aguawaters

So I recently purchased an E55 AMG, and i have been driving it around and enjoying it, it has some issues of course but it seems good, although it was misfiring. So i took it got it scanned, also changed the IC Pump myself and some fluids. I usually have BMW’s and this is my forst Merc, I was looking for reputable peope to inspect the car and I decided I would ask my BMW shop if he knows someone.

LONG STORY SHORT He says he had a guy there that knows them so its good I take it. This Mercedes mechanic the moment I met him I got an Off vibe, wouldnt even look me in the eyes, He told me there were a bunch of things wrong with the car and when I would ask questions about severity and to explain what certain things meant, I got very vague answers and alot of “idks”. His attitude was almost as if I was asking him about HIS car and it was annoying him.

Basically after a laundry list of items i ask him to do the job which I had asked him to do originally, which was change the ignition coils and spark plugs. He insists I am wasting my time by not changing the wires to and it has to be done. based off his attitude and me knowing that if I agreed I would be charged up the *** for some wires and probably not see my car for a week, i disagreed and said no, I would just want you to fix the coils and spark plugs. He looks at me as if I just robbed him of $300 because I probably did and he is not pleased. insists I am wasting my time but I say I dont care, as far as I am concerned I was told the car would be done today and its not so I need that done and my car back tomorrow. I almost told him take it off the lift right there and give me my keys.

NEXT DAY comes around and I am emailed this comical invoice of everything that is wrong with the car and the total would be $9k to get everything right. lmfao. well i expected to see something ridiculous but the invoice was just insulting.

Now theres more to the mechanic story that I wont get into involving how when i came to pick up the car the mechanic slammed my hood so hard it broke the hood sensor...

HERES THE POINT of this post is though is I need your help determining what the severity of these things are and how common they are? I am no expert on cars i’m young and for the last 6 years i have fixed my own cars mostly bmw’s through youtube DIY’S but I have come a long way, although I still will say I dont know **** at all ESPECIALLY about Mercs.

So if any are interested here, is the invoice and i have blocked out the shops name because i do like the owner just this specific mechanic had... an “attitude problem” we will call it...

Question is, is this car a piece of garbage as this invoice suggest because I will note that, after i got the far back minus the broken hood sensor which I unplugged, I have had no misfires and it has been driving great although ive only driven a few miles. It certainly has never felt like a lemon even with the misfires... so what is exaggerrated and what is of great concern for real?

E55Greasemonkey

The coils rarely fail. You wasted money on those which should have been spent on new wires. The wires are good for around 100k miles or 7 years, and should only be replaced with the oem Bosch style. There is no good way to test them. Spark plugs are good for about 50k miles, sometimes a little more. So, the mechanic was right.

aguawaters

to clarify, I provided the parts, rather than purchase the coils and plugs from the mechanic, may i have wasted money on coils? possibly but I wanted peace of mind knowing the cars has fresh spark plugs and coils. Me not doing ENOUGH research, I didnt purchase wires ahead of times, so rather than be taxed by the mechanic for wires, I will buy them myself off fcp euro and then have them installed or do it myself if its not too daunting for me.

As far as i can tell for the moment, the wires work fine. will be changing soon though.

E55Greasemonkey

Looking over the estimate, these are all common failure points- or more accurately "maintenance items" at this point in the car's life. The hours quoted are more than fair, some are even generous and less than I would charge for some things. I don't see any joke here, except that perhaps you purchased a car you can't afford to maintain. Wait until the air suspension starts to go out...then what?

aguawaters

I made sure it already had coil overs before i bought it otherwise i wouldnt have purchased the car, so im not as clue less as u may think. but thanks for the snarky comment.

Also to make the assumption I cant afford it based off what? i never said i couldnt afford it, I just think it is a ridiculous bill and I’d rather learn and work on it myself than pay since I have the time. so jokes on u for making any type of assumption about what I can and cant afford.

E55Greasemonkey

I understand; however, replacing the plugs and coils but not the wires, is like changing your oil filter but not the oil. Of course you can still do the wires afterwards. When the wires start to go bad they will cause a rough idle and slight misfires, but not enough to shut down a cylinder or set your CEL.

E55Greasemonkey

Coilovers ruin the ride quality of the E55, although I understand why people make the swap. I would never do it myself, I just bought new front and rear Arnott's, and a new oem compressor and valve block and now it's good for a very long time. Plus, I can raise the car so my long tube headers don't scrape over speed bumps.

E55Greasemonkey

It's pretty easy to understand why the mechanic was right to be annoyed by you.

CharlyE500

Brake job for $1600 ? I got front and rear OEM brake rotors and pad for $800 2 years ago.
Valve gasket is $300 job not $1300
No way you need to change Thrust Arms and ***** joint. Whats your car mileage ?

aguawaters

and its pretty easy to understand why you forums guys have a horrible reputation of thinking ur own **** dont stink. u havent really said anything helpful thus far
ie: complaining about how coilovers ruin the ride.. nobody asked ur opinion about that LOL.

CharlyE500

I have Coilovers for the last 4 years so far not that bad. I agree coilpack dont go bad unless very high mileage.

Sulaco

Why does the car need new valve covers and why does it cost $1.3k?

A brake job for $1.7k? An entire brake parts kit from FCP Euro including all OEM rotors, pads, and sensors is $430.

$1.2k for motor mounts? $1k for flex discs?

Is this what people really pay for these jobs?

aguawaters

it is at 143,000, one joint did seem worn as he showed me but i was going to do my own research on it, he claimed pretty much everything rubber on the car was bad though. almost his words verbatim. thing is he was showing me things but he wouldnt go into detail when I asked about them and since I dont look at mercedes all day it was hard for me to know whats “normal” and whats not.

aguawaters

I knew I wasnt crazy

aguawaters

the coilovers are adjustable and it still rides better than my beamer on run flats which is what im used to so im not bothered, besides.. im 23.. i got the car to go fast, not to baby sit me over potholes so the coilovers dont bother me one bit i love them. i also appreciate the better handling when I have them set to Hard

gjunon

You can DIY pretty much everything on the list. Honestly better than paying 9k and you know you did it right. If you are not mechanically inclined you can always pay to have it done. I agree with E55greasemonkey that the total is not an insane number there is a lot of work that needs to be done.

aguawaters

thanks this was helpful, Ive willed my way through alot of projects before. I have a 3 ton jack and alot of tools already so if its DIY stuff i will figure it out unless its an especially hard job.

GinDistiller

All commonly needed repairs at your mileage. Some of this is spot on, the two that jumped out at me is motor mount labor (should be 2 hours tops--unless you have some weird headers or exhaust setup that will take hours to move out of the way) and the driveshaft stuff (that isn't too common, and if done with the rear main seal, the driveshaft is disconnected already and should only be a little more labor plus parts). Come to thing of it, with the tranny out a set of mounts takes minutes to swap, so if you combined everything you should see a big discount. I hate mechanics/service advisors that don't factor this in though, to them it's an honest gray area because the prices on the jobs done alone might be accurate, but you get fleeced by saying 'do everything'.

Brakes are probably quoted from a dealer which those parts prices are probably right - definitely do those yourself. Although you'll need the dealer or a STAR tool to do the fluid flush at some point.

I'm at 153k miles and had to do front arms/ball joints, not massive tearing but car feels a lot better so at your mileage I'm not surprised it's recommended, but unless you have bad tire wear you can put that off a while.

Lastly - WTF on the valve covers. He can't get gaskets? Carried a decimal point too far to the right? Parts are under $100.

aguawaters

Yea the valve cover i thought was funny lol, thank you for the comment and the info. the left fromt arm ball joint did look worn so thats on my list..

when I mentioned to the shop that I could get alot of these parts way cheaper he told me “well we are in the business of selling parts too” i was like yea okay whatever but at this markup its just insulting guys cmon now. BUT THIS WAS MY FAULT FOR TAKING A MERCEDES TO A BMW SHOP, so i wasnt suprised. I was just happy to have the car on the lift so i could get a good look at everything, have my plugs and coils changed, and a list of things to fix, never once did I consider paying them to do any of these jobs besides what I had asked. which was coils and plugs.

E55Greasemonkey

I'm not just a "forum guy" but a real master certified Mercedes-Benz Technician with 19 years MB experience and 26 years in the business. I fix cars that other "techs" can't. So I've earned the right. You're young, cocky and bordering on obnoxious with a lot to learn, firstly manners. I won't waste any more of my valuable time and experience on you. Good luck keeping your E55 on the road. I've seen plenty of kids your age get in over their head and run these cars into the ground.

aguawaters

exactly and I came here TO LEARN which u absolutley did not help. so master tech for being so smart u were the least helpful out of everyone... congrats. funny how that works. ur presence in this thread wont be missed by me thats for sure


EDIT: you made ONE helpful informative comment about not changing wires and the effects of that which was appreciated.i’ll give credit where credit is due. other than that, u were critical, making assumptions based on my age, and calling me obnoxious and rude. again unasked for opinions. U are definitley indeed wasting ur time talking to me with ur jacked up attitude. good riddance do it all tech maybe try inventing a button on ur E55 that pulls that stick u got up ur *** out while ur driving around town huh?

Mr Bike

You did well to walk away from this shop. A+.

testknight

I don't know why the guy would have been annoyed at questions. Was he answering and you just not understanding it, or perhaps were you there a long time peppering away while he was not able to do billed work? If you weren't then I do suspect he just threw a bunch of stuff against a wall to see what sticks. I've seen this a lot too and not only in automotive industry. I don't know, I wasn't there nor have I seen your car. If you were my buddy I'd tell you to walk away and look at each item yourself. This stuff isn't that hard these days with Youtube and other internet resources to help. You should have replaced the wires that all said. BTW, you didn't come off cocky to me, I can appreciate you reaching out to ask. This is the best site for info on this platform...it isn't a very social one. That is A-ok to me. I appreciate the guys who take the time to share here though (questions and answers).

aguawaters

I appreciate this response and I came here because I am admitting thhat i am young, i realize i have less experience, so i want to ask those that have more experience than me. thanks to most all of you who have added your input, you guys uave steered me in the right direction so I very much appreiate that.

As far as the mechanic, I am not one to just immediatley call people prejudice or anything like that, but I will say, I am In the South, I am of mixed descent, and the mercedes mechanic fit the decription of a typical skinhead, so I am not going to say he was one or he was racist and thats why he had an attitude and wouldnt look me in my face, but that is what the situation was, thats how I look, thats how he looks, and I am not new to those type of vibes if you know what I am saying. I’d like to give the man the benefit of the doubt and say maybe hes going through a break up.... I really didnt want to go there or say that about the mechanic but if im being honest he just had this attitude with me like i shouldnt own the car for whatever reason. i mean his mannerisms with were extremely disrespectful (having to ask the same question three times while he actively ignoring me only to take 30 secomds to say “idk”) he really did not want to talk to me about my own car and the fact that he never once looked me in my eyes except when I said I wasnt getting the wires changed just tells me enough. I really DONT KNOW for sure what his problem was, but i suspect there was some inherent prejudice. I hope im wrong but i know reality, i know where i am at, and i may be young but Ive had experience in this department. There are other little things like throwing my keys on the counter slamming my hood being hard on the throttle while moving it around the lot.. but I’ll leave it at that. I dont want that to be the focus of this post. I just know he will never be touching my car again.

bbirdwell

aquawaters, I strongly recommend you modify your default position from "that guy just insulted and disrespected me" to "maybe that guy really is trying to assist me and I should hear him out before I start yelling at him". It is in the realm of possibility that some of us here do know somewhat of that of which we speak. Your edited comment made me loath to respond with any assistance. Against my first impression, I will grant you the benefit of a doubt and will attempt anyway. FWIW, I like to think I'm pretty good with the W210 and W211 chassis but E55Greasemonkey makes me feel like an amateur. And if you think he's in the slightest way abrasive (which he is not) just wait until Plutoe weighs in on one of your posts.

-From the estimate, the prices are running 50% to 100% above dealer and quality aftermarket prices (comparing to my previous receipts). Valve cover job does not pass the "smell test" but that's my opinion. My back-of-the-envelope estimate is parts cost should be between $2K and $3K. Most of the labor hours seem reasonable; I could quibble with the motor mounts but the driver's side is a PITA (easiest to drop the steering rack).
-Why pay $9/quart for motor oil when one can purchase a large jug of Mobil1 0w-40 at Walmart for ~$5/quart? Order a case of the fleece filters for about $8 to $10 a filter.
-You messed up not doing the plug wires and now the work has to be performed twice. You'll need a Mercedes spark plug boot removal wrench and will have to unbolt the coil packs (to provide clearance to swing the wrench). Don't forget the dielectric grease and I recommend you have one or two spare new plugs on hand because it is possible to snap a spark plug in half during this process. Go the W210 AMG sub-forum to the post "spark plug wires" and you'll find my list of spark plug wire part numbers that correspond to location. If you look closely in the photo you'll see the spark plug I broke in half while removing the wires. https://mbworld.org/forums/w210-amg/...ml#post8316034
-If you do brakes, cost from ECS Tuning, FCP Euro, Pelican Parts, or Autohaus should be about half of that quoted. STAR is preferred to perform a brake job. No matter what, disable or disconnect the SBC pump! Otherwise you'll have the brake pads out, rotors off, and then someone opens a car door and the system activates and blows caliper pistons onto the floor or, worse, your fingers are caught underneath (System activates with ~1000 psi). Ensure the system re-enables properly *before* you put the car in gear! Have a parking brake kit on hand just in case it is needed. All caliper bolts are one-time use, you need to run a tap through the threads to clean out the old encapsulation before installing the new bolts. FWIW, I did mine at 140K miles and could have gone to 170K or even 180K based on pad and rotor wear.
-At 143,000 miles, I recommend you rebuild the entire front suspension with the exception of the inner tie rods.
-Do you have all service records? If not, if the car was serviced by a reputable independent or dealer, all services will be stored in the Central Gateway and can be retrieved with STAR.
-Were the fuel pumps and filter/regulator replaced at 120K miles? If not, replace now for the low, low price of $1000 in parts. Three generation of filter/regulators, two generations of fuel pumps; they are not all compatible with each other and the latest generations require adapter cables to the OEM harness (failure to do so risks blowing your engine). Also, your car has the single low-amperage relay that will melt (along with the harness).
-Install a supercharger clutch scattershield from LM21 here on the forum. If a "dog-bone" spring lets loose, it will buzz saw right through the adjacent oil lines.
-Do NOT have the key fob in the ignition switch (or within two meters of the car if Keyless-Go) when connecting jumper cables or installing a main battery. With key fob inserted or within range, the circuits are energized and the arcing of the cables can blow fuses and/or damage modules.
-Search (upper right, threads, advanced) for good information.
-Go to this post, download the attachments, then follow the links and *read* everything! https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...ml#post8314862
-W211 AMG does NOT have the same fuse/relay configuration as the W211 non-AMG. Info is on this forum, search for it.
-Good info here: http://www.hehlhans.de/motorg55-7.htm
-If the greased rear bearings in the supercharger go bad, replacements come out of Japan via an Australian E55 specialist and/or an Australian bearing warehouse.. Custom bearings (seriously). If not in stock, work up a group buy, submit the order to the Australian distributor, and the factory should make a custom run of bearings in six months or so. Don't laugh, this is what others and I did several years ago. And this is the reason I will not put a fixed pulley on my supercharger. Front bearings are in an oil bath, rear bearings are greased and designed for intermittent use and still go bad. IMO, a fixed pulley is running the rear bearings at a 100% duty cycle and will cause earlier failure.

FWIW, I have close to 80MB of technical documentation on the W211. If interested in it, PM me your email address and I'll get around to sending you about a dozen emails with that info.

And please play nice with others. This is a great place to hang out.