2004-2006 C / E class - Engines and Trans to avoid , help

[joropug]

So the search is on I definitely need to sell the beamer.

Seen a E240 54 reg with 98k. Just had a look at the MOT history and seems to have had a notice about the brake . Not sure if a good thing or bad. It's in a garage so paperwork might be thin

Edited by joropug on Thursday 26th July 13:15

[JimmyR1]

I have plenty of experience - thankfully by proxy - with my mother in law's 2003 E200K. but several of the issues are likely to affect E classes of this era.
Issues to look out for relate to the 5sp auto transmission - I would do search on "Valeo radiator/coolant leak" for more info. To briefly summarise the radiator and transmission cooler were housed in a single unit and the earlier Valeo units used to corrode causing coolant to contaminate the transmission fluid and eventually doing irreparable damage to the transmission.
On the E200K motor - and possibly others from that era - there were issues with camshaft sprocket wear. This would present as a miss under load as the timing chain slipped on the worn sprocket. Even 5 years ago this cost about 2000 Euro in parts and labour (timing chain, tensioners, 2 camshaft sprockets alone cost over 1200).
There has been an annoyingly expensive fix required for the door lock actuator = the "bouncing door pin" fault - which eventually flattens the battery and needs to be fixed. Somewhere along the way the entire Comand Audio system gave up and this turned out to be an eye-wateringly expensive fix that on top of all the other issues got left.
When running well a lovely car for sure but literally a motoring version of a ticking time bomb. Were I offered this or a similar car for free I would still politely decline. If you are hell bent on owning the W211 E then I would look at 2006 and later cars by which time the SBC had been dropped and a lot of the quality control issues of the earlier cars had been addressed. Good luck

[Monkeylegend]

For a bit of balance, apart from the SBC pump, replaced foc by Mercedes, my 2003 E220 CDi did 312k miles in 5 years with no other issues.

[gizlaroc]

Valeo issue would have been sorted by now if it was an effected car.

200k is not best choice, there was an issue with all cars with that engine.


Door popping lock can be sorted for around £20 these days, used unit off eBay will do it.

15 year old comand system would give the owner the chance to put in a nice modern apple car play/android auto dab double din unit.
£300.