Josh's 2001 E430 Estate

[josh2109]

Hi folks,

I've recently bought an '01 E430 Estate and as I'm thinking of keeping it longer term than originally anticipated I thought it would be good to get a thread up detailing the bits and pieces I do with it.

To give a bit of background, I bought this as a very cheap stop gap when my 4x4 failed its MOT a few weeks back. Long story short, I did the work in my own time and found more things that needed sorting - this caused a problem, as our second car is a Honda CRX Del Sol and it wasn't big enough for myself, my girlfriend and our labrador... Cue my search for a cheap estate car as a stop gap! Sadly as a petrol head I find it hard to get excited over most estate offerings (previous 'dog cars' that I've had include a flat 6 Legacy Outback, a Legacy GTB twin Turbo and a Mitsubishi Legnum VR-4 ), and so I dismissed most of the local offerings. Imagine my excitement when a V8 Merc popped up locally and within my budget I shot over to view, money changed hands and the next day it was sat on the driveway.

I've done plenty of miles in it since, and I'm pleased to say it has all been good so far! The car drives beautifully, and I haven't had any real issues other than the A/C system not holding pressure. The rear amp wiring was cut when I got it, so I rewired this and refitted the Comand head unit and the sound system now works. I also refitted the rear fold away bench which had been removed and left in the boot. I also adjusted fixed and adjusted the hooks on the two side panels in the boot so that they stay shut.

After that, it had a wash and I took some photos...

So, she has the usual scabby bits on a Merc of this age but luckily I do have all the bits and pieces needed to tidy the bodywork up... Just waiting for the motivation!! Also, the blue trim is definitely not to my taste, I think I will spray that piano black when I have time. I'd like to refurb the wheels, I'm thinking gunmetal faces with the lips kept silver.

The main future mechanical work planned is to trace the leak in the A/C system and replace whatever part has failed (first suspect is the condenser!).

Apologies for the essay, hope you enjoy the pics and with any luck over the next few months I should be able to post some progress!

Cheers,
Josh

 

[Smart320]

Agree it looks great except for the blue trim , assume that was not the original, has it been wrapped?

 

[SmartAmg]

Agree it looks great except for the blue trim , assume that was not the original, has it been wrapped?

Looks like it's been Hydro dipped.

 

[josh2109]

It's definitely been hydro dipped - somebody spent a lot of money to make the interior look awful!

 

[josh2109]

Update time, as I have found my first fault which needs rectifying!

Whilst dropping my girlfriend off for her dance class the other day, I was driving with the windows down in a multi-storey car park... To my annoyance, I noticed that every time I accelerated from a crawl, there was a loud rattling akin to metal dragging along the floor. From past experience of older cars I was expecting it to be a rotten heat shield or snapped exhaust bracket, so at the weekend I got the car in the air to have a listen. I can reliably reproduce the noise by gently revving the engine, so it didn't take long to trace the noise to the area of the secondary cats. There's no noticeable damage to anything in the area, and after a bit of research online it seems that it's fairly common for the insides of these to fail with age. I'm fairly confident this is my issue

On to the solution then! I had a look at replacement cats online, but I'd want to replace both with type approved parts if I went down the spending money route and the £300 or so it would set me back doesn't make economic sense considering the value of the car, and the fact that £300 would be better spent on one of my project cars currently. A little more research was done, and it seems that the primary cats do enough work to get the car through the emissions test on the MOT, so removing the secondaries is possible so long as you don't have a finicky tester. I'm lucky enough that I share a fairly well stocked tool shed with a friend, and we have plenty of cutting tools and a few welders knocking around. We have a metal shop round the corner that we are friendly with, so mild steel tube is cheap... Sounds like the planets are aligning for me to do some exhaust modifying!

So in a nutshell, my project for this weekend is to chop out both secondary cats, plus the middle resonator, and replace with straight pipes. I'm very hopeful that the car will then start making some of the noise I want it to, and less of the rattling which I don't!!

I'll get some pictures of the work up as it's done, because we all like pictures much more than essays! Wish me luck!

 

[ringway]

That's a lovely car to own, Josh.

I have fond memories of my S210 430, and I'm pleased that she went to a very good home to our man Trevor Horgan in Ireland.

LINK.

 

[poormansporsche]

In a honesty the trim bits are no worse than some of mercedes designo efforts of the late 90s

 

[John]

Wouldn't choose it but I quite like the blue trim - I know you got seats in red and blue in those I think. Something different...

If you have metalwork skill to hand, it might be worth gutting the secondaries from the top so they still appear to be there.

MOT only does emissions and visual so they won't be feeling around the top of the secondaries for welds and even if they do, they won't know they are gutted if it does pass emissions. It should do... the secondaries are there to heat up the gasses for the primaries but as you will be taking it there warm, it should be fine.

 

[josh2109]

That's a lovely car to own, Josh.

I have fond memories of my S210 430, and I'm pleased that she went to a very good home to our man Trevor Horgan in Ireland.

LINK.

Thank you, I think for the age of car they are absolutely fantastic. I just read through your thread, it was interesting to see mention of adjustment for the rear suspension - do you recall how that was reset? It jars me that my car is always slightly nose down which I'm assuming is a result of the lowering springs the previous owner fitted.

In a honesty the trim bits are no worse than some of mercedes designo efforts of the late 90s

Wouldn't choose it but I quite like the blue trim - I know you got seats in red and blue in those I think. Something different...

Well I'm glad the trim is not universally villified, but it still isn't for me I'm afraid

If you have metalwork skill to hand, it might be worth gutting the secondaries from the top so they still appear to be there.

MOT only does emissions and visual so they won't be feeling around the top of the secondaries for welds and even if they do, they won't know they are gutted if it does pass emissions. It should do... the secondaries are there to heat up the gasses for the primaries but as you will be taking it there warm, it should be fine.

I wouldn't go so far as to claim that I have any level of skill! I thought about discretely gutting the cat (we did similar for a friend who was having issues with his V6 Audi), but I don't want to screw up the gas flow by introducing a large void where the monolith used to be. I did consider gutting the cat and running a tube through it, but weighing up the work I thought I'd just go with swapping them straight out for tube. I'll leave the cats on the shelf just in case I get grief down the line...

 

[poormansporsche]

Well I'm glad the trim is not universally villified, but it still isn't for me I'm afraid

Not defending yours as such, more slagging off the horrid mb ones, 210 designo green trim, pass the sick bucket !!!!

 

[John]

Well I'm glad the trim is not universally villified, but it still isn't for me I'm afraid

Indeed - you are the one who has to look at it the most!

How long before I hated though is another matter...

I wouldn't go so far as to claim that I have any level of skill! I thought about discretely gutting the cat (we did similar for a friend who was having issues with his V6 Audi), but I don't want to screw up the gas flow by introducing a large void where the monolith used to be. I did consider gutting the cat and running a tube through it, but weighing up the work I thought I'd just go with swapping them straight out for tube. I'll leave the cats on the shelf just in case I get grief down the line...

You could weld the straight-through pipe into the CAT.

But you are right, if you don't have access to cheap metalwork skill, straight through pipe (or even X or H pipe to increase the burble!) would be the ticket.

I had an E55K with no secondaries and it always passed.

Failing relies on the tester, and one who gives a toss, knowing how many CATs the car left the factory with which seems unlikely.

Bigger problem is when you lose the primaries.

Ask me how I know!

 

[ringway]

Thank you, I think for the age of car they are absolutely fantastic. I just read through your thread, it was interesting to see mention of adjustment for the rear suspension - do you recall how that was reset? It jars me that my car is always slightly nose down which I'm assuming is a result of the lowering springs the previous owner fitted.

Josh, from what I remember, I had new springs and opted for what is termed "Standard Sports Chassis".
The car was very low when I got it and the return to SSC made for a nicer ride.

 

[mastacrx]

Very nice motor sir.