CarFan1

Last weekend I went in for B service at the local dealer. I was not surprised since I didn't have a coupon to get a bill for $359.95. However the dealer also recommended new tires, an alignment, new spark plugs, a new battery for a final total of $2495.

Upon being pressed the service advisor backed off on the spark plugs saying that he was recommending changing them due to age, not to miles or performance and thus he suggested that I didn't "need" to have the work done.

The tires offered were OEM Pirellis and were being sold for $330 a piece. I declined. I looked online while having an ice cream sundae in the waiting room and saw clearance priced Pirelli PZ4s for $99 a piece. I immediately ordered them. Finally I decided to agree to let them put in the battery only to get an eye watering $400 fee including installation.

Is everyone paying this for MB batteries?

When I got home I decided to look up the PZ4 tires and read that they have a remarkably short tread life: 15- 18k miles for a set. Considering I just passed $33k miles on the car after 6 years I'm averaging roughly 5500 miles a year meaning I might be able to get 3 years out of them.

I had the tires installed at Discount tire near me 3 days later. And on Friday my wife and I went to see her Aunt who lives 140 miles a way. This I had hoped might be a good way to assess the tires.

Observations: The speedometer is slightly off roughly to the tune of .5 miles. Using my phone the speed vacillated between 70 and 71 for the trip. On the old set even when they had worn down the speedometer and satellite tracking were locked on.

The ride isn't bad at all -- in fact it feels pretty much the same. But considering these aren't run flat tires I expected a noticeable improvement. Having 18 inch wheels I've actually not had any complaints about my ride comfort but I guess I erroneously assumed that there would be some notable improvement in the ride.

Fuel economy may have taken a slight hit. I'm not sure. I've been quite impressed with the MPG of my e-class for some time. Although this is only a "Sunday" car or occasionally road trip car I see regularly see fuel economy on the trip meter above 36 mpg. This trip we did 34.1 headed there and 34.5 headed back. We will probably head back after Labor Day so I'll see.

Finally, handling seems improved. I have to admit my Formula racing days are long past but occasionally there are circumstances where I end up having to put a vehicle through its paces. I had two occasions on the road trip. One was an elevated bridge off the toll road that connected to the interstate. The exit is initially 2 lanes off to the right and then turns to one lane and makes a sharp left and then a dramatic drop to merge on the interstate. The speed sign at the exit drops from 70 - 65 then to 50 and then to 35 before heading back up to 65 and then 70 on the interstate.

I use the adaptive cruise almost exclusively on long trips and this is where the handling demonstrated. At the set speed of 70 I passed a couple cars on the exit lane and then led them to the curve. With no car in front the MB barreled ahead at 70 pass the 35 mph sign. I briefly wondered if I could take the turn without braking but then I looked over at my wife who had suddenly stopped paying attention to the book she was reading. Before she could offer any input I used the brakes. We went through the curve around 55 and then I re-engaged cruise and the car accelerated down the merge lane and we entered the interstate (where at 70 I have to stay in the right lane to avoid being run off the road. ) My takeaway is that the car handled the higher speed curve pretty well. The other two cars behind were barely in my mirror when I merged on to the interstate. But of course on level ground they quickly passed me.

The other instance involved a standing start to pull into traffic. I found what I though was a gap to enter onto two way traffic and just as a I did a vehicle 2 blocks away did the same thing. I turned left and he turned right meaning he was heading towards me. I realized that he was really accelerating so in order to make sure I had completed my left turn I punched. I heard tire spin. In six years I've never heard tire spin. I assumed stability control/ESP prevented that kind of result. Was that a coincidence or the new tires?

If we follow pattern we'll probably trade in the MB in 3 years. But just in case I've been looking at what other tires might be best for a more sedate drive more interested in fuel economy, ride and tread wear.

I asked my wife her thoughts on the tires after the trip and she said she loved the price.

E300-18

Regarding the battery, I paid $373 earlier this year and installed it myself. So $400, including installation, sounds reasonable to me.

If I knew what I was doing, I probably could have bought a compatible battery cheaper somewhere else. I've had issues at a generic parts store, where year/make/model doesn't necessarily get what I need for a Mercedes. Some things vary, and the Mercedez parts counter always asks for the VIN.

JTK44

The following battery sizes fit: H7 or H8 .

They can be bought, including installation at Walmart for about $180. The batteries come with a 4 year warranty.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/EverStart...0&from=/search

https://www.walmart.com/ip/EverStart...0&from=/search

ua549

Check carefully. They do not fit all W213 models. It depends on the engine.

JTK44

I believe the standard battery is the H7. By removing the brackets, the H8, with more capacity, will also fit.

Many have posted the replacement of the H7 with the H8 by removing the bracket, which is held in place by one bolt.

E300-18

Those are the type of details that would trip me up. I know that I'm going to pay a premium for anything directly from Mercedes, regardless of whether it's genuinely better quality. I also know that it's going to be the right part.

On a much smaller scale, I tried to buy a pair of wiper blades at Auto Zone. The guy looked it up on his computer, and I bought the indicated product, but they wouldn't connect to my car. The guy was nice when I returned them, and he got a chuckle when I told him, "My car is weird." He came out to the parking lot with me, because he was genuinely curious about why the wiper blades wouldn't connect. I really need to know what I need, if I go outside of the Mercedes world.

JTK44

For wiper blades go to O'Reilly auto parts for direct replacement Bosch wiper blades: $39.99 a pair

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c...des+Benz&pos=0

superswiss

Spark plugs are due at 5 years or 50k miles, whichever comes first. I wouldn't skip those. As for tires, not a 100% sure which Pirellis were OEM for your car, but might be the Cinturato P7. That's an all-season grand touring tire. The PZ4 you got is a summer performance tire, so not surprising you find the handling improved. The PZ4 is mainly meant for performance cars. The softer compound makes it sticky, but that's also what shortens the thread life. Being a summer tire, it's not suited for colder temperatures below 40-45F, so I hope you don't plan to drive your car in the winter when it gets cold on these tires. The compound will turn into a hockey puck and traction will be very limited even in the dry. It's called the glass transition, when the rubber molecules become more plastic-like at cold temperatures. For normal sedan type driving you wanna stick to the touring tire category. Those are quiet, comfortable and most of them are all-season, so they are fine in the cold as well. Not necessarily in the snow, but in the cold and wet.

CarFan1

Thanks for the insight. Much appreciated. I think they were the Cinturatos on the car. Our Mercedes isn't a daily driver so I'm not too worried about the temps (which occasionally drop to 40 as our seasonal low). Plus, we've got AWD options as an alternative that we use most days regardless of weather.

When I was looking at tires online I came across the Cross Climate 2 -- a severe snow rated tire used all season. They are rated for 60k miles. If it weren't for the price I saw online I might have seriously considered them.

Ultimately my question is: why did the dealer drop the idea of the replacement spark plugs without requiring me to provide much push back? I bought the battery after all and I hadn't even noticed any issues with the battery.

superswiss

I forgot to mention noise. The P Zero starts out quiet, but gets noisy as it wears. Some versions of the PZ4 have noise cancelling foam inside the tire to keep it quiet, but the P Zero w/o noise cancelling is one of the noisiest performance tires. I loved the performance of them on my previous car, but at about the half wear point they got super noisy, especially on concrete tarmac. I'm a Michelin guy normally, but the P Zero was the OE tire on my previous car and Michelin had shortages at the time, so I went through a few sets of the P Zero, before finally changing them to the Michelin Pilot Super Sport and then the Michelin PS4S. I wouldn't go back to the P Zero.

Yes, the CrossClimate 2 is an excellent tire. I've put it on my wife's car. I'm usually not an all-season tire guy, but this one has excellent dry/wet performance and in addition it actually is snow rated. We occasionally drive up to Lake Tahoe in the winter and we take this car when we do, so the snow capabilities may come in handy. Even w/o it, though, this tire kinda has it all for a normal every day car. My own car is an AMG and mainly a weekend car, so I'm on Michelin PS4S all year around here in the SF Bay Area. Winter is mild, so cold temperatures and snow are not a factor unless as said we are heading up to the mountains.

Why did your SA not push back? Well, they'll make more money when you need a new engine, because the spark plugs disintegrated . I'm half joking of course, but you don't want the insulators to start cracking and fall off and get yanked through the engine. At best the combustion will get less efficient and your mpg goes down as the plugs don't spark as effectively anymore, but when they start to actually fall apart then it's no fun.