Mercedes E320 CDI S211, Shite or Shiteable?

[Crackers]

Instructions unclear.

Penis stuck in toaster.

[Snake Charmer]

7 minutes ago, Crackers said:

Instructions unclear.

Penis stuck in toaster.

Trust you to cock that up. Do you still have the ointment Nursey gave you for the rash? 

[Snake Charmer]

We had a long dirty weekend in Wales.

Easy 45mpg on the way there at 60mph and under with the trucks, 40mpg on the return keeping up with some of the idiots. Didn't miss a beat and I enjoyed driving it.

Headlights seem a little high and I have noticed the left hand beam shaking over bumps behind white vans. Height is probably due to the last lowering session of the front dampers, shaking is likely to be something expensive knowing my luck!

5 injector seals still to do, the propshaft centre bearing and a proper brake bleed would be nice but that might have to wait until the rear discs and pads. Not much chance to work at home currently as there's a friends VW T4 in for welding. 😔

[Snake Charmer]

Monday morning I swear the darned thing was sulking for being left on the drive all weekend and we have a bulb out warning but no bulb out. 🤔

This morning the car quite successfully pushed an Audi Q5 sideways uphill on the A30 for a considerable distance. The Audi came off much worse. Harrumph. 

[Snake Charmer]

Apparently the text I received from LV (the other drivers insurance company) 90 minutes after the accident sounding like an admission of guilt should not have been sent.

"Hi. Sorry to hear about the accident with our customer, we'd like to help you. We can pay for your repairs and/or hire car, you won't need to claim on your policy. Your no claim discount will stay intact and you won't pay an excess. Please call 0800 756 8538. There are no wait times and our agents are ready now to take your call or visit www.lv.com/ITP, your ref is blah blah blah. Thanks, LV."   Thanks for fuckall LV.

Reported to my insurance and now waiting for the usual bun fight fully expecting the car to be written off. Peeved this will cost me over the next 5 years in hiked premiums and not my fault.

Not sure if I will repair or buy a better car and use this for spares. The gearbox doesn't seem very happy since the collision and I now can't be arsed to replace the propshaft centre bearing or injector seals, not a good sign for the cars future. 😔

Must let the front right tyre down today and remove Audi shrapnel wedged between rim and tyre, fix one of the parking sensors back in place and give the headlight aim a tweak. Can't look at the refurbished rim damage without getting angry.

[yes oui si]

Gutted for you, you'd put huge amounts of work into it and it was looking great. 

[Snake Charmer]

35 minutes ago, yes oui si said:

Gutted for you, you'd put huge amounts of work into it and it was looking great. 

Thanks. The thought dealing with insurance companies is seriously depressing. Replacing the car with something the same spec is nigh on impossible without adding a chunk of cash and ending up with other peoples bodges and neglect. An insurance repair is unlikely to happen so I will be into the realms of payout, buy back and repair myself. It would need to look spectacular and have all the previous bodywork faults repaired for that much effort and financial outlay. Then I would really have to look after it with washing, polishing and shite like that!

The good news is I left a fair deposit of Welsh mud on the Audi from my dirty weekend away, stuffed the wing, doors and sills in, probably flat spotted all 4 tyres too. The Audi had been away for a month being repaired from the previous accident and only collected the previous  Friday. 🤣 I wonder what a 2019 Audi write off value is?

 

 

[yes oui si]

Fucking hell, their premiums must be ludicrous! 

[AnnoyingPentium]

4 hours ago, Snake Charmer said:

The Audi had been away for a month being repaired from the previous accident and only collected the previous  Friday. 🤣

Reminds me of my cousin. She wrote off 7 cars in a year.

Sorry to hear about the Merc by the way, especially after all the work you put into it.

[Snake Charmer]

On 11/12/2022 at 22:26, AnnoyingPentium said:

Reminds me of my cousin. She wrote off 7 cars in a year.

Sorry to hear about the Merc by the way, especially after all the work you put into it.

Cheers. First offer from my insurance has been the usual 60% insured value less excess and buy back so about twice the premium or less. As it's drivable I can drag my feet with them and maybe make a direct claim against the other insured. Unsure if I will run it as a smashed up shed and look for another next year or do a half tidy repair. Had I bought the other car for spares recently that would have yielded the possibility for a good repair. Tempted by a later V6 3ltr diesel but I do like a spares car!

[Snake Charmer]

Now the hose pipe has thawed out I jet washed off most of Wales bought back with us last month and had a better look at the panel damage. Bonnet is OK, mainly wing, door and bumper plus a scuff on the rear door trim that looks like a tyre mark. Wheel will need another refurb and the gearbox has been playing up a little since but may be unrelated as I  have never thought it to be 100%. A steering alignment wouldn't go amiss either. 

 

[EyesWeldedShut]

2 hours ago, Snake Charmer said:

Now the hose pipe has thawed out I jet washed off most of Wales bought back with us last month and had a better look at the panel damage. Bonnet is OK, mainly wing, door and bumper plus a scuff on the rear door trim that looks like a tyre mark. Wheel will need another refurb and the gearbox has been playing up a little since but may be unrelated as I  have never thought it to be 100%. A steering alignment wouldn't go amiss either. 

 

If you really like the car then stick with it - the insurance may well be a bit of a hassle but maybe worth it - better the devil you know?

[Snake Charmer]

On 24/12/2022 at 16:31, EyesWeldedShut said:

If you really like the car then stick with it - the insurance may well be a bit of a hassle but maybe worth it - better the devil you know?

I do really like the car, I have kept on the lookout for another one for spares and have not ruled out buying a really nice one and making this a spares car. I found one recently being weighed in that would have yielded panels to repair this damage and other corrosion in the doors etc., unfortunately there was too much wrong with it to be viable.  

[Snake Charmer]

Went out for beer supplies on Sunday evening and played with the fog lights to be a fog light wanker. Seems I switched back past Auto dozy mode to parking lights and reaped the benefits of a flat battery for work Monday morning.  9 miles to work wasn't enough to give it a Holsten Pils livening up charge and it didn't want to start in the afternoon.

Gave it a good charge overnight and seems OK so far, even after a couple of hours with the ignition on & off in the workshop Wednesday evening trying to coax a better spray out of the bidet scoosher and straightening a few of the bent and broken front end parts from the Audidudey incident. Odyssey Extreme 1100 battery in the back with a set of jump leads just in case.

Cable ties and drilled holes now hold the 3 front parking sensors in place. The sensors OK and surprisingly the plastic clips they sit in have survived to live another day. 

Bent the wing back into shape to save collecting pedestrians and errant cyclists. 

Removed part of the Audi from the rim.

The car drove home much happier with the Audi thorn removed from its paw!

I took the roof spoiler off and tried claning the scoosher jet again, need to find the pump now and test the line for leaks then the pump output before buying a new scoosher as I don't get a very good coverage on the rear screen.

[Snake Charmer]

I did a bit of research tonight, seems my washer bottle has 3 pumps and a heating element warmed from the engine along with heated jets. I dare not look to see if the heating element is controlled by a black box and temperature sensor.

Might top it up with Stella from now on.

Good news is the pumps are accessible behind the front left inner arch so I'll swap the pump and see what happens. 

[Snake Charmer]

I plugged the iCarsoft into the S211 today to see what codes were lurking since the flat battery, 33 mostly relating to low battery and one that stayed for the rear window child lock being stuck.
Definitely stuck down which is odd as I have no need to use it. No amount of wiggling was going to free the push button so off with the door panel and out with the switch, should not take long to free off.
Famous last words.

Took a while to free off using truck wash and hot water, Took even longer to work out how to reassemble.

Poxy ribbon cable split in the cold weather thanks to the glue.

Soldered the soddering thing.

Duct tape and jobs a goodun.

[Snake Charmer]

I stayed late at work Friday to address the left number number plate light warning that keeps flicking up. Each time I checked it was working until Friday morning and a full on Mot thump had it back on. The tail gate close button started playing up too so there I am expecting the worse with massive winter salt corrosion on earth's and all sorts or the rear scoosher hose is split and soaking the myriad of black boxes and chit that hide in the tail gate hatch.
Two nasty gashes on a pair of fingers taking the rear screen trim out, I swear the clips on that bastard thing are part recycled barb wire from Passchendaele.
Fight the poxy two piece plastic speed clips on the lower trim. Really fight them as they haven't magically repaired themselves since I buggered them up last time. At least two were missing, really irreparably buggered last time.
Ditto for the carpeted trim, two of four missing and they are the easy ones to remove.
Pull out all the connectors to everything that doesn't work, all the contacts fine apart from the "professional" repair made to the tail gate close button displaying corrosion.
Check the bulbs and connections. Ahh... one cap separated from the left 5W Festoon bulb. Bollocks, could have done both with a long cabinet screwdriver without disturbing the dirty patina.
Who invented the Festoon bulb? None at work so I'll have to find one at home or... buy a pair?
A wee glimmer of broken wire poking out the bulb end so I soldered the cap back on as a temporary repair.A good dose of truck wash on the lenses and chrome trim then scouring pad 20 years of road dirt off the chrome.
A clean up of the bodged and broken broken tailgate closure switch connector bought it back to life, now slathered in PTFE/silicone poly bush lube gloop to keep the corrosion at bay.
A bit of previous Googlefoo on the rear scoosher had highlighted a hose connector prone to popping apart when frozen or blocked inside the right hand wing panel, sure enough that's where some of the pressure was going. It now provides enough water for the bidet to keep the screen clearer mucho morer. How can fixing three small problems make the car feel better on the drive home? Stopped for beer supplies and stored them in the load space with ease with no dirty hands from closing the rear door.

[Snake Charmer]

I plucked up courage to replace the number plate Festoon bulbs at the weekend, check and top up the oil and other fluids etc as if I was going on a long trip. Today I was rewarded with 4 dash faults for the brake lights not working and auxiliary lights activated on the way to work. Poxy thing reset itself after restarting once I arrived at work. Tonight I have 6 fault codes and a Migraine so tomorrow may well be hand signals on the way to work.

The faint whiff of diesel has also started so I suspect one of the other 5 injector seals need doing but would not be surprised to find the new one leaking. I will do an injector leak off test beforehand as the kit has been sat there ready to go for a while.  

Back in December I was looking at refurbishing the 16" alloys and fitting winter tyres then the Audidudey incident happened so put that idea on hold. I have seen some seriously rough pot holes appear in the last month and wish I had the tyres fitted as those 45 section tyres are harsh.

Hopefully I will do battle with the insurance tomorrow to finalise the cars future. 

[Snake Charmer]

This mornings dash view.....

I read the codes once in work, the battery was showing 12.16V which is throwing up loads of historic  low voltage codes so I might have to bite the bullet and buy one. 😳

Insurance company department I need to contact was closed last night. 😔

 

[bobdisk]

"No Malfunction" ? Thats a change!!

[Rust Collector]

Just now, bobdisk said:

"No Malfunction" ? Thats a change!!

The malfunction indicator must be broken!

[gadgetgricey]

7 minutes ago, bobdisk said:

"No Malfunction" ? Thats a change!!

Fixed that for you

[vaughant]

Do love these updates 👍👍👍

[Snake Charmer]

Back up to 6 malfunctions this morning, I now suspect water ingress in one of the SAM units or similar. (I thought these were missile related but apparently not.) The boot tailgate close button is also playing up again, seems to happen after or during rain.

Half the malfunctions are to say the back-up bulbs are lit for tail lamp and brake bulbs which are LED. I checked this morning and it looks like the LED fog lamps are used as back-up for tail and brake lamps.

News from the insurance company is they are going to hold the other driver entirely responsible after reading my detailed statement and glorious Google Earth pictures. Not sure the other insurers will be so obliging. 

[yes oui si]

Hope it is as swift and painless as possible 

[Snake Charmer]

1 hour ago, yes oui si said:

Hope it is as swift and painless as possible 

December last year. The other vehicle has been repaired circa £6k, my insurance started at 60% of what they valued the car at and took my NCB so provided the other Mofos cough up I will ask for repairs by a local place.

[Snake Charmer]

The six dash warnings continue to come and go like Prime Ministers. Tinternet tells me it's a common fault and possibly an IC, diode or LED on the light board,  when I get a chance to pull the units apart and identify the components I will replace them. (Apparently I know a good Electronics expert.) 😁

In this weather the car is horrible until warmed up, gearbox snatchy, engine not very smooth or quiet and the rear axle/prop is making odd noises and juddering. A new noise has appeared on the right rear and a squeak too, best get the oil can out!

[Snake Charmer]

Took the car into work this morning and flushed the power steering then had a good look underneath at the corroded exhaust hangers and gussets, some fabrication required. Measured all the bolts required to remove the exhaust for replacement of the propshaft centre bearing. Planned to change the differential oil but did not have the correct size hex bit. Took both rear lights apart to inspect the LED boards and connections. Discovered a rear suspension creak backing out of the workshop!

[Snake Charmer]

Changed the propshaft centre bearing and diff oil, much smoother now but still has something creaky at the rear end when cold. Did a whole week without rear light warnings but they now come up occasionally. Gave the interior clean and spoke to the insurance company. They are still waiting for a reply from the other company who are claiming £9900 as 50% of the other vehicles repairs. Apparently she did £17k of damaged to her Audi on my wheel, wing and bumper. 🤔

[goosey]

Did you go for the genuine Merc diff oil ?