corsair944

Hi,
What life is everyone seeing out of your starters? I have my daughters 2013 E350 pretty much disassembled on the left side of the engine and the starter looks pretty original. As much trouble as it looks to get back in there, should i replace now as "preventive maintenance"
Thanks everyone

CaliBenzDriver

The starter guts are solid but the brushes are extra soft carbon that wears short - Change the brushes.

As far as life span, it directly depends on driving habits city/hwy, ECO stops... In general these starters are not bad troublemakers.

Fliplegend

The starters for cars with the start/stop feature are built robust but as you already mentioned, you are already there and it's in a tight place so personally, I would replace it. While you are in there, you may as well do the motor mounts.

kajtek1

The only starter I had to replace on MB was 1998 SL500 at 196,000 miles.
Replacing the brushes would be good maintenance, but good luck finding supplier for them.
You don't have ECO shutdowns?
Suppose starters for those engines are 8x stronger than for 1 without the option. Mine with ECO is at 150k miles still turning strong.

corsair944

I already got new motor mounts, thats why Im so far into it. still debating on the starter

Fliplegend

If it was fine before and you are debating, forego the replacement. You already know how to get to it so IF you need to get back in there, it should be much faster.

DFWdude

There have been very few threads here regarding starters, so I think they are likely good for the lifetime of the average car (under 200K miles).

The electric starter in my 2001 C-Class is still going strong after 169,000 miles.

ygmn

remove it and go get it tested as a minimum at local auto parts store

Per owner's manual and the DUMB ECO thingy
MB says starters are now more robust and designed for all the starts they would do using ECO STOP/START