islooevolution

hey what's up guys. i've posted a few times on here before but never about my suv or any problems I've experienced (which of there have been a lot). I bought this brand new in sept 1998, one of the 1st people in virginia to have 1, and thought I made a good choice. I compared the lexus lx470, the lincoln naviagtor, landcruiser, durango, and expedition before finally settling on the mercedes, mainly because it was 'new' and offered the best ride. well the car died about two weeks ago while we were off-roading. it had about 130,000 miles on it, with a brand new transmission installed about 10k miles back. it was my 1st time taking the car off-roading and i wasn't expecting much. i went down to nags head to drive on the beach a little and then check out what off-roading they had to offer. before even entering the beach, we read the owners manual carefully and learned about not goin in water more then 20inches deep. okay so everythings good. 1st time takin the car off-roading and everyones happy. it rained 2 days before i got there so the water had shallowed and i brought a stick measure with me so i could measure the water before slowly going through. well guess what. i got stuck. the engine swallowed water (even tho i had measured and it was approx 17.5in). we get out and there's this clunking noise coming from the valve compartment. i knew it was toast before a word had been said. mind you, i was a 10min drive from our campsite and no place to go but thru more water to get there. so we drive on, me thinking the engines going to blow. the car still drives normal, changes gear normally. everythings normal, except the clunking. this is in N.C and i live in D.C. and we had no other way of gettin back but the suv. so we took our chances and tried to drive all the way to norfolk (my bros place). the car was running great, the noise still present, but nothing else happening. we're about 12miles out of norfolk, going 60mph, just passin an exit when the engine decides it's had enough. i can't tell you how lucky i got when the engine gave way. we were just passin an exit, so i had a quick second to either turn from the middle lane all the way to the left and get off or park ont eh side of the road at 10pm and wait for help. lucky enough i had enough time to cross over and made it 2 a 7-11. lucky!!! as soon as turned into the parking lot the engine just lost it. the sounds were 100X louder and unbearable (steel againest steel). look under the engine and the coolant and a mixture of water and oil are on the bottem and the whole engine steaming. well we reached norfolk at 1230 that nite, even though we were only 12miles away. any ways long story short, got it towed to a merc dealer and recieved an estimate withing 48hours. well the rep called me and he tells me if this is a good time and i'm like yeah. then he's like well i think you should sit down, and then tells me the repair bill is $28,000. i start laughing, obviously knwoing that's double the price of the car. he tells me a rod #4 broke and peirced a hole thru the engine. caused exessive damage etc. my question is to you. do i need to replace EVERY part of the engine or just the engine assembly. i'm gettin decent quotes from junk yards on used mercedes engines for <$3000 with less then 100k miles. I'm still confused. SHould i just throw a ML55 engine in or maybe even the 4.3L engine. I don't know how many people have taken their ML's off-road, but before you sell it or throw it our please DO SO. it's AMAZING. it handled everything i threw at it w/out blinking. ride was still comfortable. pretty amazing off-roader. it should just have a snorkel. otherwise it handled it superbly. the engine sucked hte water in as we were leaving hte course, so I had all day to check it out and i give it a 2 thumbs up. just watch the water level and double check just 2 be sure (even snap a couple of pictures measuring the depth, and if ur engine sucks in water, you can show the pictures with the measurements <20inchs).
let me know what you guys think. I think the final cost including installation and delivery will come to about $3500-4500. SHould I do it, or should I just donate it 2 a charity.

Billiken

Although I'm sorry to hear of your misfortune, what a great story.

Frankly, I don't know if the charities would accept it without a working engine.

Good luck with your deci$ion.

pointman

uhh.. you have a 99 and are one of the first to have one in your area? and you only have two posts including this one... i dont think you have made a "few" posts in the past.

and if you are serious, get the 55 motor. or scrap the car.

islooevolution

oh yeah my bad for sayin few posts instead of a couple. didn't know it'd be that serious.Anyways, the car is coming back next week and must choose an engine by the end of this month. I really like the off-road feel. I mean there's not much I would get if I sell it or give it away, so I was thinkin why not turn it into a full off-roader. Snorkel, lift, etc. Have you guys seen any. I think I saw on for the rally that happened a couple months back. Let me know what you guys think.

straightSIX

I dont know if your tranny could handle the 55 motor, but you probably have a good chance with the 4.3 motor. I'd just find a used engine elsewehre and revive the truck. You can buy a new car for 30k!

sosh

It did not die, you killed it!! Remember lots of other components have been exposed to salt water, ie the suspension, wiring, etc. etc. Scrap the thing!! You can't be too bright

islooevolution

nah man i wasn't driving in the WATER. there's this really tight place in nags head, but to get there you have to drive on the BEACH SAND (not water...dont know why you sed that?) so there's no harm with salt water. the water then went in was rain water. there were like small/medium puddles and stuff that i measuered before going in so it's not like i was being a retard. i mean before going on the trip I knew there was a chance this was going to happen, so I was ready in that sense. It's seven years old and had never gone real off-roading. I wanted to experience the feeling and I was able to do that. job done. i'm not complaining, just warning others that this is a real possbility with puddles 15in in depth. i'm going to go with a ML430 engine from 2000. Yeah i was worried the transmission couldn't handle it, and my current one being new I didn't want to change it just for the v8 ml55. I'm going to raise it and start real off-roading. Going to HAVE to get a custom snorkle. thats my plan. what you all think?

N1PRJ

I have a place out on the outter banks. The ML does fine in the sand, better than I would ever have guessed. Don't even need to air down the tires as much as with the old '89 Toyota 4-Runner. But I don't think it matters what kind of water it is if you get a gulp into the engine. I also don't know of that many places where the fresh water is all that deep down there, except maybe the camp ground by the lighthouse in Buxton after a week of rain. Is that where you were? A lot of those puddles are actually brackish if not just plain salt. That's really the worst thing you can get up into tight places under the vehicle and it takes no time at all to start eating away at the guts. Get it washed good after it takes a bath like that.

Cozz

just because the #4 piston is shot doesn't mean the others are good. All of the pistons collected water, AKA, hydrolocked, but # 4 was the worst. The whole motor needs to be replaced becasue theat piston has put at least one whole in the chamber walls (the block). It's trash. Get a used motor from a JY but replace the timing chain before putting it in. Don't upgrade thae motor because you'll need to change the ECU. The ECU holds the milage along with the cluster. You can have issues with that.