Aazam0921

Hi, I am considering buying a 2009 W211 E350 with the amg package. It carries the designo graphite grey exterior paint and designo wood trim. It also has the Keyless-Go feature. When taking a tour of the car, We learned that the left side doors of the car function like normal in terms of locking and unlocking with the door handle but the right side is completely not working. They do not lock or unlock. The start button on the shift know also works like usual. I was wondering how much this would cost to fix at a Mercedes dealership or if it is easy enough to do at home. What exactly is the problem? Is it worth buying the car with such a problem or is it enough to make the buy not worth the money? if anyone has any tips or helpful advice, please feel free to reply to this thread! just looking for some help.

cetialpha5

The designo graphite was a rare option. I have the same color. If you're in the US, I wouldn't worry about the right side, that's the passenger side and probably used less often than the left driver's side. Basically they're covered by a rubber membrane and water gets into the switches corroded them and then they go bad. The door handle is in the $200-$300 range per handle. With designo graphite, it doesn't actually come in that color, comes in a bunch of others, I think black is the cheapest color. There's a generic one that you can get that you can paint afterwards. Or maybe pick up a gray one that's not quite designo and hope it blends in or just get the paint and have it painted. The door handle is relatively easy to replace, there's several threads about replacing the handle, the key part is making sure you don't drop the connections or parts otherwise you'll have a hard time fishing them out of the door. There's a few other components to keyless go like the antennas and other bits, but it's usually the handles that go. I wouldn't worry about it, it's a minor thing and those door handles always go. Mine got replaced almost 8 years ago and at the time they were about $500 each at the dealer. Now two more are bad and I haven't bothered to get them replaced yet. I might do the driver's side. You can just use the keyfob but it's annoying not being able to use the feature. Keyless go is basically one of those options that you don't find too often, your choice is either to buy a car with it broken which makes it the same as a car that doesn't have the option. I'd rather have a car with a broken option that can be fixed than one that doesn't have it all. It's always a lot more to retrofit an option than if you just get it to start with. And because of the corroded switches, I wouldn't bother getting a used handle on eBay would probably means it'd break again soon. I think there was a thread here where someone offered to fix them with a replacement switch.

https://www.benzworld.org/threads/keyless-go.3116300/

Aazam0921

Thanks for the advice. Im going to look at the car again tomorrow morning and then hopefully I will have a decision. The color is definitely rare and you're right, having the keyless broken is better than not having it at all.