Hello all. No stranger to Mercedes, but a stranger to the E-350. I recently purchased a 2011 E-350 4matic from the garage that had been sitting in our lot for almost a year as the previous owner had it towed in for service and then basically abandoned it on the lot. The boss applied for title and I purchased it from him for $6,000. When this journey began it started out needing inner tie rods as she had snapped one of the inners when she hit something. So I had the inner and outer tie rods replaced and new tires installed. Performed an alignment and had a state inspection done. So far so good. Now to start eliminating the various service messages. So I changed the Auxiliary Battery, replaced numerous light bulbs, and decided to change the oil after seeing the message that the previous owner was 3700 miles past the B service. This is where I wanted to throw up.....the engine oil filter was so caked full of sludge that we had to cut the filter off the oil filter housing cap. It was by far the worst filter I have ever seen, like it had never been replaced. The plan is to change out the oil every 1000 miles or so for the next 6 or 7,000 miles to get all the sludge out of the engine (fingers crossed this works). So after seeing this I decided that I was going to go through this engine with a fine tooth comb and change out all the service related items because if she neglected the oil this badly then what were the other items going to be like. So far I've done spark plugs (wasted), coil packs, engine air filters (filthy), cabin air filters(filthy), oil separator housing(packed with sludge), and making an appointment to have the transmission fluid and filter changed out. While all this was going on I ordered all the interior pieces that needed attention: Driver seat bottom cushion, seat back pad, seat heater pads, driver seat outer plastic trim piece, driver/passenger sun visors, rear air vent cover, driver side front carpet. Then onto fix the body issues: replace front bumper cover and right front fender: She tore the bumper bottom on whatever she hit to break the tie rod and then must have hit the garage and put little tears in the passenger front fender. Overall the car is a beautiful car, it just needed someone to give it the TLC that it was so desperately missing. Staying relatively optimistic that the motor isn't ruined and I spend the next few years fixing something every week on it.

 

Welcome! Please post a photo of the E-Class. Have a look at the cam position sensor connectors and the cam magnetic connectors. Look into both halves of the connector to see if oil is present. If oil is present, there many thread on this site on the repair options.

 

Congratulations, and thanks for bringing her back to life. She obviously needed some TLC

Post up a pic

Enjoy the ride