My W221 S350L

[Animal]

jimmymidnight said:

TheAllSeeingPie said:

106k on an S class is barely broken in!

Very true! And the way work is going, that number is only going to go up... quickly!!! (I probably should have bought a diesel Mondeo........)

My boss has had 3 so far and they all seem to start giving trouble (usually gearbox) at 120-150k.

[AmitG]

Animal said:

My boss has had 3 so far and they all seem to start giving trouble (usually gearbox) at 120-150k.

Anyone have more detail on the gearbox troubles? Is it a case of having 1 - 2k in reserve for a replacement, or is it essentially unfixable?

[LittleEnus]

Interesting to read this. I recently bought a 320CDi W221. 50-70 mph is quicker than the AMG. It is very agile and smooth but mine is not as well specced as yours.

Mine sits on the AMG 20" Plus wheels, looks very nice. A couple of little worries-

1) It drops a bit when you park up for a long time- I think this is exaggerated by the size of the wheels
2) Down shifts from 2-1 st when old can be quite harsh.

I came from an E38 BMW 728. Hard act to follow for sure. The Beemer had spades more charisma but the Merc is more competent (it's newer and worth lots more to be fair). It's a bit corporate and soulless inside but I do love it.

[TheAllSeeingPie]

LittleEnus said:

1) It drops a bit when you park up for a long time- I think this is exaggerated by the size of the wheels
2) Down shifts from 2-1 st when old can be quite harsh.

Both Mercs I've owned ended up dropping a little when parked for a while. The suspension keeps trying to self level and eventually with no replenishment in the reservoir they end up a bit lower. Nothing to worry about if it's over a week or more, if it drops in a matter of hours that's more likely a leak.

Modern auto gearboxes come with the stupid claim that they are sealed for life for oil. This has been proven to be utter nonsense and if you get the gearbox oil replaced at least every 100k miles you shouldn't have any issues, although really 25-50k intervals are much better. New oil is thicker which means more power can be transferred to the wheels.

Harsh downshifts can sometimes be fixed by a gearbox oil change or a software update.

[jimmymidnight]

LittleEnus said:

Interesting to read this. I recently bought a 320CDi W221. 50-70 mph is quicker than the AMG. It is very agile and smooth but mine is not as well specced as yours.

Mine sits on the AMG 20" Plus wheels, looks very nice. A couple of little worries-

1) It drops a bit when you park up for a long time- I think this is exaggerated by the size of the wheels
2) Down shifts from 2-1 st when old can be quite harsh.

I came from an E38 BMW 728. Hard act to follow for sure. The Beemer had spades more charisma but the Merc is more competent (it's newer and worth lots more to be fair). It's a bit corporate and soulless inside but I do love it.

I've had no dipping or downshift issues "yet" also mine is the v6 petrol which is a little bit weak coming from the w215 v8. Is yours a standard s or does it have AMG bumpers? I'm looking at adding AMG 20" wheels as the standard 18's look tiny and let it down a bit imo.

[jimmymidnight]

New bonnet star is due to be delivered today and then it's going to get a full valet on Saturday so it's a all shiny and clean for the SS at Aston Martin on Sunday!

[LittleEnus]

TheAllSeeingPie said:

Both Mercs I've owned ended up dropping a little when parked for a while. The suspension keeps trying to self level and eventually with no replenishment in the reservoir they end up a bit lower. Nothing to worry about if it's over a week or more, if it drops in a matter of hours that's more likely a leak.

Modern auto gearboxes come with the stupid claim that they are sealed for life for oil. This has been proven to be utter nonsense and if you get the gearbox oil replaced at least every 100k miles you shouldn't have any issues, although really 25-50k intervals are much better. New oil is thicker which means more power can be transferred to the wheels.

Harsh downshifts can sometimes be fixed by a gearbox oil change or a software update.

Great to know. I know mine had the box fluid done at 44k miles (now on 91k) so due another nowish.

[LittleEnus]

jimmymidnight said:

Is yours a standard s or does it have AMG bumpers? I'm looking at adding AMG 20" wheels as the standard 18's look tiny and let it down a bit imo.

It's standard but I have tinted rears and with the 20" AMG's it looks like a menacing nightclub bouncer Agree on the 18's they are big arches to fill up.

Also for what its worth I think the pre-facelift is prettier and the 221 is definitely nicer than the 222.

[TheAllSeeingPie]

LittleEnus said:

Great to know. I know mine had the box fluid done at 44k miles (now on 91k) so due another nowish.

It made quite a difference on my E55, although not always positive. I think the limited transmission slip helped not spin the wheels so much.

If you do get the software changed make sure they are careful in regards to adaptions as apparently resetting them on Merc boxes is bad.

[jimmymidnight]

LittleEnus said:

It's standard but I have tinted rears and with the 20" AMG's it looks like a menacing nightclub bouncer Agree on the 18's they are big arches to fill up.

Also for what its worth I think the pre-facelift is prettier and the 221 is definitely nicer than the 222.

I'm in two minds with the facelift, on the one hand it looks a bit more modern and aggressive, but I don't like all the LEDs at the front end or the sharper angles on the bumpers.

I love the W222 though, even though standard wheels look absolutely tiny!

[W221]

Hi Guys,

I'm new to the forum, came across this when looking for posts on the W221, nice to see a community where you can share idea's on your pride and joy

@jimmymidnight...beautiful car BTW!...as it happens i have just last year purchased exactly the same car as yourself, same colour, same spec, it is a 2007 1 owner and only had 29,000 miles on the clock! Mine does have the rear entertainment pack installed with the rear headrest screens, absolutley love it.

I have done quite alot to it since purchase, some of which includes 20" alloys, lowered via mercedes star diagnostics, and i've also updated the rear lights with the LED ones from the facelight.

I did however.......make the mistake of having a AMG style quad exhaust system fitted, although i love the ways it looks, very subtle and sporty looking tips, i've began to absolutely hate the drone from the exhaust during cruising, it's not the way an S Class should sound, although the dealer who fitted it is adament it sounds fine, i will soon be having this replaced with the stock exhaust again and re-fitting the tips onto the stock muffler.....i guess you live and learn

I will post some pics soon...

[jimmymidnight]

W221 said:

Hi Guys,

I'm new to the forum, came across this when looking for posts on the W221, nice to see a community where you can share idea's on your pride and joy

@jimmymidnight...beautiful car BTW!...as it happens i have just last year purchased exactly the same car as yourself, same colour, same spec, it is a 2007 1 owner and only had 29,000 miles on the clock! Mine does have the rear entertainment pack installed with the rear headrest screens, absolutley love it.

I have done quite alot to it since purchase, some of which includes 20" alloys, lowered via mercedes star diagnostics, and i've also updated the rear lights with the LED ones from the facelight.

I did however.......make the mistake of having a AMG style quad exhaust system fitted, although i love the ways it looks, very subtle and sporty looking tips, i've began to absolutely hate the drone from the exhaust during cruising, it's not the way an S Class should sound, although the dealer who fitted it is adament it sounds fine, i will soon be having this replaced with the stock exhaust again and re-fitting the tips onto the stock muffler.....i guess you live and learn

I will post some pics soon...

Sounds like a really nice example. Pics would be great! I have thought a lot about upgrading the exhaust on mine as it's a lovely V6 but its just a little bit too quiet for my liking (Im fully aware it defeats the point of the car) but I would need to buy a new rear bumper as well as exhaust so it's just an idea at the moment. 20 inch AMG wheels are still high up on the list though,, I just need to stop buying expensive watches first!

[W221]

@jimmymidnight...i thought exactly the same as you, mines also the V6 350 LWB, it was a little too quite, but after fitting the exhaust it was a little too loud, i wouldn't mind the sound on acceleration but the drone in the background is awful! but there was no going back after it was on, mine has the AMG style dual tips which have been perfectly cut into the bumper. I've tried many things like adding an additional muffler and j-pipe but the drone is still there in the background, it's obviously not the original AMG set which would ofcourse cost ££££'s, so anybody thinking of fitting an exhaust i would highly reccomend buying the original AMG set up, take it from somebody who has learnt an expensive lesson

Everytime i have taken it to the garage to have the exhaust tweaked i've had to tell the Missus it's going for a service she would kill me if she knew how much i've spent on this...as said you live and learn!

[TheAllSeeingPie]

J-pipes are very very hard to tune. I managed to get mine working on my FFRR so that I had a nearly straight through exhaust but on a motorway cruise it was nearly as silent as stock. This required making the pipes use a slip fit method as they had to extend by +- 15cm throughout the year to accomodate the change in ambient temperature.

[jimmymidnight]

W221 said:

@jimmymidnight...i thought exactly the same as you, mines also the V6 350 LWB, it was a little too quite, but after fitting the exhaust it was a little too loud, i wouldn't mind the sound on acceleration but the drone in the background is awful! but there was no going back after it was on, mine has the AMG style dual tips which have been perfectly cut into the bumper. I've tried many things like adding an additional muffler and j-pipe but the drone is still there in the background, it's obviously not the original AMG set which would ofcourse cost ££££'s, so anybody thinking of fitting an exhaust i would highly reccomend buying the original AMG set up, take it from somebody who has learnt an expensive lesson

Everytime i have taken it to the garage to have the exhaust tweaked i've had to tell the Missus it's going for a service she would kill me if she knew how much i've spent on this...as said you live and learn!

I had the same problem with my CL500, but I was young and it was a V8, so I loved it. I would like at least a little bit more grunt, especially on full chat, but i'll probably look into it a bit more later on in the year, or start looking for a V8 toy!

[W221]

TheAllSeeingPie said:

J-pipes are very very hard to tune. I managed to get mine working on my FFRR so that I had a nearly straight through exhaust but on a motorway cruise it was nearly as silent as stock. This required making the pipes use a slip fit method as they had to extend by +- 15cm throughout the year to accomodate the change in ambient temperature.

Yes the J-Pipes did actually make a drastic difference and reduced the drone but it was still present and there was only so much room to play with under the vehicle...maybe i'm just too fussy

They replace the muffler back to stock next week, i was even thinking to try exhaust wrap around the muffler before then to see what happens, i know it sounds stupid but i've read on other forums the exhaust wrap can actually dampen the muffler and reduce the resonance through the box...but for what it's worth i dont think it's going to be worth it, i guess people as fussy as me should leave such modifications well alone...

[W221]

jimmymidnight said:

I had the same problem with my CL500, but I was young and it was a V8, so I loved it. I would like at least a little bit more grunt, especially on full chat, but i'll probably look into it a bit more later on in the year, or start looking for a V8 toy!

I had the W164 ML420 CDI before this, which was a diesel V8 so the S Class does feel a little gutless, but than again the ride quality and overall refinements are much better...i just tend to drive the S in Sports Mode all the time as it does seem more responsive.

[jimmymidnight]

W221 said:

I had the W164 ML420 CDI before this, which was a diesel V8 so the S Class does feel a little gutless, but than again the ride quality and overall refinements are much better...i just tend to drive the S in Sports Mode all the time as it does seem more responsive.

I use S mode quite a bit, especially when overtaking, but I use this for work most of the time and to get the best out of my expenses, the C mode is key!

[TheAllSeeingPie]

W221 said:

Yes the J-Pipes did actually make a drastic difference and reduced the drone but it was still present and there was only so much room to play with under the vehicle...maybe i'm just too fussy

They replace the muffler back to stock next week, i was even thinking to try exhaust wrap around the muffler before then to see what happens, i know it sounds stupid but i've read on other forums the exhaust wrap can actually dampen the muffler and reduce the resonance through the box...but for what it's worth i dont think it's going to be worth it, i guess people as fussy as me should leave such modifications well alone...

Don't wrap anything under the car exposed to water and road salts, it holds them in and helps you rust your backbox faster. Have you tried a harmonic damper? Some OEM exhausts such as Range Rovers have this rubber damper added which helps remove sound energy. Or getting a cross-over muffler in there might help?

[jimmymidnight]

W221 said:

I had the W164 ML420 CDI before this, which was a diesel V8 so the S Class does feel a little gutless, but than again the ride quality and overall refinements are much better...i just tend to drive the S in Sports Mode all the time as it does seem more responsive.

Did the centre that fitted your exhaust also do the bumper cutting? I've had a look at a few and I'd definitely get the pre-facelist S63 oval tips but I don't know if it would look right with the standard bumper, even with the cutting done. I'd love to see how yours looks!