Mercedes E350CDI Estate

Mercedes E350CDI Estate

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Discussion

cayman-black

Original Poster:

12,930 posts

223 months

Thursday 20th May 2021
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Hi,anyone own one of these and has some advice ? Thinking about a 2012 or facelift model. I see a few have done some quite high miles but are well priced.....

Scrump

22,943 posts

165 months

Friday 21st May 2021
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I have a 2014 facelift one. I bought it as a bit of a stop gap but 4 years later I still have it. A great car, really comfortable and more than adequately fast for a family estate car. Fuel consumption on the motorway is excellent but it likes a drink if used in city driving.
Mine has the multi contour dynamic massage seats which I wanted and they are fantastic. It also came with the ILS LED headlights which I was not particularly looking for but they are amazing and I am glad I have them.

otolith

59,129 posts

211 months

Friday 21st May 2021
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I have one. A 2010 with about 108k on it. It's recently had a new torque converter at a cost of nearly 2k. This morning I have a CEL and limp mode.

It's a very comfortable and practical car, quick enough, quiet, reasonably economical, but experience so far suggests it may be troublesome.

I had an E320 CDI before it, which I took from 120k-165k - that had similar merits, but was also far from trouble free.

I'd have bought something else if there was anything comparably spacious for the money.

crispian22

968 posts

199 months

Friday 21st May 2021
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I had a 2013 facelift E350 bluetec, it had designo interior in porcelain and wood trim,went very well with the metallic black paint,ran it for 2 years trouble free.

Also had it mapped at msl Birmingham where it made 300hp and 720nm tongue,was a very fast car indeed.

Boot space is mahoosive!


cayman-black

Original Poster:

12,930 posts

223 months

Friday 21st May 2021
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Thanks for the replies so far. They are meant to be very reliable so i hope otolith,s experience is uncommon.

Yes, i need the boot to be large as i have three dogs.

Is the facelift car the better bet? Thanks.

Monkeylegend

27,213 posts

238 months

Friday 21st May 2021
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I would do a bit of googling re the BlueTec cars and issues with the adblue system and NOx sensors. Will be costly when something goes wrong which is highly likely.


AC43

11,983 posts

215 months

Saturday 22nd May 2021
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I've run a 2010 (petrol) E Class estate for 4 years. In that time the only things that have gone wrong are the seat cooling fan and the rear air springs.

The latter are common failures on 212's. They seem to start leaking at around 10 years old. The good news is that you can now get Arnott replacements for around £250 a side so it's not nearly as costly as it used to be.

Otherwise, they seem to be very well put together - diesel emissions gubbins notwithstanding.

Prior to that I ran a 2005 211 (petrol) estate between 2010 and 2017. I took it to 145,000 miles and the only non-service items were a boot lock, a crank pulley and an air suspension compressor.

In my experience, they are pretty tough.

otolith

59,129 posts

211 months

Saturday 22nd May 2021
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Hopefully whatever is playing up at the moment won’t be serious. I don’t have my obd dongle here, got one coming today so should be able to find out.

The last one - things I remember that went wrong were the tailgate latching mechanism, alternator, turbo actuator, ABS reluctor (much bigger job than last time that happened on a Saab). There was some work on the braking system before I took it from the dealer (suspect that the SBC had lifed out but never knew for sure. Also, when the alternator went, so did the brake assistance...) It was eventually killed by the failure of the injectors, but maybe the remap didn’t do them much good.

The old one wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t flawless. Hoping that the new one will be less trouble going forwards.

take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey

5,860 posts

62 months

Saturday 22nd May 2021
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I wouldn't if I were you. That age will be looking at big bills. For example, a new MAF is just under a grand!!! Or 500 as an exchange unit. For a bloody 10 quid sensor which is moulded into the air intake piping.

We've just got shot of ours as it has cost us 5k over the last 2 years.

As the above poster, we needed a refurbed gearbox too.

cayman-black

Original Poster:

12,930 posts

223 months

Saturday 22nd May 2021
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Christ, there i was thinking that one of these Mercs would be a safe bet and reliable.
If purchased it would need to get me to Italy and back again. I,m now worried about these.
Also, has anyone dealt with Mercland Nuneaton.?
Thanks all.

Monkeylegend

27,213 posts

238 months

Saturday 22nd May 2021
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cayman-black said:
Christ, there i was thinking that one of these Mercs would be a safe bet and reliable.
If purchased it would need to get me to Italy and back again. I,m now worried about these.
Also, has anyone dealt with Mercland Nuneaton.?
Thanks all.
Haven't dealt with them personally but they have a very good reputation on the Mercedes Forums. They also offer a very comprehensive 2 year warranty at a very reasonable cost.

I have just moved away from Mercedes because I wasn't prepared to buy a BlueTec car with the adblue issues, but if I had bought a replacement Merc it would almost certainly have been from them.



Scrump

22,943 posts

165 months

Saturday 22nd May 2021
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I have had my car for 4 years, do lots of local journeys and the only issue I have had is a leak on the rear suspension airbags and I have replaced the battery.

otolith

59,129 posts

211 months

Saturday 22nd May 2021
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Oh yeah, auxiliary battery on the new one needed replacing.

This is today’s issue. Could be pricey.


W201_190e

12,738 posts

220 months

Sunday 23rd May 2021
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Watch out for the rear subframe rotting out completely. I'm not joking. The rear subframes on these and the same era C Class and SLK are very poorly protected. Mercedes have been replacing them foc irrespective of service history, but are likely to try and get out of doing them soon.

I've seen under enough of these to know it's a common problem now, as they age.

Salforal

2 posts

64 months

Sunday 6th June 2021
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cayman-black said:
Christ, there i was thinking that one of these Mercs would be a safe bet and reliable.
If purchased it would need to get me to Italy and back again. I,m now worried about these.
Also, has anyone dealt with Mercland Nuneaton.?
Thanks all.
I have a 2011 E350 CDi, albeit a saloon. I've had it nearly seven years. I have it serviced every year according to schedule by my local indie. It's a brilliant engine and has never let me down once nor has it required any major remedial work.

I only know of Mercland by reputation, which is top drawer. I don't believe you'd have any problems with them or any cars they sell. I have no connection to the company or any individual working there.

otolith

59,129 posts

211 months

Monday 7th June 2021
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It was the inlet port shutoff motor. £700.

Paddymcc

1,011 posts

198 months

Wednesday 9th June 2021
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otolith said:
It was the inlet port shutoff motor. £700.
You can bypass that motor with a resistor on the OM642 V6 320/350 cdi engines and it will work fine.

General consesus is that oil drips out of the turbo inlet on top of the engine in the V onto the motor causing the issues. The turbo seals go hard and dont work too good due to the heat and oil seeps out of the bottom. They should be noted as a serviable item and you should change the 2 x turbo seals while you have it apart too as they are just a few ££s.

If you're up the miles and they have that much of the car dismantled too it might be worth while doing the oil cooler seals too.

take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey

5,860 posts

62 months

Wednesday 9th June 2021
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Paddymcc said:
otolith said:
It was the inlet port shutoff motor. £700.
You can bypass that motor with a resistor on the OM642 V6 320/350 cdi engines and it will work fine.

General consesus is that oil drips out of the turbo inlet on top of the engine in the V onto the motor causing the issues. The turbo seals go hard and dont work too good due to the heat and oil seeps out of the bottom. They should be noted as a serviable item and you should change the 2 x turbo seals while you have it apart too as they are just a few ££s.

If you're up the miles and they have that much of the car dismantled too it might be worth while doing the oil cooler seals too.
Had the same issue as well. Similar cost to repair too.

otolith

59,129 posts

211 months

Wednesday 9th June 2021
quotequote all
Paddymcc said:
You can bypass that motor with a resistor on the OM642 V6 320/350 cdi engines and it will work fine.
I know you can turn off the CEL that way at the expense of chucking out some more filth at low revs, but it's not really cricket.

cayman-black

Original Poster:

12,930 posts

223 months

Sunday 13th June 2021
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Salforal said:
I have a 2011 E350 CDi, albeit a saloon. I've had it nearly seven years. I have it serviced every year according to schedule by my local indie. It's a brilliant engine and has never let me down once nor has it required any major remedial work.

I only know of Mercland by reputation, which is top drawer. I don't believe you'd have any problems with them or any cars they sell. I have no connection to the company or any individual working there.
Thank you Salforal that's good to know.
I,m still watching these with the intention to buy in a couple of months' time.