Mercedes E320 CDI S211, Shite or Shiteable?

[Snake Charmer]

Failed the Mot, rust hole on the front offside chassis and an ARB ball joint gaiter. Rear brakes could do with a good coat of looking at to improve an imbalance. Chatting to the owner tomorrow. 😔

[sierraman]

That’s nowt! Mornings work!

[Snake Charmer]

7 hours ago, sierraman said:

That’s nowt! Mornings work!

Not the way I do weld repairs!! 😁

[Snake Charmer]

The car is mine now,  made a start this evening stripping it out to do the welding. I hate digital camera flash photography as any rusty mark looks like an Mot failure!

What the heck is a motorcycle battery doing hiding under the pollen filter?

 

[rantingYoof]

Here's my dad's 2003 E320 doing its best subsidence impression.

That engine and gearbox combo (3.2 and just the 5GTronic) appear to be pretty much unburstable, though.

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[colino]

Your secondary battery should have a nice plastic cover over it secured by a not so nice 10mm plastic nut.  The cover looks like it has been awol for a while.

[Snake Charmer]

1 hour ago, colino said:

Your secondary battery should have a nice plastic cover over it secured by a not so nice 10mm plastic nut.  The cover looks like it has been awol for a while.

Do you mean the pollen filter or should there be another cover over the battery?

Stripped out for access and blatted over with the needle scaler. Looks much better without the camera flash!

[Talbot]

13 hours ago, rantingYoof said:

That engine and gearbox combo (3.2 and just the 5GTronic) appear to be pretty much unburstable, though.

They are also, despite the weight of the car, quite surprisingly fast.  Not in a sports-car-very-urgent-power-delivery kind of way, more in a refined-large-shove-of-torque kind of way, and before you know it you're well past 100mph and into license-losing territory.

[Snake Charmer]

What a horrible design that chassis rail is. All new metal in place of the rot, not my finest work but solid. Finishing off in the morning. 

[rantingYoof]

10 hours ago, Talbot said:

They are also, despite the weight of the car, quite surprisingly fast.  Not in a sports-car-very-urgent-power-delivery kind of way, more in a refined-large-shove-of-torque kind of way, and before you know it you're well past 100mph and into license-losing territory.

Yes, the torque is silly. Diesel levels of shove, helped by a gearbox not afraid to keep it in gear. Peculiar noise from the 18v engine, too.

[Talbot]

29 minutes ago, rantingYoof said:

Peculiar noise from the 18v engine, too.

I think it has a very purposeful growl.  Especially at about 1200rpm under gentle acceleration.  At full chat they sound quite aggressive.

[Snake Charmer]

I shall hopefully be experiencing all of this torque later today as I have not driven it on the open road as yet.

[Talbot]

Compared to a Vectra 150, I expect you'll go "blimey, that's actually fairly quick..."

[Snake Charmer]

1 hour ago, Talbot said:

Compared to a Vectra 150, I expect you'll go "blimey, that's actually fairly quick..."

Looking forward to it and the slush box, particularly on a hill I drive up on the way to work in the morning where there is usually some scrote in a white van or Corsa trying to overtake to get one car closer to their death.

That old Vauxhall Rectum could still lift its skirts and trot on quite nicely leaving an industrial revolution sized cloud of soot behind it, much to the annoyance of men in lycra riding two abrest. 😳

Big torque, I drove an S65, it was the CEO of Mercedes chauffeur driven car at the time and that had almost relentless refined acceleration for such a big car. On the flip side,  a 427 Cobra is quite something too in a real visceral way. 😎

[Talbot]

1 minute ago, Snake Charmer said:

leaving an industrial revolution sized cloud of soot behind it

Nicked.

[sierraman]

2 hours ago, Talbot said:

Compared to a Vectra 150, I expect you'll go "blimey, that's actually fairly quick..."

The Vectra 150 was actually quite a quick car. 

[rantingYoof]

It's not the smoothest or most refined engine, but it does the job without ever feeling underpowered or strained. Exceptionally thirsty though. Far more than the V8 in the Lexus.

Given a blank cheque I'd be putting the 3.2 in the Insignia because while the 1.5T also does the job it has hilarious lag and quickly feels like a small engine that's been wound up hard.

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[sierraman]

My dad was making noises about upgrading to an Insignia petrol, it’s very hilly where he lives and it’s usually full of luggage. I did point him in the direction of the diesel, there won’t be any low emission zones where he lives in the sticks. 

[Snake Charmer]

1 hour ago, Talbot said:

Nicked.

It was already there Ossifer, I drove through it!

[Talbot]

4 hours ago, rantingYoof said:

Exceptionally thirsty though. Far more than the V8 in the Lexus

Are you talking about the same engine here?  The E320 CDi diesel?  They will average 40 and get 45 on a decent run.  I cannot imagine a V8 lexus getting anywhere near that.

[Snake Charmer]

Retest done this afternoon and I'm on the road. Spent a good day on the repair, not pretty but all new metal and solid. Brush painted with Epoxy Mastic 121 which made it look a MkII Escort on any Thursday morning in the Thames Valley Trader 1985.

Drives well, a few creaks and seems to stay on line through fast bends for a big old barge on cheap tyres. Everything works apart from one mirror doesn't fold fully back and the load cover intermittently doesn't retract but the motors work OK. Did a little motorway work and stop start traffic, liking it so far.

[rantingYoof]

8 hours ago, Talbot said:

Are you talking about the same engine here?  The E320 CDi diesel?  They will average 40 and get 45 on a decent run.  I cannot imagine a V8 lexus getting anywhere near that.

Whoops...nah I'm on about the 3.2 petrol!

[Talbot]

2 hours ago, Snake Charmer said:

not pretty but all new metal and solid.

... very nice welding tho.

How quick are you finding it?

[Snake Charmer]

6 hours ago, Talbot said:

... very nice welding tho.

How quick are you finding it?

Thanks, at least the outer plate looks half decent! Short of taking the wing, suspension and inlet manifold off access is pretty poor in that area and the horrible chassis rail design doesn't lend itself to an easy repair.

I really like the torque and the seemingly effortless way the car drives. I will be exploiting the performance some more this morning as I'm off to look at some 18" wheels and possibly a V40 for parts. 

[Snake Charmer]

Did about 80 miles or so today, motorway,  A roads and a bit of town work, saw over 40mpg on the motorway at 56-60mph and averaged 38 overall so I'm happy with that.

Gearbox is a bit hesitant when you accelerate after slowing down and doesn't seem on the ball with selecting a lower gear when labouring uphill.

Four 18" wheels will fit with the seats up easily so putting the seats down was just showing off.

Sport mode just seems to be an on off button and needs more exploration.

I like the brake hold in traffic and the fact you can drop into neutral. 

Dropping a gear or two on the cruise control is nice too but I think the gearbox controller should be doing that.

Stopped in Alton to take a photo where my brother had his first house and sent it to my nephew in Australia. 

 

[Talbot]

3 hours ago, Snake Charmer said:

Gearbox is a bit hesitant when you accelerate after slowing down and doesn't seem on the ball with selecting a lower gear when labouring uphill.

That's surprising.  However, I think yours is a 7G-tronic, which I'm not familiar with.  The earlier 5G-tronic is good at changing down when you're labouring uphill, but just as dim-witted when it comes to choosing a gear to be in when you exit a roundabout or similar.  It's also a lot of the reason why there's a significant delay between foot movement and vehicle acceleration... if locked in one gear the response time between them is a lot faster.

It's not a bad automatic by any standards, I'd just still massively prefer a manual.

[Snake Charmer]

Mine seems to be a 5 speed, if I knock the lever left from D I get 4 on the display. There is a slight vibration in top at around 55 that disappears if you drop into 4th. Changing manually is super smooth, maybe a gearbox service would improve matters but it's early days.

These 18" wheels came up cheap from a CLC, as usual they need refurbishing and one of the fronts has a crack. 7.5J and 8.5J, quite tempted to get another pair of 8.5J to fill the front arches. Hard to see the difference in the photos of the rears on the front as I need a set of longer bolts before I can try them for size properly. Before anyone says it, I am aware the C Class uses 12mm bolts and the E  Class 14mm, a little engineering will circumnavigate that wee problem. 👍

 

 

[Talbot]

1 hour ago, Snake Charmer said:

if I knock the lever left from D I get 4 on the display.

Yes, that's a 5g-tronic with the later +/- selector rather than the D54321 selector.  What colour is the fluid in it?

[Snake Charmer]

21 minutes ago, Talbot said:

Yes, that's a 5g-tronic with the later +/- selector rather than the D54321 selector.  What colour is the fluid in it?

I'm not sure it has a dipstick other than me! I noticed the engine only has a cap rather than a dipstick, I will have a look later.

[Talbot]

it won't have a factory dipstick.  However, you can use a length of net curtain rod.  it has just the right amount of flexibility, and has a pvc coating which allows it to slide in just perfectly.  You push it in all the way until it goes "dink" on the sump.  I can't remember the correct level up from there (when running, with the valve chest full of fluid) but it's only about 2"-3" up from the sump pan.

Like almost all Auto-transmissions, they need clean fluid and need to be full.  I rather need to change the oil in mine soon as it's a bit grotty, and I think it's affecting change quality.