I purchased my car 2 years ago wit 22k miles on it. Since then, I've only driven about 13k miles and the car sits at just over 35k miles currently. It's a 2004 manual.

I'm having the oil changed today, and asked the service tech about a 35k checklist of things that should be done. He said that there wasn't any made up list but suggested to have the spark plugs changed as well as transmission flush and differential fluid checked.

I'm a poor college kid, so I haven't been able to do much maintenance on it due to a limited budget, but have been getting the oil changed regularly with Mobil 1 0w-40 and the recommended fleece filters. About a year ago, I replaced all 4 tires and the front brakes with ceramic ones.

So my question for you guys, is what maintenance should I have done to it. Assume that nothing has ever been done with it besides what I've listed in this post. My dad is a diesel mechanic, so we can do some things ourselves, but lack a good jack/stands to do some things. What would you recommend we try and do versus taking it either to the dealer or a shop. I live in southern California, so I don't get much rain or water on the car, but it does get over 100F here for a few weeks of the year if that makes any difference to recommendations.

I just graduated an will be getting a better paying job, so in a few months I'll have more disposable income to spend on the car if a specific thing can wait a few months.

Thanks in advance.

 

Forget the plugs, they are good for at least twice what they have done, even up to 100,000 miles.
I would oil all the hinges, clean out the area where the wiper motor is looking for blockage in any of the three drain hoses, check for leaks on the engine and transmission and fix any found before they get to be a bigger problem. Check the rubber boots around the drive shafts. Replace the filter under the dash, clean or replace the engine air filters.
Go through the following maintenance list which is probably more comprehensive than what I have mentioned.

 

Thanks much for the info.

What kind of oil would you suggest for the hinges?

 

I use regular engine oil myself. That spray on white grease just sticks around the outside and looks like crap and even worse when it gets dirty. I put it on, work it into the hinge and wipe off the excess.
I added the schedules to post #1.

 

I just wanted to update on what I've done over the past few days since my initial post.

I had the oil changed and while they were working on it, the mechanic brought to my attention that the back two tires were nearly bald. I had those replaced with Champiro UHP1 from Big Brand Tires. They were around 108 each and with install/balance/warranty came out to just over 300 installed. They're the same ones that I had put on the car 2 years ago, so they don't have the best life. Only drove maybe 8-9k miles on them and they were past the wear bars. I know they're not the best tires, but they'll get me by for another 2 years until I'm making more and can afford something better.

I also went out and bought the cabin and engine air filters. I think the cabin one was the original one. It was the grey charcoal with the hard rubber ring around the outside. It didn't look too bad but there were definitely bits of leaves and twigs that were wedged in the filter. While down there, I also took off the blower motor cover and cleaned that out. There were only a few bits of leaves in there. I replaced the cabin filter with the Purolator C38908C which is the charcoal activated one. It didn't have the same hard rubber surround but still went in just fine.

The air filters got replaced with the Wix 42822. I think the air filters in the car may also have been the original. Either that or they were replaced with OEM ones because they still had the Mercedes part number on them. I haven't driven the car yet to see how much of an improvement that makes.

Next thing I did was the headlights. They were pretty foggy and corroded. I got the Meguires Heavy Duty headlight restore kit from Walmart for $23 and gave that a go. Took me about an hour and a half to do the pair. I was taking my time and not in any real hurry. I probably should have got a bit lower of a grit to start with since it took awhile to get that first uniform haze with the 1000 grit. I'll attach pictures at the end of the post.

Tomorrow I'm going to be washing the car and using a clay bar kit that I got for a birthday present a year or so ago that I still haven't used. Not trying to get the car show ready or anything but I've neglected washing it as often as I should so it's got some water spots and random gunk on it that would be nice to get off.

One bad thing that happened though is that the hood cylinder seems to have failed at some point in the last few months. I'm wondering if the dealership or tire place that I was just at had something to do with it. The relay board went out a few months ago and I had to go under the hood to fix that, so I know it's not a very old problem. I'm considering going back to the two shops I was just at to see if they could check their cameras to let me know if it worked while they were working on it. In the mean time I just used a wooden stick to prop up the hood while I was cleaning out the filters and washed down the engine bay with a bit of soap and a hard brush.

I also noticed that the hood liner isn't in too great of shape. Is that something that can be removed? It's rubbed an ugly black mark across the back end of the engine cover and started to put one on the front too. What would happen if I were to remove that?

While getting the tires done they did an alignment check and said that it was out of alignment. I'm wanting to replace the steering stabilizer so I'm going to hold off on doing the alignment until I can get that taken care of.

I appreciate you posting those two service lists. I think I've got all of them covered/planned except the steering locking bolts and the drive shaft flex discs. How important are those two things?I'm assuming I'd have to get the car jacked up pretty high in order to do both of those. I may try and make friends with a local shop owner my dad is friends with and see if he could lift the car for me.

I apologize for rambling. Just trying to keep all of this stuff in the same post so I can keep track of it all.


--Kris

Edit:Forgot to add pictures. Here are the two lights with nothing done to them and then after I got through with them. Don't be fooled. I haven't started sanding them in the first two pics. They were just really bad. I'm hoping driving at night will be a bit more enjoyable now.

 

If there are black marks on the rear of the engine cover it generally means tha the cover is not all the way down at the rear.

 

trans service - fluid/filter
fuel filter


both should be done every 40k miles

 

I just purchased an SRT-6 with 33,000 on the clock. I am thinking about replacing all fluids...coolant, transmission, brake and oil. Just seems like after 11 years it would be a reasonable thing to do, even though the mileage does not warrant it. Thoughts?

 

Sounds reasonable, at least to check them all. Personally I never mess with brake fluid until something is replaced. I have a 6sp, the SRT guys will give good info on the transmission. If you are going to go over everything, have the rear differential checked as well.
Also if the battery is 11 years old, put replacing that on your list.