall campaigns.

I guess the only real issues for me is having the inconvenience of not having my car, and the retardation levels of the sevice reps. Lucky for me I had warranties. Hope everything is better for you.

oofie910

Thanks guys for all the replies. I think my dad went ahead and brought it back to have the windshield washer fixed, so the car is not here. But I told my dad to ask the dealer if any recalls were done to the car, and their answer was "all applicable recalls for that car was already done". Hopefully we get the car back soon so I could look for these problems if they're still there. Thanks again guys!