Sehr gut! Jawohl!! Sent from my iPhone > On Apr 12, 2024, at 5:01 PM, Floyd Thursby via Mercedes > <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > > A friend drove me up to Columbia this morning to collect the $2500 09S550 > 4matic, 146kmi. In looking at the specs it is pretty much a base model > (although the Sonder-klasse is quite well appointed), no real options except > for 4matic. > > Did that no problem although the battery was a little weak but I had taken a > full complement of road trip support equipment, including a new battery and > cables. A quick jump and it lit off fine. The AC was even working, it was > throwing a code for the blower regulator the other day which I think was > intermittent as the AC worked on my test drive. > > Battery was apparently fairly recent, I'll have to keep track of it. Tires > are BFGs about 1.5yr old, so those are very good. > > Car was pretty filthy from sitting for awhile in the pollen and crap that has > been prevalent here the last few weeks so I found a car wash close by and ran > it through ($10 for a basic wash, damn prices have really gone up sicne > whenever I did my last auto wash) and it came out looking pretty good though > still a bit crusty. Paint needs a full correction and I think it will look > really nice. No dings anywhere but a bunch of little stone chips here and > there, I can live with that for now. Looks really nice from 20ft though and > the interior is in very good condition though filthy with dog hair. Full > detail in the near future. > > Hit a QT and filled up with hi-test and hit the road. The front axles are > shot and were complaining mightily on turns, and a bit less so straight > ahead, more so on acceleration, so I was more than somewhat concerned about > potential failure leaving me DOTSOTR. But what the hell, a journey is when > you overcome adversity to reach your destination. I kept the speed to 70mph > or so which I observed was quite comfortable as everyone else was weaving > around going 72-74 or more and I mostly just cruised along with no drama > while being passed. I could hear and feel the axles although I did have to > drop the windows as the AC blower gave up after a little bit. No problem as > it was a beautiful 74F today, but the noise was a bit annoying. My friend > who gave me the ride up was following behind so if I had to bail out at least > only the car would be stranded somewhere. That was comforting. > > Made it home fine, no failures, an extremely comfortable big cruiser ride, > dash was saying 22.1mpg and the gas gauge did not drop as much as I would > have expected so maybe that was close. > > Got home and found a set of RockAuto front axels on the porch along with a > blower regulator from Amazon, stuff I ordered on Wednesday, so I guess I know > what the weekend will entail. New break pats arriving tomorrow I think, and > a headlight xenon bulb ($$!!!) it needs. I think that is all the immediate > maintenance required. I should probably look at the break roders too, maybe I > will need a new set of those. I notice the tranny was shifting a bit slowly > so I will do a fluid/filter change on that soon, engine oil change and > probably diffs too while I'm at it. > > I think this will have been an excellent purchase and I am excited to do some > road trips in it. > > -- > --FT > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com >
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