fuzzysig

my official progress thread is here

since i bought the car heres what you missed in the season 1 and season 2

bought it from oregon from someone who used the car as a farm truck it wasnt officially "raped" but only touched in many places alot
even though the exterior and interior was rough the motor managed to survive in amazing condition and still strong. so is the transmission about 75% strong
drove it home with blown out suspension and probably all 4 tires bouncing all the way and everything clicking knocking and vibrating.
raced my buddy's VW passat wagon( turbo 4 banger) and managed to pull on him to both of our surprise
even got 32mpg on the freeway

long story short:
replaced shocks
replaced both front hubs and bearings
replaced each side lower control arm twice
finally replaced the sway bar links on front and rear
alignment done
now finally it drives like a luxury sedan and i finally hear all the other noises
switched from a-spec wheels to RLX wheels with spacers
back to ssr-type-c but stupidly put on the original tires that turned out to be cupped and now unballanced... and are shaking
had to buy another set of DWS06 tires
also ordered a set of new KYB shocks to install with the lowering springs i got last year
and another alignment
had short ram intake for 6 months until something started making a loud knock around firewall as the car shifts to next gear .
took off the air intake and it stopped doing that strangely. doesnt snap throttle with stock intake
got a whole new set of mint trunk panels from a 2008
upgraded a stereo to 2009 with usba nd bluetooth still to wire up since i cant find a wiring schematics for 2009 RL

went to sema found american company which makes plug and play alarm/remote start kits that also work with RL and easy entry keyfob...
but they did not know that 2005 RL is k-line not canbus ecu so they are probably working on it. or not... ill post the name here later

even though the car looks like crap on the outside im hesitant to sell it because it feels like a tank.
i would like to get a 2011 with 6 speed and all the more up to date electronics tho.
if anyone wants to buy my car only because i want a newer year.
mechanically its a miracle that at 180k it is in this good of a shape...
i did all the maintenance needed on time btw now that everything is working lol i dont get to drive the cars i fix usually sell them after all is done

projektvertx

iTrader: (2)

fuzzysig

on the other hand. 15000 miles later and a lot of "race days" driving to work and back and few family trips this car has been the most reliable car I had overall
besides having to fix the blown out suspension I really haven't had any major issues with it just little things here and there that are hard to troubleshoot and annoying as faq.

15000 miles of daily smashing on a car with 190k is not bad.
im rubbing it in Mercedes owner's faces every day lol they all claim Mercedes is amazing machine and very reliable ( with a lot of IFs like meticulous maintenance and not abusing it daily like Hondas get abused.)

I found out to a Mercedes owner redlining it once a week is very stressfull. because you don't know if a 5 dollar part will cost you 4000 to replace or 5 dollar part will lead to catastrophic engine failure which usually happens with Mercedes


still no aftermarket parts lol im broke now.
anyone spare some downpipe and cat delete so I can use my reflash kit?