Mercedes E320 CDI S211, Shite or Shiteable?

[Snake Charmer]

Just occasionally I look at Faecesbook and one of the Mercedes groups I look at had a pair of rear door cards for a saloon in the same colour as the ones I removed with sun blinds in for £400.  There's another pair on Ebay for £312.68.  I would have happily parted them for with £20-£30 each!! I was tempted to disassemble the old ones and see if I could retrofit the upper section then vinyl paint the beige/mushroom colour to grey as they would make a nice addition to the child booster seats in the Designo rear seats I will be fitting.

I was chatting to someone about the faults this car had when bought, one of which was the black dash @bobdisk and I rectified and how it had been fautless since November 2023. Shortly after that a fault came up on the dash........

Seems to have cleared as a Canbus fault, could be as I have the head unit connected to the Canbus via a length of speaker cable and not a twisted pair of OE cables.

Talking of faults, the brake light switch has been throwing the occasional code and despite reading back through this thread I cannot remember if I swapped the brake light switch over from the old car permanently but I'm sure I tried it whilst diagnosing the SBC faults. A buzzing relay in the rear when the SBC pump runs seems to coincide with the fault appearing so I will try swapping the switches before rushing out to buy a new one.

Bluetooth connectivity seems to have settled to consistent with the Xtrons Android head unit. Waze starts automatically every time but not always with the same options on screen, sometimes I get the work/Hhome option depending which location I am at, other times I get the list of recent trips. BBC iPlayer does not always come up and I have to go searching, other times a split screen with Waze comes up with the station and I have to just press play. On a couple of occasion I have had this split screen, iPlayer has started on it's own and Waze gives me my choice of work/home home destination to select just hit yes so not sure why the connectivity is slightly different every time.

BBC radio 2 has a much better depth of sound through iPlayer than the FM radio, the amplifier is far better on this unit than the old one and probably up with the OE head unit so I'm pleased with that side of things. The expensive reversing camera has been faultless since fitting and should help me save damaging the rear bumper and tailgate that will be going in for paint next week hopefully. I squeezed the car into an unfeasibly small space last week on a bend as I was able to get close at the rear. I will eventually be investing in a front camera from the same company at some stage as the night vision is excellent as I have to paint the front bumper too. 

[Snake Charmer]

Brake pad warning light intermittently showing up. Mirror and torch show plenty of pad left, one front pad a little lower than the rest. I remember on the last car having to replace the discs and pads as the sensors had been overriden and I was trusting them.

Closer inspection shows some muppet has fitted one of the front sensors on the rear, forced it in and the lip of the disc has worn it away. Ffs, the plugs are slightly different too but a rear one will fit in one of the front sockets! Now chopped off and crimped, dash light out.

Loaded up this morning with the tailgate,  bumper and side mouldings ready for paint. I'm prepared for a big bill, possibly twice what the car cost. 💲

[Snake Charmer]

Spent some time after work Friday clearing the car out, resetting the rear seats and giving the interior a vacuum as l was lending the car to a work colleague on Sunday.

On the way home l realised how dirty some of the interior has become and decided to give it a clean on Saturday. I even bought an air freshener! I have been ignoring the beige interior as l'm part way through swapping it over to the dark grey and tan Designo from the old car.

The rear seat belts being beige had a few mouldy spots that stood out like a bulldogs chuds so l decided to give them a clean. A rummage under the sink produced a nearly full spray bottle of Dettol Mould Remover.

I broke blokes rules and read the instructions. Spray on and leave to soak at least 5 minutes, what could go wrong? The skin on my hands apparently, l missed the bit "contains bleach ".

They came up really well, all the spots were gone along with a layer of skin. Full of enthusiasm l decided to do the fronts and the minging drivers side would be great for a before and after photo. 

Stupid move, l ran out of Dettol and the fronts are now streaky. Fight the child proof top off the sprayer and mix up a mild bleach solution, what could go wrong, l'm replacing the belts anyway?

Whatever Dettol has added to their mould remover my mild bleach isn't a patch on it and the front belts are still streaky. As an added bonus, they now smell like a public swimming pool in the 70s.

Much time and effort was spent wet vacuuming all the belts to get rid of the smell. Luckily, with the aircon and heater on flat out they dried quickly and don't look quite so bad and the bleach smell has practically disappeared. Just the smell of "Little Joe Black Velvet" whatever that is supposed to be stinging your eyes now.

[Snake Charmer]

Colleague managed 40mpg on his day out to Goodwood 3 up in my car yesterday, l did 45+mpg today Staines to Brands Hatch. Definitely not grumbling at that mpg. 😊

The Xtrons Android head unit has been behaving itself and providing my phone has a 4G signal Spotify and BBC Sounds works well sounding betterer much morer, particularly compared to the same FM signal. Certainly made my trip today more enjoyable sound wise, Waze works well unless l use my expensive prescription sunglasses, what l can see is in focus as they are varifocal but the Polarising makes the screen really dark. My cheap single vision glasses allow me to see the screen but not in focus!

The really reliable part of the Xtrons has been the expensive reversing camara, nigh on an OE setup the way it works and last night the IR vision reversing in the dark was superb. Just a shame the whole Xtrons experience has not been the same.

Back to Brands Hatch tomorrow as I'm on a 4 day course. 

[Snake Charmer]

Another trip to to Brands Hatch and back today, last one tomorrow. Best use of a tank full of fuel this week 

On the return trip a pheasant walked into lane 1 of the M25 and I had that split second decision to swerve or not. I had just checked my mirrors and looked back ahead to see it centre lane but didn't feel safe to swerve. Beautiful plumage. It went bang and under, that beautiful plumage made quite a cloud behind me. 

The impact pulled the undertray out and instantly started dragging on the road, thankfully just before Chobham services. Went in and parked up, used a bungee to pull it up away from the road as all l had was that and luggage straps.

Back out on the M25 and once up to 50Mph, down it goes and wears through the bungee. Dived into a refuge and forced the undertray back up.

Almost wish l had not bothered with taking all the other rear end parts in for paint. 🤪

When @bobdisk and l went to collect this car in my old S211 we hit a Muntjac deer, that saw the other bumper off after pushing the Audi along. Doomed.