cybertronicify

Yes 99-02 S class is the absolute worst. Every S600 is fully loaded, including distronic and rear seat packages. But a 99-02 S600, you will definitely have an electrical nightmare. All the 03 S classes got substantially better, and it was the only year with a AUX jack experiment. 04-06 very very good (compared to the other W220 years), the 7g tronic came along and MPGs improved. They also started using DVD navigation too.

AlexMercedes

Yeah I really like the facelifts, they got an updated look too with a bigger grille, better looking front bumpers, newer headlights, and newer tail lights. Looks way better over the pre-facelift.

But not all S600s came fully loaded: Distronic, keyless go, rear sunshades, electronic trunk closer, heated steering wheel, dynamic seats, four place seating, and sports package were all available options. The rest of the options like parktronic and adjustable rear seats came standard. Source: http://www.motortrend.com/cars/2003/...kages_options/

Also, there is a difference between adjustable rear seats and four place seating. If you don't know what I mean by the four place seating, here is a picture of it:

Welwynnick

Very nice car indeed, but you NEED matching carpet mats!

Nick

kraut56

I have a 2002 S600 with all the trimmings, and it has been fairly trouble free (well, exept that darn oil cooler I had to replace).

It's a marvel to drive, and gives phenomenal gas mileage (although I don't care about gas).

BTW: the cylinder shut-down system shuts down the complete left bank, not a mix of left and right cylinders (and you don't notice when it does).

AlexMercedes

I thought the pre-facelift S600s were nightmares and should be stayed away from 100% of the time? How is the car holding up? I'm really interested in those cars because very few people have them (due to fear of maintenance costs) and they give out the beautiful Pagani Zonda exhaust note when installed with equal length headers.

Welwynnick

I had two of them before getting my TT. I had to repair the air pump on the first, and a ball joint on the second, that's all. My TT has been infinitely more trouble. More reward though: there's nothing quite like it.

Nick

ibeforreal

Alex, you're not the only one with a fully loaded W220 and mine is an S500. It has the 4 seat package, with massaging and reclining rear seats, distronic, heated steering wheel, bluetooth, heated/cooled front seats, AMG Sport body with AMG Wheels, and AUX plug for iPod. I'm sure there are several others with the same options.

AlexMercedes

I've never seen a fully loaded V8 W220, very nice! They are very rare trust me, I've spent hours upon hours looking at W220 listings up for sale and out of the 500 I saw, only 1 of them had the four place seating. Usually they are the V12 models, so the V8s must be even more rare.

AlexMercedes

What's giving troubles on the TT? The only troubles I've ever come across mine was spark plugs (common w220 s600 problem) and the PSE pump not working properly.

Welwynnick

ABC Accumulator
Coil pack
Front discs
Front pads
Rear pads
Rear shoes
Rear tyres
Engine mounts
Transmission mount
Engine fan
Radiator
IC heat exchanger
IC pump
IC pump controller
Turbo rebuild
Diverter valves
10x ABC pipes
Rear struts
Front strut bushes
ABS speed sensor
Lambda sensors
Air temp sensors
Spark plugs
O-rings & gaskets
Lots of leaks

MB-Dude

Ah, yes... The eternal Mercedes love/hate relationship. I believe there is a psychology term for it... Merlexia. LOL
Cheers,
Jeff

MB-Dude

Well, at least the tail lights work.
Cheers,
Jeff

Soylent Green

When buying a car such as mine I had to be prepared to spend some mullah on the maintenance and parts as needed. I shopped for two years before I found the seller of my car who had detailed maintenance records and receipts for 10k in parts he replaced during the last 4 years. My car should be solid for the next 20-30k miles.

Welwynnick

Ah - I forgot about that. One of the license plate bulbs failed, so I replaced it. It still didn't work, so I removed the bulb holder and cleaned up the corrosion. It still didn't work. I stripped the trunk lid and chased the volts and amps around everything and I just couldn't get both rear lamps to work. I put many hours into this. Eventually I gave in and bought some LED license plate lamps, and they look really great (as long as I DON'T turn on the ignition with the side lights on.

When I put that list together, I was facing up to the cost of what I'd done to the car in the three years and (only) 16k miles that I've driven it. I've spent about GBP 3000 in parts, which isn't (quite) as much as I spent in fuel, but it's still a big chunk. I did everything myself, apart from one dealer service, so the labour would have been prohibitive if anyone had done it for me.

Analyzing the cost categories though, it seems more reasonable:

£750 in repairing known faults at time of purchase (it was cheap)
£750 in subsequent repairs
£750 in consumables like tyres, brakes, battery etc.
£750 in modifications (mainly charge cooling and ABC mods)

Nick

trombone

Nick,
your trouble with the license plate light is caused by its broken power line inside the retracting box where the sheaf of wires is pulled back when the trunk lid is pushed down to close.
The fix is a pain in the *** and really takes hours and hours to find the break and then shunt it.
George

MRAMG1

Half of those posted are maintenace items.

Some of them I would have suspected a front end crash, like rad, IC cooler, fan. Those items, espically the IC HE NEVER fail, unless it was in a wreck.

And of course, some of them are the just plain old fun of owning a MB