Hello there , My name is jack
I recently purchased a 2013 Mercedes-Benz E-350 Sedan(W212) in RWD with 117k miles on it , for a very low price. This is my first Mercedes Benz and I am thrilled to finally own what I considered as a child to be one of the most beautiful car designs on the road. The seller was quite honest with me , that the car needed expensive work and it was becoming TOO expensive for him after putting grandchildren through college. He sold me the car at a fraction of the value and im left with a stunning car that is just a dream to own. Until I start to think about what could possibly need to be fixed and how much it will cost/ how long it will take.
Nevertheless , I am prepared to spend as much money as necessary to return this car to its former glory. For starters , I'm wondering if anyone here can give me some general knowledge on this specific E-350, its common problems and possible issues at this point in its life.
So far I have noticed that the car has a vibration while driving ,when the Rpms are low,(below 2,000). As the car goes thru its gears this vibration becomes more and more prevalent until it reaches Gear7 where its pretty bad. the vibration leaves me with such an uneasy feeling that I ALWAYS take the car out of its automatic and put the transmission into "6" preventing it from using its 7th gear. This seems to make the vibration less noticeable for me at the speeds I drive omw to work (50-60MPH). No clue what this is.

If anyone has any knowledge about this please help me out.

 

Welcome to W212 ownership. I have an '11 S212 and have gotten a lot of help in the past regarding wrenching on my vehicle from the fellow members here. After reading your symptoms, I searched YouTube and got a similar sounding problem posted on there....(I haven't encountered the problem myself so could not post firsthand info)...

 

Just common new old car things. Replace all the fluids and filters unless you have some kind of records of the previous work. Even then its nice to start fresh with that part. Possibly engine and trans mounts need attention. Nice its RWD, less stuff to worry about.

Not sure if you do your own work, if not careful of dealers obviously and try and find an indy in your area that is good and hopefully trustworthy.

 

My guess is motor mounts, maybe the tranny mount. Mine did the same and that was the cause. Mounts only last ~5 years or so

 

im hoping that is the case , have you had any problems with the Torque Converter/Driveline?

 

i have seen this video , and have taken it into consideration , was just wondering if anyone with some knowledge of the W212 and S212 has had this same issue and done maintenance on it before.

 

Many here have, many have had vibrations issues of many kinds. Ya gotta start with a baseline or something to work off of. Doing the simple stuff I mentioned, get a code reader see if any codes have popped. So many issues have similar indications its hard to narrow down exactly what it is.

Give the experts stuff to work with basically, and keep charging.

 

If this is actually true ie the vibrations diminish with increase engine rpm regardless of road speed this points to engine mounts. They can be inspected, as worn mounts collapse with time and a trained eye should be able to assess them. But as a caveat I would say bad engine mounts are most noticeable just off idle.

 

I agree with the other responses;
The 2 Engine Mounts & 1 Transmission Mount are really overdue for replacement. Do your research to find the most stellar MB independent
mechanic, which I have done in San Francisco
because the dealer costs are exorbitant.

 

I found maintenance on E350 is simple , DIY simple, the vibration could be as simple as wheels not balanced correctly to rotors being bad. YouTube your best friend when it comes to fixing your car