Mercedes E320 CDI S211, Shite or Shiteable?

[Snake Charmer]

Severe procrastination attack. Wiring not done, old bumper fitted and taken for Mot. Found a strand of rotary wire wheel stuck in a rear tyre, like a plum l pulled it out so now have a puncture. Had a couple of drives over the weekend, missed driving the old bus. 🙂

[Snake Charmer]

Pulled my finger out today and started refitting a few bits back in the load space, lining in the spare wheel well, space saver, jack housing etc., even managed to find all the trim clips and pump the space saver up to 60psi. Not much but it's something. 

[beko1987]

9 hours ago, Snake Charmer said:

Pulled my finger out today and started refitting a few bits back in the load space, lining in the spare wheel well, space saver, jack housing etc., even managed to find all the trim clips and pump the space saver up to 60psi. Not much but it's something. 

Nothing nicer than refitting all the clips 👌 

[Snake Charmer]

1 hour ago, beko1987 said:

Nothing nicer than refitting all the clips 👌 

Having a complete car for spares helps. 😁

[Snake Charmer]

I did something unusual last Friday, came home early from work feeling ill. Saw the Doctor day before and prescribed 5 antibiotics having had my treatment the previous Friday and developed a painfully sore throat early week that started heading to my chest. Surprised to find they did thd trick, back to work Monday.

As l was collected from work in the Nonnawagon, my pushbike was at work so l used that as a double excuse to take my car and fix the puncture. (The one that was fine until the idiot Mot tester pulled a wee bit of rotary wire wheel out.)

Same excuse Tuesday, but l did stick the car up and fit the spacesaver. Remembered to use the original 16" wheel bolts to save trashing the parking brake shoes within the disc. Staring at the wheel and contemplating using the new tyre machine for the first time, my colleague offered to do it.

The muppet who pulled the wire out used his big yellow crayon to mark the position down in the tread. The wire came out of the block next to it. We put the tyre back on to find the leak.....

Once fixed the bastid thing wouldn't go back on the bead. Calmed down, we won.

Wednesday now. Select a vacant point in the day to swap wheels, drop seats, refit spare, fit bike. FFS that took all day as bastids kept booking Mot's.

Anyway, left work and dropped bike off. Returned the seats and stewardess to upright position. That can be a faff with one electric memory seat and giffer spec "Easy Access" as it pins the lowered seats in place.

Go to Tescos. I'm well enough for wine, Nonna needs cheering up so walking out l looked like the accused with a big bunch of flowers, a box of Milk Tray and four bottles of wine.

(I was wearing black trainers, socks, shorts and t-shirt for full effect.)

Do l cycle tomorrow? 

EDIT:

Forgot to add, next time l buy flowers as a surprise, turn off the bloody doorbell camera!

Twat!!

 

[Snake Charmer]

Not used the car other than a drive about for the hell of it after a trip to Tesco. Changed the oil and filter last week but still need to reset the dash saying 200+ days overdue. Used the lazy boy method with my vacuum pump, filter is up top too so a doddle. Bought a 20ltr cube of oil through work for less than £100 as the Nonnawagon needs doing too.

Have to extract my digit and sort the towbar wiring then fit the painted bumper as it's on the spare bed. 

[Snake Charmer]

I found a small box of enthusiasm this afternoon and decided to tackle a wee jobbie to fit the new rear bumper. I bought some aluminium rivets for plastics then realised they were 4mm instead of 5mm then could not find the correct 10mm head size in 5mm. No problem,  l will just turn them down in the lathe and Bob's yer auntie.

The heads need to sit in these small undercuts hence the 10mm head diameter. They are out of sight under the car so using them as is with the oversize heads would not matter and a 5mm stainless washer would fill the undercut if needs be but where's the fun in that?

First try holding the snap (part that pulls the rivet and snaps off) even the lightest cut sheared the snap off, had not occurred to me they are also aluminium. 🙃 Cannot hold the rivet head as it has a specific shape with 3 splits and the chuck would crush this.

Stuck a couple in the cordless drill and tried sanding on the linisher, could not control the diameter or ovalitity. Considered ordering the correct rivets from Mercedes, beaten l will not be!

Came up with this idea for sanding them on the linisher......

Found a small block off my welding table and set it up in the milling machine, drilled a 2.8mm hole 5mm from one edge.

Piece of rubber tube to rotate the rivet then sand until the block is flat. Worked a treat.

Flushed with success l set about sanding a small chamfer using the same block and a plate a step as a stop. Again, worked perfectly until l realised l had chamfered the wrong side! Of course l had done all 8 but used this method to deburr the  next batch.

Did the chamfers freehand, came out ok and easily hidden with a coat of paint.

Might go to German day tomorrow at Brooklands for a bit of inspiration then attack the towbar wiring and bumper fit later in the day. 

[Snake Charmer]

Went to Brooklands, wandered round and didn't find any inspiration. Came home and did the oil and filter on the Nonnawagon. Reset the service intervals on both cars as l couldn't be arsed when l did the S211.

Only other 211 l saw there, facelift S211 280/320 CDI.

 

 

[Snake Charmer]

Had the opportunity to have a dyno run on the old bus today.

Spent some time looking at the towbar wiring this afternoon. If only Carlsberg did wiring, it would probably be the best wiring in the world.

Must get rid of the beige in here.

[Captain Slow]

I am also running one of these now so will be following this thread. 

 

What beige bits have you got? Curious if any might be decent upgrade bits for me in any way. 

 

Also, could you please photograph the mechanism for that left hand boot panel for me? Mine's buggered and pics of a good one will help me work out how. 

[Snake Charmer]

Pretty much the complete interior will be surplus over time apart from the drivers seat as it has the memory function. l want to see if l can combine this into my Multi-contour Designo seat from the old car.

[Snake Charmer]

17 hours ago, Captain Slow said:

Also, could you please photograph the mechanism for that left hand boot panel for me? Mine's buggered and pics of a good one will help me work out how. 

Set myself a reminder for later. 👍

[Snake Charmer]

Too much logistical grief to test the trailer socket wiring on the trailer so l borrowed the tester from work, all tickety boo. When the new tailgate is fitted I will add wiring for the reversing lights.

 

[Snake Charmer]

7 hours ago, Snake Charmer said:

Set myself a reminder for later. 👍

@Captain Slow did you previously post on Faecesbook about the problem?

[Captain Slow]

I did - are you Peter? Thank you!

[Snake Charmer]

 

 

27 minutes ago, Captain Slow said:

I did - are you Peter? Thank you!

No, l rarely look at Faecesbook but had a slack period at work and boredom drove me to it! 🤣

[bigstraight6]

I have a hankering for one of these in saloon format, I came close to achieving this about 8 years ago but the car in question was owned by a serious cigar smoker and it really stank inside. I hopefully will get one!

[Talbot]

On 03/10/2026 at 17:08, Snake Charmer said:

Had the opportunity to have a dyno run on the old bus today.

The same place that Top Dead Centre (Youtube channel guys, and good ones) use.  I've often thought of going there to see how far down on power the E300 is when on Veg.   Is it the sort of place that would tolerate that sort of tomfoolery?