Just test drove a 2001 E320. 95K km, silver, good condition, decent price. All the service records are there from the MB dealership. The engine and tranny are in good working order, the harmonic balancer is not on the "affected" list, the spring perches are not rusted, there is no rust on doors, the undercarriage looks cleaner and newer than my current 2002 chrysler sebring. I left a deposit and have until Monday to make my final decision. The only problems that I found with it are
- a broken cup holder
- a non-working cd-changer
- the ac whistles during operation and a minute or two after being turned off
How expensive are the cup holder and the cd changer to fix/replace? Did anyone have a problem with their AC making whistling noises? Anything else I should check before buying?
Any advice is welcome. Thanks in advance.
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Just test drove a 2001 E320. 95K km, silver, good condition, decent price. All the service records are there from the MB dealership. The engine and tranny are in good working order, the harmonic balancer is not on the "affected" list, the spring perches are not rusted, there is no rust on doors, the undercarriage looks cleaner and newer than my current 2002 chrysler sebring. I left a deposit and have until Monday to make my final decision. The only problems that I found with it are
- a broken cup holder
- a non-working cd-changer
- the ac whistles during operation and a minute or two after being turned off
How expensive are the cup holder and the cd changer to fix/replace? Did anyone have a problem with their AC making whistling noises? Anything else I should check before buying?
Any advice is welcome. Thanks in advance.
Hi, OB. Having been a benz owner for a couple of years now with the same vehicle you're considering, and having been a mechanic for part of my life and a big believer in DIY... were I in your shoes I would still spend the money to take it to a good indie for a full evaluation, at the conclusion of which s/he can give you a proper summary as well as an estimate of the cost to repair the items found.
That said, I can't say anything about the cup-holder, if it's broken it's probably some decent coin to buy the part since you'll have to go through the dealer. The CD-Changer could be lots of things, if it's just the changer you can find them all the time on e-bay and craigslist in the $100 range. It's just plug 'n play in hte trunk. However, it could be the link to the head unit, the HU itself or a power issue, and not just the changer (or instead of the changer), and that could get expensive in a hurry. (Yet another reason to have the indie check it.) Lastly, I can't remember seeing any posts about a whistling AC issue and I've certainly never heard it imy *car; if it sounds like it's coming from the dash then it could simply be a partially-stuck door, but it could be labor-intensive (read: expensive) to repair. Again, there's no substitute for a good indie.
Last but not least, it might be worth considering an aftermarket warranty. I bought one with my car; it has a fat deductible, but I just wanted some insurance in case something major died. That might be worth considering, particularly if you are going to finance the car.
Good luck and enjoy the ride (or shopping for it),
Greg
My dealer replaced the broken cup holder in my 2000 E320 for $50. It now works ok but I don't use it due to its location where any spill can cost $$$$$ for the electronics and switches below the holder's location. I just wanted it to work as it was designed -- even though it is a poor design.
jlbarnes, I hope that the price to replace it is still no more than $50. Agree about the flawed design here.
gregs210, thanks for the advice. Looks like the CD unit itself works (it checks the changer and says that it is empty), but the CD changer box doesn't respond to anything at all. The AC sounds like there is a little pissed off snake somewhere deep inside the center console. The sound gets loudest on medium and takes over 30 seconds to stop after AC is off.
I definitely agree about getting it properly checked out, which is an activity planned for first thing Monday morning. The only mechanic I trust is not working today, and this why I had to leave a deposit to keep this car until Monday. The deposit is conditional on the check being successful, so I am keeping my fingers crossed cause I really like the car. And this time the price is right as well...
One thing you might want to try, based on what you just described about the changer, is making sure the plastic unit in which you put the CD's to put into the changer is the original (i.e. MB) unit. My 2000 is really finicky with what units you use. I've got a couple spares from an Alpine changer that I have in my 93 190E that look exactly like the MB unit, but it refuses to play in the exact same manner which you describe. If you've got a friend or know a partsman at your Benz dealer, try a different, stock Benz CD holder and see if that helps.
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I couldn't even get the CD container out because the CD changer refused to respond to anything.
And the A/C sound I was hearing was more like hissing from the center console, and not whistling. English is neither my first nor second language, so I hope I will be forgiven for this mistake.
Test drove 2001 E320, need advice 
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