S320 CDI gentle restoration W220
Discussion
So just over a year ago I stopped walking to work when I found a new job. This presented me with a problem as my new commute was 60 miles a day. At the time I had an SLK 230 (w170) which I adored. It would be terrible on fuel doing those sorts of miles though.
At this point I should point out I was a Mercedes technician who had worked in a main dealer for 8 years. I also love a bit of a project as can be seen by the tricks I taught my SLK.
http://youtu.be/vtC8sOzr1jg
or by my track day car build,
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
But they are two different stories.
I needed something economical, relatively simple and reliable. Unfortunately I have a bit of a bad back, the standard mechanics curse. So I don't do very well sitting for miles in cheap seats. I'm also a bit to much of a saloon car lover to get a little hatchback. Over the years I have had an Alfa 166 and 164, Merc C class, Audi A4 and a BMW 3 series. The SLK was really just a toy while I was walking to work. Bit of fun for the weekends.
It felt like time to return to what I had always had. I had recently worked on several W220s, 320s, 320CDIs, 500s and even a 600. Every time I drove them I loved it. Not even slightly sporty but with the airmatic suspension and the seat adjusted right, it like driving a sofa. This I thought was the commuting car for me. Also when I started at Merc in 2005 that was the top of the range model, it would be nice to leave owning one.
I hit the classifieds, A 500 was cheap, but I was looking for the economical work horse the 320CDI. To cut a long story short I was moving jobs because I was broke. So we were looking for a car around 2K. I know that sounds silly because at the time C classes of similar age and miles were worth 7K, E classes 10K. But the S class has a great way of depreciating. It is the most expensive saloon when sold new, which means once its over 10 years old, people are scared of them. They think a service will cost the earth and one little break down will bankrupt them. To the naked eye this could be true. But its the same engine and gear box from the E class. So what really should be able to go wrong that I cant fix. Fingers crossed.
Anyway I looked up W220 320 CDI on the auto trader website. Found the cheapest one in the country and went and bought it. Obviously I had a look over it. It was rusty, just superficial I didn't care. It was covered in AMG badges and stickers, I didn't care. It had a cracked window, still solid because they are double glassed. I didn't care. It had failed its MOT on brake lights lights not working, Both rear upper arms excessive play, N/S/F arm excessive play and ABS light on. I DIDN'T CARE.
Maybe I'm just an idiot, but I have been around these cars for long enough to know when something is repairable and isn't.
Back to work and got stripping.
I removed both bumpers and all the AMG badges and Stickers. Ground back the rust for a short term fix, then hammerited it. Surprisingly good finish for a brush.
I managed to get all the suspension arms from Euro car parts for less than the front arm from work.
Little service and a brake light switch, then in for MOT. Passed.
I spent my last weekend while employed for Mercedes doing everything I could think of to my two MERCs while I still had axcess to computers and special tools. At this point I was still hoping to keep the SLK as a play toy. That didn't really happen and a few moths later she was sold.
The week after I started my new job and commuting from Hertford to Cambridge every day.
I had spent a lot of time on the service, even fitting a K and N air filter panel. All in the hopes of getting an economical car out the other side.
I call that a win. If anyone is interested I will continue
At this point I should point out I was a Mercedes technician who had worked in a main dealer for 8 years. I also love a bit of a project as can be seen by the tricks I taught my SLK.
http://youtu.be/vtC8sOzr1jg
or by my track day car build,
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
But they are two different stories.
I needed something economical, relatively simple and reliable. Unfortunately I have a bit of a bad back, the standard mechanics curse. So I don't do very well sitting for miles in cheap seats. I'm also a bit to much of a saloon car lover to get a little hatchback. Over the years I have had an Alfa 166 and 164, Merc C class, Audi A4 and a BMW 3 series. The SLK was really just a toy while I was walking to work. Bit of fun for the weekends.
It felt like time to return to what I had always had. I had recently worked on several W220s, 320s, 320CDIs, 500s and even a 600. Every time I drove them I loved it. Not even slightly sporty but with the airmatic suspension and the seat adjusted right, it like driving a sofa. This I thought was the commuting car for me. Also when I started at Merc in 2005 that was the top of the range model, it would be nice to leave owning one.
I hit the classifieds, A 500 was cheap, but I was looking for the economical work horse the 320CDI. To cut a long story short I was moving jobs because I was broke. So we were looking for a car around 2K. I know that sounds silly because at the time C classes of similar age and miles were worth 7K, E classes 10K. But the S class has a great way of depreciating. It is the most expensive saloon when sold new, which means once its over 10 years old, people are scared of them. They think a service will cost the earth and one little break down will bankrupt them. To the naked eye this could be true. But its the same engine and gear box from the E class. So what really should be able to go wrong that I cant fix. Fingers crossed.
Anyway I looked up W220 320 CDI on the auto trader website. Found the cheapest one in the country and went and bought it. Obviously I had a look over it. It was rusty, just superficial I didn't care. It was covered in AMG badges and stickers, I didn't care. It had a cracked window, still solid because they are double glassed. I didn't care. It had failed its MOT on brake lights lights not working, Both rear upper arms excessive play, N/S/F arm excessive play and ABS light on. I DIDN'T CARE.
Maybe I'm just an idiot, but I have been around these cars for long enough to know when something is repairable and isn't.
Back to work and got stripping.
I removed both bumpers and all the AMG badges and Stickers. Ground back the rust for a short term fix, then hammerited it. Surprisingly good finish for a brush.
I managed to get all the suspension arms from Euro car parts for less than the front arm from work.
Little service and a brake light switch, then in for MOT. Passed.
I spent my last weekend while employed for Mercedes doing everything I could think of to my two MERCs while I still had axcess to computers and special tools. At this point I was still hoping to keep the SLK as a play toy. That didn't really happen and a few moths later she was sold.
The week after I started my new job and commuting from Hertford to Cambridge every day.
I had spent a lot of time on the service, even fitting a K and N air filter panel. All in the hopes of getting an economical car out the other side.
I call that a win. If anyone is interested I will continue
Unfortunately the SLK was about twice as uneconomical as the S320.
After a couple of days i noticed a strange occurrence. When left over night the car would be jacked up on its rear struts when you came back to it. It had to be left a long time and was never perceivable to the eye to be raising, but it was. There could only be one answer, the Airmatic valve body must be worn and letting air past from the reservoir very slowly. So I priced one up, thankfully a new one from merc was only 70 odd quid, cheaper than some of the second hand ones on ebay.
As you can see the old one was rather tired. Once swapped no more night time rising.
At this point i could have easily gone silly throwing money at the car as i usually do. But I promised myself I wouldn't this time. I had the SLK for sunny weekends and the BMW for track day fun. This was purely a commuter.
So about six months went past, I did nothing but drive it. Very comfortable it was to.
Then the pads started to get low on all four corners. I'm still not going to throw money at it, but I cant do half a job on my own car, I just cant. So I bought brembo discs and pads all round. I finished this off with a set of BFGoodridge hoses. I have these on all my cars, its not exactly an extravagance when you think the set has a lifetime guarantee and is 100 pounds. When one hose that will last a few years is 40 pounds from Mercedes.
I had some brake caliper paint left over from my BMW so nice clean calipers and a brake fluid change later, she stops like new now.
That was it though no more money for a while. But I was pleased 6 months running an S class with no real issues. Ok the thermostat stuck open, but that was about 10 mins work to pop a new one in.
After a couple of days i noticed a strange occurrence. When left over night the car would be jacked up on its rear struts when you came back to it. It had to be left a long time and was never perceivable to the eye to be raising, but it was. There could only be one answer, the Airmatic valve body must be worn and letting air past from the reservoir very slowly. So I priced one up, thankfully a new one from merc was only 70 odd quid, cheaper than some of the second hand ones on ebay.
As you can see the old one was rather tired. Once swapped no more night time rising.
At this point i could have easily gone silly throwing money at the car as i usually do. But I promised myself I wouldn't this time. I had the SLK for sunny weekends and the BMW for track day fun. This was purely a commuter.
So about six months went past, I did nothing but drive it. Very comfortable it was to.
Then the pads started to get low on all four corners. I'm still not going to throw money at it, but I cant do half a job on my own car, I just cant. So I bought brembo discs and pads all round. I finished this off with a set of BFGoodridge hoses. I have these on all my cars, its not exactly an extravagance when you think the set has a lifetime guarantee and is 100 pounds. When one hose that will last a few years is 40 pounds from Mercedes.
I had some brake caliper paint left over from my BMW so nice clean calipers and a brake fluid change later, she stops like new now.
That was it though no more money for a while. But I was pleased 6 months running an S class with no real issues. Ok the thermostat stuck open, but that was about 10 mins work to pop a new one in.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Time for an update. Happy new year everyone.
As we were talking about the Airmatic last time. Just after Christmas she started to make a rather horrible noise. The Air suspention pump was running very noisily and it seemed for a long time.
The pumps themselves are quite expencive so I looked into repair methods. I found you can get new piston rings for the compressor pump. So this morning I got stripping.
With the wheel arch liner removed there was however a bigger problem
Not easy to see in this picture I know, but the end plate of the pump had sheared off. With the pump removed and on the bench you can see better.
I had no choice really but to drill out the old rivets and mount up new ones.
Now I removed the top cover (cylinder head). No point in not replacing the piston ring now I have come this far. Typically one of those bolts snapped to.
More drilling and then taping the hole. Cleaned up the gasket surface and fitted the new piston ring.
I was very impressed with the piston ring kit. It came with new gaskets, bolts and a tap to clean the holes out with.
Finally I rebuilt the head, leaving the end cover off until last. New rivets in.
Refitted to the car and run. Quiet as a mouse, thankfully.
As we were talking about the Airmatic last time. Just after Christmas she started to make a rather horrible noise. The Air suspention pump was running very noisily and it seemed for a long time.
The pumps themselves are quite expencive so I looked into repair methods. I found you can get new piston rings for the compressor pump. So this morning I got stripping.
With the wheel arch liner removed there was however a bigger problem
Not easy to see in this picture I know, but the end plate of the pump had sheared off. With the pump removed and on the bench you can see better.
I had no choice really but to drill out the old rivets and mount up new ones.
Now I removed the top cover (cylinder head). No point in not replacing the piston ring now I have come this far. Typically one of those bolts snapped to.
More drilling and then taping the hole. Cleaned up the gasket surface and fitted the new piston ring.
I was very impressed with the piston ring kit. It came with new gaskets, bolts and a tap to clean the holes out with.
Finally I rebuilt the head, leaving the end cover off until last. New rivets in.
Refitted to the car and run. Quiet as a mouse, thankfully.
The CL is a nice car as well. In general they are the same as the S. They are extremely rare, in the 8 years I was at merc I think I worked on 4. Which obviously keeps the value up. The only real problem I know the W215 has that the W220 doesn't is door wiring. The 215 has an unusual door hing that swings the door quite far away from the body. This tends to put to much strain on the wiring loom. I have had to replace a couple before. The other money pit side is of coarse they only came in petrol V8 or V12.
Interesting to hear you love a 420. Out of interest what MPG do you get from that?
Interesting to hear you love a 420. Out of interest what MPG do you get from that?
Had the old girl up on the ramp tonight. Tyres are basically done. 2mm of tread all round, ordered some goodyears this evening. Hopefully they will arrive before Saturday. With the engine covers removed I had a look at the glow plugs.
Five tested like this with a nice low resistance. Cylinder number three however was open circuit.
I would really like to replace the set, but with four tyres already on order it will have to be one for now. Hopefully all will be here ready for Saturday. I shall be working on our restoration project in the morning, then on to the S in the afternoon.
Five tested like this with a nice low resistance. Cylinder number three however was open circuit.
I would really like to replace the set, but with four tyres already on order it will have to be one for now. Hopefully all will be here ready for Saturday. I shall be working on our restoration project in the morning, then on to the S in the afternoon.
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