Leempolo3

Hey guys,

First time poster, would love your help. My dad has a 2006 E55 that has been disabled for a year. He said if I can fix it, I can have it but I have no idea what to do. Here's the situation....

About a year ago, he was offered a free check up service at the local dealership. Long story short, they quoted him 6+k for all the services he needed (replace engine mounts, sunroof motor dead, cracked wheel, and other things), including the right front "lower control arm" being broken and "about to fall off" what ever that means. They basically told him its dangerous to drive the vehicle.

So that, combined with him being laid off and money being tight, the car has been sitting in the backyard under a car cover for a year.

When I lifted the cover, the car is almost to the ground. I understand it has air suspension so i'm assuming not driving it for a year has something to do with that. I noticed the key didn't have a red light blink when I pressed any buttons. So I changed the batteries.

Then I went to sears and bought a new diehard battery. After I plugged in the battery, right away I can hear the cars suspension trying to work and lift the car, but it didn't rise.

I put the key in the ignition and turned only one click. The computer by the speedometer turned on and so did the radio. Then I turned the key again to start the car and it didn't make a sound. In fact, It turned everything off and locked the ignition. I couldn't turn the key, I was only able to pull the key out.

At this point, I'm at a total loss of what I should do. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Enjoy the Superbowl fellas!

Ls1toAMG

There are 2 battery's. Under the hood is suspension the one in the trunk starts the car..

berti_00

Maybe the crank position sensor as well might be bad. 50$part

desired_speeds

Unhook the main battery and check the voltage of the front battery. If it's low, then recharge or replace it then hook both batteries back up. See if it reads the key. If not, try the another key. There is a chance you may need to buy another key.

Elhonaz

change the secondary battery too, its under the freshair filter box on the right side in engine compartment. This is a backup battery for the whole system and is controlled By the BCM(battery control module)So its not only brakes, suspension and what not thats always said here.

green1212

these cars are very electronically engineered. after getting batteries done, and the car is "awake" you need to find someone with a star/das diagnostic system to go over the whole car. it wont tell you things like the control arm is bad, but it will let you know about the airmatics and this will help with any other electrically inhibiting gremlins that is preventing your car from cranking. these cars are not cheap to fix and being the car has been down for quite some time, it will get expensive to take to dealership. if you can do some/most of the work yourself, will save a huge amount but you also need to know what you are doing. these forums will help but....keep in mind: electronics are sometimes a PITA to figure out! my best advice: get it towed to the dealership (should be free??) and get them to run diagnostics and make a list of what all it will take to get her running from their point of view and make a priority list of most important to least, what you think you maybe able to do from your reading/researching, and what you may want the dealership to do from your lack of computer software/expertise at your disposal. for example, if they quote you $5000 for the airmatics, there is a ton of info on the airmatics on the forum and diy to make you feel comfortable to do it yourself. maybe able to scratch that off the list. bcm/relays/starter/alternator and the list goes on..... these things have to be working before other things can be diagnosed so........ you see where this is going....???? dont be in any hurry, read and read some more, if the car was able to crank right up, it would not have been under a cover for over a year. the more work you do, more info you can gather from the owner, may shed some light where you can start next and try to save yourself some money. good luck and be patient! you got a solid foundation in a 2006 E55 to work with, may cost anywhere from $5 to $10k to get her up and running with no problems but thats what you need to ask yourself: the opportunity cost to apply to this car, can another avenue be taken, another car be had for less, what you stand to gain and the expected time of enjoyment/return on your money/time spent. good luck and BE PATIENT!

SICAMG

Leempolo where are you located? Get it to CT and I will work on it for free at the shop.

Leempolo3

Thanks everyone for all the help!

I changed out the Aux battery and she started up! The car rose up as well!

The engine sounded a little noisy. It sounded like it was coming from the belt. He said he hasn't changed the belt since he bought the car (August of 2005).

I also noticed a little smoke coming from the passenger side of the engine. Right underneath the right side air intake hose near the headers. It smelled like burning something, maybe oil? I wouldn't know for sure since I've never smelled burning oil.

Thanks for the offer SICAMG, but I'm in California =/

Critter

Oil is probably coming from a leaky valve cover.
Let the car come up to temp.
Oil change should be near the top of your to do list
Replace serpentine belt, get second opinion for what is wrong with the suspension
Take it easy, you have just received a whole lot of car. Seriously!!!!

Leempolo3

Thanks Critter!

From your experience, to fix the leak is it usually a gasket change or a value cover change? Or even both?

Critter

Gasket change should fix your issue. You do not state the mileage but sometimes the sitting is hard on the gaskets. Try to lightly check for tightness on the covers or just change the gaskets out. Check the gap on the plugs when you remove the covers, good time to also change them out.
Good Luck

SheriffDep

Sir,
It sounds like you are new to working on cars. Please do yourself a favor and search the threads on this forum for almost everything and read up on them like previous posters have mentioned. If it appears that each step of the way you ask questions that could be answered by a search, members will start ignoring the thread and move on and you won't get the desired answers.

DO NOT DRIVE this car. Please take it to a shop and have things diagnosed by a Star comp first. This is a lot of car in general, let alone one that has sit for a year and also one that had many issues (dangerous ones too) before sitting. You have a possible great car once worked on and money put into it, but plan on spending thousands to get it back. You have likely all fluids to flush and replace (transmission, oil, S/C, coolant, brakes, differential, etc...... These should be done before ever moving the car and some done before you run the motor. Remember the car has sat and that motor is worth likely over 10k by itself. So you don't want to cause any damage especially something that can be prevented.

It has been said DONT RUSH this. Go slow, pay MB to tow it and do a diagnostic first before anything else. Then pick apart the list one by one and do the research for each item, and see if its something that can be done yourself. If not then get things that are absolutely necessary first. The money spent to get it diagnosed is very well spent. If you don't have the money to do that, THIS IS THE WRONG CAR FOR YOU hands down.

Hope this helps you and reinforces the other suggested ideas for you sir.

SheriffDep

By the way sorry to not mention it Welcome to the forum it is a great place to learn and most all members are extremely helpful and extremely knowledgable. They won't guide you in the wrong direction and willl help to help you out the least expensive way possible. That was shown by @SicAMG already.

desired_speeds

norcal or socal?

Leempolo3

Thanks Critter and SheriffDep!

You're absolutely right, I'm not starting it up anymore or driving it anywhere. I'll look around for a good MB shop and have it towed there.

I'm willing to spend a couple thousand to have her running (I really don't need the sunroof to work right now) but what I'm scared of is having a mechanic tell me something is needed when its really not. As you noticed, I'm not that knowledgeable when it comes to cars, especially Mercedes. And since I can't drive the car somewhere else for a 2nd or 3rd opinion, I hope I don't get ripped off.

Btw, the mileage is only 35k.

Leempolo3

I'm in Los Angeles.

sexyxe

If you're not in a hurry to be driving the car, get MB to go through it for you, get them to do things you probably cant - brake fluid flush is one off the top of my head, then take it home and do the odds and ends yourself. Most of the stuff mentioned isn't hard, just takes time and patience.

JDM_SXE-10

The good news is you have a lot of good independent Mercedes-Benz mechanics to choose from in the area. I know of one in the San Fernando Valley that's very trustworthy so if want to go that route, send me a PM and I well give you the contact information.

SheriffDep

Great to hear, What you want to ask for (MB Might tow it for free if you tell them what you want and they can do some of the work) is a complete inspection of the car and a detailed list of all that is wrong with it. Might cost a couple hundred for that list, but its worth every penny for a long time to come.

Next, tell them when you get the list is that you want a day to look it over and decide what you want fixed. Anything broken on the suspension you might want that done immediately by them so its drivable. SO that broken control arm have them do. Then post your list here and members will say what needs to be done immediately by them. Probably a Brake fluid flush, transmission flush, differential flush, coolant flush, oil change and S/C belts. A E55 owner can tell you anything additional that should be done. You will sleep better if all that is done anyway.

Now your driving it at least. Then you can even go to a independent dealer if you wanted and price things out or do some yourself. Other items you can budget out. regardless if your given the car and you dump 5-8k into it to make it perfect, the car is likely worth in perfect condition 15k or more. So you will have an awesome car for many years ahead due to mileage. What an awesome gift. Just do it right please.

Leempolo3

Just wanted to report back to everyone who helped. The car is up and running! Here's what I had done....

Change engine mounts
New lower control arm
New valve gaskets
New Spark plugs
New belts
Flushed and changed all liquids except for coolant. They said coolant change isn't until 15 years.
$1,800 total labor! Parts $600 Not bad!

Thank you to everyone who helped!

But there's another problem now. After driving the car for a while the check engine light came on. The codes were P0422 and P0432 "Main Catalyst Efficiency Below Threshold" both banks. Mercedes checked it out and said the cats "are not heating up enough" and all the o2 sensors are working. The next morning after letting the car idle for 5 minutes from a cold start, I used a temp gun and I got a reading of 450 degrees on each of the lowering welding points on both cats. Is that not hot enough? Mercedes said that the car sitting for so long might have affected the cats and that I should drive it 500+ miles to see if they would start working normally. Only thing is the registration is expired and I need a smog check here in California. Could someone please help me and let me know your thoughts of what I should do. Thanks again everyone!

Critter

Is it possible to get a temporary license for the car to drive it. Here in Ontario we can get this for a 10 day period, we use it to get the car around to get it certified to drive and also to get the emissions check.
If you can get this permit, then drive the car, idling for five minutes is not long enough to bring the cats up to temp. Temperature of the cats is related to fuel residuals being introduced into them, blipping the throttle will do a similar introduction, idle rev up the motor to say 2000rpm, then idle-2000rpm, same thing happens during normal driving.
Fresh premium gas and a nice highway drive will also assist.

Leempolo3

Thanks Critter! I'll give it a shot and report back.

VMAX7

Lucky chap!

patrick_y

It's alive! It's alive!

Congrats! We're all happy to hear another car seems to be on the road to recovery.

Check your tires, and take it easy on the car until you get used to it.

desired_speeds

pay the reg first then get a temp tags.