Seems to be a real appetite for Mercedes E-class W211's in the used market locally so might as well do a thread to help folks know what to buy and what to avoid. 1/2

A few moons ago after crashing a mercedes w204 C250 that i was using at the time and having to take it in for repairs, i was a handed a courtesy car to use in the meantime as mine was being repaired. Naturally it similarly a mercedes because reasons.2/3

The car designated to me was a 2004, e240, W211 with the m112 V6 engine. The vehicle itself was in an acceptable state. Desert silver paint, Ash gray leather interior with some showings of wear and tear. A warning was given to me beforehand that 3/4

Car had a faulty alternator so i was not to under any circumstance overburden it's power supply. This meant skimping on the in-car audio/visual entertainment and not using the Air-con.Failure to adhere to set condition could've landed me. 4/5

In the ungainly scenario of suffering a breakdown in a mercedes benz. Things that i'm not looking forward to experiencing, ever! Anyways, at the time of being handed the car it had about 4 litres in it's tank to which i added another 1,000 kshs worth of. 5/6

of fuel into it. Bringing the total to about 13 litres. I deemed this to be enough for my commute back home. The w211 has an 80 litre tank capacity with a rated fuel consumption of 10 litres/100km. I was not going to cover even a quarter of that range but. 6/7

Better safe than sorry. I was planning on introducing the vehicle to my heavy right foot and didn't want to imagine any scenario where i would run out of fuel mid drive Now a few things about the w211. 7/8

It sit's in the executive sedan range of the mercedes benz stable. It's the 3rd generation E-class with it's predecessor being the w210. Launched in 2002, it was produced 2003-2009 with the 2006-2009 model years receiving a facelift. Earlier models are reffered to us. 8/9

Pre-facelift. Major improvements were done on the w211 from the w210. Being namely overall design.Perfomance,Fuel consumption and ergonomics.9/10

The overall size of the car was increased. The exterior offered a more curvier design with a more aggressive styling, the headlights and tail lights were redone to suit it's new look. Bumper trimings were updated according to trim levels. The w211 offers 3 trim levels 10/11

Classic, elegance and Avant-garde with the latter being the highest for the base models.The interior was re-done to be more ergonomic with the dashboard layout de-clattered to offer a more intuitive experience to the user. More wood grain paneling was added to give a more. 11/12

Luxurious feel. The seats were made wider but offer better lumber support as well as comfort. Upfront the m112 and m113 power plants got DOHC and officially got VVT(Variable valve timing) for better fuel economy and performance.

The w211 got two perfomance variants. The E55 AMG which was the pre-facelift model that had the 5500cc m113 supercharged V8 and the E63 which was the post facelift model that had the 6300cc NA M156 V8. 13/14

Now to which one's you should buy and one's you should leave alone. 14/15

Trouble for the w211 began with the general refresh. This covers the 2005 per-facelift model that got the bumper update and subsequent 2006-2009 models that got the facelift. Common issue and problems are as follows.15/16

1. Airmatic suspension. Now note that in the 2003 and 2004 models most of these problems are non-existent and will only occur if skimp on routine maintenance and servicing. The air suspension on the afore-mentioned models has been know to break. Usual cause being 16/17

Pump failure which then leads to the lines breaking. This is very expensive to sort out so i'd advise to not buy a second unit with airmatic suspension. 2.Assembly shock straw or in other words what your cars sits on and connects to the tires. This is also known to fail. A 17/18

Work around is buying one with centered springs and struts or if you must buy one with the Assembly shock straw, overhaul the whole setup and be very diligent about which kind of surface you drive the car on. No overlapping, no-pseudo off-roading. 18/19

Keep. The. Damn. Thing. On. The. Tarmac. or else you and your bank account will weep. 3. Balance shafts, these are located underneath the engine and do wear with time so in the event you're buying a secon-hand unit carefully scrutinize and make sure that proper maintenance. 19/20

was done and no service intervals were over-looked. It is also quite expensive to rectify in the event of a breakdown since they're gears inside the unit responsible for hoisting your entire engine block into it's proper place. 20/21

A total breakdown leads to unimaginable vibration as your pistons battle amongst themselves. You might as well be driving a posho mill at that point. Half way through 2008 mercedes fortified these balance shafts and in subsequent models they don't break as often. 21/22

4. Camshaft position sensors. These are unique to v6 and v8 engines of the w211. Failure usually includes but not limited to; hard-starts, misfires etc. They are relatively affordable and can be replaced and fixed by any competent mechanic 22/23

5.Oil cooler. Fancy getting flashing messages on your dash screen that you're vehicle is overheating and you are kilometers away from the next town? No? Then be sure to change the seals on the oil cooler immediately after buying a second-hand w211. 23/24

6. SBC(Sensotronic Brake Control) let me first point out that this is standard equipment on most mercs from 2003 and it's without going into too many details how you stop your car. You see when you depress your break pedal and come to a halt? Yeap this device is responsible 24/25

for that magic. It does fail at times and when it does you get two things. 1. A nice and bright flashing prompt on your dash with 3 letters. SBC 2. Very weird breaking. This was actually responsible for me crashing the c250. How to identify it. In w211's when you lift your 25/26

Hood. It seats on the left-front side of the engine bay and looks like a metallic cube with little metal pipes coming out of it. Hehehe if you're an MCU fan, it looks like something thanos would be interested in. Those pipes are vacuum lines that find their way to the cars 26/27

Breaking system. Usually it's the sensors that fail not the device itself. last but not least. The timing chain. Now this a model year specific issue. Affected model years are from 2006-2008. These cars were recalled and the issue was rectified so it goes when purchasing 27/28

A second hand unit do a quick check with vehicles VIN to ascertain whether the unit was recalled and the assembly replaced. If not, it's best to either do an overhaul yourself or steer clear of that car.28/29

My loaner was a 2004 unit which largely stress free. I did make it home that day in one piece and apart from a funky healight i did not experience any other issue with the vehicle upto the time i took it back. Fuel economy was quite suprising as i got 9-8.5 litres/100km 29/30

For the current asking price on the local second hand market i'd say it's a decent purchase. Do your due diligence and it's sure to give you stress free ownership. 30/30