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Les Swab tires hands down (WA/OR/ID/CA/etc...
1995 E320 = toyo proxies speed rated. with a 65000 mile warranty. The next best warranty is Continental @40,000.
BUT
The service and quality PLUS added can not be qualified.
EXAMPLE: When I did not like my tire rotation tires were 4wheel aligned then rotated (off rim=directional) AT NO CHARGE! with/a smile!
I always get my tires with them can’t be beat
I heard that the EBC "Greenstuff" might be a good choice. Any experience with EBC or any other recommendations?
BTW, how did you hear about EBC?
They are at;
www.SASPOnline.com
:confuse:
I'll post my opinion on the pads after I get some time and experience under my belt.
schugof@yahoo.com
they say the poly belt was shredded. they replaced the belt(which was not covered by the warranty) and the car drives fine for now.
i wonder if it is unusual for this belt to fail at 43000 miles and if it is a sign of some underlying problem which they should have looked for.would appreciate any input.
I wonder if you need to replace the wires...How many miles do you have on your car? I don't know if you have to remove each coil pack in order to get more room to reach the plugs.
Do NOT buy any plug but the ones that came with the car. The dealer service advisor told me that the wires already have resistors built into plug wire booth. When you use resistor type spark plugs, you could mess up and burn the coils.
Since plugs are changed once every 100K miles, go ahead and buy the original $9 plugs, instead of $4 platinum from AutoZone. The owners manual tells you what type of plugs are used in your engine.
Joe
I am looking at buying a 2004 E320 4Matic Wagon with 11,000 miles on it from a dealership. It would have the Certified pre owned warranty until 5 years or 100,000 miles. Also because it is an '04 regular maintenance would be free under the warranty period.
They have it listed at $42,900. I offered $37,000. They countered at $39,000 but said at that price I couldn't have the extended warranty, just the factory warranty (which goes to 4 years, 50,000 miles).
As someone mentioned, these cars seem to have an expensive mid-life crisis. Seems to me that the 5 year, 100k warranty is worthwhile.
I was able to talk to the original owner. By pure coincidence he is a neighbor. He said they never had any problems with the car with one exception, that when they wouldn't start it for a week or so, the battery would be dead. They were told they needed to drive it more often but the service dept. also did something to it (on the Carfax report, it states something along the lines of Jump Start, etc). The original owner said that after that, they went on a 2 week vacation, came back, and the car started no problems. They really liked the car but his wife missed having a MB convertible, so they traded the wagon in for another one of those.
I don't think we will take the $39K with only factory warranty deal. AFter reading these boards, I am not sure I have the stomach to own one of these cars.... It must be very upsetting to buy one of these cars new at full price and deal with such constant problems.
any advice for me??
I need an AWD car (with enough room for 2 car seats and gear associated with 2 little kids). Don't want another SUV and no minivan either. $37 - $38 is sort of the top of our budget, would be happy to spend less though!
Pictures available.">
I too have a '98 E320, and yesterday we took it in to have a rear window fixed - for $363 (independent shop). My wife took it out this morning, and my son lowered the rear window on the other side, and guess what - that one broke. Unbelievable coincidence - and another $363 "out the window"! Like Dee, the windows had rarely been used (and the car has only about 35,000 miles on it). BTW, I also have a '94 E320 wagon, and have already replaced one back window opener in it as well.
This is clearly a manufacturing defect. Our mechanic joked that someone at MB must be sleeping with someone at the the supplier of this part (Bosch?), because MB continued to use them for years with this known defect.
Has anyone been successful in getting money out of Mercedes when this defective part is repaired out of warranty?
3 of them...that means they've replaced at least one with another faulty part. They live in Florida and I'm convinced it's heat related.
My 2001 has not had it happen. I live in New Hampshire. I have several issues that DO show themselves when the car has been out in a hot parking lot all day.
Someone over a year ago put a link in the E Class forum to an MSNBC story on how Mercedes put pressure on suppliers to reduce costs so that Mercedes could maintain their target margins. When suppliers pushed back, they were allowed to increase their tolerances and, basically, supply lower quality parts.
My experience over the past 5 years is a tribute to that having been the case.
Oh, and those wondering if an extended warranty will help. It will help you in the case of catastrophic failure. Windows dropping out, failed headlight washers, failed climate control fan speed regulators, non-functional AM radios, failed instrument clusters, etc will not be covered.
Regards,
BigRob.
Nowadays I can't tell what the outside temp. is; a couple of segments of each character of the temp. digits on the dashboard are blank. They are intermittent though; they will light up for a few minutes a few times per week. Does anyone know if this is covered under Starmark? OK, you can stop laughing now...!!
And has anyone experienced having the alarm go off as you open the driver's door even though it is unlocked? It has happened 10-12 times over the last 6 months and the other day, I noticed for the first time that the driver's door is unlocked but the other three doors are still locked from when they were auto-locked when it was last driven. The dealer replaced the door switch a month ago, which I thought was strange, but maybe they are on the right path. I suspect the electronics are not unlocking the other doors when the driver opens his/her door. Again, do you think Starmark will cover the electronics? OK, enough of that laughing now..!
Around 76K miles my 2001 had a failed wheel bearing. I can't even remember the last time I owned a car that had a bad bearing; probably 35 years and a million miles ago..! So it isn't just electronics folks.. Even the most ancient of mechanical parts has been subjected to cost cutting..!
I have a 1994 E320 mb and i recently got a new engine/motor installed. Immediately after the installation the ASR light came on and when this happens i lose power when driving and i have to shut the car off and back in and the light will reset. I have not found a resonable mech who can diagonise this successfully. Does anyone know what recommendations i can take??
Thanks
Geesliders
I took it back to the dealer last week and he "flashed the software" to a new version. So far this seems to have fixed the problem. Just thought I would post this here in case any of you have a similar type problem.
The 98 has been a wonderful car and I will keep it but the window situation and MBs response to the repair has driven me to Lexus (wonderful Lexus service, they have informed me NO MATTER WHAT the customer is ALWAYS right.) Estimate from MB $500 to $800. Waiting for the other side to go bang.
Sounds high if you are not replacing the glass. You should be able to find a competent independent mechanic to do it for under $400. See post #800.
I also had radio problems like cap11 (post #820). Our car (03 E320) has the Harman Kardon system but without navigation. In our case, it took several times back to the dealership for them to figure it out. If I hadn't taken it back to the dealership with the car running and the radio locked up so they could pull up the code, I don't think they would have diagnosed the problem.
The sound system had the software update more than once which did not solve the problem. It was not the audio gateway either because they tested my car with a known good unit and still would throw a code and the radio would lock up. In my case, the headunit was bad.
We also own two Lexus ES' (an 03 and 05). Yes, the transmission performance is lousy (Toyota is definitely not infallible); I have learned to adapt to the car. Like an earlier poster wrote, check out the Lexus/Toyota boards if you are interested. But Toyota's missteps should not be much of a consolation to MB and the owners of their vehicles. In our family, there now is only one MB fan and 3 others who will not consider an MB in the future, period. Just read the article on Inside line about Toyota versus GM quality perceptions. I believe that MB will be paying for their perceived quality decrease for a long time to come. This is also true for Toyota/Lexus for me in terms of transmission feel; I won't buy a Toyota/Lexus unless I am pretty certain that they have worked out the bugs in their automatic transmission.
handles beautifully without any hitches (back when MB built
real luxury cars). My only small complaint, is a slight
fluttering or flapping noise coming from the dash on the
passenger side. Any idea what this could be?
When I bought the car back in March of this year, I asked the MB service manager to print out the service history. There was no record that battery was ever replaced. With over five years of service, I was planning on replacing the battery anyway.
Has anyone had this problem before where it was something other than battery? In most cars, with weak battery, when you try to crank, the light go dim, not with this one. I will put a new battery in it tomorrow.
Thanks,
Joe