Hey folks,

Looking at a 2005 e55 and had the inspection done today.

The shop tells me that there are stored "soft" codes for the SBC. They are "SBC low voltage" and "SBC ABS event." It's my understanding that these have not trigger the CEL/warning lights and are merely stored with no way to know what caused them or when they triggered.

Next concern: brake pads are at 15% and rotors of course would be required.

Other known problems: leaky valve cover gaskets, push to start not working, coolant sensor not working. Coolant low but no leaks found.

My question for you all: is $13,500 a good price knowing the above? I don't want to buy this thing and immediately have $5000 in maintenance to do and I am not familiar enough with this SBC stuff to know how concerned I should be about those codes.

The car has 76,000 miles on it and has been smoked in (faint smell)

 

You are buying a car that was close to 100K new.
Expect to pay $1000 or more per year to maintain it.

 

Agree with Shardul.

Valve cover gasket seepage is extremely common on the M113K. Mine have been done twice and my car has 60,700 miles on it. I did them myself the last time. They're like $20 each.

The rotors and pads for the E55 (compared to the E63) are not terribly expensive either. If you install them, you can use OEM parts and spend about $700 and you'd be good for a very long time.

If you can turn a wrench and do basic maintenance yourself, it sounds like you have a solid deal in front of you. These cars can be finicky with all the electronics/sensors, etc.

 

The SBC pumps go bad and require replacement - there is a lot of info about it on the forum. If you're comfortable bleeding brakes it's not a huge deal, reasonable DIY job. You do need access to STAR in order to do it though. That said, the codes could be nothing and the SBC may be in fine shape.

Pads and rotors also aren't a huge job, and not terribly expensive. This job also requires STAR access because of the SBC.

Valve cover gaskets, coolant sensor, etc are also not world ending. If the coolant hasn't been done recently it's probably a good idea to flush it anyways.

Smoke odor can be removed by doing an ozone treatment to the car.

If you pay someone else to do all the work I'd guess it will be expensive - if you do it yourself it won't be awful.

I think $13,500 is really about bottom of the market for these cars with lower mileage, so who knows if you'll have any luck trying to get the price down given these issues. I think you should determine if you're going to do the work yourself and if so it seems like a reasonable price. If you want to have someone else do the work maybe raise the budget to find a car that's already sorted out and ready to drive for a bit more.

 

Not sure how the Kansas market is but I purchased my one owner 04 E55 for 12k even with 107k miles. Only needed brake pads, rotors, and IC pump, valve covers resealed.

Everything else had been done prior to me taking delivery: SBC replacement, all Airmatic struts replaced, Secondary Air system pump replaced,new tires, even had trans flushes every 40k miles. I had the fuel tank warranty repair after.

76k miles is not bad at all but if some of those things mentioned fail they are expensive. I feel that is a little high. If available I would get a vehicle inspection report from a Mercedes dealer. That would tell you what has and what has not been replaced.

SBC is expensive and if you are close on actuations it is around $1k just in parts. That would be a concern for me unless I knew it had been replaced at some point in the vehicle's history.

Did the company that did the inspection use the Mercedes Star system to read codes? That would be the best way to determine what is wrong.

Hope that helps give some insight,
Sean

 

Who looked at the car? Who is selling it? Dealer or individual? How is the car optioned? Dynamic seats/keyless/pano? Do the handles work for keyless go, just wont start? Sorry for the questions, I'm in Kansas and know quite a bit about the 211 and the local MB dealers/shops.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Sean,

The market in KC is...well I haven't seen one for sale here in a very very long time. The car in question is in a different market.

I had an independent shop that specializes in Mercedes look it over ($70 cheaper than what the dealer would charge).

The shop just sent me pics of the scanned codes. I uploaded them to imgur here: http://imgur.com/a/unHkQ

 

Not trying to hijack the thread...

I'm due for this soon on a 2005. Do you happen to have a parts list for the pads, rotors, and other needed bits? If not, no biggie but it would give me a solid jumpstart. Thank you.

 

Hey Bryan, I think I recognize you from my KCSR days.

It's at a small dealer, with some sleuthing I'm sure you'll be able to find it. The car has keyless, dynamic seats (and are functioning), no pano (which i sorta prefer).

As for the keyless go, the car started and drove fine (I went to drive it last weekend). It does however continue to chime and if I recall the dash said it couldn't detect the key. Currently sitting on some less than desirable wheels, but would be sold to me on stock wheels and tires. Also has an aftermarket intake and SC pulley, although I could not discern their manufacturers.

Please, by all means ask more questions. Any help I can get is greatly appreciated.

 

I would call MBKC or Aristocrat and have them pull the VMI (Vehicle Master Inquiry)and see if the SBC has been replaced. Car looks clean other than the guy mean mugging in the window. Do they have any service records? Has anything AIRMATIC been replaced? I would always plan $5k in repairs on a Mercedes. If you drove the car and liked it, the $13,500 is a good price. Anything cheaper is going to be high mileage, a 2003/04, or a clapped out pile. And even then people will still try to get $15k.

 

Yup same guy from KCSR. The drivers seat bolster is in good shape which is nice.

 

Ha yeah, the dealer has been very easy to work with and surprisingly helpful.

Yeah I'll give MBKC a shout. Unfortunately I have no idea if the airmatic components have been touched. Apparently the previous owner died a couple years ago and the car hasn't been driven much (also makes getting the records unlikely). Carfax seems to corroborate that story as it looks like it's only been driven 3000 miles since 2015.

I think agree with your assessment on the price. Got any recommendations on where to take it to have the smoke smell mitigated/removed? In the words of my girlfriend "I couldn't tell if the smoke smell was the car or the guy they had ride with us." Not too strong.

 

Hmmm. MBKC said they couldn't give me that information. Something about a privacy act.

 

PM me who you talked to an the VIN.

Ill get one of the guys to pull it for you!

 

Brake and rotors are cheap ==> I paid $800 front and rear.
Valve gasket about $200 so $13500 is good deal for the mileage.
Keep in mind, late 05 has update radiator, cup holder...
It's very normal to spend about $1k to $2K for a used car.

 

Had not heard of the updated radiator. What are the details on that?

 

Just did 2004 S600 brakes/rotors/sensor on front myself...very easy...$125 dlvd.(Rockauto.com)...changed rear pads/sensor again RockAuto.com $45. If your not getting car/steering wheel shimmy vibration when applying brakes I wouldn't change the rotors. The rotors I got from RockAuto were cross drilled and on close out special ($22 a pc.) ...so thinking $100 more than my cheap ttl. would be accurate.