iGotDaNutz

Hi, I've been lurking here for a bit recently because I am seriously considering purchasing a 2014 E350 4Matic Sport Sedan.

I've done countless hours of searching and reading on all the cars within my price range and I have fallen in love with the 2014 E350.
I know about most the features and add-ons for the car and the main things I need are the 4Matic AWD for the winters, the facelift variant for better reliability,
and the set suspension to save myself potentially thousands of dollars.

The reason I made an account today and am posting on the forums is because of the search bar.

I believe this is the best place for REAL information on Mercs because it is coming straight from people who own or have owned one.
However, the search bar for the forum rejects common words so it is extremely difficult for me to find the information here that I need.
I have done searches on google but there are so many different people saying different things that it's hard to know what's true or not.


So for those who actually have owned the 2014-16 E350:
- What are all of the specific maintenance problems that you've experienced and needed fixed?
- How much did it cost you to fix the problems?
- What are ways I can prevent these problems from happening? (Such as specific models or add-ons for the E350 that will increase the longevity of the car)
- And most importantly, what do I need to look for when purchasing one to know that the car is in immaculate condition?

Any advice, tips, and insights are greatly appreciated.

This is the car I want and I know it is going to be more expensive to own than, say, a Hyundai...
But I would like to cut costs where I can to own such a beautiful car.

ml3504matic____

Hi, firstly welcome!

I own a 2014 E350 with 131,000km

Personally not much has gone wrong, one of the parking sensors on my car have gone bad and will need replacing, and as well as speakers. A common issue is the right rear passenger door speaker to go, and subwoofer to go, So check that out by setting the balance to the right rear corner.

One other issue i faces was the car would lose power and esp inoperative would go off, after a diagnostics, it showed the car needed the ECU pins to be repined, but after unplugging the module, and plugging it back in, all errors were gone

Cost:

The speakers were replaced with ebay purchases

$250 CAD Subwoofer
$66 CAD Rear Door Speaker

Labour $250 CAD

Sensor (haven’t replaced it yet) $100 roughly


Not much goes wrong other then that, engine wise, you may need to replace the spark plug as they’re suppose to be replaced every 6 years or 60,000miles. So that is probably due and will cost quite a bit, not an easy job.

ml3504matic____

Some common problems that I have noticed is:

Wood fading, try to avoid Burl Walnut Trim all together, it’s hit or miss

MB Tex Seats - you know if it has mb tex if it has two horizontal rectangles in the bottom seat cushion. In this case, you would probably have the seam fail in the future, it is just a given common problem

Worn out buttons - Thw coating applied to the buttons can chip off overtime and expose white plastic, and looks ugly.

Taillights Working? A common issue with this is the taillights going out, haven’t had mine go out yet but it happens so check if all the leds are working and no bugs are in them.

Finally one big gripe of mine is HEADLIGHTS!


Get one with the LED Intelligent Light System, looks and performs way better then the other headlights.

Other then that you are golden

EuroDriverSD

Welcome and congrats on your anticipated purchase.

Other than what has already been mentioned, these cars are pretty reliable. The one issue I had was that the parking/emergency brake would not release all the way and cause the "brake on" message and I'd have to get my foot under it to lift it all the way. I had the entire mechanism replaced under warranty.

As to what to check for before purchase, I's strongly advise you to spend a couple bucks and get a pre-purchase inspection done by a reliable shop and that way you'll know exactly what you're getting into. Nothing worse than nasty surprises after purchase.

iGotDaNutz

Thanks for the welcome

And I'm glad to hear there's nothing that went horribly wrong with your car.
It puts my mind at ease hearing that.

So for the spark plugs, would there be a way to check if they're near due (or due) for a replacement?

iGotDaNutz

So what I'm hearing is a handful of interior cosmetic flaws and exterior lighting.
Shouldn't be too hard to check for when doing a test drive.

Thanks for replying man

ml3504matic____

There is really no way, but you can get a carfax or the carfax my garage app and check it’s service history. that’s the only way.

ml3504matic____

Yeah there are quite a few, my car isn’t perfect as well, the finish on the black ash wood has a few bumps here and there and it triggers my OCD. Feel free to PM me for potential cars you’re interested in, i’m more then happy to help! Here’s mine

iGotDaNutz

Thanks for the welcome!

I'll make sure to check if the e-brake is fully functional when doing the test drive.

Honestly, having a mechanic with me or somehow having them check the car before
I purchased it would ease my mind so much.

Unfortunately, the exact car I have my eyes on is a bit far from me.

I've honestly been really lucky to have a sister who was a pretty heavy gear head
back then so hopefully she will be able to sniff out the potential problems.

Thank you for replying!

iGotDaNutz

She's ****ing gorgeous...

The interior lighting is a feature I really wanted but couldn't find near me for a reasonable price

Car pics during rainy days are the best lmao

ml3504matic____

haha thanks, i believe the lightning feature is standard. and yes I also had the parking brake issue, but you just need to spray wd40 into it. Check out the thread that i made, there’s nothing “broken” in the mechanism. it just needs to be lubricated. it’s a common issue.

Darel

CHECK THE ENGINE NUMBER!!!! My '14 got its' engine rebuilt under warranty at 50K. There is a TSB out there that mentions a small window of engine numbers that had the wrist pins machined incorrectly, leading to piston slap and an eventual engine rebuild. It seems to be a very small number of 2014 engines but mine was one. Had the car not been under warranty the bill would have been almost $20K. Odd thing is, no one on this forum seems to have heard about it (I started a thread on it a few years ago if you search for it under my name) however when I had the work done, the dealer said it had been their third one in a month.

EuroDriverSD

Another reason to get it professionally inspected is because the early W212s suffered from an oil leak that would seep into the engine wiring harness and in many cases ended up frying the ECU. From what I remember, there was a recall that covered a certain VIN range and although the issue was fixed by 2014, I have read a couple of stories from 2014 owners that suffered from this but their VIN numbers were not within the recall range and they were left to pound sand.

pamiboy

Well, I have the perfect exact car which you are looking for. I hope you have seen this thread in this same sub forum
https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...4-e-350-a.html
I've also advertised it in the marketplace. Please look through the thread and let me know. Depending on how far away are you, you can personally check it out. The interior and exterior are mint, no mechanical problems so far, still under warranty and maintenance from Mercedes included for two more years.

iGotDaNutz

Thank you for the warning!

An extra $20k is not something I could afford..
I'll be sure to check the engine number.

Is there a way to check this on the physical car or would I have to see papers/vins?

iGotDaNutz

Oh really?

I looked through the features on the list and it said nothing of it but others did.

yesssss

iGotDaNutz

Something to look out for, I'll add it to the list.
Better safe than sorry, thanks for the heads up

iGotDaNutz

Hey, I am fairly close (DMV area) but unfortunately, I am fairly picky and was looking for one that was black.

It sucks too because that is a pretty good deal for the miles that are on it..

Darel

I believe in the TSB they were listed by VIN. It should be somewhere in my engine rebuild thread.

konigstiger

Engine # piston pins modified as of engine 276 9xx 30 567600, if this is the bulletin you're referring to.

Darel

That's the one, thanks Konigstiger! Meant to sit down and go back and look it up when I got some time over the weekend.

pamiboy

what’s DMV? Dept of Motor Vehicles...???

crater64

DMV = slang term for the Washington DC metropolitan area (District [of Columbia], Maryland, Virginia).

jonUF02

If you get a 350 run the VIN through online tools to list all the options it has. The original price can vary greatly depending on option boxes checked, I'm sure all the options would double the price off the lot. I would not compromise on a luxury car with fake leather (aka MB Tex). The LED lighting package looks great, but if you ever have a problem or a crash they are wayyyyy more expensive to repair / replace. You are right to avoid airmatic suspension. From there, just determine which options you really want, like the distronic cruise control? Lane keeping? Keyless? Pano roof? I've noticed that MB is very a-la-carte with the options, especially on the base models. I'm looking for a GL(S) 550 soon, I may compromise on a newer / lower mileage 450, but I really have to inspect every option on the 450, where the 550 seems to just come fully loaded all the time. The 550s all have real leather interior. The Designo interiors are just beautiful!

cetialpha5

If there's a crash, insurance would probably be involved and it's the insurance that would pay. Otherwise the lights probably list for $1000-$1500 per headlamp, but maybe they're in the $200-$300 range used and aftermarket Hella lights which I believe was the OEM maker is in the $600-$700 range. I have the bixenons on both cars and they're in that range. But I've yet to crash the car yet so don't really worry about those kinds of things. Sorta like losing the key, they may be in the $500 range per key. Just don't do it, haven't done it so far. On the base models, the real problem is that once you start to add on all the options, you mind as well get a higher end model like the E550 or E400 so you never really find a really loaded base model although mine come close. I always started the lighting package and then tried to see if they had the pano, then parktronic etc. At this stage, most of them had keyless but that wasn't true of the earlier models.