These cars are remarkably robust and will go 200k miles easily but there are some common failure areas I will list here
In the coming days I'll also link to cheap repairs for most items
1. Crank position sensor (cps)
2. Electronic accelerator pedal
3. Leaky transmission plug
4. Airmatic (s430 and s500) or Abc suspension (s600 and s55, some s500)
5. door control module
6. Front control arms /ball joints
7. Theft related parts (alarm siren , ecu, eis, key, shifter)
8. Water damage from Sunroof drains , reed valve , or taillights
9. Instrument cluster (if not fixed under recall or extended warranty )
10. For v12 cars only - coil packs and ignition transformer
I'm replacing my crank position sensor preemptively this weekend, and I'll keep the existing one in the trunk as a spare. I haven't run into the other issues yet *knock on wood* but that might be because my S500 only has 93k miles as of now.
Thankfully the water damage part doesn't really apply, because here in Arizona it rains maybe 10 times in a whole year.
82,000 miles and only had the instrument cluster on your list go dark on me. Was replaced for free. Rather imagine the suspension will be needing attention in the next year or 2, but not yet.
Nice write up and these can all be done by a DIY er
My thing I would add is Rust.
Is there any write ups on the sunroof drain. I went through a car wash and when I hit my brakes I had a drip of water coming out from where my front roof lights are(upper control panel)
Thanks for the link. I so involved in another Mercedes project I have not looked in the stickies for this.
I am sure glad that the forum does not charge by the hour for reading stickies I would be broke looking up repairs on my other car.
Thanks once again and glad you are the new moderator
Scott
This will be a much appreciated list once you get all the links to solutions in place. Hopefully, it will be accorded a place of honor in the encyclopedia thread, if not a dedicated sticky of its own.
Im at 103k, in the last 20k I have ran into 8 out of those problems or they have already been repaired from the previous owner. I also need to replace my secondary air pump.
Purchased my S430 2002 five years ago with 67K
Current mileage 114K
I ran an accurate book of records of all repairs and maintenance. Here is a table showing 11 problems. Based on my forum experience all quite typical, some though not as frequent as others (steering rack, wheel bearing).
Five items out of eleven are on Tusabes' list, and the mileage data confirm that the range 80K - 100K is the most troubling.
problem Miles
Shifter block 83,600
Instrument cluster 86,600
Engine – tranny mounts 89,000
Steering rack 93,000
Front suspension 94,000
CPS 94,500
Impeller pump 95,550
Rust repair and protection 96,500
Front struts 98,000
Left rear bearing 98,500
Rear struts 101,000
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