Hi all. I've posted before about problems with my S500, which were ongoing. To explain, we purchased this car about a year ago from an independent Mercedes place in Asheville NC. I asked that the car be scanned with the MB diagnostics. He told us that he had scanned it. I asked for a copy but he said he didn't print it out but everything was ok. I took his word for it. We had to take it back and he replaced one shock. (Came out one morning and the car was on the ground). Took it back again because the 4matic was making noise. We thought it was great because we were not charged for the work. It seemed like almost every week we had a problem. I found a great shop in Maggie Valley NC and they found several issues over a period of time. We moved to Hendersonville NC and the problems continued. Battery would sometimes be dead in the morning, cruise would disconnect itself, warning lights would come randomly, car would stop and not start again for 30 minutes, and on and on. At no time did the CE light come on and there was never a code on my OBD scanner. It got so bad that I finally took it to European Motors Werks in Hendersonville. I saw the mechanic drive it in and start checking it. After awhile he called another mechanic over and they both spent time on it. They both came in and asked where we bought the car. I thought that was odd. They then handed me several papers, SEVEN pages of error codes! They said they had not seen one with this many codes and no CEL. They said it appeared as though someone had been into the computer fixed it so no CEL would show. (In NC a CEL is an automatic fail) He said he was aware of someone in the area who would do that. I feel they were being honest because they only charged me $50 and also said while they could fix the cost would be too much to justify the repairs. (Very nice and compident people) BTW, when we left t stopped again. My message to buyers, unless you really know what's going on and have the resources to verify everything, PLEASE go to a reputable or dealer and spend the money to have it professionally evaluated.
Thanks for listening.

 

Sorry to hear about your experience. When we buy these type of cars we don't ask the seller to do the diagnosis for us.

We do our best to go thru the car ourselves (OBD) and also pay independent party to check the car for us. Seller checking the car FOR you = conflict of interest.

With these cars you want to protect your investment and check it throughout.......and hope for the best. Even then, it's risky to be honest.

At the end of the day these are 10+ year German cars that cost over 100k when new. As me to find you a more high risk purchase and I will struggle.....

I know it's an expensive way to learn your lesson but please do your due diligence when buy such cars.

 

Sorry for all your grief. Here is the statement that should have turned on bells, horns blowing, flashing lights, alarms, and sirens for you. - "I asked for a copy but he said he didn't print it out but everything was ok"

Obviously he was hiding something...............a lot of somethings. It sounds like the majority of your problems are related to electronics. If you are able to find out what the main problem is such as a SAM unit(s), get that fixed (if it is one of the problems) several of the codes will disappear. How many miles on the car? Any transmission hitches? Try to tackle one thing at a time.

 

Almost any W220 will show quite a few codes when checked on DAS. The usual approach is to write down or print out the codes, then clear them all. Drive the car briefly, then check the codes again - there should be far fewer codes. Start working on those.