C350e owners club

[raspy]

Last month my son has bought a ULEZ BMW X3 (Shudder) for his Labrador and he reports the same thing: that "constipation" in the new car sales pipeline caused by supply disruption and closure of car showrooms has caused used car values to rise. (Apparently car dealers are also making more money on used car sales too)

That said, WBAC are such a lying bunch of devious bustards that they would use any excuse to pull in an innocent private owner, and then invent some devious excuse to renege on their initial price quote. ("Unfortunately, there appears to be dust on the dashboard.")

@MikeInWimbledon Yes, and there are also many people holding on to their current used cars for longer due to uncertainty about income during the pandemic. Agree with you on WBAC. I suspect my C350e may have appreciated a little bit, but from what I've read about WBAC's business model, they provide very tempting valuations over email etc but that is way higher than what they will actually offer you once they inspect your car.

 

[joq3]

I am thinking of retrofitting keyless entry to my C350e. Normally when retrofitting parts to cars, unplugging the battery is a good idea.
Will unplugging the battery have effect on this car, as it has a large hybrid battery too.

Has anyone unplugged their 12V battery?
Did this cause any issues?

 

[zipdip]

I was tracking a MB it had a couple of things that needed doing to it but the price was right,the car sales put it up a grand,used prices are going up.

 

[grober]

I am thinking of retrofitting keyless entry to my C350e. Normally when retrofitting parts to cars, unplugging the battery is a good idea.
Will unplugging the battery have effect on this car, as it has a large hybrid battery too.

Has anyone unplugged their 12V battery?
Did this cause any issues?

this video maay prove usefull?

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As the video I posted earlier shows disconnecting the 12 battery does not appear to affect the main propulsion hybrid battery. As indicated in this video there may be a safety interlink which isolates the HV battery or you may have to disconnect the HV safety interlock. I am not sure where this is in the C class possibly in the boot possibly under the bonnet. In essence the HV propulsion unit and the 12 V battery system are separate systems but obviously communicate with each other digitally or through relays. I think the door locking system is operated by the 12 Volt system so you can safely disconnect this to work on your keyless entry system. However on these canbus systems I would hesitate to work on them without very good sophisticated diagnostic tool to reset any fault codes that may be set by powering down the 12v system or changing components.

 

[raspy]

I'm not aware if any councils outside of London offer benefits for drivers of PHEVs like the C350e? I would be interested to know if they do.

I drove my C350e into Central London today and I deliberately parked in Westminster borough where PHEVs and EVs still get up to 4 hours parking on the street in a bay, just by for paying for 10 minutes (assuming one can find a free space, today was quite easy, lots of spaces) My appointment was about 25 mins walk away so parking further away for this cheap deal gave me a chance to squeeze some brisk walking time into my day.

Instead of paying £3.90 per hour for my 4 hour stay, I paid just 63 pence for the entire 4 hours. That's a saving of £14.97 - the savings work out even cheaper if you park in the more expensive zones of Westminster

I was then reflecting upon my choice to pay more back in 2018 for my used C350e vs say a regular petrol C200

In that first year of ownership, as I was driving into London every day;

Congestion Charge 100% discount - £10.50 a day - £2,520 saved
Cheap parking in most expensive zones of Westminster 3 days a week - £0.81 for each 4 hour session - £2,705 saved

Add on the £155 annual saving in road tax that I would have paid if I had bought the C200 vs the £0 road tax that my C350e has

and that works out at £5,380 saved in that first 12 months of owning my C350e compared to a C200

 

[PGL001]

Hi eKatie, I am from DK and we might have even higher taxes on cars compared to FI - and high car prices indicates high repair costs That is why I go to Germany or Sweden to get my c350e fixed. I would continue to drive the car until the h.v. battery is so poor that it affects the overall driving performance of the car. MB sells remanufactured high voltage batteries on their website for remanufactured car parts. If the day comes where a battery change is needed I would get separate quotes for the battery purchase and for the working hours needed to do the replacement. Presume that with an ever increasing amount of plugin hybrid cars - we will see more 3rd. party companies specializing in replacing these types of batteries. In the US I have heard rumours that a replacement will cost around 11.000 USD - still expensive but way off the price quote that you got.

 

[joq3]

Did you all guys receive a Mode 2/Type 2 charger with your C350e? I bought mine used from an official Mercedes dealer in Germany and imported to Sweden. The seller only delivered it with the Type 3/Mode 3 cable, no charger at all. They tell me that this is was an option that the car was not equipped with.
I do not believe what they are telling me, an electric car cannot be delivered without a charger.

 

[Deleted member 126969]

My 2016 car came with a charger. As you say, it can’t be right to supply one without.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

How much does it cost to charge a C350e at a typical (chargeable) roadside charger?

(I know that chargers at Tesco etc can be free)

I was talking to an E350de chauffeur yesterday who said that he thought the "plug in thing" wasn't working for him because it was about to go up to £7 for 20 miles of electric driving.

Would be interested in your experiences as I'm debating an S500 / S500Le this summer.

 

[raspy]

How much does it cost to charge a C350e at a typical (chargeable) roadside charger?

(I know that chargers at Tesco etc can be free)

I was talking to an E350de chauffeur yesterday who said that he thought the "plug in thing" wasn't working for him because it was about to go up to £7 for 20 miles of electric driving.

Would be interested in your experiences as I'm debating an S500 / S500Le this summer.

@MikeInWimbledon Maybe it was a E350e or a E300de? I can't see that E350de was sold in the UK.

I'm not sure where he's getting 7 quid from as the cost of charging such a small battery. The E350e has 6.4kw battery and the E300de has a 13.5kw battery.

Neither of those cars can use rapid chargers (which are typically more expensive) so it's just the slow chargers that can be used.

I use two options for public charging; BP Pulse (requires £7.85 monthly subscription) and then after that some are free to use, but some charge a small fee for electricity.

I charged my C350e in Canary Wharf the other day (3.82kwh of electricity supplied) and the cost to me on BP Pulse was 46 pence! Electricity was charged at 12 pence per Kwh!

Similar with PodPoint (no monthly subscription) but when I charged my car near Trafalgar Square, I was charged 70 pence (but more importantly I got up to 4 hours of free parking which itself was worth over £20!).

Yes, the cost of charging is going up for Instavolt customers (but that's only because everyone else was already charging 20% VAT on charging and they weren't) but I still can't figure out where the chauffeur was getting £7 quid for 20 miles of driving a plug in hybrid E class. Even if he had the E300de with the 13.5kw battery, he wouldn't be paying anywhere close to £7 quid to charge it at a public point)

Plus if you were to charge a VW ID 3 electric car with a 58kw battery at an InstaVolt rapid charger (at their revised rate of 40 pence per kwh) and for the sake of argument, you used 50kw of electricity, the cost would be £20 for about 200 miles of driving.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

@MikeInWimbledon Maybe it was a E350e or a E300de? I can't see that E350de was sold in the UK.

I'm not sure where he's getting 7 quid from as the cost of charging such a small battery. The E350e has 6.4kw battery and the E300de has a 13.5kw battery.

Neither of those cars can use rapid chargers (which are typically more expensive) so it's just the slow chargers that can be used.

I use two options for public charging; BP Pulse (requires £7.85 monthly subscription) and then after that some are free to use, but some charge a small fee for electricity.

I charged my C350e in Canary Wharf the other day (3.82kwh of electricity supplied) and the cost to me on BP Pulse was 46 pence! Electricity was charged at 12 pence per Kwh!

Similar with PodPoint (no monthly subscription) but when I charged my car near Trafalgar Square, I was charged 70 pence (but more importantly I got up to 4 hours of free parking which itself was worth over £20!).

Yes, the cost of charging is going up for Instavolt customers (but that's only because everyone else was already charging 20% VAT on charging and they weren't) but I still can't figure out where the chauffeur Thanwas getting £7 quid for 20 miles of driving a plug in hybrid E class. Even if he had the E300de with the 13.5kw battery, he wouldn't be paying anywhere close to £7 quid to charge it at a public point)

Plus if you were to charge a VW ID 3 electric car with a 58kw battery at an InstaVolt rapid charger (at their revised rate of 40 pence per kwh) and for the sake of argument, you used 50kw of electricity, the cost would be £20 for about 200 miles of driving.

Thanks for clarifying this. Apologies for my error re the model of car. It must have been an E300de. It was certainly a diesel plug-in.

I was surprised by his comment, which didn't seem to make any sense.

.

 

[Malkee]

Finally got my starter problem sorted over the weekend. I lived with the jerky crossover from electric to petrol for the last couple months for fear of the cost I'd be landed with after dropping it to the main dealer.

Turns out it's a very very simple job. I done it in the driveway in about half an hour. Got a new starter from the autofactors for 150€.

Disconnect the negative side of the 12v battery in the boot.
Jack up the front of the car.
Remove the 2 plastic covers under the front of the car. (12 off 8mm screws)
You'll see the starter under the passenger side are of the car.
Remove the 2 off E14 screws that hold it in place and pull it out of place.
Then it's just a 10mm and 13mm nut that hold the power connectors on. Very easy access.
Install is just the reverse of it.

I'd highly recommend anyone with any basic level of mechanical knowledge to give it a bash.

Part number for a starter is A274 906 21 00.

The main thing that was putting me off was the lack of documented info on actually doing the repair despite how common the fault seems to be.

The older starter I removed was falling apart. The whole outside casing if it was falling to bits.

Hopefully this is of help to anyone that would have ran into this issue as well

 

[seekay]

Finally got my starter problem sorted over the weekend. I lived with the jerky crossover from electric to petrol for the last couple months for fear of the cost I'd be landed with after dropping it to the main dealer.

Turns out it's a very very simple job. I done it in the driveway in about half an hour. Got a new starter from the autofactors for 150€.

Disconnect the negative side of the 12v battery in the boot.
Jack up the front of the car.
Remove the 2 plastic covers under the front of the car. (12 off 8mm screws)
You'll see the starter under the passenger side are of the car.
Remove the 2 off E14 screws that hold it in place and pull it out of place.
Then it's just a 10mm and 13mm nut that hold the power connectors on. Very easy access.
Install is just the reverse of it.

I'd highly recommend anyone with any basic level of mechanical knowledge to give it a bash.

Part number for a starter is A274 906 21 00.

The main thing that was putting me off was the lack of documented info on actually doing the repair despite how common the fault seems to be.

The older starter I removed was falling apart. The whole outside casing if it was falling to bits.

Hopefully this is of help to anyone that would have ran into this issue as well

Just wondering if its the same part as installed in a normal ICE C-Class, I think so. Doesn’t seem to be modified in any way to survive in a PHEV.

 

[Deleted member 126969]

Just wondering if its the same part as installed in a normal ICE C-Class, I think so. Doesn’t seem to be modified in any way to survive in a PHEV.

Searching on the part number suggests it’s used on a very wide range of cars, so no, nowt special. I wonder why they give so much trouble on our hybrid cars….(not!!). On the plus-side, given it’s such a common part, there are plenty of aftermarket manufacturers like Denso making compatible alternatives for sensible prices.

 

[Malkee]

Searching on the part number suggests it’s used on a very wide range of cars, so no, nowt special. I wonder why they give so much trouble on our hybrid cars….(not!!). On the plus-side, given it’s such a common part, there are plenty of aftermarket manufacturers like Denso making compatible alternatives for sensible prices.

The genuine part that came of was a Denso unit (Along with the MB Badge). It's mad, normally you'd expect the failure point to be brushes,bearings etc. The old unit was literally falling to bits, the screw that hold it together had broken free from the housing. I can't understand how this hasn't been recalled

 

[Deleted member 126969]

The genuine part that came of was a Denso unit (Along with the MB Badge). It's mad, normally you'd expect the failure point to be brushes,bearings etc. The old unit was literally falling to bits, the screw that hold it together had broken free from the housing. I can't understand how this hasn't been recalled

It’s clearly not up to the job is it. I’ve had concerns about the starter from day 1 given just how often the thing stops and starts in normal driving.

MB would probably argue it’s not a safety problem so no recall, much like the inadequate waterproofing on the air ride compressor. Personally, I think the compressor, starter and leaky cross-engine fuel pipe should all be safety recalls.

 

[joq3]

I just got my 2016 C350e Estate. And I got a charger and bag/storage for the cable. I noticed the bag has velcro on the back, and some small straps. Is this meant to be velcroed to a specific place in the trunk to keep it from moving around?

 

[seekay]

I’m done with the Germans, it was a pleasure to meet you here guys, all the best.

 

[jimbg]

Auf Wiedersehen

 

[DubMerc]

I’m done with the Germans, it was a pleasure to meet you here guys, all the best.

It was a pleasure Seekay.

Where to now for you? The Japanese, Chinese or Americans?