New W212 owner, new forum member
Thread Starter
Super Member
Joined: Mar 2024
Posts: 618
Likes: 241
From: Chicago
19 GLA45, 86 560SL, former: 14 E550 4Matic, 09 E350 4Matic, 83 240D manual, 78 450SLC, 81 500SLC
New W212 owner, new forum member
Hey everyone,
I'm a long time Mercedes owner with lots of experience working on my cars. My first car was a 1983 240D manual that I bought with 205k miles and sold with 265k miles. I did all the work on it in that time, including just about everything you can think of that such a car could possibly need. Over the next few years, I picked up two very cheap SLCs (a 450 and a 500). Neither of these made it onto the road and were used for other things. There is a thread on the post-mortem of the 500SLC on another forum if anyone is interested. Later, I picked up a W211 E350 4Matic and held onto it for 7 years, doing all the work as well. This one unfortunately was totaled which prompted me to get a car I've been wanting for a while--a 2014 E550 4Matic.
I never registered for this forum because for W123s, another forum was much more active. As I moved to more modern Mercedes, those subforums became less active. It seems this place is where it's at nowadays, so here I am.
Anyway, happy to be here and happy to help where I can.
I have a lot of questions about the W212 which I will most likely be asking here soon.
I'm a long time Mercedes owner with lots of experience working on my cars. My first car was a 1983 240D manual that I bought with 205k miles and sold with 265k miles. I did all the work on it in that time, including just about everything you can think of that such a car could possibly need. Over the next few years, I picked up two very cheap SLCs (a 450 and a 500). Neither of these made it onto the road and were used for other things. There is a thread on the post-mortem of the 500SLC on another forum if anyone is interested. Later, I picked up a W211 E350 4Matic and held onto it for 7 years, doing all the work as well. This one unfortunately was totaled which prompted me to get a car I've been wanting for a while--a 2014 E550 4Matic.
I never registered for this forum because for W123s, another forum was much more active. As I moved to more modern Mercedes, those subforums became less active. It seems this place is where it's at nowadays, so here I am.
Anyway, happy to be here and happy to help where I can.
I have a lot of questions about the W212 which I will most likely be asking here soon.
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 1,122
Likes: 188
'91 964 Turbo, '02 E55's & '14 E63s-w
Welcome to the W212 forum, it's a great place to be in. Currently looking into 2015 S550 for wife but the cylinder wall issues preventing me from doing so, are you concerned at all, have you read about it yet?
Thread Starter
Super Member
Joined: Mar 2024
Posts: 618
Likes: 241
From: Chicago
19 GLA45, 86 560SL, former: 14 E550 4Matic, 09 E350 4Matic, 83 240D manual, 78 450SLC, 81 500SLC
I've read about it and it seems like it's something that some people experience at rather low miles, but other people never experience. I took the chance on this car because I didn't have much time to be extremely diligent and I think I did OK. The car already has 134k miles on it and in my view, if this was going to pop up, it would have already.
I haven't scoped the cylinders to check for actual scoring, but I had some inspections done after I bought the car. The automatic compression check done by the on-board diagnostics shows nothing out of spec. So there might be some scoring, but not enough to affect compressions. Cylinders #1 and #5 were not abnormally higher than the others. The test was run 4 times and the max deviation between cylinders was 14rpm. The max allowable is a 25rpm difference. I'm not 100% sure about this, but in my view even if there is some scoring but it isn't affecting compressions, it's not a thing to worry about. In any case, I made my bed already so I'm not going to worry about it anyway. If it really comes down to it in the future, I'll grab an engine from a wrecked car and transplant it.
If you are concerned and have the chance, get someone with access to the Xentry system to run this test on a car you're considering buying.
I haven't scoped the cylinders to check for actual scoring, but I had some inspections done after I bought the car. The automatic compression check done by the on-board diagnostics shows nothing out of spec. So there might be some scoring, but not enough to affect compressions. Cylinders #1 and #5 were not abnormally higher than the others. The test was run 4 times and the max deviation between cylinders was 14rpm. The max allowable is a 25rpm difference. I'm not 100% sure about this, but in my view even if there is some scoring but it isn't affecting compressions, it's not a thing to worry about. In any case, I made my bed already so I'm not going to worry about it anyway. If it really comes down to it in the future, I'll grab an engine from a wrecked car and transplant it.
If you are concerned and have the chance, get someone with access to the Xentry system to run this test on a car you're considering buying.
