W210E55_Silver

Had this car a couple of months now, it has 105k miles. I have replaced the intake manifold, pcv valve, added a catch can, replaced the spark plugs, replaced a coil on cylinder 2 which brings me to my current problem. It has a P0016 code, right intake cam position is implausible (have recently replaced the position sensor, was stuck at 28 degrees previously, now as changing every second or so while idling lie the others). The car idles fine and drives on all cylinders when cold, however once it gets up to temp it starts missing and sounds like an exhaust header gasket fluttering at light/ quarter throttle. Oddly it will go away and come back again.

Have swapped the injector, coil and spark plug with other cylinders, misfire remains on cylinder 3. Did a compression test and it was 175psi, within 2psi of cylinder 1. There is no coolant in the oil and the coolant level is not changing.

I am out of idea’s, my guess is the head gasket. When it gets up to temperature it is leaking maybe. Do I need to remove the cylinder head and fit a new head gasket or can I just replace the head bolts one by one?

W210E55_Silver

Cylinder 3

W210E55_Silver

Also have added sea foam to a tank of fuel which is nearly gone. Not sure if all this carbon maybe getting on the valve seat and causing a misfire maybe

W210E55_Silver

Cylinder one after a tank of fuel with seafoam

Cylinder 1 a week ago

W210E55_Silver

Just an update on the above, head gasket on the right bank has been replaced. Was leaking oil into the combustion chamber but no coolant in the oil luckily. The head bolts were fine (had the T55 head) but I replaced them with the updated ones as suggested due to them being stretch to yield apparently. New set of cam tappets, old ones were evenly worn but thought I might as well put new ones in to save doing it again later. New spark plugs, new coils, new injectors (all original 2006 vintage from what I can tell) now I have a random misfire at light throttle on cylinders 2, 3 & 4. Next is a primary Oxygen sensor for the right bank, figure all the oil has wrecked the old one, car idles fine and drives fine, but starts missing at about 1500-2000 rpm. Then will run fine as the revs are increased. Also have only seen it happen when it is cold, before fully up to temperature. My guess it has something to do with the O2 sensor and going into/out of closed loop one the ecu.

Honestly this his car has had more failures than every other car I have owned in my life put together. Unbelievable.

As a side note, this forum has been very useful for learning from the experiences of others and seeing how similar issues have been resolved by others in the past.

hachiroku

i wouldn't let it discourage you...preventive maintenance is key for any high performance vehicle. the only engine type failure I've had has been a failure of the accessory pulleys. all other items like lifters, o-rings, and head bolts have been done as preventive maintenance.

if you can't spend money to keep it on the road you aren't fit to be an owner of it.

as far as your current issues...lets start by separating each rather than presenting all issues as one.

a faulty O2 sensor will cause many misfires. what are your current issues? it sounds like you purchased a car that did not have a lot of things done that should have been done. sorry to hear about that.

tw2

Thanks for the photos, very interesting. Some cars can be a real challenge and money pit (individual car, not meaning all E63's). Hopefully you are set for a very long time now.

W210E55_Silver

Hopefully the last bit of engine maintenance for a while, replaced the oil filter housing gasket, some o rings in the oil cooler lines and filled it with motul 8100 excess with liquimoly mos2. Car sounds so much better now on cold start, no ticking or rattles in the valvetrain. Also recommend replacing injectors. Have shopped around and parts cost close to a grand all up, but feels like twice the car now (at least to me anyway).

W210E55_Silver

Final update and to bring some closure lol, car is running beautifully now, no check engine light and a nice deep exhaust note like I was expecting on idle. Honestly think this cars problems stem from lack of maintenance/up keep. My theory is it all started with the oil housing gasket leaking oil onto the serpentine belt, which caused it to fail, which led to engine overheating which led to the head gasket failure. Seemed a lot worse than it really was at the time, I have learned a lot about engines, I love Mercedes for their simple but effective engineering. Both my W210 E55 and this W211 E63 in my opinion are great cars which I truely and perhaps unnaturally love.

Major lesson learned for me was don’t take these cars to a Mercedes Mechanic ...... I was quoted $29k by my dealer to fix this when ultimately all it needed was a head gasket ($66) and some head bolts ($49), I had to buy the cam timing tool (a whopping $88). Like I said before I replaced the coils, lifters, injectors and spark plugs (<1k) happy to do this for anyone that wants to pay me $29k!

kkkk

What was the solution to this?
Can you describe the "exhaust header gasket fluttering at light/ quarter throttle." noise?

I have a a slight rattle when I lift off the gas and low rpm misfires.

W210E55_Silver

For me this was caused by the exhaust camshaft adjuster.

I pulled it apart, cleaned it, put it back together, torqued the 5 bolts to 10nm, fitted a new “diamond disc” between the camshaft and the adjuster, torqued the main bolt to 115nm and have not had the problem return since.

Check your timing lock pin when you pull the adjuster apart, mine was fine after 105k miles, but apparently some people have had theirs wear and lose their shape.

W210E55_Silver

Also recommend you check the error codes on the ecu, I had a right exhaust camshaft position is implausible error ( something like that anyway, can’t remember the number)

W210E55_Silver

And as silly as it sounds, I think the Motul 8100 excess oil helped with making my engine run quieter, recommend it 100% over Mobil 1.

The cam adjuster runs purely off hydraulics/oil pressure so this could have been a factor also.