belarus27

So i just Hit a 100K miles coming home from the Bay Area on my 10 e550
bought this pre-owned after a lease in LA on June 2013. The car had 32k miles on it... My first Mercedes , had a BMW 545 prior (which i sold to get the benz)
Noticed one thing with the benz , atleast for me that i dont really wanna speed in it , i just wanna CRUISE and enjoy my ride (which saves me from traffic violations unlike BMW's didnt lol)
in almost 4 years
i had
1.a steering leak at around ~40000 miles (covered by original warranty)
2.2 front struts replaced to to leaking air (airmatic) ~50k
3.one rear drivers side air spring replaced at ~90k
4. recently changed my front Upper control Arm , Sway bar links , and ball joints. (need to do lower control arm and tie rods soon) ~95k
+
all the mods i did on it through out all this time.
(the car been through a lot and been to a lot of places) so far , im happy with it , now i know what mercedes all about.
thanks for your time

jahquan3

Welcome to the club. I'm at about 128k right now and still rolling strong. You've had yours for a couple more years then me though.

It still is a beauty. Congrats and how much longer do you expect to keep it?

belarus27

lol thanks that high mileage club i guess
i will keep it for a while , no plans on getting anything else just yet , so i hope itll be good to me.

yours is doing good? spark plugs ? fluids flush? air struts? tranny oil?
any observations/tips/tricks/thoughts.

jahquan3

Only issue I've had that really was a PITA to diagnose was loose pin connectors in my Cylinder 1. Literally they cost about 8 bucks a piece and I needed two. But it took numerous trips to the dealer and ignition coil and spark plug replacements on that one cylinder before MB took a Boroscope and looked inside the cylinder and found the issue. FYI I bought the car out of warranty so every trip and scan or work has been out of pocket.

I've had some smaller issues like burning of oil which they said is not a big deal, and my transmission fluid was low I was told at STS and they said they wouldn't touch it. I took it to Benz and they were like they (STS) have no way of knowing that so MB charged me 200 just to say "Oh they were right it is low" and they topped it off was what they said.

My suspension is fine every time I get it checked at the dealer but on very cold winter days 20 F area my car will be sitting very low in the morning. Since it always raises and MB says it's ok I just let it ride.

Only observation or odd thing I've done is I got a motor flush which was recommended to me and I feel like the car came alive more after that. Some people say it's useless but it seemed to work for me. Also I don't push my car as hard now as I use to. It's getting old so I try to be mindful until someone is really asking for it or if I'm trying to merge or exit with the quickness. I love this car so I have no major complaints. I've turned over my tires, brakes and off course a full tune-up since I've had it.

belarus27

Thank for mentioning about the loose pin connector. might be useful for someone that trying to diagnose the same problem. and very good that you got that solved. i hate when you change something to fix the problem but at the end it wasnt it

what oil are you using? because ive noticed it too , especially with 0w40 mobil one , it feels like it does burn some , where when i used 5w30 it was all good never burnt any , so im thinking going back to 5w30 and change the oil this weekend. sh**t i thought it was only me , but now that u said it makes me feel better a lil.

what do you mean by motor flush? seafoam? or
putting new oil and then draining it?

its good to talk to other 550 owners about their experience..

and it sounds like you didnt really have any issues with it which is awesome.

homeofstone

This list tells me that your car is not very reliable. I have only had a valve cover oil leak and a repair on my E63 pano roof, and I am near 70,000 miles. My wife's 2011 Hyundai Genesis 4.6 V8 which we purchased new with all the options has 201,000 miles on it and has only one problem which was the fuel gauge sending unit in the gas tank at about 165,000 miles. My 2005 E500 has held up well too with 169,000 miles on it and has had two front air struts replaced and the crankshaft pos. sensor replaced.

belarus27

steering leak was due to a bad gasket is what i read from the papers they gave me. so its nothing major.

air struts went bad - possibly because i did lower the car within couple of weeks after purchasing it (yes i agree on this , not so reliable , and they kinda pricy , so i agree on this)

as far as Rear air bag , it seems like a common issues (which wasnt really and issue during warmer days here in CA , but it was making me OCD knowing that it does it so i decided to be on a safe side and replace it , which wasnt really needed at that point just yet but it is what it is , better be safe than sorry)

and about replacing front end suspension parts..... it made a clunking sound when going over bumps , long story short i found a bad sway bar link and it fixed it , but then i took a closer look at bushings and upper one wasnt looking good enough for me so i replaced them just be have a piece of mind along with ball joints.
all of the repairs i did myself in my garage (except steering gasket which was covered under warranty at that time).
so i wouldnt say it is not very reliable , it actually is.. especially if you compare it to my bmw lol , that was something.
and we be talking about German engineering , and lets compare german to german , i know japanese/korean cars are more reliable from experience. so that way it would be fair.
thank you

jahquan3

I use OW40 European Car Formula.

Sorry I mis-spoke I meant an Engine Flush. It's done usually in coordination with an oil change. Dealers do not offer it however, I got it offered at a Indy. They showed me my oil was looking pretty dark and they suggested I get that while getting the oil change. So I went with it and was happy with the results.

Here is the google definition :
An engine oil flush is a process in which a service technician adds chemicals to the oil so that any carbon deposits in the oil system flow out of the system and into the oil filter. The technician then drains the oil and chemicals, replaces the oil filter and fills the car's oil reservoir with clean oil.

belarus27

Exactly the same ow40 i used the European formula , and thats what causes oil to burn ??
so i will try 5w30 again and see how it goes.
and my oil is kinda dark too hmmm , very interesting , now you got me thinking....

i wonder what do they add to perform that Engine flush , if its just an add on then sounds like something i can do by myself as well since i drain the oil through the drain plug. thanks for your input , definatelt something i will look in to.

cetialpha5

Just make sure if you use a 5w30 that it has MB 229.5 approval. Most oils in that weight don't have it.

Also I'm in the engine flush is useless side. The manufacturer typically doesn't recommend it, all it does it lighten your wallet and you can tell from your butt dyno. A transmission reset will also make the car livelier.

It's not the weight of the oil, it's the engine that burns oil. You may or may not be lucky and have an engine that burns or doesn't burn oil.

belarus27

ive used mobil 1 5w30 , which should be 229.5...
but thats the thing , i was using 5w30 for atleast 2 years and never had an issue , after i started using ow40 i ve noticed after a few oil changes that my oil be disappearing.... call me crazy , but it is what i observed , and 90% sure about it.

thefisch

I should be at about 100k in 3 years. And then it will be time to find my 2014 E550

cetialpha5

I don't believe Mobil 1 5w30 has MB 229.5, only 0w40 and 0w30. There's also a 5w40, but I believe that's just 229.51. Your oil disappearance may be due to using the wrong oil previously.

Johnny Rad

A different way of saying this is that his/her car was less reliable and/or had more repairs than your car(s) did.

If this is all I have to worry about with my Merc over the course of 100k mi, then color me satisfied (plus mine has steel springs not Airmatic so that's one less I have to worry about anyhow). I'd be delighted if the repair list was less, but certainly relieved that it wasn't more.

belarus27

Unfortunately you might be right lol

cetialpha5

Oh here's the list of approved 229.5 oils. There are some Mobil 1 5w30 on the list, but I don't think you normally find those types on store shelves.

https://bevo.mercedes-benz.com/bevolisten/229.5_de.html

belarus27

Yea i did see the list , but i did my oil change at an indy shop before so there is a chance it was up to spec.
How bad if its not so? 5w30 could damage the motor?

Diesel #2

I think the car is holding up well. Did you buy it lowered ? If not around how many miles did you do it ?

jahquan3

I've always used the spec oil and I have oil burning as well. The Dealer and Indy have both told me it's ok. Also I have a friend with a ML63 and his losses more oil then mines and he says it's normal as well.

cetialpha5

How many miles did you go on the oil? Part of the 229.5 spec requires the oil to last 10k, other oils that aren't in spec might not last as long or have greater wear characteristics than oil that meets spec. What kind of indy shop was it? Those Mobil 5w30 oils are somewhat exotic, most shops tend to just stock a generic 5w30 that comes in bulk drums and it's the cheapest they can find that will work in most cars. The regular Mobil 1 5w30's don't have that spec. As for oil consumption, hard to say, some engines will do it regardless of having the right oil or not, but having the wrong type doesn't help.

belarus27

i did lower it, almost right after i bought it , so id say around 35-40k miles
(which leads me to a thought that , that is the reason why struts went out so fast (well and ofcoarse of poor design played a role))

belarus27

yea for AMG its okay to burn oil.. so is for ours i guess
i mean not so much big of a deal , since i know im not the only one

belarus27

i usually go about 5-6k miles , even this time its going to be 6k miles since last oil change. so even if its a generic oil im sure it wouldnt do much harm with these intervals.
and yes , you right , i doubt they were looking for that 229.5 mobil 1 specs lol so they most likely just bought the bulk of regular oil.
i guess ill stick to 0w40 european formula and stop overthinking ****.

cetialpha5

Well they didn't design them to be lowered so I don't think it's quite fair to call it a poor design.

belarus27

i said a poor design because a while back i read somewhere (might be even on these forums or just after researches on internet) that 10-11 airmatic struts were not reliable much , but in 2012 and up models they were updated (idk what was updated but yes it got a new part number) which leads me to a thought that mercedes knew about it , but just didnt wan to deal with it.

p.s. struts i have now are not the same PN and the old ones.
so it all makes sense.
still have 2 of them J chillin in my garage.

p.s. 2
Arnott buys back cores , and i have emailed them about it , and it looks like i might be sending the 2 i have to LA for Arnott to refurbish those. who knew about that? i didnt until last week lol