tackleberry23

To start, I used to own a W140, loved it. I just got a W220. its a 2003 s500, in brilliant silver with nappa black interior, with the cooled seats. Miles, 278,000. no accidents, 1 owner from new to 270k, second owners then me. I live in vegas and had to go to St george Utah to get it was about 160 miles driving it back home and had ZERO issues.
This car by its sheer appearance shows it was well cared for, minus a few things and all are generally small to moderate. I paid $2200 for this beast. Paint is all original, seats and interior are flawless minus the cup holders missing, minor wear etc for the age, however NOTHING is ripped, torn, cracked in terms of seat, dash, center console (minus the wood cover for cup holder and cup holder totally missing). The motor is silky smooth, and incredibly silent and hard to even hear it running, it shifts gears so well i literally cannot feel them. This very cheap example truly goes against the old saying "the most expensive mercedes is the cheapest one you buy" at least in terms of mechanical. On the drive home, 70, 80, 90, 100mph smoothly, effortlessly and most importantly NO WARNING LIGHTS OF ANY KIND (except some telephone error). Car did have some service history with it as well. It does not leak on the ground, valve covers do have some seepage. the exterior is about as flawless as a 17 year old car with nearly 300k miles can be, rockchips glaore of course, and minimal blemishes and very very ding free. headlights of course need help. AC compressor is brand new, pulleys are new, belt, AC works, heat works, rear sunshade works. seriously was a gem for the price. even the plastics on the seat bottoms, and the storage cover, all in tact and proper. center arm rest is 100 percent functional, and not torn at all. I was blown away at the condition with these miles on it. ive seen ones in vegas with half the miles and they are ragged out, shredded seats, everything busted, slammed on the ground etc. after this thing sat overnight, the car was still sitting proper and normal.

So, with all that said there is no used W220 without SOMETHING wrong with it especially a cheap one, and a cheap one with high miles on it!. So here is the list of known things wrong. And some ill need some help with as im not the best versed with mercedes (been a bmw owner for 12 years) I am capable of doing most of my own work. the audio system cranks pretty well, loud, no chopping or cutting out or blown speakers. even the soft touch buttons that get grimy (around headlight knob and the wheel buttons) are in great shape and not tacky!

1. Crank sensor. car has long crank and comparing symptoms of a w220 cps ive read about, i ordered a new one and will replace it. otherwise when running, no misses, no codes, silk smooth and can barely hear it.
2. Valve cover seepage, but nothing freshly wet that needs me to worry about it asap, and no burning smells. ill eventually do it
3. missing nav drive in trunk
4. COMAND screen has dead spot in it (works flawlessly othewise)
5. drivers seat does work and move, however only some directions on the switch are working....(this ill need someone to chime in confirm if its the switch thats bad?)
6. PSE pump, from what i have read leads me to belive it is SHOT....fuse was actually not installed and when i did install it, it made clicking noises, then blew the fuse in about 1 minute and in that minute it did nothing other than make noises. (this is going to be my biggest issue to tackle and all help is appreciated on this too)
7. front end issues....drivers front mostly, but i always replace pairs of same item no matter what. So i have the ball joint squeak, appears to be the thrust arm as i can pull down on the car while have my hand on the thrust arm and i can "feel" the squeaking vibrate thru it and it sounds like its from the bushing towards the front of the car more than at the balljoint. also noticed the tie rod is bad as i can feel that when driving and confirmed with wheel off the ground check. ill confirm with more testing when i have a second person to push down and such, but i think that is my culprit.
8. headlight output is absolutely PATHETIC! someone wanna chime in on this one? one is brighter than the other, but both are crap. with the brights on its super bright and wonderful. low beams, not so much.
9. i dont really notice much difference between C and S modes, but im gonna see if that changes with the new CP sensor.
10. being an 03, it has aux in capable. what do i need to make it work, i saw and aux option on the comand unit but i dont see a wire anywhere.
11. i need floor mats.

thanks to all in advance. i washed it today (got it late last night), and i could not belive how smooth it was after a wash. the entire car was almost perfectly smooth. i gave it a good clay barring and i didnt notice a huge improvement (saying that in a good way, as it was well kept already) and gave it a coat of wax. i havent even detailed the interior yet because its already super clean, but a good once over to really get it to shine will come.

wallyp

Congratulations! Looks like you picked up a better-than-average car at a lower-than-average price.

3. missing nav drive in trunk
The Nav system on the 2003 is in the COMAND, not in the trunk. It uses CDs inserted in the slot on the COMAND - there are nine CDs that cover the USA. It's really not a very good Nav system. The latest maps are from about 2008, and there have been a lot of changes since then. (The trunk-mounted DVD Nav system started in 2004. Very few electronic devices from the later MOST bus cars will work with the D2B bus system in the 2000 - 2003 cars.)

5. drivers seat does work and move, however only some directions on the switch are working....(this ill need someone to chime in confirm if its the switch thats bad?)
Could be lots of things. The switches on the driver's door (the DCM) control a lot of things, and failures aren't uncommon. If you replace it, you need to get a DCM that matches the options on your car. Some of the functions are on small replaceable modules. With very detailed, very specific and very complete descriptions of what does and doesn't work, and what goes wrong, we might be able to make some guesses.

6. PSE pump, from what i have read leads me to belive it is SHOT....fuse was actually not installed and when i did install it, it made clicking noises, then blew the fuse in about 1 minute and in that minute it did nothing other than make noises. (this is going to be my biggest issue to tackle and all help is appreciated on this too)
The PSE pump lives in the forward right corner of the trunk, in a sound-absorbing box behind the trunk lining. The actual pump is pretty common, but the valve and connection module is very dependent upon the options installed in your car. Some folks have taken the pump out (easy to do) and have repaired/refurbished the pump unit. Searching should show you some threads showing how to do that. The pump (which produces both positive and negative pressure) is a rotary carbon-vane type, and sometimes tubes and valves get clogged with carbon dust. Some folks have reported that the actual motor on the pump is a commonly-available unit.

8. headlight output is absolutely PATHETIC! someone wanna chime in on this one? one is brighter than the other, but both are crap. with the brights on its super bright and wonderful. low beams, not so much.
When I bought my first 2003, my wife and I actually pulled off the road and got out to see if the headlights were even on. The parking lights put out more light than the low beams. There are two or three different headlight systems, and you appear to have the same one that mine did. The low beams are HID projectors, while the high beams are standard halogen bulbs. The reflectors on the projectors seem to lose their reflectivity. There weren't too many choices back then, so I took the quick and easy way out, and bought a good set of aftermarket lights.
This https://w220.ee/Headlights will give you some good info - but there are some errors in there as well. One example, in the description of the system that you have:
"HID xenon headlight systems use two separate bulbs for the high and low beam illumination. The main high beam system uses xenon bulbs, electronic ballasts, and ignitors. A separate conventional halogen bulb is also fitted for low beam."
The description is reversed - the low beams are HID projectors that stay on for both high and low beams, while the high beams use halogen bulbs that go on and off.
There are a lot of threads on fixing the headlamp problems. Start here, and drill down thru the encyclopedia - https://www.benzworld.org/threads/w2...quent.1508080/

9. i dont really notice much difference between C and S modes, but im gonna see if that changes with the new CP sensor.
The primary difference is that "S" starts in first gear with normal shifts, while "C" starts in second gear, with earlier, softer shifts.

10. being an 03, it has aux in capable. what do i need to make it work, i saw and aux option on the comand unit but i dont see a wire anywhere.
The AUX connector is on the left wall inside the glove box, and uses the standard small stereo connector commonly used for earbuds. You pretty much control the music from the output device - it's a limited system.

tusabes

All great replies above

long crank is more likely a fuel filter than cps


leave the valve covers alone for Minor seepage not resulting in drips

to move the seat when some directions don’t work I use the presets to get movement that I can’t get by the seat switch , then adjust to desired position and set a new preset

tackleberry23

Good point, it long cranks cold and hot....and it does seem a bit low on power. but i did replace the sensor anyways and it fires up much faster, one time it did take a bit longer and stumbled off. i have a filter on order anyways cant hurt to change it.

next will be the dreaded rear cat rattle that needs to go away....adios cats!