Hello im new
 

Hello everyone,
I have a few questions. first of all i just bought my wife a 2005 c230 K. it has 34k miles and was owned by a corporation with all the maintenance logs in the car. they also matched the carfax report i pulled.
First a little about me so you can tell me if im in over my head or not...
I have built everything from a 1974 pinto with a 302 boss in it to a K-5 blazer with a LT-1 vette motor with 44in mudders. im also a hospital plant mechanic that works on 350hp boilers and 600 ton chillers (york). i regularly work on hydrolic pumps and 1100 gpm cold and hot water pumps.
That being said how hard is it really to work on these cars?? it almost seems like everyone is making it out to be an act of congress just to change the oil..
do i need a set of special tools?? heck i pop the heads off my boat at the end of every season just to check the cyclender walls and valves (i run it in salt water).
so is this thing really gonna be a P.I.A to work on because my wife is in love with this car already and she has only had it for three days..
i have a full mechanics shop in the garage with everything from pullers to
every air tool you could imagine.... are there specialty tools i need to say ....pull a transmition or should i not even go there and y-not.

thanks
Robert

OK>I've owned the same car since new and have 174,000 miles on it and have done most of the maintenance myself. I think it depends on how "mechanically inclined" a person is and you certainly qualify for that, so.....I wouldn't worry too much about it. Hot rodders and gear heads and anybody that works on cars should not be scared off by oil changes and stuff that breaks now and then. My advice would be to just do the regular maintenance like oil and filter changes using Mobil 1 (that car takes exactly 5.8 qts, by the way) and changing the tranny fluid and filter is also a good idea. They call it "lifetime", but don't believe it. I would do it about every 50K miles, as I have, depending on how long you expect to keep the car.
You don't want to be buying a tranny for one of these things. They can be pricey. The brakes and rotors wear fairly quickly, kinda like a BMW, but I'm sure you can do that. Standard stuff.
Parts are available online at a variety of places with good prices and free shipping. Oil filters are available there also, and you get a "kit", which includes the filter and three O-rings that go on the "stem" that the filter slides down on. You'll see the black canister for the filter near the firewall/driver's side when you pop the hood. Use a big honkin' socket to loosen it and then you can spin it off by hand. Drain plug is under those two plastic "belly pans" under the car. Easy to remove them with a small socket for the screws.
You will see the oil plug on the driver's side of the pan. Copper washer, but you don't have to replace it each time like they say you do. And that's it. Fuel filter is in the rear of the car up under near the frame on the driver's side as well. Jack the thing up and you'll see it.
Get rid of those funky clamps by buying some screw-type hose clamps first, then loosen the filter from it's bracket and pull the hoses off and that's it. I would do it again, about every 50K miles. But that's just me. And, oh, by the way......I put a 454 in a Vega years ago. Ha!

had a friend in HS that did the same with a vega.. i worked at a place called
Waynes Engines for a year or so after HS. they primarily built motors for the general public but every once in a while a sand dragster motor (350 chevy w/ 750hp) for the dunes. we would all have glossed looks over our faces wanting to put it in our beaters...hahha
i did own a cherry blue stripe on white with centerlines 78 Z-28 that we built the motor for. on the shop dyno was pushin 460+ hp. not bad for a couple of shop rats and some free parts from the venders.
so what about electronics??/ do i need to watch for anything ? will i need a hand held code reader or something to re eset the computer when i fix something. basically i want to stay as far away from the dealership as possible.. is there anything im going to absolutly need to go there for??
say i was to replace the transmition, would i have to trailer it down to them to reset or set up a computer program for the new trans and are they gonna give me a bunch of crap for doing so. see to me a 4 banger is a 4 banger no mater who built it... i mean comon... lets say it together boys and girls ... intake,,,,,compression,,,,,,power////exhaust. i have always felt like the gas doset care which motor it goes through just so long as everything is tight and in time.!!

Nothing in particular to be wary of as far as the electronics go. Yes, you'll need an inexpensive OBDII code reader to see what's going on and to clear it. Plug under the dash on the left of the steering wheel side under a little black plastic cover that flips down.
About the only thing you'll need a dealership for is a front end alignment (if you ever need one) because I looked around for an independent that had the equipment and they all gave me the same story....only MB can do it. Bring your first born and take out a home equity line of credit for this one. Don't worry about the tranny. It'll be fine. Just do regular maintenance like any other car, and I agree.....pistons go up and down just like anything else (except maybe a rotary).