Yesterday I bought a silver 2003 E55, so I wanted to sign up and say as well as ask for any tips you have for a new owner, even though I'm actively searching and reading various topics right now.

I'm a big time DIY guy, and have worked on just about every system on my 93 Maxima, which I am keeping as a 2nd/backup car. I'll be picking up the E55 today or tomorrow so I'll show some photos then, but its stock silver so you probably know what it looks like.

The car has quite a few miles, 116K in fact, and I'd like to do a fresh round of maintenance on it right away: valve cover gaskets, various filters, and an oil change. Any helpful info would be appreciated, but I'm sure I'll find lots as I read the older posts.

In the Nissan world there is a dealership which maintains a fairly nice site for purchasing OEM parts by browsing the schematics: www.courtesyparts.com. Is there anything similar for MB?

Also, where can I get a factory repair manual with diagnostic and mechanical reapair info? Is that something I need from the dealership, or could someone PM me a link?

Thanks everyone, I cant wait to drive this car.

 

Hello and welcome to the forums!

Congrats on your new car, drive safe and send us pics as soon as possible!
You can find many good information in these forums and you can become addicted easy, so be careful...

I am not yet an MB owner, but my Jaguar is for sale now and I also want to trade it for an E55 so I can't wait to hear your first impressions and service experiences...

Do you plan any upgrades??

 

Welcome to the forum! As I have discovered, this is a great place to gather information on the Beast and their are a lot of knowledgeable people here that can help out.

Let the modding begin! (oh yeah, your bank account will hate you for discovering this forum!)

 

ummmm.. from working on a maxima, u wanna do gaskets and blah blah on a e55 already? good luck diy-ing ur new amg.... how much did u get it for if u dont mind me asking, and oh yea, welcome!

 

Is this it?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2003-...QQcmdZViewItem

I'd get it inspected first. The way the front bumper sits makes me think it might have been in an accident.

 

Congrats on the new car! It will put a smile on your face every time you drive it.I absolutely love mine.

Be very careful working on this car without any prior (E55) experience. This is not a nissan motor and parts are exponentially more expensive as well! Depending on the actual current condition, it might be better to leave well enough alone. If it aint broke, don't fix it. Good luck w/ the new ride!

 

The only mod I may do right now is get chrome door lock pins, because one of them is broken. It will take me some time to get used to driving something with so much kick to it before I can consider power mods.

Quote:

Originally Posted by III II I I AMG

ummmm.. from working on a maxima, u wanna do gaskets and blah blah on a e55 already? good luck diy-ing ur new amg.... how much did u get it for if u dont mind me asking, and oh yea, welcome!

Well, I've worked on some other cars as well, including my roommate's CTS-V. I enjoy the challenges, and tend to plan everything out thoroughly. A big help to me was maxima.org, so I well accustomed to auto forums.

My Maxima is fairly advanced for its time (clearly pales to the E55 though). The engine (VE30DE) has variable intake valve timing, coil-on-plug electronic ignition, and chain-driven timing. Over the 6 1/2 years I've owned it, I have replaced valve cover gaskets, done variable timing rebuilds, repaired broken exhaust studs, replaced engine mounts, replaced fuel injectors, replaced both main seals, pulled the engine, replaced most suspension parts, added a BBK, and brought it back to life after moderate flooding... twice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by .trunzx

Is this it?

Thats the very one, well done! I got it for 16,500 though, ~18K after taxes and fees. I did learn that in 2005 it was sold as a CPO.

The front bumper sits fine in person. I drove it for a while looking for every possible symptom of everything I could find, and then we got it on a lift where I was able to check bushings, boots, leaks, etc. A small leak from the valve cover gaskets is all I saw in all this time. All electronics work. It needs a few minor spots of touch-up paint, and the headlights need cleaning because they are a bit cloudy.

I was reading threads here before I bought it, so I did know to watch for possible heat and power loss issues due to the IC pump, as well as sounds from the S/C clutch.

Last time I spoke with the dealer, they hadnt recieved the wire transfer, so hopefully tomorrow everything will go through and I can get my hands on it.

 

I really don't want to rain on your parade - because it's nice to see such enthusiasm - but honestly I hope you have a nice repair/maintenance fund setup for this car and also hope if you plan on doing a lot of DIY you are going to invest in a Mercedes STAR Diagnostic System/DAS. This is NOT your old Maxima, and I'm not saying that because I have anything against Maximas.

The E55 cost almost $100k new - and, therefore, has the maintenance requirements of a car that is $100k new, regardless if you pay $100k for it, or $10k for it several years later.

Just my $.02

-m

 

Yes, and this is something I was aware of going into it. Should be fun though.

 

welcome aboard and after you get your hands dirty i expect to look forward to some diy's posted from you to help us out!

 

 

hello and congratulations!
this is a great place and ive learned a lot from the people here!

 

Wow! That looks super clean! Don't worry about the bumper. Alot of the cars I looked at in pictures looked like that until I got there in person. I think it just depends on the camera angle!

 

+1


Welcome!!! I like to see such great enthusiasm!!! As you work on this thing keep us in the loop via pics and details!!!! Who know you may just find out sh*t that we have never came across!!!

Good Luck !!

 

Welcome and congrats

 

welcome & let the mod begin!

 

Cogratulations!


Welcome aboard and enjoy your ride.

 

Welcome.
Here's a resource for the DIY guy:
MB parts

It has exploded views of assemblies/parts and it's free for US cars.

 

I agree with others here. Your optimism is great for DIY on the E55, but it's going to be tough. I currently own a twin turbo S4. There are tons of writeups on Audiworld that people have done in the past on everything from an engine pull/turbo swap to something like replacing O2 sensors. You just don't have that on this site or any other AMG site. I love to do everything myself and those user guides with pics are so much more useful than the service manual. Additionally there are a lot of things on the E55 where you need the STAR tool to complete. Last I checked, those go for around $3K which is ridiculous. There needs to be an aftermarket diagnositic tool for MB like the Rosstech software for VWs/Audi. Finally, parts are extremely expensive. To replace all 4 sides of the airmatic suspension will probably run you at least $4K just for parts. There hasn't been an aftermarket solution either for just running coilovers and tricking the MB computer. I keep thinking about picking up an E55 with no warranty and doing all the work myself, but stuff like this has scared me away. I'm hoping that changes in the next year or two when these cars get even cheaper and in the hands of people willing to work on the cars themselves.

 

I got a dumb question...... E55 Supercharge is it harder to maintain to the E63 engine ?

 

That's great!
I don't know why so many people are so negative around here. Yea cars break but thats life!
These cars are costly to maintain but look at it this way, you could have had that money in the market and lost it even faster than the repair bills at any MB dealer. Have fun and good luck! I am sure you are going to have lots of fun with your E55.
Johan

 

Don't let the nay-sayers get to you. Most of the valuable information on this site has come from DIY'ers who have dove in there and got their hands dirty.

I am a DIY'er and I applaud you Sir.

 

Another DIY'er here saying welcome. I'm still shopping for an E55 but hope to join the ranks soon.

I'll bring back up one question that I'm not sure has been answered. Is there a source for Wholesale MB parts on the net?

For Porsche both Suncoast and Sunset sell wholsale parts online.

For BMW, Tisher BMW does the same.

I've been searching around and have yet to find a similar resource for MB parts. If there's one out there I'd love to know where to get them.

Andy

 

Congrats and welcome!

 

From what I've gathered so far, it looks like some have gotten parts here: http://www.parts.com/

And I've seen this place also thrown around before: http://www.autohausaz.com/search/mod...00016&year=All

Hopefully more will pop up!