W221 S550 hunt

kevm14 · Post by **kevm14** » Mon Aug 28, 2023 5:22 am

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.

Go on.

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.

kevm14 · Post by **kevm14** » Sun Nov 26, 2023 2:19 pm

So I test drove a 2020 S560 yesterday.

https://www.mercedesbenzofwarwick.com/i ... 8la523712/

https://www.ipacket.info/WDDUG8GB8LA523712

Asking $58,995

53,200 miles which is really pretty high for a 2020. The Carfax shows how it went down.

https://www.carfax.com/VehicleHistory/a ... gB8mVKHqzs

Had the AMG 19s which I think would be my wheel choice. Color was designo Diamond White which I also like. Car was filthy, windshield was cracked and it smelled like cigarettes on the inside. They warned me that they did not recondition it at all. So that's fine, although it invites consideration over what condition cars can fall to before being reconditioned prior to sale. It matters because you lose the info of how the previous owner may have cared for the car. Then there is that mental thing where when a car is in nice condition, I know I tend to assume it was always nice. Well, the late model test drives the past few days sort of disprove that theory I think.

It's a very nice car. You think the W213 is "almost an S class" until you actually sit in an S. That's how it goes. These cars are excellent.

It had the regular Burmester and I tried it. Mixed bag. The clarity and imaging was good. Good, smooth EQ. Sounded natural. Prefer the sound to the H/K sound. That's good stuff. The downside is, the bass was totally lame. There is that high-end 3D system that is very rare and was very expensive with the spinning tweeters. But honestly a good aftermarket powered sub would probably get it done.

It had Distronic Plus and massage seats. I used the Distronic and I feel like the steering capability was the best compared to the E400 and GLS450 I drove around the same time. Overall I think the system is supposed to be the same. I need Distronic Plus.

So how did it drive?
This was really the $64,000 question because this was a facelifted W222 with the M176 with 463 hp and 516 lb-ft. Plus the new 9A transmission. It drove well. Pretty good throttle response, good power, good smoothness. No real complaints there. I mean it's halfway between my S550 and E63S in terms of trap speed and I guess that's what it felt like. More than adequate power. Brake feel was good and in fact the best of all the other cars I drove around the same time. These things just cruise at high speeds in a way that is almost magical. I mean, so does my S550.

Suspension wise, it had a very smooth ride. I would also say it was more capable BUT the higher speed damping of my S550 seems superior, believe it or not.

It did not make me want to part with $58k or really even the $40k that you can get these for. How about a scenario where I sell both my S550 and E63 and just have this? Honestly? I think I'm still happier with an S-class daily and the AMG in the garage. Would an S63 as a single car get it all done? Quite possibly and maybe someday I will drive one to answer that question.

It was very good but back in my S550 I did not feel like it was some let down. And given that I am not holding a ton of cash value in my S550, I'd say it satisfies me in a way that is greater than its cash value. Which is a reason to keep it.

kevm14 · Post by **kevm14** » Mon Jan 01, 2024 6:26 am

Regarding the tune, this looks really interesting:
https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w204 ... delay.html

kevm14 · Post by **kevm14** » Mon Jan 01, 2024 1:02 pm

Full DAS scan.

Also BenzNinja changed my LSD to off and sent screenshots of what the other 3 were set to.

kevm14 · Post by **kevm14** » Tue Jan 02, 2024 11:50 am

kevm14 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 01, 2024 6:26 am Regarding the tune, this looks really interesting:
https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w204 ... delay.html

Disabled the LSD #1 parameter and the #3 parameter, documented here: https://mbworld.org/forums/s-class-w221 ... e-out.html

VERY impressive difference! It drives like pedal is connected to something. It was capable of good throttle response before but only under very specific circumstances. Now it is good in pretty much any scenario, and feels very satisfying. My only complaint is I find the throttle too sensitive in terms of how much actual throttle it is applying with a small amount of pedal travel. I wish it were more linear. I may already be on the least aggressive KLD setting (but not positive). Also, I have that OE Tune. I could remove the tune (and probably need to re-code) but I will leave it just as it is and put some commuting miles on it before I make another change. I think the biggest change is going to be in lower speed traffic scenarios. That's where it was the most annoying before. On the open road, at speed, it was always fine.

kevm14 · Post by **kevm14** » Sat Feb 03, 2024 3:53 pm

Just random fooling around with DAS.

BenzNinja says these errors are because DAS is trying to open WIS and it can't. He said I should just manually search in WIS. Alrighty.

kevm14 · Post by **kevm14** » Sat Feb 03, 2024 4:11 pm

Full scan with DAS after I reset with the Launch tool.

The 9027 is not shown but I went into developer mode and found it there (see above). It was in German and I deleted it.

kevm14 · Post by **kevm14** » Sun Feb 04, 2024 11:32 am

https://www.tsbsearch.com/Mercedes-Benz ... 5-P-045751

kevm14 · Post by **kevm14** » Sun Feb 04, 2024 11:32 am

Might be good to read through.

kevm14 · Post by **kevm14** » Sun Feb 04, 2024 5:37 pm

Wow, cool stuff. Updated the UCP and that did in fact restore the residual heat function, probably for the first time in the 17 years that this car has been on the road. Imagine that. AND, it works! I did all the updates myself which was a little bold and scary but I am more comfortable with DAS now. Of course, my E63 uses Xentry so this is only good for older vehicles...

Uploading a whole bunch of DAS scans and info throughout the process.