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Greetings from Texas!
I just picked up my 2004 E55 earlier this week. And I'm excited to finally have one of these in my driveway.
A little background. This is my first Mercedes. I owned 3 BMWs before this. An E28, and E34, and most recently an e46 wagon which was TAKEN from me by a high school kid not looking where she was going. T-boned less than 100feet from my driveway. Also owned a couple Mustangs, but very far apart from each other. I had a '65 coupe w/289 in high school and college, then a '09 GT a few years ago. As well as a couple Subarus; '99 2.5 RS and an '02 WRX wagon. I just realized, this E55 will be the first automatic I've owned since my '65 Mustang! Maybe my left leg needs the rest. haha
I've been a "car guy" since the beginning and am not afraid to get my hands dirty, as you all will see.
I'll use this thread to keep track of the work I've done on the car. So far the only thing I've installed is a flat hood emblem. Simply because that's all that's shown up so far. Lots more parts on the way, namely engine and transmission mounts, since the PPI showed they were shot. The car is in good shape overall, but lots of little things I'll try to DIY to really get the car into tip top shape. Sadly mods will have to wait until I'm certain the regular maintenance and reliability work has been addressed.
I've already found lots of info searching through the forum!
Here's the flat emblem. I thought the full color emblem might stand out too much, but it's so small in reality that it probably would have looked fine.
I also attempted to polish the headlight lenses. They got a little better, but it appears as though some of the scratches are on the inside. Not sure how that happens
I also replaced the driver's side mirror glass. The original auto dim lens had failed. It has turned mostly amber and had a distinct double image. Very difficult to judge distance with it like that. YouTube saved the day on that job.
The last thing I did yesterday was wipe down the leather with some conditioner. The top of the back seats are VERY dry and one seam had already started to come apart. So the leather has to be softer if there is ever hope of reparing that. I did all the leather in the car with some Miguire's cleaner/conditioner wipes. We'll have to wait and see if they help.
The new engine and transmission mounts, as well as the special extender tool to make the job easier, showed up yesterday afternoon. So I'll tackle that job next weekend.
Last edited by Travis R; Nov 17, 2019 at 08:28 AM.
The top of the back seats are VERY dry and one seam had already started to come apart. So the leather has to be softer if there is ever hope of reparing that.
Your going to need something other than the meg's. I use neatsfoot oil, many others swear by Leatherique Rejuvenator.
The trick is to apply it in a warm environment which allows it absorb into the leather better.
Welcome, just picked up an 04 a couple months ago and am going a similar route - getting all the maintenance done before going nuts, although I did throw a RaceIQ on there while I wait
Your going to need something other than the meg's. I use neatsfoot oil, many others swear by Leatherique Rejuvenator.
The trick is to apply it in a warm environment which allows it absorb into the leather better.
+1 for Leatherique, definitely recommend it. It does need heat to work best though; the leather needs to open up so the stuff can work its way inside. I usually do it in the summer. Apply it in the morning, and then let the car bake in the sun for a whole day. Others do it in the garage and use a heat dish or something to keep the interior hot. If your leather is really dry, you may need a few applications or just let the stuff soak in for 24-48 hours
It's been a frustrating introduction with this car. Every time I start poking around, looking the car over carefully, I find something else that needs attention.
My turn signals don't cancel. So I bought a new switch. But once I got the wheel apart I found out it was actually the clock spring that is broken. I've ordered a replacement. It should be here in a few days.
Yesterday I found a screw in the back tire.
I knew it was going to need tires sooner or later... So I started looking for wheels, because I want to run a square setup. No good option nearby (used OEM wheels), but if I can plug the tire I should be able to order a set of wheels that I like. Right?
So I took the tire off today to plug it, and found this.
The damn tire is delaminating! Looks like I'm NOT getting new wheels, nor running a square setup. I gotta put tires on this thing asap.
I needed a win, so I decided to build something from scratch, something I could control.
I leave my workout equipment in the trunk all the time, so my weights end up rolling around. It was annoying me, so I decided to build an organizer of sorts for the spare tire well. My car didn't come with a spare, so it's just unused space down there.
So I made some quick measurements, and cut up some plywood I had laying around.
Used a few nails and some wood glue to hold it all together. Then I used some spray adhesive, and covered it with some faux suede I had left over from another project years ago.
and viola. Trunk divider!
Tomorrow, I'm installing the new motor/trans mounts. I'm sure I'll find something new while I'm down there... Pray for me
More progress yesterday! Honestly the most difficult part of the engine mount swap was getting the steering rack out of the way. The special little offset wrench made the job pretty easy.
I had a slight moment of uncertainty when I mixed up the heat shields left to right. A quick google search with the part numbers sorted that out though.
The only new information I learned about the car during that project was that the leak coming from the oil filter housing is a little worse than I thought. It's making a bit of a mess, getting oil onto the belt and the AC compressor. I've ordered the seal kit from Pelican parts. Hopefully it fits like others have reported, despite what the website says. https://www.pelicanparts.com/More_In...2-1965-010-M61
Otherwise everything else under the car looked pretty good. The oil pan was bone dry. And the trans pan was only a little damp.
Since I finished that job up in short order I started poking around the car some more. I wanted to take the rest of the wheels off and give each corner a visual inspection. In doing so I learned that if the lug bolts are not removed for years, and not greased, that they can become so frozen as to break a 1/2" drive extension!
The lug bolts can also become so rusty that you won't even realize there's a little star on the head of the bolt. I hit them with the wire wheel and they cleaned up pretty well.
Once I had the wheels off, I learned that one of the back wheels has been welded to repair a crack.
And I learned the reason one of the front tires keeps losing air. It has a crack of it's own!
The final project I did yesterday was to try to straighten out the mesh on the lower front grill. It had obviously taken a couple hits, and I just wanted it to be a little less obvious. I think it looks pretty good for only spending about 10 minutes on it.
And thus concludes the 13th day of my Mercedes ownership experience.
Looks like you are having fun with the project ... I’m doing a rebuild on a 2003 E55 I recently purchased and you can check out some of the work on my Instagram page at #joeslastchancegarage.
I’m not too far from Austin and I had actually considered buying the car you have now, but went with this 2003 instead. Best of luck!
i recently gave up on my stock wheels after repairing a cracked rear rim in the spring and then finding a crack on a front rim the other day. sucks that i put all new tires on 5k miles ago but i decided it was time to cut my losses and get something aftermarket.
I've done a couple projects over the last month or so. The first was getting the wheels and tires sorted out since they were a mess... all cracks and screws (see previous posts). I found a set of S55 wheel listed locally. A matching set of 4 18x9's, according to the ad. But when I got there only 2 were actually 18x9. The other two were 18x8.5. And one of the 18x9 had a crack. This was turning into a circus! I didn't want to insult the owner, but this wasn't what I was expecting, or what I really needed. So I low-balled him and he took it, and threw in all the lug bolts (this will be important later). I repaired the cracked wheel with some Alum-Bond and put a set of 275/35-18 BFG G-Force Comp 2 tires on. I'm running to original E55 rear wheel on the front, and the S55 rear wheel on the rear. It turns out the BFG is a little more ... "bulged" compared to other tires this size, because it did NOT clear the front suspension. I pulled into the driveway after getting them installed and was terrified to find smoke pouring out of the front wheels.
Luckily the tire shop took ownership of the issue, since their installer didn't check for clearance even though we knew it could be tight, and might be a problem.
Long story short, I'm now running a 5mm spacer and slightly longer lug bolts in the front. The S55 wheels, using the factory S-class lug bolts are working fine on the rear. The hub of the S55 wheel is much thicker than the E55 version, so the original E55 lug bolts are too short to be used with the S55 wheel. Good thing the previous owner of the wheels gave them to me.
I haven't had any problems with the tires or wheels since (knock on wood).
Next project was the leaking oil filter housing. I found the part number on this site for the gasket set, ~$15 from Pelican Parts iirc.
I was trying to be very careful since I know parts of this car are fragile from age/heat. So I was moving everything out of the way, and what do you know. I broke something. It turns out that rubber-looking line that goes from the coolant hose to the reservoir is NOT flexible at all, and the tiny little attachment point is EASILY broken.
Why is the release mechanism on the bottom side of that hose?!
That was super annoying. So I ordered a new reservoir, cap, and line from FCP Euro.
I did manage to get the oil filter housing leak repaired though. It went pretty smoothly after my initial failure.
Before:
After:
And a little sign I made, in case I tried something stupid while waiting for the new coolant parts to arrive. haha
While I had the belts off for this job I inspected all the various pulleys to check the condition of their bearings. Most of them seemed fine, save the water pump. There was a little bit of a wiggle in it's shaft. So I ordered that a couple weeks later and set about replacing it. First off, getting the radiator fan out of this car is NOT easy. So many brackets and hoses in the way. Once I figured that out, the water pump wasn't too much trouble. It's weird, with a bunch of different bolts. But I simply placed each bolt into the new water pump sitting on the bench as I removed it. The strangest part is that a couple of the bolts are self-threading during reassembly. And it was while I was contemplating this fact that I knocked the idler pulley off my work bench and broke the plastic!
So I placed ANOTHER order with FCP Euro...
Just once I'd like to make a repair to this car that didn't result in some sort of collateral damage. I did ultimately get the new water pump installed and refilled the system, and got everything reassembled. I've been driving it around for a few weeks since then, and everything seems to be leak free.
I'm not really into chrome, unless the car is a classic. It just feels dated to me. But the extremely neglected condition of the exhaust tips needed to be corrected. It took me about 4 hours start to finish, and trust me, it was a process. Sadly the chrome is lightly pitted in some spots, so there's no saving it completely. But you'd have to be laying down to notice it, so I'm satisfied with how it looks. The hardest part was getting the rubber hangers off. I had to do the ones by the mufflers obviously, but also the next set forward, near the diff, so it would hang down low enough for me to have good access with the polisher.
Now for the before/after shots!
The green is a reflection of the yoga mat I was using to lay on.
And of course, while I was doing that I noticed something else wrong...
Hey that's a nice looking piece of aluminum casting
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Enjoy the ride, even in stock form it's fun. Good Luck!
E55 intro and work log
