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Hi gang, new member and Benz owner here. First Mercedes but I'm a pretty experienced shadetree mechanic. The last 20 years have been mostly just maintenance, brakes, oil changes etc. on daily drivers but I've rebuilt many engines, a handful of BMW 6 cyl heads, lots of work on Saabs, you name it. Worst car ever owned or worked on was a Peugeot 604, 2nd a Cadillac DHS. Needed another car with a new driver turning 16 and found a very clean .'08 E350 4 Matic for a nice price from an Australian guy living here in Houston who was retiring and moving back to Australia, selling it all off.
The car is very straight, 138K, I noticed a lot of corrosion on underhood and undercar fasteners and it spent its first two years in NY state so I'm assuming that's salt corrosion, that will be fun to clean everything up under the hood from that. Overall it's a great car and I didn't pay very much for it, needs brakes and I don't think it's steering is up to snuff. So we'll hopefully find some help and guidance on here!
Welcome! Own a '08 E350 4matic wagon myself amongst the rest of my collection. They are fairly reliable, some trouble spots are the front CV axle boots, and I'd replace all the belt pulleys and tensioner before they seize and leave you stranded. Intake manifold flaps break but can be repaired with aftermarket solutions. Transmission won't last long if it hasn't been serviced every 40k miles. Good luck with the new ride.
Last edited by E55Greasemonkey; Jun 26, 2021 at 11:56 PM.
Nice color. Love the sport wheels, I installed a set on my wagon. I'm driving my 211 4matic wagon today, 82k miles. I was paying attention for you...the steering is slightly heavy and vague in the center. Slow turns the wheel will stay slightly off center until you steer it back straight. It's a little better at highway speeds but the wheel will not re-center itself. These cars steer like the MB's of old. I had a dealership alignment a few months ago, so it's good. I would consider it to be normal.
Last edited by E55Greasemonkey; Jun 30, 2021 at 04:41 PM.
Nice color. Love the sport wheels, I installed a set on my wagon. I'm driving my 211 4matic wagon today, 82k miles. I was paying attention for you...the steering is slightly heavy and vague in the center. Slow turns the wheel will stay slightly off center until you steer it back straight. It's a little better at highway speeds but the wheel will not re-center itself. These cars steer like the MB's of old. I had a dealership alignment a few months ago, so it's good. I would consider it to be normal.
Hey, thanks for the confirmation that the steering sounds like it's normal, very thoughtful. Without looking up the alignment specs that speaks to having relatively high positive camber.
I briefly had the car up on a friendly mechanic's down the streets lift today and was eyeballing what's all involved in changing the transfer case fluid. It looks like a natural for filling through the drain plug using a transfer pump, but I keep reading
admonitions on why you shouldn't do that but I don't know that I buy the reasoning, any opinions on backfilling the transfer case? Otherwise that's a lot of disassembly just to get at the fill plug.
Mercedes SLR McLaren 722 S Is Extremely Rare Example Modified by McLaren
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.
