rose

Hallo all. Took delivery of a "99 ML 320 on sat lastand first impressions are so,so. Car has 79K miles and is unmarked inside and out. Drive is OK but for a car with 200HP it wouldn't pull the socks off a dead man ! To try and get power to overtake is just impossible. From reading some of the posts on here it would be suggested the first item to replace would be the air flow meter. The car has been driven from new by an elderly lady who has assured me the car never saw more than 60mph. Is it possible that the cat couldbe blocked as well. Would appreciate any feedback or suggestions.

Thanks

rose

sosh

CAT should not be blocked. That happens either by it coming apart internally and would rattle or by using the wrong fuel and running very rich. As far as performance what do you expect from a 8 or 9 year old vehicle with that amount of miles. Your vehicle should not be used to rate the ML

pointman

You bought an 8 year old car with 70k miles on it that comes with a 6 cylinder to haul that heavy *** car around. What did you expect? Perhaps a simple test drive would have done the trick.

rose

First of all when you get offered an ML in this condition for $5K you can't be too fussy because its a nice old bus for the missus to drive. I bought it sight unseen and would have thought that the age and the milage should have no effect on the cars performance if it was maintained OK. The power output should be almost the same as when the car was new. I have a 30 year old 911 turbo which drives and looks exactly the same as it did in 1976. I actually went and drove another ML320 today just to see if the power thing was a figment of my immagination and it was almost the same story. It was marginally better, just.

sosh

You got what you paid for and thats not much. Guess you don't think much of your wife putting her in that thing. You are the consumate bottom feeder!!

Sanpareil

Rose, Don't let these two bother you. They obviously have little ones, if you know what I mean. The ML320 isn't the fastest car on the road, but you got a fantastic deal on a very good vehicle for your wife to use.

Now, onto some helpful tips. You may or may not know that the transmission has the ability to learn. It is adaptive, and it probably drives like the old lady who owned it because it "learned" to drive that way. You can go to the dealer and have the transmission reset, or in time it will "learn" to drive like you want it to. In other words by driving it "hard" ( fast starts etc.) it will be a little more responsive. There are other factors that may be affecting your performance, ie. change the oil, change the air filter, spark plugs, plug wires, proper air pressure in the tires, clean or replace the MAF and or O2 sensors, etc.

Always use at least the minimum octane rating, as the engine has a knock sensor, which when using lower octane fuel might retard the timing, thus reducing the engines power.

Give it some time and read from these and other forums. Good luck and don't let anyone make you feel bad for buying a 320. Take care of it and it will last a very long time. I regularly take my MBZ and my BMW's into the 170K mile range before I get new vehicles. Others run them until 250K+ miles, so don't let anyone make you think that 70K miles is the reason your vehicle has no power! At 70K miles you vehicle is still a pup.

pointman

You just proved my point. Test drive, no surprises. You bought something without knowing anything about it, then complain. Think about it guy.

pointman

Cute, the internet's little dick argument. Very original, Ewarrior. Any coincidence that you joined today and have only one post? Hahahaaha, what a pathetic loser. IP check!

rose

Thanks for that. Its just that after getting out of my daily transport ( X5 Diesel) the ML just feels way too big for the engine. I ran a diagnostic test on it this evening and absolutely no fault whatsoever showed up. Maybe on a MB OEM machine it might be a different story.You are probably right in what you said about the usage, it really needs a good hard few weeks on the open road to loosen it up a bit. The lady who drove it over the years is in her late seventies and Im fairly certain the 79K miles were religious ones !

AsianML

ECU reset!! I'm in love with doing this.....but I'm questioning the long term affects of doing it every month.

1. Turn key to ON position, but don't start the car.
2. Depress accelerater pedal all the way down, even to kickdown switch for around 10-15 seconds.
3. Release gas pedal, and turn key all the back to off, but don't take it out.
4. After a few minutes you can the key out.

This should reset the adaptive tranny, so to speak.

marcelc

Try an ECU reset (see previous post), this should help with perceived performance.

And why is it easier to take socks off a dead man than a live one?

mihir_d

At 79K miles

1. You certainly want your catalytic converters (CATS) inspected. The CATS are warranted by the manufacturer upto 80K miles (under emissions warranty) and if they have cracked, you will get a free replacement (It is huuuge freebee to miss out on...they cost about $2400 to replace)

2. I would recommend replacing spark plugs...again improves low end torque and power output significantly.

3. I would inspect and clean (if not replace) the mass air flow sensor (MAF).

Finally reset the ECU...

All of that should bring the engine's performance in terms of power output, torque and mileage back to new....

AndrewAZ

LOL the ML320 is ridiculously fast for an SUV, it will beat more normal cars on the road in a drag race. Its as fast as a BMW 325CI convertible, it will hold off most older V6 mustangs from a roll, I could keep going on and on but really the ML320 is a quick SUV. Especially the older ones since they weight so much less than the 00 and 02 ML's.

timdf

The ML320 is a sloth - no way is it as fast as a BMW 325CI or many similar auto's.

It's a porky SUV with a wheezy under powered 3.2l V6 engine.

Only when you get into ML500 above do you get something like acceptable performance.

Maybe you've got an ML500 and don't realize ? ;-)

Just my opinion - based on comparing our ML430 to our little 1.6L mini cooper S.

cyeung65

Wait til you get 20+mpg on that open road. Not too shabby for a 5000 lb 4WD vehicle that can seat up to 7.

You said you paid $5k??? I would too - sight unseen (of course I am a bit biased)

rose

Job Done,
Changed MAF sensor, plugs,air, oil & fuel filter and reset the ECU as suggested above and I now have a totally different car to drive. It no longer goes into a nose dive when you press the gas pedal. It does feel like a new car (despite some people thinking it was beyond it best at 79K )and " her indoors " is very happy with her new drive.
Thanks again for all the input.

AndrewAZ

ow it is trust me. Most cars do 0-60 in 8-10 seconds the ML falls right in the middle of that. The drive train slows the ml down from 0-60. I raced my friends v6 mustang with mods and from a stop he would pull a few cars up to 70 but from a 25 mph roll he could only pull 1/2 a car on me.

You just need to get used to flooring the car and using the kick down switch to get the power out of the motor.

sosh

You are comparing apples and oranges. Compare it with other SIMILAR vehicles not those little asian cars with the buzzy high revving engines. Consider power to weight ratios, The ML is a truck not an econobox.

tromar1

i'm a little confused...why is he a "consumate bottom feeder?"

sosh

A 5000 dollar very old ML bought sign unseen and a do it yourself guy, figure it out!!

rose

I Presume you meant sight unseen. I normally reside over on the Porsche Turbo forums and we do get disturbed people like yourself visiting from time to time but they all eventually run out of steam.
For your information where I come from a new ML 320 costs $116K so when you get offered an exceptional ML from a solicitor as part of state disposal you don't ask questions. You yourself would have bought it in these circumstances. What is wrong with the " Do it yourself guy " I know for a fact that over on the porsche forums and probably here also over 80 % are DIY people all because of the exorbitant prices charged by the main dealers.
You should lighten up a bit, your not just having a go at me but at most DIY people on here !
Have a nice day.

tromar1

"Figure it out!!" ??? I'm not slow by any measure, I'm a MBA and very capable of reading comprehension...I asked because I wanted you to verbalize why you made that assessment. Based on your response, it confirmed my initial thought.

Sosh, the forum is here for people to come together and ask questions, share ideas, and to interact with people with similar interest. Now that Rose clarified the circumstances of how he got the ML, doesn't that change your perspective a little? I would hope it does, because if it didn't, then your assessment of him would actually fit you more appropriately. One doesn't have to be poor, or opportunistic to be a bottom feeder...and conversely, a persons portfolio doesn't exclude he/she from being one either.

In the infamous spirit of one who had his *** whupped..."Can't we all just get along?"

pointman

Which board? Whats your handle? Where is it that the 320 costs 116k?

rose

The board is www.911turbo.com and where the ML costs this amount is Ireland. 91K Euro to be exact. and the annual road tax for an ML over here is 1370 Euro and a gallon of petrol now costs 4.86 euro. Now you can see why $5K is good value >

pointman

Okay. I thought you were on one of the bigger boards. That place is tiny.