The focus of this article is on the costs to own this car and if it was a good financial decision or not.  There are a few reasons why we chose this path.

1. My wife desires a car she doesn’t have to care much about.   She obviously wants it to be reliable and safe, but the idea is that having to care about if it gets a scratch or a knock on it, or if the wheels get curbed is stress she doesn’t need.  It should be possible to drive it wherever she wants, park it wherever she wants and transport anything inside it, without having to worry.   In her mind, a new car would be ‘obnoxious’ because she would need to care about these things.
2. Both of us have an aversion to leasing cars or borrowing money on a depreciating asset.

What this meant was buying a nice car that had some of the technology that my wife desired at a price where we didn’t care about it very much.   The E350 wagon fit this bill.  It was a nice car that we could treat as fully depreciated.

Depreciation

In August of 2016, we paid $18,000 for the car.   I just sold it for $6,000, so the wear and tear / depreciation cost over the time was $12,000.   That was slightly better than our expectation when we purchased it.

Petrol Costs

Over the 88,500km, we used 12,076l of Petrol, either 95 or 98.  Around town, the E350 did around 15l/100km, and on the highway around 10l/100km.  This cost $20,494.76.  The petrol costs were also in line with our expectations.   While the E350 is not a particularly fuel efficient car by current standards, it was pretty good for its time.    Our usage was around 80% city / 20% highway.   City trips were mostly very short.

Service Costs

At the time of purchase, I did a lot of research on the models.  I specifically purchased this car because it was outside the known range of the Balancer shaft issue that plagues the M272 engine.   I’ve since learned that this known range of engines is a load of nonsense.  I know of at least three cars that have failed balancer shafts outside this range.   What appears to happen is that the shafts just fail later, but they still fail.   Ours became apparent at about 175,000km.   My theory is that they went to an improved part after that range, as the earlier cars were failing much sooner.   The ‘improved’ part still failed, just later.

The M272 engine is also known for the plastic rods for the intake manifold flaps failing.  This is another fundamental design issue with these engines.   The combined cost of repairs related to things I regard as basic design flaws was over $10,000 and about a third of the total maintenance bill for the car.

Over the whole period, we spent around $33,000 for maintenance on the car.  If you exclude the two large issues related to design flaws, this would have been around $20,000.   I feel that $20,000 is reasonable, but $33,000 is not.

Insurance and Registration

Insurance and registration is expensive in NSW.    The actual registration fee is around $650 per year, plus green slip of around $650.   Insurance was around $1600 this year, putting the current annual figure around $3,000.

Generally insurance rates have been out of control in Australia over the duration of owning this car, and the total cost of registration and insurance was $22,000.

Totals

• Kilometers Driven:  88,489
• Petrol: $20,500
• Servicing: $33,000
• Depreciation: $12,000
• Registration: $12,000
• Insurance: $10,500
• Total Spend: $87,500
• Per Year:  $9,500
• Per Kilometer: 99c

In looking at these numbers, most people are very focused on the fuel consumption of their vehicle.   However, when you look at the actual numbers, in this case it’s less than a quarter of the ownership costs.

Taking out costs related to fundamental design flaws, the total spend per year goes down to $8,300 and 87c per kilometer.

Alternatives

What could we have done instead?  At the time I ruled out a Series 1 S211, due to the troublesome SBC brakes.  Had I known about the balancer shaft affecting cars outside the known range, I would have looked at a series 1 E320 wagon.  The engine in those cars is bulletproof and the SBC brakes are much cheaper to fix.   Or buying a 2005/2006 Series 2 car where the balancer shaft failed earlier and already been done.

Obviously, a Mercedes-Benz was not the only option.  At the time we looked at two other alternatives.  A Toyota Tarago or Honda Odyssey of similar vintage.   I think the main difference for going with either of those options would have been the $10-12,000 in design flaws inherent in the M272 engine.  So probably similar to a Series 1 S211.   My wife didn’t like the sheer size of the Tarago to drive, nor its lack of ‘mod cons’.   The Odyssey used such thin cheap leather, most cars that were 10 years old already looked like somebody had a knife fight in the interior.

An alternative we didn’t consider was buying new.  A new Kia Carnival would have been about $55,000 on the road at the time.   At the time, they were offering a 7 year warranty, which would have protected us from major issues like balancer shafts.   We still would have needed to pay for servicing, tyres, battery etc.  If I assume this was $1,000 per year, that saves $24,000 in maintenance. Had done this, I would now be selling that car for around $15,000, so the depreciation would have been $40,000.   Petrol and registration would have been similar, but Insurance slightly more.   Either way I would have been $16,000 worse off and been driving a car larger than some hotel rooms I’ve stayed in.

Conclusion

I don’t regret the S211. Its been a very good family car.   What I do regret is relying on the ‘known range’ service bulletin for the Balancer shaft problem.   I think a Series 1 car would have cost $3,000 less at the time, and cost $10,000 less in maintenance.  The purchase price savings alone would have paid for an SBC unit.

For the replacement of the S211, we’ve got for a M276 naturally aspirated S212 wagon.  According to my research, this should get around all the design flaws in some of the alternatives.

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My wife’s 2007 E350 S211 Wagon is for sale.  This has been our family car for the last 8 years and it has always been reliable and comfortable.   if you want a car that can occasionally seat seven and is not an SUV, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class wagon really is the only choice.

Not only do you get the occasional seven seats, but the middle row folds down for a totally flat cargo area.  Unlike an SUV, its not so high that large objects can be easily lifted into the car.  It also drives like a car.  Large SUVs drive luck a truck.

Full rego until August 28th, the personalized plate will be removed prior to the sale.

The big issue with these cars it the balancer shaft.  This was sorted out at a cost of around $7,000.   Don’t believe what you read on the internet that only the early cars have this problem.  The engine number from my car was well outside the stated range and it still had this fault, which has now been sorted out.    I have extensive service history for the car.

The other issue with these cars is the plastic in the intake manifold for the flaps.   They always break and this car has been upgraded to the metal ones.

Recent work includes:

• New Starter Motor.
• New air pump for self-leveling rear suspension.
• Front brake job.
• Four new tyres.
• Front suspension.

.The car has always been maintained by Mercedes-Benz specialists (Sydney Star in Brookvale and Peninsula Prestige in North Narrabeen) and all required work has always been done. The original COMMAND system is still in place and works properly. 221k on the odometer.

Asking price – $8,500.

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The proper fix would be to replace the antenna with a new Mercedes-Benz unit.   However, to do this, the headlining needs to come down to remove it.   Doing a bit of research on the forums, this looked like a big job.

I was concerned after driving around like this for a while, that either water would get into the cabin, or damage the antenna to a point it would no longer tune stations.    My wife asked our mechanic when she dropped off the car for a service, and he suggested a large shark fin cover that sticks on.   I thought this was a great idea, so ordered one from Ali-Express that was large enough to totally contain the remains of the S211 antenna inside it.   This cover was cheap, but took over three months to arrive.

Next I went to Autobarn and bought a rattle can of ‘Flint Grey’ and some plastic primer.   The plastic primer didn’t seem to want to adhere all that well to the ali-express antenna.  After a few light coats, my daughter and I had even coverage, although it wasn’t exactly smooth.

We then applied the Flint Grey top coat to our new s211 Antenna.   It wasn’t the smoothest job, and for a better job I could have wet sanded it, and applied clear coat.   The paint on the S211 is only average, so I was just looking for something that didn’t look terrible or let water into the antenna.

The new antenna came with some double sided tape to install it.  While the front part seemed to adhere quite well, the sides and rear didn’t seem as good a fit.   I gave it 50/50 chance of staying on.  I was pessimistic, as a few weeks later its still there even after driving in storms and rain.

This is more of a bodge than a proper fix.  Unlike the classics I keep long term, at some point my wife will want to upgrade to an S212 wagon, so this made sense.   The total cost was less than $100.  Now the car doesn’t look stupid with a circuit board flapping around in the wind.

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About 5 years ago,  I was in the market for an E350 Wagon for my wife.   We wanted an occasional 7 seater that wasn’t an SUV.   Based on the service bulletin, we purchased a 2007 rather than the 2005 we were looking at.   The car we eventually purchased was well outside the known range of bad M272 balance shaft issues.

About a year ago, we started getting codes from the car indicating the the timing was off in one bank.    Based on the knowledge that the car was outside the affected range, we started looking at other sources for the problem.   First, I tried changing the magnetic adjusters.   These are a known problem also and an easy fix.    After a while, the light came on again, so next I tried the sensors.   This didn’t have much of an impact.    I took the car in to be looked at, and it was suggested that the broken intake manifold flaps may be to blame, so I had those fixed too.    Again, same problem.

From there I was becoming more and more convinced that despite being outside the published range, I had a bad M272 balance shaft.   I took the car to another shop who had done hundreds of these repairs to check.   they took off the cam covers and were able to spot the worn balance shaft.     The quote to fix is $6,000 which is in line with other good independent shops in the area.   This includes 24 hours of labour and taking the engine out completely.

As can be seen above, the part is quite innocuous, but a lot of the engine must come apart to change it.    As well as what is pictured above, normally the head gaskets, timing chain and sometimes sprockets are changed.

I suspect the M272 balance shafts are harder after the known range, but still fail.   Our car now has almost 180,000km on the clock.   It had about 170,000km when these symptoms started occurring.  I suspect these issues could also affect the M273 V8.   Those engines do not have a balance shaft, but they do have an idler sprocket there.   That sproken was also known to be soft in the early engines.

I have been thinking long and hard if I will fix the issue.   I have decided to fix it.   Used car prices have gone so high since COVID that the car is worth more than what we paid for it 5 years ago.   Buying a different S211 would also have the balance shaft risk, plus not have the work I’ve done on this car recently such as rebuilt front end, intake manifold, rear air springs etc.   With used car prices the way they are, a S212 wagon is still more expensive than we would want to spend.

It will likely get booked in for the job in the first half of 2022.   While the update 211 is a good car,  there are a number of design flaws.    Obviously there is the balance shaft issue.   There is also the plastic intake manifold flaps, other plastic parts in the engine that don’t last very long, and rear air springs with a short service life.

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The first set of codes were complaining about the correlation of the camshaft and the crankshaft on one bank.   I had previously changed the magnetic actuators, which temporarily fixed the problem.    If the car didn’t sit outside the engine numbers with the soft balancer shaft, I would have probably assumed that this was my issue.

The second set of codes were about the tumble flaps in the intake manifold.   They are made from plastic and the hot engine makes them brittle and fail.   Mercedes will try and sell you a whole new intake manifold, but there are aftermarket solutions to replace the plastic with metal.   You would have thought Mercedes-Benz would have learned by now about brittle pastic on their engines.   I didn’t want to tackle this one myself, so had it done by a professional.   While the car was there having this and the front suspension rebuilt, we checked the codes.    The various camshaft codes were there, but the actual values of the camshafts seemed correct.

That got me thinking that perhaps it was the sensors sometimes giving bad readings.   I probably should have changed them at the same time as the magnetic actuators.   In any case, the M272 camshaft position sensors are not particularly expensive and very easy to change.

As the M272 is a DOHC engine, there are four sensors.   The right hand sensors are slightly harder to change, but each one can be done in less than five minutes.   The new sensors came with o-rings, which was good as the old ones were very hard.     I don’t know what it was, but there was some kind of residue on a couple of the sensors.   I doubt it was impacting how they worked, but at least the new ones do not have it.

After replacing all four sensors and re-setting the codes, I was able to drive for 15 minutes without the check engine light.   It’s been a long time since that was possible.   The proof of the fix will be if the light is still not illuminated after a couple of weeks.   It was worth trying as four M272 camshaft position sensors are not expensive and the time to change them is negligible.

Update 22/9/21:  The Check engine light is back on.   Only lasted two days.    Back to the drawing board.   

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In the end I purchased a whole new rear light assembly from the USA.   From the USA it ended up being about $200.    They are pretty easy to swap over and I had the job done in a few minutes.   The side trim pops off and there are four 8mm nuts to remove.

The old light assembly was clearly original to the car judging by the date sticker. Once I had it off I had a closer look at it to see if the old bulbs could have been changed. It doesn’t seem like the bulbs an be changed, but there is a sub assembly that they are attached to. On the EPC its listed as a ‘Lamp carrier’ so I assumed it was some kind of mounting bracket. In retrospect I could have just replaced this at 1/4 of the price and had a working light.

If I had taken more time when replacing the cracked tail light on the other side a year or so back, I would have saved that bulb carrier and had a repair for free this time. I have of course kept the old light assembly in case the current one is damaged. In that case I could use the old assembly with the new bulb carrier.

The photo below shows the carrier removed from the light assembly. It looks like the S211 tail light bulbs should be replaceable, but from all I can see they are not.

While I was at it, I also replaced the parking light at the front.   This was a simple bulb, same type as used in many of the older cars so I had one in my bulb drawer.

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I got out my scan tool to work out what was wrong.    The main code that seemed relevant was P0016.   This was complaining about the correlation of the crankshaft and camshaft positions.    There was a more detailed one that indicated the right cylinder bank was too retarded.   The M272 camshaft adjuster is a known problem on these cars.   Apparently the part has been upgraded since the engines were new.   It is also the same system on the M273 V8 engine.

From what I read, the M272 and M273 engines use these magnetic camshaft adjusters to control the variable valve timing.   They obviously contribute to the good power these engines make for their size as I could notice the difference with three cylinder retarded.

Its not a big job to change these out, at least on the V6.    I would imagine the v8 is also pretty easy, just a bit less room.    FCP Euro sell a kit which includes the four genuine M272 camshaft adjuster units as well as some other parts to do the job.    All the instructions I found on the internet assume that the oil cooler and power steering reservoir must be removed to get at the adjusters on the left hand side of the car.     I also found a video that indicated that the oil cooler could be left in place if the job was done with an E8 Torx spanner rather than a socket.    As well as the kit, I also ordered a set of Torx spanners.

This spanner was a really good tip.  I used it quite a lot and found that I didn’t even need to remove the power steering reservoir.    This made the job a lot simpler.   I started on the harder left hand side.   The first thing to do is to disconnect all four M272 Camshaft adjuster units.   There is a grey locking tab that must be pushed up carefully with a flat heat screwdriver.   Then, to actually release the connector you need to push down around this locking tab.     I also found it easier to remove all four connectors to the camshaft position sensors.   Mine were quite brittle and the two that still had locking tabs don’t anymore.    Also, to get to the upper adjuster on the left hand side, I had to remove the corresponding position sensor.

Once you’ve done the hard side, the other side is really easy.   There is almost nothing in the way of these bolts.

Each of the M272 Camshaft adjuster units is held on with three E8 torx bolts.   I found the only a couple of them could easily be removed with a socket and the E8 spanner was really useful.   As I mentioned above, the spanner meant I didn’t need to remove the oil cooler or even the power steering reservoir.

The old sensors were quite dirty.   For an engine that has only 172,000km and has been maintained as per the factory service recommendations, there was more sludge on them than I would like.    I think perhaps the manufacturers have stretched out the oil change intervals too long.   This sounds good for buyers as it makes them appear to be cheaper to run, but the idea of a modern Mercedes being cheap to run is laughable.   A couple more oil filters and a bit more oil would be a drop in the ocean compared to the real cost of these cars.

This job is quite simple and easy for home DIY.

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Changing the S211 tail light is a doddle.   The compartment for the first aid kit is opened up and the four nuts that hold it in are exposed.   All that is required is a socket set with an extension.   Due to the cracks, it smelt like water had been getting into through the assembly.   Certainly, the tail light itself was full of water.    As there are a lot of electrics in this area, it is good to get it changed out.

Unlike the cars I am more used to, the S211 tail light is an entire assembly that is changed.   There is not a separate lens, bulbs, gasket etc like the older cars.    There is no outer gasket either.  The S211 tail light I removed from the car was dated 2010, so the car was obviously in a minor accident at some point.   I couldn’t see evidence of any major crash damage though.

The overall time to change the unit out was about 10 minutes,  an easy job for anyone to do at home.    It is important to check the right part number.  The later cars like mine have an updated look so require a different tail light than the earlier ones.   The electronic parts catalogue helps with this.

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Crankshaft Position Sensor failures are common in modern Mercedes Benz, and the symptoms pointed to a faulty sensor.    Doing some research, changing the M272 Crankshaft Position Sensor didn’t seem to be a massive job, so I ordered one.

This job isn’t particularly hard, but it is very fiddly.   Many of the write ups on the Internet refer to the M112.   This is similar, but there are some important differences.    On both engines, the first steps are to remove the engine covers and mass airflow sensor.

This provides the room to somewhat get to the sensor, which is on the right hand rear of the engine.   I found I wasn’t able to see the sensor, but you can feel it.   The biggest challenge was determining what kind of bolt was holding it down.   Most say that it is an inverted Torx E8.   Some others say it is a TX27 Torx and others say a TX30 Torx.    At least in the case of the M272 Crankshaft Position sensor on the E350 wagon in 2007, it was a TX30.   As you can’t actually see the bolt I wasted a good 45 minutes trying different sockets until I was able to get one that worked.    It is easy to get a torx bit wedged between the housing of the sensor and the outside of the bolt and think you have it on properly!

There is almost no clearance on the right side of the engine, much less than the left side.   I can only imagine this job is much worse on smaller cars like the C class.

I found once the bolt is removed, it is easy to remove the sensor.   Replacement is much easier than removal, and overall I had the job done in about three hours.   It should probably take about 30-45 minutes!

Before I started the car for the first time, I cleared the codes.   After a brief test drive, the code has not re-appeared.   On first start, the car ran rough for a few seconds and then settled down to a smooth idle.   If I was doing this again, I would know to use a T30 (most sites say the other ones), so I could probably do it in about half the time or less.    It is probably a job that would not be that expensive to take to a mechanic, but my wife uses this car every day, so it was easier for me to do the repair in the evening.

I will see in the next couple of days if this has truly fixed the problem.

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Just after Christmas, the rear of the car would drop down on one side after the car was not used for a couple of days.   It quickly escalated to dropping down after only a few minutes.  At that time I didn’t understand the S211 rear suspension system so took the time to research it a little.  I didn’t think I had Airmatic on the car, so was quite surprised by this behaviour.

I don’t normally do much work on this car, but my mechanic was away for the first few weeks of January.   Turns out that this is a common problem on the S211.   Unlike the S123, S124 and S210, the S211 uses air springs instead of a hydropneumatic system for self levelling.   It is a cut down version of airmatic, just like the older cars used a cut down version of the full hydropenumatic system.     Instead of steel springs, there are two air springs that are fed from an air compressor at the front of the car.   These air springs fail and no longer hold air pressure.   Over time, they also burn out the air compressor as it must run all the time to maintain ride height.

The Mercedes springs are very expensive, but Arnott make an aftermarket spring that apparently has a tougher bladder.   I read good things on the forums about other owners who had used these springs so ordered a pair.

Arnott provide a video explaining how to fit the springs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkml0i61H2A

The video makes it seem simple, and in some ways it is.   I did spend about 6 hours doing the first spring as there were a few things that were not obvious.   The first was that disconnecting the air line does not remove enough air pressure to remove the spring.   It needs to be manually deflated like a tyre.   I found a dental pick in the air intake was the easiest way to achieve this.   The video also suggests you undo the sway bar linkage and remove it.   I found that wasn’t necessary.   Removing the air line took a while at first, but a 10mm spanner proved easiest.

The new Arnott springs (below on the right) seemed more robust than the springs on the car.  I could not see any Mercedes part numbers, so I assume they have been changed before.

The job would be simple with an assistant, one person to pull down on the suspension arm and the other to remove/fit the air spring.    I didn’t have one, so found that some plastic tube allowed me to use my weight to pull down on the suspension in a gradual way to perform the job.

The picture above shows this in action.   This was the first side I did, as I removed the sway bar linkage here.    I also found that if you try and test the system with only one side done, you get a malfunction message on the dash.     After all the trial error on the first side, the other side was done in 1/3 the time.    The job is also easier with access to a 16mm and 18mm spanner.  I had those sizes in sockets, but not spanners.

Once I was finished, at first I thought I had stuffed up the job.   When I drove the car home it drove great, but then sank down once I had parked it.  Turns out one of the air lines had come out and everything was back to normal after it was reconnected.   I used a zip tie to attach the air line to the wiring connection as it was before which should hopefully prevent that from happening again.   The S211 rear suspension is now back to working as it should!

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