After a few months of ownership and good couple DIYs under the belt, I would like to present the new(ish) member of the family, Gunther .
He's a 2010 W212 E550 4matic with almost all the bells and whistles, the only things I think it's missing are split rear seats, rear climate controls and window sunshades( although I don't know for sure if it was available as an option for this year/model).

When I got the car, it had 88k miles on the clock and I procedeed with the usual maintenance for a second hand, newly purchased vehicle. I changed the oil, oil filter and air intake filters. The dealership I got it from had brand new rotors and pads installed on all four corners a couple hundred miles before selling it to me ( the boss drove it around for a few weeks before putting it on sale).

A few weeks after that I started DIYing on it as follows:
1. New batteries for the key fobs, as they usually go through them within a year, tops two
2. Transmission mount and a few days after that engine mounts ( the car had the dreaded idling vibration which worsened when putting it into drive or reverse). Changing the engine and transmission suspension mounts definitely improved the driving experience, made the car feel like new almost. There is still a slight vibration though, I can't tell for sure what's causing it, I suspect a loose wrist pin on cylinders 2 and/or 3 on bank 1 or some form crank action related play. One of my mechanic buddies suggested a sticking lifter but I'm not sold on that.
3. Spark plugs. I went with Bosch on this one, since they were half of what the dealer was asking for the Mercedes branded ones. I've always used Bosch and they've served me well.
4. Intake manifold removal and degreasing/cleaning
5. Fuel injector lower o-rings replaced
6. PCV system refresh which included the oil separator with cover, oil drip pan, part load breathing hose and replacement bolts( the dirty intake manifold, oil seepage from the fuel injector o-ring area, camshaft adjuster magnets and sensors and the oil separator's cover in the back of the block was caused by the failure of the oil separator cover gasket material and as a result I had oil blown into the intake manifold). This is a known failure prone part on the m273 and m272 engines.
7. Expansion plug set replacement ( the plugs I took out were brittle, not leaking yet but very brittle, they actually fell apart when I got em out)
8. Oil cooler gasket
9. Panoramic roof lubrication ( luckily I found a small container of the grease MB uses as the big one was very expensive)
10. Ashtray sliding cover re-tightening (which I have to redo since it's loose again)

That's all for now, but there's still other things to do:
1. Rear and front diff fluids change
2. Transmission fluid change ( I called the MB dealer where the car was serviced previously and they said the tranny fluid was replaced at 80k but I have some reservations on that)
3. Transmission leak fix ( there's an o-ring which failed on the left side in the back of the transmission body)
4. Power steering flush and low pressure hose o-ring replacement (I don't know if the dirty oil spots around it are caused by the oil cooler and camshaft adjuster magnet leaks but I don't think replacing it will damage anything)
5. Brake fluid and coolant flush ( I know MB says 15 years or 150k miles for the coolant change but I might have contaminated it while I was replacing the o-rings for the camshaft adjusters )
6. Pano roof retightening ( It's making the loud pop noise when going over very uneven surfaces)
There are probably more things I will find need replacement along the way, but for now I'm hoping to find out what's causing the vibration and the knocking sound on bank 1. I hope it's nothing serious because this car is wonderful. The motor is a beast when you need it to and a frugal, quiet gentleman when you're just cruising on the freeway(I found that if I drive it at 75 mph constantly I get over 25 mpg which I think is amazing for a 5.5 NA beast)
I also like the funny farting air suspension sounds it makes after I park in the garage, I know some people don't care much for that but to me it makes Gunther feel more like a living thing.
Long story short, I love this thing and I'm looking forward to interacting with the MB community and DIYers and hopefully enriching the collective experience in any way I can.
Sorry for the long post, it's my first ever presentation thread, first ever Mercedes car, first ever V8 and there was a lot to say ( there still is ). I hope to see you around. Thanks for reading!

 

Excellent looking E550, and WOW you've done a lot of work on it. Congratulations for digging in and making it a much better car.

 

Congratulations; may you and Gunther find many happy miles together!

 

Looks nice, my first Benz was an E550......loved that car! Congrats on the car.

 

Thank you for your nice thoughts!
Hyperion, love the theme you have there! My SO will have a blast if I'll let her decorate Gunther like that for Halloween. I hope to never have to part with Gunther, it's pretty much everything I want in a car. I also enjoy working on it, surprisingly for such a big engine, most parts are easy to reach. I've had a more difficult time trying to fix my fiance's 2.0 TSI Tiguan. Of course, MB does occasionally make some bolts hard to reach, but in general it's been a straightforward experience.

 

Gunther is getting the full spa treatment! Nice. I had a 2010 E550 4Matic and it was a great car that never let me down. If you take care of them, like you are, it will take care of you. Good luck with Gunther!

 

Great job on the repairs!! enjoy in good health!

 

Congrats and welcome. We have the same color scheme in and out. Funny you mention the queef sound upon getting out of the car. I posted a month or so ago that it was one of my favorite attributes of the car as well. Even after dropping almost 2k on a blown air strut last month it's still one of my fave things about the car.

Good luck and DIY'ing will save you loads of cash along the way.

 

Thank you! It's a very nice looking and feeling interior and an overall good vehicle. 2k for a strut seems a little high, did you get it from MB? I know Arnott sells some for around 250$ but they're only the rear ones, apparently the front ones don't fail as often so they don't produce them yet.

 

Haha, thanx man, assuming you're referring to the orange wrap? That was a lot of fun
Very awesome you feel comfortable doing the work...saves a ton as you know. I love the LED's....still!

 

Wow, impressed by all the work you've done. Certainly covering all the bases. You should enjoy Gunther for miles and miles.

 

I was actually referring to the skeleton on the front grille, that's probably the coolest, subtle(ish) thing you can do a Mercedes to get it ready for Halloween and not look like you're trying too much. I might steal your idea for this year .
The wheel wraps looked cool too, maybe because of the car body, I think they work better on the CLS than they would on the W212.
There are definitely times when I'm working on the car and thinking I might break something, but so far it's all been good. Doing as much research as possible beforehand definitely helps, especially with the confidence factor.

 

Thank you! That was my plan from the get-go, now I can only hope there are no big surprises on the way. I've definitely learned a few things since I started fixing some of Gunther's issues, but there's still allot to learn. Unfortunately I haven't found much info on the M273 engine online, except for the early years issues with the idler gear wearing out prematurely.

 

Did you notice that the wood trim was faded? If you open the door, you'll see the bit covered by the door is darker than the rest of the wood. It's expensive to replace though. You might find a trim kit on eBay for a few hundred though, OEM is over 2k. Some of the trim kits on ebay are also faded, but not as bad and have broken clips.

 

Yep, unfortunately I saw it after buying the car. I actually thought it was supposed to be that washed out brown color but realized it was faded after seeing the darker part on the front forward of the door panel. Then I did some research and found out there was a problem with the manufacturing process.
To be honest it doesn't bother me that much yet, but I might try and replace it further down the road if I find a good deal. 2K is definitely too steep in my opinion, I would never pay that for pieces of trim. It would be a nice gesture of MB to replace it for free through a recall, but that's probably never going to happen.
I'm going to call them just to see what their answer is going to be.
Another possibility is refurbishing it, if possible, I'll have to research that too.

 

They won't replace it under any ELW or CPO warranty, they only did it when it was still in the original warranty period or if someone had just bought it as a CPO.

You can do a search of the old threads about refinishing the wood. Someone claimed they found someone who would strip the coating off it and restain the wood and coat it again in the $300 range. Sounds like a lot of work though. The veneer is very thin so it's possible to go too far and go right through the wood.

 

Thank you for the tip, I'll definitely look into that. I'm also keeping an eye out for wrecked W212s on Copart, some of them sold for less than 3k, that might be a better solution in the long run, cannibalization .

 

The only problem with that is that the problem wasn't really fixed til 2014, I think I've seen a few threads mention it on a 2013. But in 2014, they did a face life so the trim is slightly different, maybe the only difference is there's metal on the edge of the floor console instead of wood and maybe you can just pick up those pieces separately. So if you see a 2010-2013 in pristine condition, either it got replaced or they kept it garaged and if you leave it outside, it will eventually fade.

 

Never named any of my cars, just weird!

 

I think I'll leave it alone for now. I'm hoping the replacement parts from MB don't have the issue still because from what you're saying getting the brand new ones seems to be the best option.

 

Some of the original replacement parts were also bad and there were reports of people having it done twice, but I think the last batch they had it figured out. But it's still 2k even from an online vendor, about $2700 list at the dealer plus labor to install and you're looking at over 4k. But some pieces aren't that hard to remove and an indy or body shop guy should be able to it for a lot less. I don't think the $2000 price even online is worth it though. Every once in a while you see a kit on ebay for $200-$600.

https://www.genuinemercedesparts.com...ing-2126801293

 

Are those front air strut dampers? Pieces that connect a strut to body?

Did it improve your ride ? if you remember. Thank you.

 

Yes, it was at the dealership and it was the front driver side. It was exactly $1,790. I'm hoping if one goes again that it is the back . Although I've read you can also get the fronts refurbished but I haven't confirmed that yet.

 

Well, their price is down, that's always a good thing Is the ambient lighting integrated with the trim? Looks like it , but I haven't taken any of them apart to find out. Maybe that's why they're so expensive.

 

If you're referring to the picture I posted, the one with the gray pot looking things, those are the engine mounts and yes, there was a big improvement with engine vibration, especially at idle.