Mercedes C320 (S203) - An end to car finance
Discussion
Sheepshanks said:
MJK 24 said:
That would be a straight fail come MOT time under the new regulations introduced in May this year.
Brake and fuel lines must be bare and not under sealed or greased.
You seem confident about that - could you point to the bit in the Regs about it? I had a bit of a Google and I can't see it.Brake and fuel lines must be bare and not under sealed or greased.
It was mentioned as an advisory last year when it's never been commented on before (been doing it for a few years).
Just spoken to my MOT tester friend. It’s a compulsory advisory now.
Croutons said:
Hello fate 
how are you today?
Interior pics please OP!
I’ll upload some photos when I’ve given the car a thorough clean. Here’s a couple of photos from the advert in the meantime... how are you today? Interior pics please OP!
https://i.imgur.com/1DkEt2L.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/s0MyWUg.jpg
Yours must be one of the very first facelift models - think it was released July 04. Watch that for parts, as I think that means it'll be a 2005 model year car (same as mine, registered October 04). Although it's hard to tell the difference externally, apparently underneath there were a lot of changes.
Touch wood, mine has been a great car. Today I changed a number plate bulb and I can't remember ever changing another bulb on it. I thought the screws would be rusted and the connections all corroded but it just undid like it was brand new, and the clear plastic cover pulls the bulb out as you remove it The bulb itself hadn't even failed, but was blackened and must have been high resistance enough to set off a warning message.
The only long term thing I've found a pain (apart from the seats) is it's very camber sensitive and it doesn't so much drift left, it's more that it seems to roll on lock - so in a big enough space it would end up in a tight circle! It does it to the right in contraflows etc. I've had a couple of highly recommended places look at it and they said it was fine and didn't warrant special camber bolts being fitted so I've just learned to live with it.
Touch wood, mine has been a great car. Today I changed a number plate bulb and I can't remember ever changing another bulb on it. I thought the screws would be rusted and the connections all corroded but it just undid like it was brand new, and the clear plastic cover pulls the bulb out as you remove it The bulb itself hadn't even failed, but was blackened and must have been high resistance enough to set off a warning message.
The only long term thing I've found a pain (apart from the seats) is it's very camber sensitive and it doesn't so much drift left, it's more that it seems to roll on lock - so in a big enough space it would end up in a tight circle! It does it to the right in contraflows etc. I've had a couple of highly recommended places look at it and they said it was fine and didn't warrant special camber bolts being fitted so I've just learned to live with it.
My E46 330i wasn't a *bad* car but the boot area wasn't half as big as you'd expect it to be.
You had to put the rear seats down to have any meaningful space in the back.
Fine for me, with no children and two dogs. Not much use for a proper family.
Served me well for over a year, otherwise.
You had to put the rear seats down to have any meaningful space in the back.
Fine for me, with no children and two dogs. Not much use for a proper family.
Served me well for over a year, otherwise.
LetsTryAgain said:
My E46 330i wasn't a *bad* car but the boot area wasn't half as big as you'd expect it to be.
You had to put the rear seats down to have any meaningful space in the back.
Fine for me, with no children and two dogs. Not much use for a proper family.
Served me well for over a year, otherwise.
Well I'd always wanted a car with the 3-pointed star as something to aim at! You had to put the rear seats down to have any meaningful space in the back.
Fine for me, with no children and two dogs. Not much use for a proper family.
Served me well for over a year, otherwise.
In 1991 I got a W123 280E, but it wasn't a good one.
Then in 1998 I bought a manual W201 190e which was great, but sadly I replaced it with a W202 C280 "Sport" - what a disappointment!
Still I bought my 1st BMW in 2005 and haven't wanted any MB since - in a W201 or W202 you couldn't put the rear seats down as the fuel tank was in the way, and after that the MB build quality had already peaked anyway IMO.
My E46 325ti was a better car than any of my MB products!
surveyor said:
Petrol or diesel?
The C320 cdi cured me of old car ownership. Nightmare
It’s petrol, I’d personally only have a diesel if I were driving a company car.The C320 cdi cured me of old car ownership. Nightmare
I’m still using the i3 until I’ve got the C320 in a decent state, so it’s not going to see any action for a little while yet. I’ve got it booked in at a local specialist on Friday for the brakes and transmission warning light diagnosis.
I helped a chum of mine do something similar last year, new job with a solid car allowance but the lease had to be in his name so an element of risk.
We found this for him;.
A nice '02 E46 with the 2.2 motor, black leather and manual box, 110k on the clock but well cared for, paid £1200. Intended to be a stop-gap but guess what? It's doing such a good job that he's decided to keep it with just an oil service needed to date. We also treated it to new dampers and springs (after a trip to Le Mans) on the back for a whopping £80 and that's it.
So a £500p/m allowance has turned into a full on man-maths savings plan!
We found this for him;.
A nice '02 E46 with the 2.2 motor, black leather and manual box, 110k on the clock but well cared for, paid £1200. Intended to be a stop-gap but guess what? It's doing such a good job that he's decided to keep it with just an oil service needed to date. We also treated it to new dampers and springs (after a trip to Le Mans) on the back for a whopping £80 and that's it.
So a £500p/m allowance has turned into a full on man-maths savings plan!
Edited by LFB531 on Tuesday 10th July 14:03
LFB531 said:
I
So a £500p/m allowance has turned into a full on man-maths savings plan!
Mine (54 reg S203 C270CDi) is like that. OK, because I use it for work I spend a bit on proper maintenance and full-on breakdown cover, but if we ignore that So a £500p/m allowance has turned into a full on man-maths savings plan!
then for a couple of hundred pounds of fuel I'm getting £750 back some months in mileage allowance. The thought of spending all that on a car makes me shudder!Managed to steal a couple of hours to give the bus a clean this evening.
https://imgur.com/a/HGAl3jy
It needs a thorough leather clean and condition, the paint wants a good mop and there’s a couple of little bits of paintwork which need touching up. I can sort the leather myself with a bit of time. I could probably sort the paintwork too, but I might outsource that once all of the mechanicals are in order.
I took it for another spin this evening. The transmission warning light is still on, but there’s no apparent issues whilst driving.
It’s booked in tomorrow for the brakes and transmission fault. I’ll report back tomorrow.
For posterity, the list currently stands at;
-Get brakes sorted
-Get transmission warning sorted
-Deep clean leather
-Fit towbar
-Address paintwork
https://imgur.com/a/HGAl3jy
It needs a thorough leather clean and condition, the paint wants a good mop and there’s a couple of little bits of paintwork which need touching up. I can sort the leather myself with a bit of time. I could probably sort the paintwork too, but I might outsource that once all of the mechanicals are in order.
I took it for another spin this evening. The transmission warning light is still on, but there’s no apparent issues whilst driving.
It’s booked in tomorrow for the brakes and transmission fault. I’ll report back tomorrow.
For posterity, the list currently stands at;
-Get brakes sorted
-Get transmission warning sorted
-Deep clean leather
-Fit towbar
-Address paintwork
Sheepshanks said:
Yours must be one of the very first facelift models - think it was released July 04. Watch that for parts, as I think that means it'll be a 2005 model year car (same as mine, registered October 04). Although it's hard to tell the difference externally, apparently underneath there were a lot of changes.
Touch wood, mine has been a great car. Today I changed a number plate bulb and I can't remember ever changing another bulb on it. I thought the screws would be rusted and the connections all corroded but it just undid like it was brand new, and the clear plastic cover pulls the bulb out as you remove it The bulb itself hadn't even failed, but was blackened and must have been high resistance enough to set off a warning message.
The only long term thing I've found a pain (apart from the seats) is it's very camber sensitive and it doesn't so much drift left, it's more that it seems to roll on lock - so in a big enough space it would end up in a tight circle! It does it to the right in contraflows etc. I've had a couple of highly recommended places look at it and they said it was fine and didn't warrant special camber bolts being fitted so I've just learned to live with it.
I recently bought an E350 W211. The vendor was a Merc technician and he mentioned to me that it was camber sensitive. He told me that a large customerbase would return to the dealerships, thinking that there was something wrong with the steering.Touch wood, mine has been a great car. Today I changed a number plate bulb and I can't remember ever changing another bulb on it. I thought the screws would be rusted and the connections all corroded but it just undid like it was brand new, and the clear plastic cover pulls the bulb out as you remove it The bulb itself hadn't even failed, but was blackened and must have been high resistance enough to set off a warning message.
The only long term thing I've found a pain (apart from the seats) is it's very camber sensitive and it doesn't so much drift left, it's more that it seems to roll on lock - so in a big enough space it would end up in a tight circle! It does it to the right in contraflows etc. I've had a couple of highly recommended places look at it and they said it was fine and didn't warrant special camber bolts being fitted so I've just learned to live with it.
Interestingly... When I said that my C320 cured me of cheap cars... It was more specifically the gearbox - I think...
I've had three of them. The first was a relatively new one. That needed a new 7G gearbox at about 35k. Under warranty fortunately.
Few years later I wen there again... This one it was a egr motor located in a daft position under a leaky seal. £550. Few weeks later it was an Oil Cooler - helpfully hidden deep in the V and very hard to diagnose. That was a £1,000 bill.
The final one which did for me was the gearbox. or the EGR - or the Turbo... The first two did not fix it. And I got shot before spending money on the third....
I've had three of them. The first was a relatively new one. That needed a new 7G gearbox at about 35k. Under warranty fortunately.
Few years later I wen there again... This one it was a egr motor located in a daft position under a leaky seal. £550. Few weeks later it was an Oil Cooler - helpfully hidden deep in the V and very hard to diagnose. That was a £1,000 bill.
The final one which did for me was the gearbox. or the EGR - or the Turbo... The first two did not fix it. And I got shot before spending money on the third....
I’ve just picked the car up from the garage. Front discs and pads were replaced which has cured all of the juddering.
The warning light was due to a cooling fan which had seized slightly. The garage have cleared the fault and un-seized/lubed the fan - I’ll monitor this and have it replaced if necessary.
The list now stands at;
-Fit tow bar
-Attend to paintwork
-Deep clean leather
The warning light was due to a cooling fan which had seized slightly. The garage have cleared the fault and un-seized/lubed the fan - I’ll monitor this and have it replaced if necessary.
The list now stands at;
-Fit tow bar
-Attend to paintwork
-Deep clean leather
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