Ownership Verified: TAXIIIIIII!!! - 2006 Mercedes E200 T Kompressor Manual Wagon!

Need photos of it on the winter wheels!
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I can confirm, one of the rear summers is basically dead for some reason, and the drive down I had this worrying wobble. That was the issue as the problem is totally gone on the winter wheels.
 
Here's your Woof of Approval.

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Brown! Manual! Wagon!!! I know it was already said on Telegram, but you're living every American car sicko's dream.
 
What a pickup! Looks great, man!
 
I still love this so much. <3
 
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Went up to Feldberg in the black forest to see the sunrise, on a heavily cloudy day. :D
 
This is awesome! Congrats on the new ride!
 
Great sourcing brother, hope it serves you and Hank well for many thousands of kilometers (Furlongs for @IceBone)
 
This weekend I drove up to visit @loose_unit and @Terrex as well as replace an intermittently leaking air spring in the rear. What's been happening not every day or not even every 3 days, but I started to notice sometimes after sitting for more than a few hours, the rear end would drop with the drivers side rear being completely out of air. Starting the car and waiting a minute would bring the car back up to drive-able state. So as I watched videos on how to replace said air spring, I could only find videos relating to the sedan version. and while on the outside it was mostly simple, the inside of course was different but in a different way. Let me start with some photos.

Morning.

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Preperation.

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Starting the disassembly.

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Suddenly ran into a massive massive snag with the top shock mount bolt.

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This is not shown in any w211 rear shock replacement. My guess is with the wagon, this was some hairbrained solution after making the size of the trunk to be the size it is, and not wanting to encroach on trunk space for space for nuts. So here's this weird flat thing that stopped us from replacing the shocks. Thanks a lot!

So, I thought disconnecting the air hose would mean air would come out of the air bag, but no! there is a solenoid made into the airbag somewhere and thats the only thing, save for stabbing the side of the air bag, that lets the air out is activating the solenoid valve. So we had to fire solenoid manually with no pc software to make it go. So we improvised. As you will see, it has gone dark. :|

And it worked!


View: https://youtube.com/shorts/F_TlHzEy0-o?feature=share

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EJFjLNGqX0U
Last but not least, testing to make sure it lifts.


View: https://youtu.be/0xBEKZBvVik
With that done, beers were had inside where it was warm. The next morning I had to replace the passenger side headlight bulb because it went out on the way up Friday afternoon, and replacing a bulb is not a simple, pop the hood, unscrew bulb, pull out of plug, and install a new one. The headlights are in such a position that yes, one could get their hand in and touch the bulb, but not enough space to get a grip and turn it with your hand. This means technically you supposed to completely remove the bumper skin. I instead undid what was required to wedge the headlight housing out and I found it really quick why the bulb stopped working.


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So yeah, in the words of Adam Savage "well, there's your problem!" Some wire tape was sourced and wires were separated. Bulb tested, and reassembly is exactly the same as disassembly. Before anyone tells me, I know shocks and springs are to be done in pairs. I ran out of time and strength to bother with the passenger side. That will be done at a later date where hopefully I can source the special tool that is required to remove the top shock bolt.

The 4 hour return drive home proved this was a success. When I would drive around 130kph or above, I would get this worrying shake/vibration out of the rear end that made me wonder if a tire was fucked, or a driveshaft was out of balance. Turns out this air spring was more than just a failing solenoid valve, the return drive was so much more smooth, almost entirely no shake, the rest I am guessing has to do with imperfect road and some old bushings on the passenger side rear. This, while took a very long time due to so many setbacks was a great success.

What I will need is a new bottom air spring bolt because since we tried removing the air spring while still charged with air meant there was pressure on the bolt and taking said bolt out marred the threads up so badly, a new one had to be sourced. It's not exactly the same size, but it's working fine for now after a late night drive Saturday evening to Bonn for a better fastener selection than the stores nearby could offer. Plus, trying to see if we can figure out a way to remove the top shock bolt took a lot of time and some back and fourth to the local hardware store. I also had my dog with me who caused a bit of mischief on his own by finding some stuff inside, eating it, puking it out, then getting into the trash bin. So I had some stoppages to clean up puke and trash bin mess.
 
I replaced a H7 for a customer on what I think was a W211, could also have been a W203. It was a couple of months ago and I deal with many cars on any given day. At any rate, on that car it was a five-minute job. Of course, these are things that can differ between facelifts. All I remember having to do was to get my entire upper body in the right kind of weird position that allowed my hand to reach without bending it in places it can't bend.
 
So I've found the radio cannot accept an MP3 burned disc and it has no aux input. It does have a CD changer input but its a special Fiber Optic input and the adapters of course are odd.

I found this, and I hope it works, what do you say, Finalgear about this?


Reason I would go for that is that is just analog audio. If I want bluetooth, I can get an adapter and then as tech moves on if it does during my ownership of this car, I can upgrade again, maintaining the radio as it keeps screens out of my face. The drive down here in the evenings and not having a touchscreen blaring in my periphial while I'm driving is so nice and I've missed just driving in the dark and having the non-distracting text on a radio display.
 
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If you don't mind the lack of steering wheel controls that kind of thing is fine, it's similar to the GROM unit I had in the Disco 2. That also replaced the CD changer.

However for a lot less you could get an FM transmitter with Bluetooth, those things have come a very long way so they're now small and in a car while driving you won't notice any sound quality difference. I have a SONRU FM Transmitter in the Mazda and the Freelander, they just work and the QC 3.0 port pumps out enough power to charge my phone with a Magsafe charger, while running all the time as a nav screen. I'm sure there are some with Aux input for the iPod.
 
If you don't mind the lack of steering wheel controls that kind of thing is fine, it's similar to the GROM unit I had in the Disco 2. That also replaced the CD changer.

However for a lot less you could get an FM transmitter with Bluetooth, those things have come a very long way so they're now small and in a car while driving you won't notice any sound quality difference. I have a SONRU FM Transmitter in the Mazda and the Freelander, they just work and the QC 3.0 port pumps out enough power to charge my phone with a Magsafe charger, while running all the time as a nav screen. I'm sure there are some with Aux input for the iPod.
I have an FM transmitter. The German FM bands are so crowded you get quite a bit of interference and for whatever reason, the car stereo wont switch to stereo like it does when it picks up a typical radio station.
 
The German FM bands are so crowded you get quite a bit of interference and for whatever reason, the car stereo wont switch to stereo like it does when it picks up a typical radio station.
Bugger, didn't think of that. :(

I did think that the thing you had plugged in to the 12V socket looked like a transmitter but I wasn't sure. In that case the unit you were looking at would be a clean solution. Like my Freelander, it's a shame the car doesn't still have a cassette player!
 
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