C350e owners club

[Deleted member 126969]

As @CaptainChaos says, try squirting some lubricant in the ‘pinhole’ where the spigot on the flap goes, exercising the catch and see if that helps. Only issue I’ve had with ours was when it froze once shut once. I used a PTFE based product, GT86, and only had to do it once. Since then, it’s never been a problem during cold weather here, although we don’t get it as cold as you do!

 

[CaptainChaos]

I think I used some silicone spray. It's just something to free up the mechanism and stop it gumming up.
I have had it where I couldn't close it, so drove with it open. It closed OK at the end of the journey - presumably it had warmed up!

I don't think driving with it open will cause any problems. I wouldn't want to park with it open though, as someone will probably snap it off.

 

[seekay]

Reading so many problems and experienced some of them myself, I’m having serious afterthoughts with this purchase.
Not sure how a BMW 330e (or i3 REX) would have worked out for me instead...or the Lexus IS 300h.

 

[CaptainChaos]

If you've experienced the problems and solved them, then you can tick them off your list.
Better than buying another unknown car.

 

[Deleted member 126969]

The Lexus would have been the smart choice for reliability, but it's a very different animal. Mild hybrid, CVT, not particularly sporty compared to the C350e. The BMW330e has had a raft of issues too, quite a few with the HV power electronics I believe. i3, no idea TBH but again, an entirely different animal to all the others you list.

Not to say I trust my C350e not to melt into puddle by the side of the road every time I use it....

Mine was made just after they sorted the water ingress into the charging socket, it had the recall for the clock spring, it's had a couple of jobs done for various bits of cable routing (it only needed checks rather than work I believe), I took it back shortly after getting it because the ICE sounded like a bag of spanners - so bad I thought there was a handful of bolts in the exhaust. Dealer told me that they applied a software update to the engine ECU for turbo management...but frankly I don't believe them - it still sounds crap.

I get the buyers remorse - I got that soon after buying and have never shaken it. Almost 4 years in now, it's lost about £25k in 8500 miles. Damned expensive motoring. Suppose it's just payback for all the expensive-when-new-but-shocking-depreciation cars I've bought in the past. My time for some pain.

 

[C350ezoom]

Is anyone else finding problems with pre-entry climate control since the Mercedes app updates? Many times I start the app, click "start now" on the pre-entry climate control and get an "important note" message saying that it may not have been possible to transfer the request ... blah blah", and it never seems to activate it. When I check vehicle status the "last update" is usually 1 day ago but if I send an unlock command followed by a lock command I can then start the pre-entry heating. Is there any way to force the app and car to communicate without the stupid lock/unlock sequence?

 

[DubMerc]

Hi everyone, new to the forum.
Recently purchased a 2017 estate (imported from the UK to Dublin). Really loving it so far - it is my first Merc. Don't do big mileage or that much on motorways so real world mpg not a big issue for me. While I know several on here have been disappointed with the car (and the battery in particular) and there have been reliability issues, I am keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have any serious problems.
I am currently experimenting with the ev range and trying to figure out if it is worth getting a home charging point. Considering just driving without charging the battery. Do many on here drive theirs without ever plugging in?

 

[Deleted member 126969]

Welcome.

I’d imagine those who don’t pay for their fuel probably don’t bother, but you’d really be missing out if you don’t charge it. You won’t get full performance without a decent level of charge in the battery, pre-entry climate control will be very limited and may not work at all at lower charge levels, you won’t get the ability to drive very far at all without using the ICE either.

To be fair, given the small capacity of the battery, it is a bit of an oddball, but I’d really question why on earth you got one if you don’t intend charging it. The battery is too big and heavy to not get the benefits of charging it IYSWIM.

Why not try using the ‘granny charger’ for a bit and see what you think? You don't have to have a permanent setup.

 

[DubMerc]

Thanks Chris.

What you are saying makes sense regarding having the full benefit of the car. Used both the type 1 (at home) and type 2 charger (public charging point) once so far. Don't have an outdoor socket yet so needed to keep the front door open to charge at home (an activity probably best done in Summer). The type 2 public charge is so much quicker and could just go off and do some shopping.

Given the poor range on battery power alone and that there is some charging of the battery from braking, would charging from home possibly work out more rather than less expensive than just paying for petrol? I know that ev range is driver and weather dependent and slopes are a big factor. While happy to pay a premium to get the best use out of the car, would like to know if it costs more or whether this essentially also results in real cost savings.

One of the reasons I went for this rather than the diesel is that I was getting tired of going out on the motorway for the sole purpose of blowing out the DPF on my previous VW engine as majority of our use is short suburban driving.

Took this car for a 450 mile round trip and rather than wanting to get there as quickly as possible I was very happy to waft along!

 

[Deleted member 126969]

The car is very sensitive to the sort of driving you do and the length of trips as far as economy goes. Most of my trips are short, so most are done entirely or almost entirely on battery.

The car does about 12 miles on about 5kWh in summer, about 8 in winter, so whether it pays to use electricity is something you can work out, depending on what you pay for fuel and electricity of course.

Say worst-case. 8 miles, 15p kWh. Petrol is what, 115p litre? (Not sure as I last put some in the car last March.....I kid you not. It still has just under half a tank left in it).

On a run, lets say it does 45mpg.

So a gallon costs 522p and gets you 45 miles, so 11.6p per mile

Electricity gets you (worst case) 8 miles on 5 kWh, so 8 miles on 75p or 9.4ppm

Best case, it goes down to 12 miles on 5kWh so 6.25ppm

Varys a lot on what you pay for power though. I'm soon to switch to Octopus Go, which if you charge the car at might is 4p kWh. I'm mainly doing this as I have a Tesla Powerwall so I'll charge that up at night then run the house on it during the day. Certainly wouldn't bother if I only had the C350e to charge!

Your call if it's worth it or not, but it'll take a while to pay for an outdoor charging point at those rates if cost is the sole driving factor for you.

The one thing you really don't want to do is drive the car in CHARGE mode - that drinks petrol, makes loads of noise and hurts performance too.

I've never used a public charger as they are generally way too expensive for charging a PHEV with a small battery, as the ones I have seen all charge on time, which is a bad deal for us. If it's free, then great of course.

The car can only charge at a maximum of 3.6kW, which is only slightly faster on a Type 2 than the granny charger, which is limited to a maximum of 3.2kW (?) IIRC. That said, I wouldn't want to use the granny charger on full power - when I did use it before getting the fixed unit I limited it to 10A to protect the socket form overheating.

I had a 7.2kW charger installed as I fully expect to have a full EV one day.


An example of a short trip beyond battery range, I did a 40 mile round trip the other day starting with full charge and it returned an indicated 63mpg. Have to add in the cost of the charge as well of course.

This time of year, the pre-entry is almost worth the price of admission on it's own! Sadly, that joy is very quickly offset by watching the battery range plummet as you drive down the road.

 

[DubMerc]

Thank you again Chris. There is plenty for me to chew on there!

I agree with you on the Charge mode. I selected it for 30 seconds or so and could hear the engine working so much harder.

That is good advice regarding the 7.2kW charger. As you say, the economics of installing might not make sense for me with the 350e but it would be an investment for the future and therefore I could justify the cost to myself on that basis!

 

[Mikep2]

Late coming back with a post on my experience of driving my last tank of fuel with no charging and will help to answer DubMerc’s question in his recent post.



So manage to drive 321 miles in Hybrid mode on my last tank of fuel without any charging. Didn’t find it very enjoyable always trying to be extra light on acceleration and speed.

The MPG I achieved was 34.5. Not having any experience of the petrol only version of the C class not sure how this compares.

Over the last 10 months charging the car cost me approx. £10 / month, so charging the car four times a week I know will give me 45 to 50 extra miles per gallon.

For me it’s definitely worth charging for my driving profile which is almost exclusively local and about 60 miles per week.

 

[Deleted member 126969]

This is a snapshot of the trip page from the app. We do almost all short trips, always charge the car. This is for the same tank of fuel by the way, last reset was when it was filled last March......looks like we will probably make the entire year on that tank of fuel.

 

[DubMerc]

Thanks Mike and Chris for those contrasting figures.

Mike, that figure in hybrid mode doesn't seem too bad to me. I take it the driving was primarily suburban rather than country side?
Also do you have a night meter installed?

Chris, to get those incredibly high figures, are you driving extremely gently?

 

[Deleted member 126969]

Thanks Mike and Chris for those contrasting figures.

Mike, that figure in hybrid mode doesn't seem too bad to me. I take it the driving was primarily suburban rather than country side?
Also do you have a night meter installed?

Chris, to get those incredibly high figures, are you driving extremely gently?

If I think I can make a trip purely on battery, I tend to go easier, but if the ICE is going to kick in I press on more. I find I can usually get a bit further on battery than the missus as she tends to be a bit more heavy footed with it than I do.

This car has certainly made me more conscious of how I use the power though. The ICE on this car is far from refined IMO so any time I can do without it, I do.

As time passes, I realise more and more what a mistake it was to buy this car given our usage. Yes, it can give us a years motoring on a tank of fuel, but given the ICE gets used so little, and when it does, it is pretty much always a cold start and harldy ever fully warms, I suspect it’ll probably have a short life.

Should have bought another old shed, as was my wont, or a pure EV.

 

[Mikep2]

Thanks Mike and Chris for those contrasting figures.

Mike, that figure in hybrid mode doesn't seem too bad to me. I take it the driving was primarily suburban rather than country side?
Also do you have a night meter installed?

Chris, to get those incredibly high figures, are you driving extremely gently?

Considering the weight of the car I guess 35 mpg is not bad without any charging but bear in mind that this was driving the car very carefully which does not allow you to enjoy the car fully.

I live in Wales at a high elevation, the end to my journeys are uphill for a couple of miles. If your terrain is fairly flat this could probably be bettered.

I don’t have a cheap night time rate with EDF and with charging only taking around 1 hr 40 mins didn’t see the benefit.

Agree Chris’s figures are incredible, the best I have managed out of a tank is 821 miles with 2 bars left.

 

[DubMerc]

I see where you are coming from Chris. Funnily enough, when I was thinking about the car, the pure ev driving didn't really appeal to me. I had the use of a Toyota C-HR earlier in the year and wasn't impressed at all. However this has me thinking about pure EV for the future (particularly if it can be matched by the comfort and feel of the 350e).

That is good to know Mike. I was thinking that we don't have enough overall consumption of electricity at night to be going with a night meter. So your figures on cost of consumption are encouraging without one.

I am currently researching installing a type two charger and have been approved for the government grant (600 euro here). Can get an outside socket installed for around 140 euro all in but to get the type 2 charger I have been quoted 1200 euro all in (getting the 600 euro grant when all completed in accordance with terms and conditions). Will likely go with it as it is an investment for the future but the grant seems to be doing nothing only subsidising the income of Electricians and suppliers of EV Chargers. Huge waste of taxpayer money (not even including the cost of administration). Rant over!

 

[Deleted member 126969]

I usually find myself wishing ours was a pure EV C class. I like the interior, ride, toys etc, but I don't like the ICE. If it had 300bhp of pure EV power and a decent battery, it would make nice EV IMO. That said, I'd never trust MB after this anyway.

@DubMerc I'm with you on the way the installers appear to just soak up the grant as free profit. Yes, I get there is a lot of paperwork, but they won't entertain even a slight variation from a simple install without extra charges anyway, so no, I don't have a lot sympathy for them. When I had my Type 2 charger installed (with grant) I even ran my own cable as I wanted it to go a specific route and I didn't want them to shy away or try and charge extra, so I ran some 10mm T&E from adjacent to teh consumer unit to adjacent to a hole in teh wall I drilled ready - it really was a trivial job for the bloke, but it still cost me £400


Re a cheap overnight tariff, unless you can make decent use of the cheap rate, it probably isn't worthwhile just to charge the MB. As I mentioned, I typically put around 5kWh into it from about 20% to 100% (ish)

 

[Mikep2]

I see where you are coming from Chris. Funnily enough, when I was thinking about the car, the pure ev driving didn't really appeal to me. I had the use of a Toyota C-HR earlier in the year and wasn't impressed at all. However this has me thinking about pure EV for the future (particularly if it can be matched by the comfort and feel of the 350e).

That is good to know Mike. I was thinking that we don't have enough overall consumption of electricity at night to be going with a night meter. So your figures on cost of consumption are encouraging without one.

I am currently researching installing a type two charger and have been approved for the government grant (600 euro here). Can get an outside socket installed for around 140 euro all in but to get the type 2 charger I have been quoted 1200 euro all in (getting the 600 euro grant when all completed in accordance with terms and conditions). Will likely go with it as it is an investment for the future but the grant seems to be doing nothing only subsidising the income of Electricians and suppliers of EV Chargers. Huge waste of taxpayer money (not even including the cost of administration). Rant over!

I had decided I would get the cheapest charging unit I could find. Opted for the Project EV Unit which cost me £240 (included 80 for an earthing rod). Looks like they now do a unit with built in earthing). Been installed a year now and been faultless.

Project EV Electric Vehicle Charger 7.3kW Single Phase | EVA-07S-S

The Project EV Single Phase 7.3kW Electric Vehicle Charger is a smart app controlled electric vehicle car charging station that works with all plug-in vehicle brands

www.alertelectrical.com

 

[C350ezoom]

Ref my question on 27/Dec, is everyone else finding the app working fine for pre-heat?