mskembo

I was active on the W203 forums many years ago, but now my wife has her eyes set on a W212 (2010 E350) with really low mileage and we are planning on picking it up tomorrow. There don't seem to be a bunch of known problems with these cars (excitingly!), but I thought I'd check in with the real life experts here.

kajtek1

Trims fading and seats tearing seems to be only common complains, although they seem to be hit or miss.
Still 10 years old car calls for proper inspection.
Good luck with the purchase.

mskembo

Thanks. I had an independent shop go through it and they gave it a clean bill of health. Looks like we are buying a Mercedes today.

ccww

To my knowledge, the only trim affected by fading is Burl Walnut. Members here have various suggestions to prevent it, largely focused on UV protection. Be aware that if the car has the Burl Walnut and it’s already faded it is prohibitively expensive to replace.

Congratulations on the purchase! W212s are rock solid cars and I think you’ll enjoy it greatly!

Arrie

If it is a 4Matic I would be a little bit worried about the transfer case problems.

KEY08

That is the one thing that could send a good deal on this car to the graveyard. The age scares me.

wdbii

Transfer case problems? Link please?

mskembo

Are those rampant? I've seen conflicting info about it and some people put it down to poor maintenance. Because, of course it's a 4Matic!

KEY08

The planetary gear can wear and cause issues. Replacing it does not always fix the problem, and may require a complete new transmission swap. That transmission is quite pricey.

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...ing-wheel.html

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...nsmission.html

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...-problems.html

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...nsmission.html

LILBENZ230

I would pass on the 4Matic, but surely you can find a RWD one? Welcome back, btw. I am also a W203 alumni.

mskembo

One of our requirements for her new car was that it be AWD (we live in Utah, so it's helpful a few months a year). We've decided to roll the dice, so hopefully we win, if not it is only money!

pierrejoliat

I have had seven 2wd Benz's and two with 4 magic, in the snow they are awesome. If I lived in the sun belt, I would have chosen 2wd, because as stated above, there are less moving parts hence less maintenance so obviously the less parts, the less to break!. I haven't seen a 2wd in Cleveland for ten years at least now.
I have had zero issues with fourmatic so far but my cars have very low mileage, I know in the mid to late 2000"s they were prone to trouble, but I haven't heard anything like that lately.

In my opinion the pluses far outweigh the minuses, especially in the snow and ice. Best 4wd I ever had!

cetialpha5

You also have to take some of these problems with a grain of salt. Some of these problems manifested itself early in the ownership period. Lately there haven't been too many complaints so it's basically a roll of the dice but many don't run into that problem. For instance on the pano roofs, the roofs going off track or the shade breaking also has many threads, but I haven't had those problems on mine and both of my 4matics have been fine. Some things like faded wood and ripped seat are very common and other problems are much less common so that it makes sense to roll the dice on the less common items and hope that you don't get that problem.

Arrie

Being in Utah I thought it may be 4Matic...

Lots of writing about the 4Matic issues in this forum. Some say it is the planetary gear problem. Personally I think it is too weak bearing that allows a shaft to move, which messes up with gear mesh but in any case, it seems to be an issue on E-class 4Matics and if it fails all together sending junks of steel around in the transmission the whole gear box may need replacement.

My own opinion is that if I lived in a place needing an AWD vehicle it would not be a MB. I would get Audi Q7 that I actually had at one point. Audi makes by far the best AWD system.

Good luck with you E.

mskembo

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. In the end we got into this E350 cheap enough that if that happens it won't be the end of the world. We looked at a bunch of Audis, she just happened to fall in love with this MB

pierrejoliat

Pretty sure the Q7 uses the Borg-Warner transfer case like the GL. Most of the MB, Audi and BMW transfer cases are made by Getrag-Magna.

up_too_late

No spare in the Audi Q7 so I crossed that off the list of possible vehicles for a recent purchase for the Wife. She chose a 2018 GLE 350 4Matic, which seems to have same powertrain as my S212. My issues to date have been leaking diff and camshaft position sensor seals and the pano roof pop.

LILBENZ230

Post up pics when you can. Also, I went through your W203 thread in your signature (and saw my own posts on it) - what a blast from the past. So many familiar names that I don't see here anymore.

mskembo

I know, I actually went and signed into that photobucket account and showed my wife pictures of my old C240 (I'm married to a more reliable and feature packed model now). I'll start a thread for the new W212 this weekend. I wonder how Phister is doing, I haven't talked to him in years.

C280 Sport

They are solid cars. Look for faded wood trim and drivers seat tearing. That is really it.

MBNUT1

I can assure you in my case the failures were not due to poor maintenance (its an undersized bearing issue). I have had the transfer case rebuilt twice (luckily the Indy stood behind his work on the first rebuild ($3K with fluid change) assuming that you can find someone to rebuild it, otherwise its a complete unit change ($8500 if you went to a dealer)).

My front diff was replaced (not sure that wasn't a misdiagnosis associated with the second transfer case failure but there was metal in the lubricant and no you can't change the front diff fluid without pulling the right axle out which means pulling the suspension apart).

You will also get the pleasure of replacing the engine mounts (very painful on the 4matics) and the transmission mount (relatively easy) if they haven't been done already.

Heater blowers, thermostats (will trip a CEL) and oil separator covers are a common failures. These items aren't that big of a deal.

Also had some issues with the fuel vapor evap system that resulted in not being able to restart the car at the gas pump at Costco one day. It started the next day after sitting over night. I forgot the code that it threw. The code came and went and messed up the shifting and hasn't been back after I sprayed the inside of the purge valve with WD40.

There are threads on intake manifold tumbler flap failing and causing CELS.

All my wood was replaced once and is fading again and I have replaced the seat cover (getting the seat heater wire disconnected is difficult).

Replaced both the main and auxiliary batteries.

All of this occurred except for the wood and blower between 93K and 128K miles. The car was maintained by the book by the dealer and I have babied it in terms of how it has been driven (at one point the average indicated fuel mileage was 25 MPG)

Like you say these cars are so cheap used you can afford to throw them away if they get too costly. Good luck.

MBNUT1

Had an '98 A4 Quattro that I tracked and my teenage son drove (lord knows the abuse it took there) and only had to replace one drive axle (and that was due to n an unattended to torn CV boot) in 220K miles.

LILBENZ230

A transfer case replacement in an E350 is $8500? The Macans are known for TC issues as well and those replacements are half that cost.

KEY08

That is the cost of the transmission replacement which comes with the integrated transfer case. It is one unit now. Earlier 4Matics had a separate transfer case similar to your Macan and other 4WD systems

MBNUT1

I had heard that the transfer case and transmission were a matched set. Good luck finding someone to rebuild the transfer case. I was lucky in that my indy took it on (if you call a $3k repair lucky) and it took him two goes (he said they were learning how to set the clearances properly).