Hello Everyone! Recently got a steel grey 2013 E350 4Matic sport. It has 79k miles and drives great, and i already started doing some DIY on it. Coming from the porsche world so parts manufacturers, and the websites to order from were the same which was nice. I already did an oil change, replaced the cabin, and engine filters but the most pressing maintenance item currently is servicing the transmission because it shifts pretty rough when im heavy on the gas (pretty sure the rough shifts are only from 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd). I read this is common with these 722.9+ transmissions and a fluid flush along with a adaptation reset usually resolves it, so i ordered a transmission service kit, and a Foxwell NT530+ for Mercedes.
I looked through the service history and i didnt find any transmission service records, so with it having 79k miles, and running on the original transmission fluid, im hoping this flush resolves the rough shifting. Other than that, everything else looks good, and it had the biodegradable brake lines replaced a year ago at 74k miles.
The only thing currently bothering me is that it has halogen low beam and high beam bulbs! Why, its an e-class?!?! Anyway, I have 2 sets of H7 LED bulbs on the way to replace both the high and low beam bulbs. Hopefully no CANBUS or flickering issues with the LED bulbs.
Infotainment isnt too bad, but would be nice if i could install a carplay kit in the factory radio. If anyone has any experience doing that, please let me know what you recommend.
Would love to hear from longtime W212 owners what their experience has been with them!
Welcome to your E350 journey. You may want to check the cam sensors for oil leaking in harness. Many ppl elect to replace these $50 parts and add disposable pigtails to prevent the $10k repair job.
Once you have the intake plenum removed, dump the engine oil out from the intake + catch-can then check or tune-up your ignition plugs + boots (+ coils).
Engine mounts, VVT Gears, chain tensioners, belt kit, coolant leaks, A/C compressor solenoid, ...
I hope your scanner allows you code out HL Bulb to LED - If not LAUNCH scanner may be more helpful for VARIANT Coding of F-DAM where the low current fault may disabled in 5mn, then no-problem with LED!
Even the interior footwell bulb current is monitored.
At that mileage front suspension freeplay will call attention to control arms and SB Links.
After a while you'll realize the engine response may be laggy below 2500Rpm. This is caused by the stock limited oiling.
thanks for replying! how often should the transfer case fluid and diff fluids be flushed? On my cayenne the transfer case was a massive problem and needed fluid flushed every 10k-15k miles.
Regarding the LED bulbs will i def get an error if replacing the high and low beams, or is that only with some bulbs (older bulbs)? Thanks.
thanks for replying! how often should the transfer case fluid and diff fluids be flushed? On my cayenne the transfer case was a massive problem and needed fluid flushed every 10k-15k miles.
Regarding the LED bulbs will i def get an error if replacing the high and low beams, or is that only with some bulbs (older bulbs)? Thanks.
Good questions!
As you learned on Cayenne... Xfer case need timely maintenance to keep bearings in top shape. Fluid is actually exchanged with tranny.
Differentials use 1Qt of unfiltered oil... 40 to 70kMi depending where you jeave and how you drive.
Your LED conversion is gonna need some research to tweak fault level.
I would not use a hot resistor to waste the power used by stock bulb.... many ppl do!
Try to programm your SAM limits or HL Module
Good questions!
As you learned on Cayenne... Xfer case need timely maintenance to keep bearings in top shape. Fluid is actually exchanged with tranny.
Differentials use 1Qt of unfiltered oil... 40 to 70kMi depending where you jeave and how you drive.
Your LED conversion is gonna need some research to tweak fault level.
I would not use a hot resistor to waste the power used by stock bulb.... many ppl do!
Try to programm your SAM limits or HL Module
good to know that the transmission fluid is used by the t-case as well. i will def test the LED bulbs before i button everything up/put the wheel back on (i read you have to remove the front wheel to access the driver side headlight housing/bulbs, haha). I got the Lasfit LED bulbs because i read on a couple other threads that they worked well with other Mercedes models from the same generation. I will definitely update this thread after i install them. Wish me Luck!
LED bulbs successfully installed in place of high beam halogen bulbs!
Started by installing the Lasfit H7 led bulbs in place of the high beam bulbs first because ofcourse they are much easier to access, and happy to report they fit perfectly in the factory bulb adapter, were vertical after locking the bulbs in place, and worked perfectly with no errors in the instrument cluster!
The first time I turned them on after install they did start flickering a little but, but after about 2 or 3 seconds, the flickering stopped, and they were lit up perfectly. I’m assuming the cars CANBUS system was adjusting for the different load/wattage of the new bulb, then everything was ok!
I then tested turning the high beams on and off several times after that, along with turning the engine on and off and getting out of the car and locking it as well, to make sure that flicker wouldn’t keep happening every time I turned the high beams on or flashed them, and they worked perfectly every time after that.
So if you install these LED bulbs and see them flicker the first time you turn them on, don’t panic, it will stop after a few seconds after the car adjusts to the new bulbs.
Will be replacing the low beams next with the same bulbs and will update you guys after those are installed as well. Crossing my fingers the low beams don’t cause any issues either, and then all the headlight bulbs will match the DRL LED strip’s which imo will make the car look much better and more modern.
Lastly, I know some people think LEDs don’t actually provide more visibility and/or light output than halogens do, but I can already see a huge improvement in visibility with the LED high beam bulbs vs the halogens.
Quick test to see if there were any issues after first LED bulb was installed, on the passenger side, and after the initial flickering stopped, it looked perfect! Quickly compared the difference in the shape of the light output, sorry not a great picture, but looked pretty similar with the LED just slightly bigger After both LED high beam bulbs were installed, they look great to me here and not blindingly bright… also perfectly matching the factory LED DRL’s!
Congrats on your car
Mileage wise , it's on the right side on the corner .
As for the infotainment systems, I have seen aftermarket systems that works well with the car's original unit but you have to select 3.5 AUX for them to work . Besides, Ottocast is another thing that also comes with built in dash cam but these don't show instant changes done by the driver or passenger such as A/C adjustment and works only in 12V outlet . Their display is quite big but I love their proportions looks like 18:9 .
Happy Driving
Serviced the transmission last night. Flushed the fluid, replaced the filter, green overflow pipe, pan gasket, pan bolts, and drain plug/crush washer. Both magnets had quite a bit of sediment on them (about 1/4 inch thick), but seemed normal since its been 80k miles without being serviced. Fluid didnt look too bad actually, it looked black, but when dipping your finger in it, it was a very light shade of black. All of those parts came in an excellent Elring kit specifically made to service the 722.9+ with everything you need for the service, included, except the fluid (Part No: Elring 620.160). It took the exact amount of fluid we were expecting, a 5 liter jug of Fuchs 7134 FE fluid to be properly filled, and i had purchased 7 liters to be safe. We filled it with the full 5L, turned the engine on and let it come up to temp. We then did the PRND sequence with our foot on the brake about 5-6 times. We left the engine running, and then went back to check the fluid level. We opened the fluid fill valve and fluid was flowing back, but slowly, so we closed the valve again so it would stay at this level. We figured the amount of fluid we will lose when removing the fill adapter will cause the stream to be flowing out very lightly, which would be the correct level.
Overall it was very smooth, and seemed much easier, for whatever reason, then when i did a similar transmission service on my 958 Cayenne, which also has a bottom fill transmission. On the cayenne, it went very bad, even though I followed the instructions exactly, the fluid still ended up being way too low. I dont understand why they dont put fluid level sensors in any bottom fill transmission, so you dont have to guess by looking at a stream, if your transmission is filled properly or not. Especially with how critical, and expensive a transmission is.
On the way home, the gear shifts that were smooth before, were so smooth now, i could hardly feel the car shift. The rough downshift was still the same though. Performed the shift adaptation reset this morning and will report back on how the rough downshift to 2nd gear feels after about 100 miles. Hoping the adaptation reset resolves this issue.
Anyways, I also purchased 2 liters of power steering fluid, so we could flush the power steering fluid as well, but when we opened the hood, and couldnt find a reservoir, we realized the car has EPS. Apparently the switch to EPS was on all the W212 models with the new 3.5L powertrain (2012 and 2013 model years and newer). That was a nice surprise but now im wondering what could be causing the laziness of the steering wheel going back to center after making a sharp turn. The wheel pretty much stays in place when turned, when your on the gas, its very strange, and ive never experienced that in any other car before. Hitting the gas makes no difference, i have to turn it back to center myself.
Thinking maybe i have an old software version of the EPS software, and hopefully there is an update that fixes this odd behavior. My buddy said a bad alignment could cause that as well, but even with a bad alignment, it shouldnt be as bad as what im experiencing. Has anyone else experienced this with their steering? Also, the steering wheel itself is extremely light, at all speeds, but i figured this might be by design since its a luxury barge primarily for older buyers. Even if that was the reason why the steering is so light, its still seems too light, its lighter than any Lexus ive driven, and i think might be the lightest/most heavily assisted steering wheel ive ever felt, which doesnt seem right.
With that being said, the light steering isnt really my concern, but the steering wheel not going back to center after turning is very strange. Any input would be appreciated.
Tried to replace the low beam bulbs today, and started with the passenger side that is supposedly easily accessible. Absolutely tore my hands up trying to get the bulb back in the housing. After 4 hours and my hands bleeding i gave up. Why is this so much harder than the high beams were?
I ended up just leaving the bulb hanging loose in the headlight housing and put the cap back on. Thinking of taking it to the dealer unless anyone has any tips to get it back in the damn housing. The adapter didnt even look bent or damaged, i couldnt figure out why it wasnt going in properly.
yes i just did the driver side today, pulling the wheel well liner, it took 2 minutes to lock the bulb in the housing and i did it first try. I will be doing the same for passenger side. Apparently they say you can do the low beam bulb on the passenger side from the hood area, but its almost impossible to lock it back in the housing, so i will be removing the wheel well liner from passenger side as well.
On to the parking lights next, which are last ones I’m gonna swap to LED. So far swapped 4 - H7 bulbs and 2 - 194/2825 bulbs. Car looks 10 million times better now, imo.
One parking light replaced with LED Both in now, wow, much better This is with headlights on, “auto” Headlights on, and high beams on
On to the parking lights next, which are last ones I’m gonna swap to LED. So far swapped 4 - H7 bulbs and 2 - 194/2825 bulbs. Car looks 10 million times better now, imo.One parking light replaced with LED Both in now, wow, much better
This is with headlights on, “auto”
Headlights on, and high beams on
May I ask which LasFit did you get to fit in the low beams? ProMB2 version? or the older type with the metal adapter.
In the past, other forum members concluded LasFit was too big to fit in the low beam housing.
I have LasFit Pro-MB2 (H7) bulbs in the ML350's low beams, and LasFit 159 bulbs for the parking lights—there's a massive difference from the original halogen/incandescent bulbs.
the low beam bulbs did trigger the check left/right low beam bulb light. Will try another brand or look into coding out that warning with the Foxwell. These are bulbs i purchased, they were same exact size as the halogen bulb, no fitment issues at all...
just wanted to mention that i drove around with the lights on some more at night, and the good news is that the warning in the instrument cluster that comes on for the LED low beams isnt very annoying at all. It comes up as a warning message once, you clear it, then its gone, and no warning lights are then illuminated in the instrument cluster related to the bulbs. You have to go back into your messages located in the same menu as the vehicle maintenance intervals to even see them again.
For now im thinking i can just live with the warnings, even if i cant code them out, or a different brand of LED triggers them as well. i was afraid there would be an illuminated bulb constantly showing in the instrument cluster, but there is not. The instrument cluster looks totally normal, not showing any errors at all, after the low beam bulb warnings were triggered, and i cleared them.
The one other thing i want to mention is i do not recommend these LASFIT bulbs i linked above for the low beam lights, they are not bright at all, and might be dimmer than the stock halogen bulbs. They are excellent in the high beams, and much brighter than the high beam halogen bulbs, but way too dim for the low beams. I already ordered the Sealight brand of LED bulbs and will swap the LASFIT low beam bulbs with them, and will update on how they are. They are listed as 32000LM which should be much brighter than the LASFIT bulbs. Sealight bulbs i purchased linked below, and if im very pleased with them in the low beam, i might even swap them in the high beams as well, just so they all match. Most importantly though, im hoping they dont trigger the warning in the instrument cluster.
For reference, these are the parking lights i purchased (Yorkim brand 194/2825 LED). They look great, and havent triggered any warnings in the instrument cluster so im going to look around the car, and see if there are more places using this size bulb that i can replace. Usually the footwell lights, interior cabin lights, license plate lights, etc all use this same size which is why i got the 10 pack. price is excellent too for the quality. https://a.co/d/9TQSiyr
For now, im leaving the turn signal bulbs as is, but im sure ill get bored in the future and swap those with amber LED's as well. Ive already checked and looks like those are bulb size 3157 in the head lamp housing, and on the side of the car in the bumper cover reflector, looks like they are amber 194 bulbs. If i do these in the future, ill do them together so they flash at the same speed.
Overall, I definitely recommend upgrading the headlight bulbs on the W212 to LEDs (if yours has halogen's, stock). I know some people arent a fan of LED's, but i think they substantially increase visibility, even more than HIDs. They also make the car look way more modern, because imo, the styling of the car still looks great, and it was the halogen headlights that aged the car. Now with the LED's, the car looks much better, and more modern. Another thing is if your used to driving cars with HID's or LED headlights you cant go back to driving cars with halogen bulbs.
Sealight bulbs I linked in the previous post didn’t trigger the Instrument cluster warnings for the low beams, and are way brighter! Highly recommend them and will probably replace the high beams with them as well.
Ditch the LASFIT bulbs and replace all of your halogen H7 bulbs with SEALIGHT H7 LED bulbs.
Today I realized that it looks like there are 2 different turn signal bulbs in the headlight housing and the amber bulbs in the reflectors (on the sides of the front bumper cover) do not flash with the turn signals, rather there is an LED strip in the driver and passenger side mirror that flash with them. If I decide to replace these, will only need to replace the 2 turn signal bulbs in the headlight housings and be done (4 bulbs total, 2 amber LEDs for each side).
Since I’ve solved the low beam bulb problem with the excellent Sealight H7 LEDs, I’ve already moved on to the amber turn signal bulbs, not sure why there would be 2 right next to each other in each headlight housing, but even stranger, it looks like one is size 3457a, and the other is PY21W? Can anyone confirm this?
Btw, I’m now purchasing all LED bulbs from the Sealight brand assuming this brand will be my best bet to avoid any CANBUS errors.
picture of the 2 amber bulbs in the headlight housing circled below…
Why is there 2 front amber turn signal bulbs in each headlight?
just wanted to mention that i drove around with the lights on some more at night, and the good news is that the warning in the instrument cluster that comes on for the LED low beams isnt very annoying at all. It comes up as a warning message once, you clear it, then its gone, and no warning lights are then illuminated in the instrument cluster related to the bulbs. You have to go back into your messages located in the same menu as the vehicle maintenance intervals to even see them again.
For now im thinking i can just live with the warnings, even if i cant code them out, or a different brand of LED triggers them as well. i was afraid there would be an illuminated bulb constantly showing in the instrument cluster, but there is not. The instrument cluster looks totally normal, not showing any errors at all, after the low beam bulb warnings were triggered, and i cleared them.
The one other thing i want to mention is i do not recommend these LASFIT bulbs i linked above for the low beam lights, they are not bright at all, and might be dimmer than the stock halogen bulbs. They are excellent in the high beams, and much brighter than the high beam halogen bulbs, but way too dim for the low beams. I already ordered the Sealight brand of LED bulbs and will swap the LASFIT low beam bulbs with them, and will update on how they are. They are listed as 32000LM which should be much brighter than the LASFIT bulbs. Sealight bulbs i purchased linked below, and if im very pleased with them in the low beam, i might even swap them in the high beams as well, just so they all match. Most importantly though, im hoping they dont trigger the warning in the instrument cluster.
For reference, these are the parking lights i purchased (Yorkim brand 194/2825 LED). They look great, and havent triggered any warnings in the instrument cluster so im going to look around the car, and see if there are more places using this size bulb that i can replace. Usually the footwell lights, interior cabin lights, license plate lights, etc all use this same size which is why i got the 10 pack. price is excellent too for the quality. https://a.co/d/9TQSiyr
For now, im leaving the turn signal bulbs as is, but im sure ill get bored in the future and swap those with amber LED's as well. Ive already checked and looks like those are bulb size 3157 in the head lamp housing, and on the side of the car in the bumper cover reflector, looks like they are amber 194 bulbs. If i do these in the future, ill do them together so they flash at the same speed.
Overall, I definitely recommend upgrading the headlight bulbs on the W212 to LEDs (if yours has halogen's, stock). I know some people arent a fan of LED's, but i think they substantially increase visibility, even more than HIDs. They also make the car look way more modern, because imo, the styling of the car still looks great, and it was the halogen headlights that aged the car. Now with the LED's, the car looks much better, and more modern. Another thing is if your used to driving cars with HID's or LED headlights you cant go back to driving cars with halogen bulbs.
Why not HIDs? How is your spread-and-throw? For the early-gen 212, LEDs will not perform as HIDs (it is poly-ellipsoidal).
Front sway bar links every 2 years
Hood struts for sure by now. Stabilus
Tranmission mount for sure by now, it's a quality of life thing
just keep the fluids fresh honestly.
Get a coolant and DOT4 tester pen and keep those fresh
Oil is 5w40, support your local Amsoil dealer if you want to upgrade lubrication
Rear diff doesn't really have a service interval, but I'd do it at 100k just cuz... its like $20 worth of oil.
Air filters and cabin filters annually. I do mine every six months. Yes I do notice a difference. Mann for everything, everything else just fits weird.
If you hear random squeaks only while turning, it's not the control arm bushings, those are pretty huge and robust, it's actually the disposable sway bar on these. They're like $150 and of course, replace them with the links.
The first suspension/control arm component to go is usually the thrust arm ball joint at the end. The rest is fairly robust.
DO NOT USE BUGWASH WASHER FLUID. It will gum up the sensor and report false low readings and clog your nozzles.
Do not pay someone to replace washer bottle, it's a 1hr job that just involves removing the wheel and the liner and it feeds straight up and out of the car. It's like $1200. Replace the bottle, pump(s), sensor, and 3 grommets.
The first coolant leaks are the cap every 3 years, thermostat, water pump, and the washer bottle heater hose in that order.
First oil leak is the cam magnets, sensors, oil filter housing, and the rear vent valve along witht he cam caps.
Oil pan becomes slightly porous over the years. Just get a new one instead of resealing the old one.
Brake compounds you can ditch and switch to ceramic pads. Brembo rotors are the way to go on these.
The blower motor is one of the easiest ones I've ever had to replace on a car.
The alternator requires removal of the upper radiator hose so just commit to it before you have to figure that out on your own.
You can replace the right cam sensors and magnets just by using knipex pliers, no need to remove oil filter housing
CLEAN YOUR SUNROOF DRAINS.
LUBRICATE YOUR HOOD LATCH AND DOOR HINGES ANNUALLY.
If you run the car out of battery do not just operate the vehicle, go full charge. Schumacher battery charger FTW. Your battery and alternator will thank you.
Please purchase Amsoil from me for your next oil change! 100% synthetic lubricants keep the car cooler and running stronger!
Slideshow: A one-of-one U.S.-spec Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster became even rarer after a factory-backed transformation at McLaren's headquarters.
