Go on.kevm14 wrote: ↑Sat Aug 19, 2023 8:48 am That's it. No other tools, no other preps, inspections, maintenance. In fact, I literally didn't even open the hood and check ANY fluid levels.
......
But when I look at the overall picture (a now-16 year old S class that I road tripped with like zero fanfare or inspections) I think it is OK to be impressed.
Did the oil change yesterday at 96k. Right at 5,000 miles. Well, I was going to do the oil change but I inspected things first. I will create individual threads for certain jobs but wanted to document the inspection here.
- Brakes still look great. Right front rotor retaining bolt head is broken right off so I may try to rescue that when I do rotors next or whatever. It may be a while and it's not really bothering anything. I did look at the left front and the bolt is still there. I tried to impact it out with a T-30 bit but that bit sheared right off. Came back with heat and a different T-30 bit with more gentle impacting. It came out. So I coated it with anti-seize for next time. Satisfying.
- Checked the cam position sensor and phaser solenoid (magnets) plugs for oil wicking. Found oil on both exhaust solenoid plugs (outer-most) but everything else was dry. Driver's side had some broken off tabs on the plugs that I may want to address with zip-ties or something. I am not in a hurry to replace the solenoids just yet. Passenger side looks easy. Driver's side will require removal of the power steering pump reservoir. Possibly it can be loosened and just pulled forward a bit.
- Radial grease splattered all around the front right inner axle shaft CV boot. The boot looked good so my first instinct was that I must have a differential axle seal leak. You can't check the fluid level. You can only drain it, measure and refill. So I checked my stock of stuff and I decided I could do that. So I did. What came out was the perfect amount, 600mL. So it's not the diff. Plus it got a bonus change of fluid I guess, though I reused the washer. Hopefully that holds. More careful inspection revealed that I think the boot is leaking right where the big clamp is. There is this weird seam all around the boot. The other side has it, too. But I THINK that is where the grease came from. It's weird. There isn't much else it could be in this location. Possibly engine mount. I will document this in another thread because I am going forward with a repair to avoid future catastrophe.
- Decided to check the cowl drains at the base of the windshield area because they are notorious for clogging and in fact Mercedes wants you to clean these annually or whatever. The inner ones seemed fineish. Those collect water that runs through the hood cowl vents (one of which is an air intake for the HVAC). The outer ones are basically gutters and downspouts for water on the windshield itself. There is a thread on the Mercedes forum complaining about this so I wanted to check mine for functionality. They were clogged. So I'll make a thread on this.
Nothing wrong with the oil change itself. But I also have a thread for that. Just wanted to collect general comments around 96k. The takeaway is, this car obviously still requires more maintenance than some other cars BUT these things aren't insanely expensive. Some labor though.