W211 E55 AMG - How ruinous?

[anonymous-user]

So, I'm eyeing up E55 AMGs as my next car in the near future. Its the age old story of budget creep, I started looking at ~£2.5k XJRs, then decided I wanted something more modern, so ~£6k X350 XJRs, but the scope of tuning on the 5.4k engine is insane compared to the Jags, which is fairly important to me as being a life long lover of Japanese cars, its unlikely to stay standard .

I am however concerned about running costs. I'm a mechanic that has always done his own work, but I'm used to Jap cars that worst coming to the worst, a replacement engine is ~£1,000 pounds while I'm aware a couple of sensors and a air flow meter direct from Mercedes would probably set me back a grand, let alone any functions that require the proper Mercedes diagnostic kit - It appears you can't even change brake fluid without a computer!

To be honest, I'd seriously consider binning (rather garaging whilst it works to fit for resell time) stuff like the air suspension if that's likely to drop me 4 digit bills on the regular, its just the prospect of the engine/gearbox going that concerns me.

I'm looking at earlier 02/03 cars, but I've heard the 04+ onwards are noticeably better in quality? Any truth to this?

Thoughts?

[pimpchez]

They are on my must do list for sure .

Not sure i would sleep at night though due to fretting over what could go wrong .
Then you have the added cost of plugging it in , you cant just do jobs yourself or take it to a back end garage .

[monthefish]

Were these the ones that were silly fast, but also from the era of silly quality control at MB?

[mike-r]

Gearboxes on this era Merc and notoriously terrible, particularly the 7-speed boxes.

[daveenty]

SBC Brakes, if not already been done, will pack up leaving you a 4 figure bill.

Airmatic is generally OK, though again expensive when it dies, and these cars are prone to rust. The engines are pretty bullet-proof on them, though there were a few issues with earlier gearboxes due to the Valeo radiator problem. Not sure if this affected the E55 but worth a Google to check. Some good knowledgeable folk on the MBClub UK forum would certainly know.

Go for the latest you can afford, same as anything really, but do get one. Possibly the most fun car I've ever owned

[soad]

monthefish said:

Were these the ones that were silly fast, but also from the era of silly quality control at MB?

Yes. Face-lifted ones might be a better bet.

[daveenty]

mike-r said:

Gearboxes on this era Merc and notoriously terrible, particularly the 7-speed boxes.

E55 had the 5 speed box. Apart from the possible Valeo issue they're fine.

[AC43]

JoshyS said:

I'm looking at earlier 02/03 cars, but I've heard the 04+ onwards are noticeably better in quality? Any truth to this?

Thoughts?

There were a number of engineering issues that were addressed in the facelift model which came in in late 04. For example they stopped fitting the wiring loom by robot and reverted to installing it by hand. This reputedly ironed out a lot of the electrical gremlins in the earlier cars. There are quite a few other updates which I've forgotten. Conventional wisdom says got a for a facelift or one like mine, March O4 which has a lot of the engineering changes but not the actual facelift. Go onto mbclub.co.uk and there are tons of threads on what the differences are and how you can spot a "crossover" car.

Mine, an E500, has now clocked 120k miles and has had no major dramas in the 4 years/30k miles I've had it except for the failure of the air suspension pump. That cost me £400-ish I think.

You need to check all electrics.

Ideally the box has had a fluid change or maybe two depending on age/mileage.

Disks and pads are expensive on the 55.

A service involving all fluids and plugs can be expensive - there are 16 plugs

And the Airmatic struts are not cheap. The latter is a bit irritating and there's not much of an after market for them and so they remain expensive. The fronts are integral struts and knoking on £1k a corner I think. The rears are separate air springs and dampers so if you have a failure at the back you can replace the units separately. Arnott Industries in the US do refurbs on an exchange basis so worth considering as preventative maintenance if you buy one and want to freshen it up from the go. Of better still get one that has had new suspension at some point.

As others have said tons of info on 211's in general and 55's in particular on mbclub.co.uk.

They are fantastic machines. I really want to own something with the 55K motor at some point in my life - probably an E or a CLS. Love the SL too but that has a whole raft of additional bits to go wrong and isn't as practical.

Good luck!

[bqf]

I had one until last year.

Full service, discs and pads, gearbox service was £1,500 at a specialist. Try to get an 04 if you can, most of the earlier problems were ironed out. Gearboxes can be brittle, definitely. 16mpg if you drive quickly.

Mine let me down once - failed fuel pump relay. I'd make sure it has an impeccable service history - fluids need changing regularly and skipped maintenance stores up problems (with the gearbox for example).

Enormously fast, scarily so in the wet.

Loved mine though.