W211 E55 AMG - 1st Year of Ownership

[E55MO]

Today marks the 1 year annaversary for me and my E55 AMG

I brought the car after having sold my E60 M5 5ltr V10.

So in this year of owner ships i have had the following work carried out;

• Torque Converter and gearbox rebuild - £1200
• heater duo valve replacement - £300
• engine mounts £150
• transmission mount
• AUX Belt pulley £110
• Oil, filter change
• gearbox fluid change
• break fluid change
• new brakes and disks
• new tyres all round
• Fuel Pump replaced - 1200
• front suspension work, control arms track rod arms ball joints etc - £500
• EC Heat Exchanger
• Johnson Pump
• 83mm Pulley
• Remap
• rear offside shock absorber - £590 - Inc correcting bandbrake
• New Battery

As much as i love the car, it has turned out be quite a money pit. but after having spent so much on the maintance i feel obliged to keep the car for longer. The more i spend the longer i aim to keep the car.

I picked mine up very cheap... however had had to spend good money keeping it on the road. There still is a few minor niggles, AC seems to be leaking. Will look at that come spring time. Rocker cover gasket needs replacing. Alloys need a refurbish. The drivers seat bolster can do with a retrim. the center console wooden cover has vanished and one the the buttons on the door for seat adjustment has gone missing (maintaining my 3 year old is at fault) Also the dynamic seats which i had no idea i had dont seem to do much.

At the moment the car is stock, stock map and pulley, as i was having over fuelling issues, which have now been sported.. Acid will be working his magic again soon no doubt.

Lets see what year two has in store for me.!!!

Big shout out goes to Acid at MSL for the pulley and remaps. And a massive shout out to Olly at PCS who has done the maintance work. You are both a credit to your industries and are hughly recommended by me to anyone that has a mercedes

 

[Deleted member 37751]

What's the mileage on the car?

 

[E55MO]

99600 ish

 

[BlackC55]

That list is not to bad for a E55. They do tend to eat the pennies.

 

[Mr Kripling]

I think I might have seen your car at Olly's while dropping off my CL55 which I've had for almost exactly a year and has been similarly adept at emptying my bank account as yours...

I think I've paid about the same in repairs and consumables as I did for the car in the first place. I do wonder what I'm doing sometimes but then I put my foot down and all is forgiven

I also owe Olly and his team serious thanks for the work that they've done, some of it at very short notice!

 

[Alps]

I dread to think what I have spent over the years!

sounds like its been neglected a bit before you owned it

I try and get any maintenance items done asap otherwise they just stack up

things like brakes and tyres are consumables

look at it as paying £2K warranty on it a year, it will even out after a few more years warranty and you will be quids in

 

[Deleted member 37751]

• Torque Converter and gearbox rebuild - £1200
• heater duo valve replacement - £300
• engine mounts £150
• transmission mount
• AUX Belt pulley £110
• Oil, filter change
• gearbox fluid change
• break fluid change
• new brakes and disks
• new tyres all round
• Fuel Pump replaced - 1200
• front suspension work, control arms track rod arms ball joints etc - £500
• EC Heat Exchanger
• Johnson Pump
• 83mm Pulley
• Remap
• rear offside shock absorber - £590 - Inc correcting bandbrake
• New Battery

Two big bills there with the gearbox and fuel pump but the rest looks like modding and wear and tear?

I picked mine up very cheap...

When you bought it cheap I'm interested in whether you thought it'd be a cheap car to run?

My first E55K was "cheap" and I promptly spent a couple of grand in the blink of an eye on it.

My second E55K had more history than I've ever had come with a car but it still needed a few quid just to keep it ticking over nicely, because they all are (or have been) bought in these last few years, the youngest being 10 year old now.

Great cars though, very addictive for such relatively small money, I loved both of mine.

 

[E55MO]

Coming from the M5 i knew what to expect.

This was more a "my experiance" log. Hopefully has not come accross as a moan..

I knew what i was getting into and knew that the jigh milage cheaper options would have gremlins. Having read about the other issues people have had ive been pretty lucky "touch wood"

Once the other niggles have been seen to and my lust for the 77mm pulley (with split cooling) has been achieved il be able to relax and really enjoy the experiance.

 

[merc85]

Thats not bad at all tbh, ive spent around £3k keeping my e320 cdi upto scratch lol, as said always best to sort stuff as it crops up otherwise it just mounts up.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

This was more a "my experiance" log. Hopefully has not come accross as a moan..

No, sorry I didn't mean anything by it, I was just wondering what your perceptions were before you bought it that's all.

What I know of the V10 M5 would lead me to believe that you're well used to these sorts of costs!

 

[kopkid]

Don't you just love em tho,, all sad when handing over that well earned cash,,, then you drive out the garage foot down and suddenly its smiles and well worth it again

 

[E55jay]

I'm on my second one now and I bought a cheaper one first time round and spent a fortune on it and it still had its issues! I hunted high and low for the one I just bought and I'm keeping my fingers crossed I have a good one but still expect some bills lol
But as everyone says soon as you put your foot down you forget about all the bad bits!! Hope your second year is more enjoyable for you!!

 

[AMGeed]

Looking at your list its not too bad apart from that transmission rebuild.

Discs, pads,tyres engine/gearbox mounts and battery I'd class as consumables but you haven't been lucky with the Duo valve/belt pulley/Fuel pump/suspension work and shock absorber.
I hope you got your E55 for a very good price!

Your list has prompted me to look at my expenditure since July 2013 and apart from a service inc' duo valve and gearbox mount I have been extremely fortunate.
Service Dec '14 £585
New battery front and rear £170
CPS £200
O/S lower ball joint £90


I have also had the following modding work that wasn't necessary for the running of the car.

Secondary cat & Resonator removal with x-pipe £450
Carbon Diffuser £250
Lowering links £50

Got my fingers crossed for the SBC pump and air struts, but I'm happy with the outlay over my 27 month ownership.

I still have a few minor issues to sort inc heated seat pads renewed and passenger window switch and I could do with the wheels being refurbed.

 

[cobra7]

Phew, was getting a little worried reading some of these posts!

Treating mine to a full mop and detail tomorrow.

Something is niggling me though, mine had a reco steering rack 5k ago - something still doesn't feel right though, with steering wheel developing a slight squeak. Will have to get it looked at.

Also, and forgive me if this is a stupid question - is it advisable to let the car cool down before turning ignition off?

 

[Amo]

thats not bad at all MO, when you get the car running right, you will soon forget all the costs!

I am coming to a year of owning mine.

heres what i have done to make you feel better
Service and ATF - £450
Thermostat - £150
Front Brakes - £400
Engine and gearbox mounts - £300
Air compressor - £250
front lower arms - £200
bosch 10 pump - £170


That along with new front tyres £375 will see me upward of £2500 in a year! i still have a leak on airmatic so will see next week how much that will cost me but I STILL LOVE HER.

I have now bought a 2nd car to do my daily traffic driving and will get my CLS tidy up and use as a toy going forward.

Then it will be time to get some more ponies released by ACID and CO.

 

[Amo]

Also, and forgive me if this is a stupid question - is it advisable to let the car cool down before turning ignition off?

Is that only needed in big turbo cars?

 

[cobra7]

That's what I thought but just checking if supercharger needs same care.

I had a leak in my air suspension - turned out to be a little bit of welding was all that was required, £70 fix but others had suggested it would be a large job. Got me worried all for nothing!!

 

[Amo]

Its going to Trusty Terry Gates next monday so will keep everything crossed that its £70! lol although i do think i have issue with one of my rear bags.

 

[AMGeed]

Also, and forgive me if this is a stupid question - is it advisable to let the car cool down before turning ignition off?

Not a stupid question if you don't know.

No need with a s/c car to let it cool down. That is petrol turbocharged cars of old. I don't think its something the modern turbochaged E63/C63 cars have to do now.

 

[John]

The E55K is well worth the painful bills though - let's face it.

Amazing cars.

When I get to 5 years of ownership next March, I will try and post up a summary of costs I've hit.

is it advisable to let the car cool down before turning ignition off?

I think the issue with turbos cooling down is to do with oil used.

These days, synthetic oil is used so there isn't a problem and you shouldn't need to let it cool.

Arguably, if you have thrashed the car very hard, I would probably drive gently for the last 5 minutes of the journey through mechanical sympathy but I wouldn't sit there with it on idle and you probably don't need to.

I used to do the cooling thing in my previous Saab 9-5 Aero HOT (High Output Turbo).

Ceramic turbines shattering is probably due to poor design and / or manufacturer - I think steel ones were used in UK Nissans etc.

You don't need to worry about the supercharger.