I quite liked my ML270...before it went in for its service!

[Rockall]

Rereading here -I would make the following comments.
Get battery checked - they dont like low voltage.
Assuming you have the radio codes - disconnect battery for a while - this resets the gearboxes memory - makes a big change to change patterns. Has the gearbox ever had an oil and filter change? - if not it will improve changes etc.
What temperature is your gauge reading? - it should be 87.
Regards

Bill

 

[anyweb]

Your list really doesnt sound that bad to be honest.
We tend to steam clean engines on B services to keep them spick and span.

how do you go about this process ? just a regular high pressure water compressor or what ? what about the electric bits ?

 

[blaser24nig]

I maybe missing something here but assuming the car was bought from a "main dealer", I wouldn't even want to be replacing anything on the car after spending my monies. The problems may seem minor to some people but that's why you buy from a dealer so you get paece of mind me thinks...

 

[WG M-B]

how do you go about this process ? just a regular high pressure water compressor or what ? what about the electric bits ?

We have always cleaned and polished engines on B services or maintenance services. We use a good strong degreaser but go very lightly over the top. Troublesome points are covered with plastic bags (ie sbc/esp pumps) and we run over the electric plugs with wurth hhs2000 spray which is water resistant. Obviously we are then carefull. High pressure is used underneath the car and on the really oily bits, and we turn the pressure down to clean the top. Then as soon as we are done the air blower is out and the engine running.
Once all dried out we use a nice polish to run over the black bits. You must be very carefull! Oh and carefull around the belt area of course. We also add some silicone paste to the belt after to keep it nice and soft
It never causes an issue

 

[SteveX]

You will never find a second hand vehicle that doesn't require any work.

Even nearly new or brand new cars can have issues. We had to have the turbo / manifold, coolant pipes, front bumper and a ton of other things off of the wifes car to fix some issues and it had only just clocked 18k and was two years old! Add to that having to replace brakes and fix already binding callipers etc and a clutch noise and you get the idea.....

The fact of the matter is, you buy a car second hand and save an absolute packet in the process by paying only a portion of it's original cost - that's why we do it (or at least why I do it - let someone else take the initial insane depreciation!). We bought the wifes Abarth at just under two years old and 14k miles for 11k instead of 16k!

Even the smartest and most well cared for cars if you poke around or check things over you will find something worn that needs replacing etc.

It's unfortunate your list isn't shorter, you'll always get a list with a second hand car, especially of that age, but it's just hoping that it isn't pages long! For the age of the car it is to be expected. I bought a W208 that I thought only needed perhaps four jobs doing, two weeks in my garage and about three times that many jobs later I was done.

You've had the car serviced, the fault codes reset and the oil cleaned off. I would check for oil in a few weeks to see if you can see where it is coming from. I doubt the alternator casing is cracked?? Never seen that happen. Shocks being replaced are normal, they should have really replaced both on the axel but if only those were leaking it is a viable repair. Chances are with the oil it could have built up over many many years and may only be a very slight weep that can easy be fixed (ever seen how quickly a dripping tap fills up a bowl? Chances are it's much much less of a leak than that given the years it would have been going on).

The main problem I assume is the limp mode and lack of kickdown / drive, this could be a number of things from gearbox sensor related issues to a simple MAF or PVS. You have mentioned you have codes relating to a faulty MAF that is persistent, so you should change that first. The no kickdown and lack of drive sounds like pedal value sensor symptoms, but you didn't see a code for that so I guess not. Lack of power confuses the autobox and can cause some very odd running.

Once you have the limp mode and kickdown issue sorted, I would think the other issues should fall in line and the car will be a lot happier.

I know it can get frustrating, but there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to get the main problems sorted fairly easily and then just replace other bits as more of a long-term plan if you can't do it all right away.


Cheers,