$1500 E500 Project
 

I was looking for another car, so I don't have to put so many miles on my hellcat. I used to own a 2006 E350 and that car was so quiet while driving. I saw this car on Craigslist. It was listed as having bad transmission.

It is a 2004 E500, 132K miles. Only 2 owners, old retired couple owned it for the last 10 years. It has only been serviced at Mercedes Dealership all it's life.

It has Xenon Headlights, Harmon Kardon Sound. Air suspension like all the E500's. Car is relatively clean for it's age and price. Interior is nice, leather in great shape no damage. All the door panels are clean. Only B pillar lower trim has worn material, but they all do.

Engine runs good, it did have a code for Air pump. Valve cover is leaking pretty bad, so there is oil on the driver side everywhere.

Air suspension is good no codes. SBC was replaced in 2011, no issues there. One of the ball joints has a torn boot, rest of the control arms look ok, but I will probably replace it all eventually.

Front bumper has a small crack on the bottom and some paint damage. One of the side skirts is cracked in a spot as well.

Transmission is bad, I did scan it and it shows both speed sensor codes. I will be removing the valve body shortly and sending the board to get repaired. The pan is leaking really badly as well, but it will fixed when I get the valvebody out.


The goal for the car is just to have a decent alternate car. I will slowly replace whatever needs to be fixed. I have a lift and pretty decent german car experience so not worried about any labor.

Here are some pics when I picked it up and when I threw it on the lift. So far I think it was a steal for the money.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/B20D92.jpg

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/qoYjOA.jpg

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/Tg7oGJ.jpg

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https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/QnrzTx.jpg

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/i8hJyx.jpg

Killer deal.
Once you get her fixed and riding nice you're going to love the car.
They drive like a dream.
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Freaking awesome deal and I'm jealous as hell of your lift.

Is it 5-sp ?
Those are famous for leaky pilot bushings creating all kind of codes.
I bought my SL500 like that and drove it in iimp 20 miles home.
$10 pilot bushing with some new ATF fixed the issue.
Hope it will be that easy for you as well.
I had good experience with gluing clean bumper cover cracks with Crazy Glue. You have to go from behind.

It is a 722.9 7 speed. Definitely a conductor plate issue with the speed sensors. No other codes.

I will probably epoxy the bumper from behind for now, I will look for a new bumper in the future.

SWEET! Congrats, looks like you know what you need to be doing and the car will be awesome once you took car of the issues.

Keep us posted.

At first I thought to myself that there's no way it's a 7 speed on a 2004. Then I looked at this site and saw that indeed MB did begin to install these on certain models in '04. Lesson learned!

http://www.mercedesmedic.com/722-9-7...ems-solutions/

Started working on the transmission today.

Drained it.

Fluid was still pretty clean, so it has been serviced previously.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/rm44A8.jpg

Everything looked pretty clean inside

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/Ja3hE2.jpg

Removed the valvebody and labeled all the solenoids.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/MNRlIG.jpg

Removed the solenoid and separated the conductor board from the rest of the valvebody.

Now it's ready to be shipped to get repaired.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/iOcAyW.jpg

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/W49ive.jpg

Damn, your photos are amazingly clear and detailed.

Today was not a good day. I started working on the valve cover leaks. I took off the covers and tried removing the coilpacks. The tabs on all 4 coil connectors snapped off the second I touched them. To make the matter worse I tried removing the ignition wires and leaned on the coolant reservoir and snapped the overflow line connector and the top of the line itself.

So now I need a new coolant bottle and overflow line.

Anyone know the part numbers for the coil pack connectors?

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/mlJbz2.jpg

Found the plugs. If anyone needs them ecs has them for $3.

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...or/2035453028/

Thanks for sharing this with us. I'm looking forward to seeing your progress.

Chris

Took the valve covers off, what a pain. The PCV rubber hoses all turned into solid plastic. Had to chisel them off, now I know why all the valve cover gasket kits come with them included.

Engine look amazing though, 130K miles and it looks super clean. Those Mobil 1 Oil changes sure control the deposits. Very happy with what I saw.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/FVGUlp.jpg

Have to drop some icy water on the parade, but that engine looks like running on high overdose of detergents.
That's what too early oil changes do.
It looks nice to the eye, but friction was increased and the engine lost few miles from its life.
Coming to coolant reservoir, the car is about due for coolant replacement and chem pack is build-into reservoir, so you should replace it becouse of that.

The car just had scheduled oil changes at the Mercedes Dealer nothing early.

Regarding oil, the only thing an early oil change will harm is your wallet. If you feel otherwise, I'd be happy to send you all my used oil - just pay shipping.

Not trying to start million and first oil dispute - running on high detergent level is not good for engine.
With technology changing on weekly basis, even my oil training from decades ago is no longer good use, so I don't hesitate to send an oil sample to blackstone at each or every 2nd oil change.
The $29 compared to cost of oils and filter is very cheap and I can also compare different brands of oil in the process.
I do the same with air filters by installing filter minders. Why replace filter at 10k, when it is still clean after 100k ?

We can disagree there and move on. Engine is clean, I don't see any abnormal wear.

Pulled the MAF out to get the rest of the breather hoses out. They were all as hard as plastic, had to cut them all off. I removed the elbow that goes to the throttle body, the sealing rings were hard as well and I could see them not sealing well anymore. Since they cause a lot of un-metered air to get in, I ordered some new ones.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/IBrYrZ.jpg

Pulled the plugs, they are Champion kc10pypb4, didn't think those came from the factory, but they do have a mercedes symbol on them, so possibly original. I will order some new bosch 7422's.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/ZYqyk3.jpg

Is the center electrode on your plug actually eroded to a point or is it designed with the taper? Can't quite tell from your pic.

Wow, a V8 7-speed for $1500....what a killer deal. Congrats!

It's designed that way. I'll measure the gap and see how much they eroded.

Nice looking car.

Amazing looking car, awesome deal.

Love the pictures and the progress, thanks for the good read!

did you use a regular scanner to scan codes? I have a local s430 with bad air suspension for cheap near me