Another IAAI salvage auction purchase

[GON]

You can always try the "it followed me home" routine.

Hard to tell by the picture but is appears the brake pedal has some wear on the left side, someone driving with two feet?

Car spent its entire life in Florida..... Driver could of been taught to drive anywhere in the world if the are a high end MB car driver in Florida.... Venezuela, Argentina, Silicon Valley (JK), who the heck knows.....

 

[GON]

Yeah Distronics is hard to find on an E class but much more common on an S class. You're more likely to find the driver assistance package which would be the Distronics than the rear seating package which you have. Entertainment package? Pano roof? Night vision is nice too but I think it makes the headlights extra expensive.

Some of the not so common options it has include:
ELECTRIC ROLLER SUN BLINDS IN REAR DOOR LH AND RH
REAR BACK REST ADJUSTMENT AND HEAD RESTRAINTS, ELE
ADAPTIVE REAR INTERIOR LIGHT
MEMORY REAR SEAT
REAR SEAT CLIMATE CONTROL
HEATED STEERING WHEEL (funny never find this in a northern sold MB- always a south Texas of Florida... beats me... maybe the Germans think you already have gloves on if you live up north and don't need the wheel heated)
AIR CONDITIONER IN THE REAR
AMG "2LOOK-EDITION" SPECIAL MODEL
DESIGNO ALCANTARA ANTHRACITE ROOF INTERIOR TRIM

The rear interior seat options are going to be a challenge with the water damage issues- much harder and complex pulling the rear seats and lost of electronics back there.

 

[jhs914]

Does that ground connection on the drivers floor board show any signs of corrosion? If it was a salt water incursion it should already be showing signs of corrosion. If not you lucked out.

 

[GON]

Does that ground connection on the drivers floor board show any signs of corrosion? If it was a salt water incursion it should already be showing signs of corrosion. If not you lucked out.

No signs of salt water whatsoever. First look clearly suggests rain water entering from above. When they pulled the car out of the yard its exterior was so clean (not typical for a vehicle sitting in a salvage yard) it looked liked they washed it before bringing her to me... Of course they didn't.

 

[GON]

These are the parts the shop pulled and left out from the flood water diagnoses. Put them on my front porch for the time being. Aren't you glad you are not my neighbor?

I don't have a driveway, so it is not so easy doing this king of work on a somewhat busy street on a car hauler..... but all is well.

Off to the MB dealer to pickup some MB W221 fuel filter parts for the other S550 I am working on before the USC football game crowd starts to arrive in Columbia..... My local MB dealer is super nice...... but appear to not stock many parts, always two trips....

 

[carviewsonic]

Good to see such a nice car being resurrected and back on the road again.

 

[partspro]

My memory is really good but, a young female Team Member at AAP bought a used Car, looked really good, on removing the Battery, evidence of flood damage was seen. The next issue was I believe, needed Dealership work, oops seems that the digital dash was replaced with one that had fewer miles, Dealer wanted to be paid back as the Actual Mileage was higher, back to the oescar lot she bought it from, so the story goes

 

[GON]

A couple Saturday morning updates. Radio works which is huge, the amp is about $800 and very venerable to water or anything else, such as heat. Car only came with one key, that's a bummer, likely 400-600 for a second key.

Dash lights up, mileage confirms with all service records. Battery was at 2.2 volts, and when jump pack was getting errors of voltage too low. I think the jump pack was trying to charge the battery.

More signs pointing to leaves got into the engine water drains, and water backed up into the firewall and then into the interior. Based on the rust on the battery tray, this didn't happen overnight, but based on the lack of damage on the interior unibody, the water didn't hit the interior until very recently. That battery tray rust suggests the passenger side drain was slowly backing up, and leaving 24x7 moisture on the battery tray. No rust or corrosion anywhere else on the car....

Had an old battery laying around. Hooked that battery up, she tried to turn over... Was very surprised. Have the battery the car came with hooked up to a charger at the moment. I am suspecting the car may start with a full battery. My spare battery was a dead and originally uncharmable battery I brought back to life. Its great for testing light bulbs... but can't handle any real load.

Interior electric like the seats, windows and so on are not functional. Kind of bad as I need electric controls working at the passenger front seat to get at three bolts to remove the seat to remove the carpet. Hooked the MB computer to the OBD port, can't talk to the front or rear computer. Could be low voltage, or could be corrosion at a connection. We shall see.

 

[K-Man]

She has been out of town for two weeks visiting our adult children . Have not told her about this yet. She returns tomorrow evening.

My car shenanigans' end upon her return. Already getting myself mentally prepared to exit the "single man" mode and back to the wanting to be a engaged husband mode.

Better engaged husband than estranged husband.

 

[GON]

I believe she will start and possibly drive when I get a battery fully charged. I say possibly drive as she has a electronic transmission, and the transmission needs to confirm some things like it is in park before it will allow it to be shifted in reverse.

Confirmed the source of the water. Passenger side cowl drain was 100 percent clogged with plant material (see picture with red circle- that is the drain for water from the cowl to exit the firewall area, completely clogged). It still is, I tried cleaning, and could not. I will have to pull the passenger front tire to get to the drain outlet and clean out from the bottom up.

The interior saw limited water. This is confirmed as the rear right carpet is barely wet, yet the rear left carpet is soaked. If she had higher water levels or had water continuing to enter the interior, the rear right carpet was be soaked in similar fashion as the rear left.

Big issue I have is now is no power to the controls of the windows and seats. Also, the climate control fan continues to run even with the car off. Likely culprit is corrosion on the can bus.

After taking out the battery pan, found a battery lead cap sitting in what may be a emergency drain (see pictures).... and also a second positive battery cover (found two on the car). Being it was dealer maintained....... maybe sloppy work from a dealer tech??? Had the battery cap not fallen into the emergency drain hole.... this car may never of flooded....

So far very happy.... The white car was a great apprenticeship for this car.

 

[GON]

At a standstill this morning.

The headlights and taillights are lit when the car is turned on, even with the headlight switch turned to off. The windows won't go up or down, and the power seats will not move either. Sunroof is not moving either.

Ran SDS (MB diagnoses computer system) and states can't get to the front or rear SAM (two main computers, one under the hood, one in the trunk). Tried to start the car, it clicks for a microsecond and then stops. Yesterday late in the afternoon was able to get the front driver side and passenger side window to roll down, but won't go up.

Installed a brand new battery, no change. Cleaned all the interior grounds, no change. The radio works just fine. Inspected the front SAM, no sign of any corrosion whatsoever. Replaced the central gateway, no change (also installed the pulled central gateway in a 2011 S550 and it functions fine. Cleaned the CAN connections thoroughly on the driver side of the interior. Currently can't get to the passenger side CAN bus, but no water in that area.

Currently stumped. Sense moisture is somewhere causing this, but can't find it. Yesterday, the windows did roll down late in the afternoon, heat of the day, maybe thinking moisture was reduced and allowed some current flow. Suspecting a weak ground... but no idea where.

Any thoughts?

 

[GON]

Decided to install the new battery instead of using jumper cables. To install the new battery needed to paint the old battery try, and clean out the drains that were clogged causing the water to back up

.

The right way to clean out the drains are from the exit (bottom) to the entry (top). This would involve removing tires and fender shields, which I was not in a position to do. So I used disposable drain cleaners. It worked, tested using a gallon of water per drain and all flowing ok. Also vacuumed out the leaves in the firewall.

Painted the tray, reinstalled everything. No back to the issue that has be stumped.

 

[GON]

She runs and drives.

Can't get the windows to go up after I had the come down. Thought to give it one last shot with MB diagnoses system, as about to put plastic over the windows. Hooked up the MB diag system, started running diagnoses, and turn the key for the heck of it. She started. I hurried up and got her off the trailer and into the garage.

Sense of urgency changes now that she is in the garage.

Lot of troubleshooting to go. I sense just one thing is not right.... but not finding it....

 

[bladecutter]

Hmmn...
I think I recall you saying with your White MB that all the signs of the previous owner not paying for MB service were signs of neglect.
But here, you have proof of all services by MB techs, and here you found multiple items of bad servicing that may have caused the flood damage.

Anyway, if you have a wiring diagram for the Blue car, trace to see if the various faulty parts all have a common connector or grounding point, and search in the areas that feed to those connectors and grounds for the problem that is taking them all out.

BC.

 

[GON]

Hmmn...
I think I recall you saying with your White MB that all the signs of the previous owner not paying for MB service were signs of neglect.
But here, you have proof of all services by MB techs, and here you found multiple items of bad servicing that may have caused the flood damage.

Anyway, if you have a wiring diagram for the Blue car, trace to see if the various faulty parts all have a common connector or grounding point, and search in the areas that feed to those connectors and grounds for the problem that is taking them all out.

BC.

Good question/point.

I am starting to wonder if the insurance companies should require the car owner have the cowl drains and sunroof drains cleaned twice per year. This is a somewhat common problems on the Mercedes, not sure about other manufacturers.

Car was maintained well, had the MB service contract, etc. Does not mean the techs did good work, or even did the work they were paid for. I sometimes wonder if that transmission fluid and filter actually was performed, oil changed..... auto repair can be a tough business, especially when techs are paid by the job and not the hour.

In this case their are pages of service history, motor mounts, fluid flushs, etc. Doesn't mean they did the work that was claimed, or it was done to standard. I may google the google reviews of the service MB dealer.

I do have the electrical diagrams. Doing a lot of reading through numerous forums looking for a "needle in the haystack". Found a MB owner last night with huge electrical issues causing all kinds of havic. Ended up being his climate control switch... which sound beyond crazy. When I turn off the car the climate control fan does not stop, nor does the climate control respond while the car is running. On Ebay, the switch was $33. I bought it..... not much to lose.

 

[GON]

Car is now running, likely fully operational. I need to put the interior back together.

I decided not to replace the front SAM (computer) as it was spotless and had zero signs of water or any other damage. I spent about 25 hours troubleshooting the interior LIN and CAN BUSs. I was unable to isolate the issue, so for the heck of it I replaced the front SAM.

BINGO. Everything working just fine.

Next step is to put the interior back together.

Much easier job than the white S550 which still needs a lot of attention.

 

[KCJeep]

Impressive sir. Now what, do you drive these or flip them?

 

[GON]

Impressive sir. Now what, do you drive these or flip them?

KCJ,

Going to keep this one. It is really, really nice and has every option I desire (except adaptive cruise control called distronic). I could not afford (or justify) a car like this new. My overall cost in this is about what the sales tax costs for a new buyer.

I will sell the white S550 I am working on, likely at a loss of around $2,000.Will have to see the market. I did not like the white car, for weird reasons. I know it was not well cared for by the previous owners. One example is they installed Arnott air shocks. Although thousands of drivers use Arnott Air shocks daily, I am not a fan and only want OEM shocks. That is about $2500 in parts. Tires are "Chinese" brand. They may be fine, but for a car like this I only want Michelin, Bridgestone, or Continental (the car in this thread came with Bridgestone). That is another $900. I would likely put 3-5k getting the white car near perfect- for a car I don't have a deep love for.

I will likely find a garage to rent, and store this designo S550 it until I retire in three years. Likely my "old man" car.

When I have the interior put back together will post pics of the car all cleaned up.

 

[GON]

Put her 99% back together today. Everything looking good. She is in big need of a exterior cleaning.

Drove her to the grocery store...... running just fine. About $7400 total into her, including hotel and fuel to go get her.

 

[SEBZX79]

She looks great, now enjoy the shot out of her.