S320 CDI gentle restoration W220

S320 CDI gentle restoration W220

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Discussion

spikey78

701 posts

180 months

Friday 19th September 2014
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I had a 54 plate one of these, very nice too! Had to put a torque converter in it and a turbo (which was annoying-it was only the electronic wastegate that was faulty but I couldn't get just that part so had to get a complete turbo) Awesome comfort, went well, I seem to remember it averaged just over 30mpg (but spent a lot of time in London traffic)

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Sunday 21st September 2014
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This is not a real update, those will follow. I just wanted to say thank you for all the positive comments.
Took the old girl for a real drive up to Derbyshire over the weekend.



Sorry it's not the best picture, just wanted to grab a bit of proof what the old girl can do. That's normal motorway driving with two stops, two passengers and a boot full of luggage.

Real updates to follow.

pushthebutton

1,096 posts

181 months

Monday 22nd September 2014
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I can see that you averaged 47mpb, but what speed were you doing on the motorway? Were you using cruise control?

Nice thread. I love this sort of stuff.


Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Monday 22nd September 2014
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Yes Cruise was on most of the way. Just sit back and relax. The mph and mpg were brought down by getting to the M1 and negotiating Chesterfield town center. We were doing 65 on the motorway most of the time. 50 through the widening works.

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Monday 6th October 2014
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Right where was I? So time really does fly, I had been working for Porsche Cambridge a year already. During that time I have moved home slightly closer to Cambridge, it's still about 50 miles a day. But a much smoother and relatively empty duel carriageway. On a normal day I pop the cruise on about 55 mph and get 45 mpg back. This slowly declines through the year, then before I knew it, it was time for her second service. Oil and filter, fuel filter and a dust off of the air filter, nothing serious. Then the mpg jumps back up to 48 odd.

Once the service was done I was thinking, do I keep her or say thank you for a years comfy driving, and move on. I put the car on the ramp, had a very good look over her. There was really nothing to make me worry. Other than the tyres where low. Not bad though as she had 4mm of tread when I bought her and a year later and 15k miles was only down to the limit now.
I bit the bullet. 4 Dunlops fitted. Now that's it, I'm committed to at least another year. So it's about time to make it more like one of my cars. If you have watched the SLK video on page one, you will know I like to fit a comfort system or two. For the last year I have been living with this.



When she was new this was absolutely state of the art, but let's face it times have moved on. The radio works well, but the Nav is very slow and out of date, with rubbish little maps. The TV is analogue so doesn't pick anything up anymore and the CD changer is missing out of the boot. In the end I had resorted to buying one of those cassettes with a wire on, to listen to my iPod. Time for something new.



Obviously the "Command" system is not single or double din, so I pulled out the whole facia and mounted up a cage. I ripped out the heater control panel at the same time. Both temp control buttons had fallen off, which although still usable, looked awful. I found a later one on ebay for 40 quid. Asked a mate in parts at merc to check that my one superseded to this one. It did and he said they had one in stock for just 800 pounds. Ha! I'll stick with ebay for parts like this I think.
New facia ordered, with new heater control panel fitted. You can just see the broken one on the seat.



I managed to find an adapter so I could plug the cars original gps antenna into this new unit. Saved a lot of messing around. I ran a lead for the iPod under the heater unit, so it comes out in the little tray at the base. Nice and tidy.



Finally popping the facia around the new unit. I was rather pleased with it. I'm not sorry to have lost a bit of wood as it was quite prolific on the old dash.



The heater panel didn't really like being fitted to a different car and refused to operate the AC to start with. But luckily a mate of mine runs a merc specialist. So I popped his star machine on and recoded the control unit. All working lovely now.
One week recently I was working on my BMW heavily, so the S class was laid up for a few days at home. I took the opportunity to feed the leather and give the inside a really good clean. I spent about an hour on the headlining alone. It's come out nice though.





I am still waiting on a bodyshop quote, that will be the deciding factor in this little restoration I think. But for now, it is a great commuter.

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Thursday 9th October 2014
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Last couple of photos to bring this up to date.



On the whole I think she looks ok. But with further inspection, things are not quite so good.



When you get really close it's quite off putting.



Anyway, I will wait to hear from the bodyshop. I have been driving my girlfriends car for the last couple of days while doing some work on it. Tomorrow I get mine back. I must admit I'm looking forward to a cruise in "the mighty S class" as a friend of mine calls it. He is not wrong either. When my BMW has sat in the garage over the winter, I hitch up a tow to the back of the S class. When you let your boot of the brake she crawls forward as it would away from the lights. Despite going up hill, with another car tied too the back, which has seized on brakes. The torque is quite incredible.

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Sunday 9th November 2014
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Not a lot of progress on the S class recently. This is mainly due to the amount of time I have spent putting a role cage into my track day BMW.
This morning is another Sunday service, I have been to two this year. One in my BMW, which is currently in a lot of pieces. One in a 911 I borrowed from work, which was fun. But today's being at MB world. I thought it only right to take the old girl. Deffinatly one of the cheapest and tattiest cars there. But a very comfortable drive the hundred mile round trip.



Both my girlfriend and I work for Mercedes for a total of 15 years. Neither of us ever got to go to MB world on a jolly. When everyone around us seemed to. So this morning we took ourselves.



It is a nice facility, although it is more like a big showroom with some classics in it than a museum.



In among the new cars I snapped a few nice examples of race and classic cars.











That was about it, but not a bad morning out for free.
I am still loving the S class. I would really like to tidy her up some more. Unfortunately money is a bit of a problem at the moment. When the BMW is finished and back in the garage I will have more time to spend on her.

Birdster

2,529 posts

142 months

Sunday 9th November 2014
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Always liked these, but don't know enough to have the guts to buy one.

Nice car.

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Monday 10th November 2014
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Thanks Birdster. Everyone seems to be scared of S class ownership. Which is fine, keeps the cars cheap for people like me. But really if you take the air suspension out of it. It's just a huge C class. Same engine, same gearbox etc.

t400ble

1,804 posts

120 months

Monday 10th November 2014
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Enjoyed the write up. Thanks for posting.

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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I have had very little time to work on the S class recently due to fitting the cage into my track car. But thankfully that is nearly finished.
I recently noticed that a lot of smoke has been coming from the S. It has been hard to see, because honestly I can't remember when I last drove her in the day light. But there was a definite cloud even at gentle acceleration. I decided the BMW would have to wait for one evening while I remove the EGR.



As I suspected, it was totally blocked with soot. This particular version from the early 613 engine, works on two vacuum diaphragms. With the soot removed in the parts wash, the plunger started to move again. I then blew the valve itself out, which removed a load of soot to. I didn't have time to remove the valve and clean out the inside, but the smoke has drastically reduced. Once the BMW is back in the garage, I may remove the whole inlet manifold and give it a good clean.
I have had my eye out for a new steering wheel for a long time. I was never a fan of the half wood style, it looks plastic and in my cars case has cracked.



With the leather being extremely worn.



There is a huge price gap, some seem to be going for reasonable money, while others are extortionate. I have bought a full leather one with airbag before, only when it arrived to find it was actually grey. The pictures certainly looked black and it had no colour mentioned in the description. So back that went. Since then I have regularly checked but not found any. Until now.
I found a black, full leather wheel in pretty good condition going for 40 pounds. There is no airbag this time, but I thought that's ok because it keeps the cost down and I already have one. Unfortunately when I bolted the new wheel on, I found the air bag didn't fit. I never new there where different airbags for this model as the steering wheels look virtually identical, in the center anyway. Now I will have to find an airbag.

Birdster

2,529 posts

142 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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That's a pain. Still it'll looo good. Was the wood effect wheel a cost option? I was at MB world last weekend as I see you mentioned it and we was in the area.

Saw a few of the AMG laps taking place. What a noise!

LeoZwalf

2,802 posts

229 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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Great work in this thread, bonus points for simply buying the cheapest one in the whole country. So many good cars are thrown away - it is pleasing that someone like you is able to see past the scary tech and fix it all up.

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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Thank guys. The half wood wheel was a factory option. Simply down to the origonal owners choice. I'm just not a fan. It needs replacing simply because of the state of the leather. So if I'm going to buy one. I will buy one I prefer. In this case full leather.

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Monday 15th December 2014
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Spent a long time looking for an airbag to fit an all leather wheel. Matched the part number of one on ebay, with one for sale with a full leather wheel that looked exactly the same as mine. But when that airbag arrived it didn't fit the wheel either. So I'm sending the wheel and the airbag back. It's annoying, but I will start looking for a matched pair in the new year.

Lugy

830 posts

182 months

Tuesday 16th December 2014
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I bought one of these last year, I never managed to go anywhere though, it had the ignition switch issue and at the time whenever I had the money ready to get it fixed, something else would come up so it got moved on in the end. Quite a shame, as I'd known the car for a while and it was fairly decent.
I'd be looking into sorting the rust issues now while they're still quite minor, even a possible DIY job to keep it from getting any worse.
I like the head unit upgrade, I'm torn between doing something similar on my E38 or sorting out the original TV/Sat Nav - I'm a bit weird with originality paperbag.

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Tuesday 16th December 2014
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Hi Lugy

I did do a DIY fix with a pot of hammerite when I first bought the car. It was amazing how quickly the rust came back through. I would love to get it in a bodyshop quick. But funds are not really allowing it at the moment.

SuperHangOn

3,486 posts

152 months

Sunday 21st December 2014
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Hamster69 said:
Thanks Birdster. Everyone seems to be scared of S class ownership. Which is fine, keeps the cars cheap for people like me. But really if you take the air suspension out of it. It's just a huge C class. Same engine, same gearbox etc.
Nice car, interesting thread this.

I've been tempted to pick up a w220 with the 3.2 v6 petrol for a while - I had the same engine/box combo in a w210 and was impressed with it. No real problems and general tinkering about was a joy on the engine. The v8 in my current e39 is an absolute pig in comparison. Just the air suspension which worries me... Are there any tricks of the trade to get around the problems?

r129sl

9,518 posts

202 months

Sunday 21st December 2014
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Good thread, thanks for the updates, I for one will return to see how you're getting on with it.

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Monday 22nd December 2014
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SuperHangOn said:
Hamster69 said:
Thanks Birdster. Everyone seems to be scared of S class ownership. Which is fine, keeps the cars cheap for people like me. But really if you take the air suspension out of it. It's just a huge C class. Same engine, same gearbox etc.
Nice car, interesting thread this.

I've been tempted to pick up a w220 with the 3.2 v6 petrol for a while - I had the same engine/box combo in a w210 and was impressed with it. No real problems and general tinkering about was a joy on the engine. The v8 in my current e39 is an absolute pig in comparison. Just the air suspension which worries me... Are there any tricks of the trade to get around the problems?
No not really, airmatic is just one of those things, if it breaks you have to fix it. Realistically though the struts are very good, they don't just go pop. In the end if they do there is always ebay. There is a pump and a valve body. I have had to do the valve body already. If it really worries you get one with springs. But in my experience the springs are more likely to break than the airmatic collapse.