S55inPA

hi everyone,

my mothers 03 E500(only 500 miles) at idle sounds a little odd to me.
it kind of sounds like a little diesel. my ML500 has the same motor but is seems to be much smoother. am i being paranoid or is something not right here?

thanks.

MadManAboutTown

There is a known service bulletin addressing this issue, which you can find, among others, here. I've attached the image of this TSB's summary below, which I believe replaces your OEM engine mounts with liquid-filled mounts to solve the problem. I had this operation applied to my engine, and now it is as smooth as silk.

S55inPA

thanks madman,

much appreciated

Frank Wiesmann

Hey there,

is this a new bulletin? I had my car checked for this problem a few months ago and they said that it had all the updated engine mounts. I printed out the TSB that I had obtained at that time.

S55inPA

Hi Frank,

i don't know.
i'm going to talk to my local dearler.
i'll post this evening my findings.

michael10128

please share your findings....thanks
i have the same problem/s

Michael

S55inPA

hey guys,

this is what i found out.

as posted previously on other threads there are issues with the motor mounts on some 03 E500's. if they are faulty they will be replaced by the dealer. also at the same time they install more insulation to make the car quieter.
my local dealer is going to inspect the car in the morning and replace the motor mounts and add the insulation if this is what is making the odd sound at idle.
i'll post tomorrow what they did ....hopefully with a little more detail.

S55inPA

hey guys,

the engine noise is normal.
the mounts are the newer ones.
the recall regarding the steering wheel pin didn't apply.
the noise that i feel the engine is making at idle
is because of a change in the roller rockers.
all know is they work in conjunction with overhead cam.
if anyone else on this forum could explain roller rockers
function in more detail i would really appreciate it.

abk

Re: engine noise..I have heard it from day one...thought it was normal for this engine...I have scheduled a one year service with dealer to take care of misc. issues..when I discussed the engine noise issue over the phone, I was told that what I am hearing is the roller rockers and because the car has Mobil One, which is very thin oil, I hear it more that if the oil was a thicker grade. I will update this after my appointment in late Feb...will ask about motor mounts and purge valve solutions.

nyca

the car uses Mobil 1 0W40, end of story.

Double Eagle

I believe there are really two possible problems. All of the early 2003 E-500's had soft motor mounts which allowd the engine to roll a bit too far when you accelerated. You could see this by opening the hood and watching the engine rock from idle to higher RPM. I had this problem in my early, pre-nav E-500 as did all other owners that I know. They corrected this with the new stiffer motor mounts and you do not see the roll nearly as much when increasing the RPM with the hood open and the car in neutral.

When I got my post NAV E-500 in August, I checked and noted it did not have the roll so it had the newer motor mounts. Hoever, there is still a slight noise when accelerating from 1400-2500 RPM that is sort of like a very soft ping. It's a different noise than before with the early motor mounts and not as loud. That imay be due to the roller rockers interacting with over head cams. My car runs great, overall, and gives super mileage so I am going to live with the slight noise during mid RPM range accelerations.

Adobe

15W-50 Mobil 1 is now an acceptable replacement if you can't get 0W-40.

Adobe

When I first saw the TSB on the *piston slap* noise in the E500, it concerned me. Now Mercedes seem to be blaming it on the roller camshaft design.

If that is the case, why doesn't the V6 or the 4.3 liter V8 exhibit the same problem.

The only differences between the 4.3 and the 5.0 V8's are pistons and cylinder liners. Roller camshafts won't cause the sound of piston slap.

Since the harmonic balancer cover-up, I don't trust Daimler-Benz anymore. (sorry, I simply can't force myself to say Daimler-Chrysler)