My $2,000 Mercedes S430 Is Completely TOTALED *How Bad Can It Be?*
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- Опубликовано: 25 июл 2021
- To fix, or not to fix? I bought a cheap 2004 Mercedes-Benz S430 to find out just how great the S-Class actually is. Cheap usually doesn't mean good, and this is a pretty solid example of that. What started out with, sure I could replace the air suspension on this and get it back on the road... quickly turned changed after the inspection. Almost everything on this car is broken, and none of it is easy. Just a huge list of multi-day jobs. That said the car still drives well, my brother has been running errands with it just to prove that even on it's worst day, the S-Class is still an incredible car.
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What motorcycle do I ride? A few. Ducati 1198, Honda Goldwing, Honda Grom, Honda Ruckus
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#CheapCar #W220 #MercedesBenz 
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I ran the VIN, the salvage damage is listed as "Undercarriage". We've all seen it, the car looks great underneath. Kinda interesting 🤔
Cat theft?
Cat theft, perhaps?
🐱 theft?
Might have a few dents underneath, i bought a few cars with undercarriage damage and the only damage was a few dents and knicks on the suspension and trans
Might have the suspension totaled it? Thats why somebody replaced it, only after it was totaled out. And it looks like somebody tried to swap the cat cores. Probably used to be in an emissions state.
Dump tons of money and take a loss when you sell it? Isn’t there another channel based in Wichita that does that already?
Sell it to Auto Auction Rebuilds, he is always dumping money into cars that he can’t possibly recover. He relies on content to cover the loss.
@@ImGdiddy That's crazy, doesn't every youtuber rely on their content for money?
@@ImGdiddy but he wont fix it himself, he will get someone else to fix it and then he will brag bout having a s class with his hellcat lol
COLD, Bill Cunningham! (But, funny!)
@@jimmccormick6091 I am trying to keep JR in the good graces of the Godfather of the Wichita RUclips crew. Hoovie might not like the high end car “flip” competition. Do your pick ups, your Nissan Cubes, your Audis but get into a higher end Mercedes and he just may send your camera equipment to swim with the fishes…
After spending $20000 you'll have a fantastic $8000 car 😂😂😂😂
The only thing that would make it a little bit tempting is the condition of the body. ...........That oil looked thick and red? I think this is a prime example of what driving a car into the ground means.
Plus overnight parts from Japan.
@@larrybe2900 When there ain't no oil under an old Mercedes, there ain't no oil in it.
Salvage title car will never be worth $8G
@@billbeyer657 Exactly....I say $5000 ..at best
Dump it. Don’t start fixing this…you know there is always more to discover once you get deep into it.
WAY too much effort for 0 gain. In the words of Clint Eastwood, "A man's gotta know his own limitations".
Sell it to Hoovie, looks like a perfect car for him. lol
Move on to another S Class. That thing is toast.
Burnt toast.
It's really not that bad
I have a 2000 S430, I have fixed everything twice but still love the car. built like a tank and runs great with 235k miles. If you can't work on these cars yourself they not worth owning.
I found one for 2750, with 148k miles on it. Is it worth buying ?
They must chug gas
Bought a 2002 s430 58k miles great body... spent$3500. Had to replace air compressor
@@WykkedDragonI’m thinking about getting one found a good deal online 04 s430 82k. Have you ran into any other problems? Am I honestly purchasing a money pit?
Was it 5k to fix everything urself damn. Thinking of trying to fix mine up
Buy another, but keep this as parts car for the “new” S-class.
Because the parts car will only have working parts you need. Sure.
I suspect your estimates are way low. As I said in the previous vid, I own one of these and paid $5k for a nice one 3 yrs ago with 4Matic, everything working (including the factory Airmatic) with new tires on OEM wheels. My car is optioned with heated rear seats and heated steering wheel, but no soft close doors. Yours is thrashed and beyond reasonable repair. If you think you can get your money out of it, do it as fast as you can. There are way better examples out there. DO NOT spend a cent on this car. It's parts only, IMO.
I just sold an 04 E500 4matic that looked about the same as that with about 130k on it and I struggled to get $2500. It had good cats too. Send it. They are not even that cool compared to so many other cars out there.
Most of his estimates are too low, except for his estimate of what he can sell the car for tomorrow ($2500 with a salvage title). From a time-management perspective, he should scrap the car and write the loss off against his business taxes.
I think this would be great content, but it really isn't financially worth it.
95% sell it. 5% fix the exhaust and drive it into the ground. Either way, it's a small win, but could be fun if you just enjoyed it with minor tweaks (driver's seat, radio, etc).
Looks like a car for Hoovie!
Hoovie had a way nicer one, an S600, he wouldn't want this trashmobile. I think he dropped a used V12 in it and sold it to Tavarish. It was his video that inspired me to buy one. I wanted an inexpensive luxury sedan with AWD for hwy cruising, and it has met all my expectations. So far, in three years of ownership, I've replace one HID lamp, two relays and a smog pump (used). That's it.
Or talk to monkey wrench Mike
Add the cost of your labor and it's off the charts expensive. SELL SELL SELL
The only difference is that RUclipsrs make money of the content not the vehicles necessarily
or part it out
This channel couldn’t exist if he factored in his labor costs, luckily it’s content
Cost of own labor is nothing you should consider when wanting to own a MB of this vintage...
I know every single thing about a w220 and w215. The steering buttons are fine, its because of the red warning label is up is on the dash. Only volume will work when there is a red warning label. Let me know if you have any other questions. Enjoying these vids and happy to help.
Give it to Hoovie, he'll sink a few thousands into it.
Hoovie would spend 25K before he figures out it a rock
For me it's just a drive till failure car. Then part it out
This is why the phrase is "nothing is more expensive than a cheap Mercedes". Especially true for an S-Class. One like this that is clapped out is best for parts at this point. Great cars and can be inexpensive to own if they've been taken care of.
This seems to me to be content gold, I personally would love to see these fixes implemented. I'd binge watch for days! Obviously if you were just a car flipper this would not make good business sense. I almost wonder how much of those faults are due to under current condition that would clear up many of those with electrical fixes and JR, you are the right guy for the job!
"That mirror hates itself." 😂👏🏻
Sell it as a parts car you can get your money back and move on to the next S class
takes too much time and trouble
@@pablopicaro7649 he’s not saying part it out, he’s saying sell it to someone that already has one of these and wants a car to cannibalize. (Or that wants to spend the time parting it out)
Challenge: Completely part out the car. Try and part out everything until you're left with nothing.
He could gather the parts from a Pick-a-part lot (or two) , record the content, and then see if he can make more money from selling those picked parts and the car for parts
I don't think RUclips channels last that long. Lol.
takes too much time and trouble
Or part out everything not needed for driving until it's in LeMons price range. Then race it in LeMons or something similar.
My Uncle has one of these, the repair bills are outrageous and frequent.
Of course.... Because it's garbage.
I have a W126 with almost 400,000 on it...... And it's perfect.
@@my1vice Good thing you dont own a W140....been there done that 20 years ago
The repairs , under warranty, totaled $20,000 in about 3 years
Give it to the homies J&J!
Dang! I watched all the ads because I felt sorry for you on that Benz. The Space Shuttle probably doesn't have that many codes
Your Expedition videos have saved me a ton Nathan. I just recovered my seats based on your video. Great stuff.
Put a watchjrgo decal on the whole side and Put it on the roof of your building !👍👌
Not a bad idea. A nice wrap that advertises the "WatchJrGo World Headquarters"
Looks like a perfect project car. Gives you plenty of content while providing reoairs
to many common Mercedes problems
Put set of cheap used tires and brake pads on and flip it, do any other safety and low cost minor fixes too.
Something something LS swap.
Imagine showing up to LS fest in a W220 with a chevy truck motor
Huh... it is almost LS fest, and I am 5% better at welding than I used to be 🤔
I would really love to see you do a Chevy Cruze or Sonic someday I think they are super underrated. There's also plenty of space under the hood for a bigger engine
@@FriedTendi 1g Cruze with a 2.0t swap would be hella fun. Car rides like its on rails already - especially 2LT or LTZ with the z-link out back - so it would finally have an engine worthy of that handling.
Do it
@@FriedTendi Cheby Cruse is the biggest turd Cheby has slapped together in the last 20 years! And that's a real accomplishment with all the total shit Cheby has squirted out in the last 20 years!
Two best channels are this one and Legit!
The idler pulley that is squeeling is the very top one that you can see there. Almost all of the mercs that I have worked on have that noisy idler and its ALWAYS the top one. While its running just shoot the center with some penetrant oil and if it goes away, there you go. REALLY easy to swap out.
JR, you have 2 different problems with your trunk lid. First is the latch mechanism in the trunk lid is leaking like a sieve -- you can hear it hissing in your first video about the car. The self closing actuator on the trunk latch is made of plastic, and they fail over time. Easy but costly to fix (which is the name of the game on a W220). As for the trunk grab handle working in reverse, you need someone with an actual Mercedes Star computer to reset the adaptation on the handle, and it will work normally. Also, the reason why the trunk features are totally inoperable in this video is because the PSE Pump (Pneumatic System Equipment) can sense a leak and disable that particular feature, so you don't burn up the pump--which is why the trunk latch wasn't hissing in this video and also why you have all of those error codes. I'm a longtime W220 owner and fanboy....they are truly amazing cars, and they aren't nearly the nightmares that their reputation claims them to be. I'd love to see you rebuild this one--they are actually quite nice to work on, but the better move would be to let this one go and start with a nicer example. Keep up the good work, love the show.
Is it possible that the cat damage is the “undercarriage “ damage that caused the salvage
Let it go. In the words of Scotty Kilmer “ It’s an endless money pit.”
This one fell over the edge and has sunk out of sight.
Listening to scotty kilmer is your first mistake.
Scotty Kilmer is a HACK
They’re really not though.
I received an 03 S430 4matic from a family member. Spent $6k on sorting it out. Drove for 6 months and was so glad to sell it for $6k and get outa this overbuilt German door stop. It’s a shame the majority of these beautiful cars end up like this.
I had a friend who ran a Miata salvage business in FL. I was at his shop one day in 2015 and he had a 2003 NB MIata on the lift. It only 10K on it and it had been totaled. I asked him why and he showed me a water line that was barely over the inner edge of the wheels. I'm sure that most car owners have driven through puddles deeper than that at some point. The car was in gorgeous shape and I would have bought the car even knowing that it was a "flood" car.
The whole story was that it wasn't his car insurance that totaled the car. It was his home insurance. The house was severely damaged during one of FL many hurricanes and so the home insurance totaled the house, the garage and all the contents including ALL his cars (not just the Miata). By FL law they car could not be rebuilt. So that's how a such a pristine Miata ended up being stripped for parts.
Luckily I was there before he posted any parts for sale and I scarfed up everything I need/wanted for my 2 NBs. I still have some nearly new parts from that car sitting on my shelf, "just in case" I need them.
I would sell it as is.
Get Arnott replacement air suspension if you want to restore the Airmatic.
Is this model on air suspension or oil based suspension ?
@@johnbates606 all W220’s come standard with Airmatic with the exception of the S55, S600 and S65 - those are ABC - standard on those cars, optional on lesser cars.
Those welds tho!!! 😂
This Exhaust System looks the same as on my 2000 Euro S500 Pre-Facelift which i bought 5 years ago. But i was glad to get the whole System brandnew from an ebay seller for 100 Euros. Plus mine had a working airmatic system and no warning lights. Only some minor issues like not working massage seats, softclose and missing keycards for KeylessGo. it passed our official technical inspection here 2 times without problems since then and i drive it every day with pleasure.
Them Cat's look like when you go to your homies friend because he supposedly does tattoos ..and you wind up with that
Hoovie wouldn't even blink at that list.
😂😂👌
the amount of Hoovies views makes up for any of his bad investments ..
people commenting to part this out know not what they speak of..
it runs and drives so the thing to do would be to sell it and let a buyer drive it into the ground until it doesn't move anymore while keeping a close eye on all the fluid levels every week or so.. many of the codes are soft and not hard vital..
has plenty of life left in my opinion of buying and selling for the last 15 years..
- Just B
A-town, Pa.
Thank you for sharing all your insight & accounting/reasoning for that S430. Move on if you cannot find an inexpensive donor S430 that could yield most of the big pieces you need.
I was super impressed with it when I took it to get parts Saturday! I’d drive it every day all over the place!
give it to the scrap since they always help you out
Would it be worth looking for a donor car if you’re planning on repairing?
I bought a 2,000 E-Class and spent 3,000 fir junkyard parts that I installed myself. It was not worth it but I learned a ton about old Mercs.
Why does my 1999 CLK320 Ragtop have the same issue with the loose bouncing rear mirror, I was thinking about jb welding my mirror, does anyone have a better solution
Take the engine out and rebuild it then put it in your Atom. That would be an amazing build series.
Great channel, long time subscriber. Don't waste your talent on the MB, resale it.
On this era of Mercedes the trunk problems are normally associated to a break in the earth wire in the hinge of the trunk. It is a Brown cable on 2007 Mercs.
IT depends what you want with this car? if just want to repair and keep it stock, but another one is cheaper and easy, but if want to mod i will keep this one and upgrade about every thing you need to fix, bigger brakes, lower supension just change the struts level, full exhaust, intake maybe drop a SC in this M113 again is a project for no reason just to build something unic otherwise bought S55, S63/65. I own a S55K 2003 just love the car! i lost about more than 6 months to put it together in perfect shape.
Last time I was this early, the tracker was in pieces
Now that was a long time ago 💯
last time I was here after 15 minutes was when he gave a head job to the 944. So not that long ago.
I had this car, and the air suspension wiped me out financially. On the 3rd fix, I gave up. Should have converted it the first time.
Arnott shocks are quite reasonable. If $1500 wiped you out, you shouldn't be buying an S-Class in the first place. If you replaced them with OEM airmatic shocks, I guess that can do you in, but no need for that. I've had good luck with mine, but for what I paid for it, I couldn't care less if something major goes on it. I can part it out and get my money back. We have a scrap-it program here that will give me $6k for it against an EV. Very tempting.
Just put the Merc hood into "service mode", it will open straight up and stay there lol
Take the tag off, take it to 21st and Grove, leave the keys in it and drive off QUICKLY.
JRGO: "Somebody is an absolute monster at bodywork..." VTuned has entered the chat. :D
That dude is a monster 💯 the 720s is so good.
@@WatchJRGo Despite V-Tuned turning dozens of cars from crumpled piles of junk you wouldn't want on your STREET, to masterpieces so clean you'd park them in your LIVING ROOM, people kept telling V-Tuned to dump that 720S he bought for $10k. Instead, he rolled up his sleeves, got to work, posted a ton of videos of that car's amazing rebuild, and now it's another superwin in the bank for him. The latest video Vtuned posted speaks for itself.
History is repeating itself now. You've got people telling you to dump this S430, despite your own track record of doing amazing restores on broken vehicles.
The number of people in the "they never learn" category could fill a football stadium. Kick butt and take names, JRGO. Looking forward to seeing yet another shutdown for the haters, and another win for you and your other subscribers. The pessimists thought your warehouse purchase and rehab was a terrible idea too, but your fans like myself loved that move too, along with the resulting FANTASTIC content.
Put me in the category for "fix it up no matter what it takes."
He makes it look easy, which is how you know VTuned is really really good, and experienced for his age.
stop watching every channel on YT and get a live
Just don't talk about the mustang project 😂🤣😂🤣🤣😉
Timing chains don't let go on M113. Actually, they never stretch.
Tensioner then? It's a super nasty rattle 💯
I am impressed!! Great logic on selling!!
That transmission fault may be due to the wiring harness. It's a good idea to replace that because they can wick trans fluid up into the TCM and short it out. Ask me how I know.
I'm waiting to see the completion of the John Deere dozer. What ever happened to that project?
@@SpeCifiC0507 damn dude. take a chill pill.
@@SpeCifiC0507 u ok?
I think this is the perfect car
Too sell in parts...
Over the past few months seems like JR is getting fed up with all the "experts" in the comments acting like he doesn't know what he is doing................
I hope he doesn't take it personally. It's just the audience.
Fix it!! Good content!
Sell it JR. I watch your channel for the smart decisions.
"How did it get totaled?"
Buddy, you just documented it
He has it right there in the title. 2000’s s430. Dude it’s redundant…
@@xcreeperify So sarcasm is this thing when you says things that aren't literally true, usually for comedic intent. Like this comment, which is now sarcastic AND redundant 🙂
Take it to Silas in Hutch and see what it will bring for the CRUSHER!
That can happen to any newer Benz that trunk issues. Happened on my w211 2003-09. Eclass and when it happens on a w211 you also looose the third brake light and trunk release … have to use the key blade much like in the case of a dead battery.
It could be a recovered stolen car after insurance compensated the owner.
It would probably show theft recovery on the history instead of undercarriage damage.
You're an excellent tech, with a tireless work ethic, but Get Rid Of This!
I think with all the content you could make with the endless repairs it needs, it may be worth to fix the Merc.
Many of us love seeing old dead cars getting a second chance at life
DEMO DERBY!!!!! Might have to rush that option, most county fairs are in August, just a few days maybe two weeks to prep the car
Why not just redye the steering wheel leather instead of replacing it.
Turn it into a gambler 500 or 24 hours of lemons car.
I kind of want to see you get it back to where it's supposed to be and get all the codes cleared and the dash lights off, knowing you'd have it as close to perfect as they come. However, I also know there is no way it's worth it. And I know that is why my family no longer has a Ford Windstar, since we had one that looked amazing cosmetically, but it needed new suspension, and an engine and transmission rebuild. And somewhere, it was slowly leaking brake fluid. So we junked it. We priced out fixing everything and it was $8,000 for a van worth $2,000 at best at the time.
If I could work on the Mercedes S430 with Watch JR Goes I would drink the cold Bartle Skeets and pack up the Hash Pipe with Rocky and get all schmoked up
You know whats truly sad? Mercedes could care less about how badly their cars depreciate
This car has clearly been owned by some complete maniacs in its life
Am I the only one who was amused by the spider squish?
Yeah, I think you just use this one as a part out. I've not seen you do a full tear down/part out video before and I personally enjoy them. See how much over the $2000 you can get just from fully parting it out, every piece that can be sold (maybe eBay motors will be down for a sponsorship of that kind of video content?)
I have a 2006 S55 that is the same color as your S430 with a black interior. I searched for this car for a while. It was owned by an older couple who took very long care of it. They only sold it because the left rear started sagging. They were afraid that it would be costly. I got it and replaced the rear struts. I have not had any other trouble. I wouldn't trade it for a brand new Mercedes.
Slap a cheap eBay turbo kit on it, straight pipe, remap and send it until it blows up! 😁
And then LS swap it 🤣
I quit buying German cars of any stripe 20 years ago. Nothing but money pits.
Fix it if and that would be a big "IF" you can get a deal on it otherwise ship it. The process you have gone through thus far has certainly been informative and should help a lot of people with similar decisions.
I see this from three points of view.
1. You do like everyone is saying and get out from underneath this car in whatever way possible. Be it selling it or parting it out or driving it into the ground. Just move on from it.
2. Do some sort of transformation on it like an LS swap or make it into a derby car( sounds like fun).
3. Make this into a repair series and get 5-6 videos out of it and make the money up from the views on the video series. Then do an auction on it to your fans and do a fan sale and pickup video. Maybe even have the fan do a driving video of the car going to its new home.
Personally I started watching you because of the bike you bought from AAR and I stayed because of the repair and rebuild aspect of your channel. My vote is for option 3 doing the repair series on it and auctioning the finished car to a fan. I would throw not only my money at the end result but I would jump at the chance to help on the car.
This is for the early squad!!!!🍻
I used to love German cars. Then I owned a few after 100k miles… got expensive quick and I do all my own work. Lax maintenance kills these. Parts are crazy expensive. Good luck bud I say get rid of this ASAP!
nice panel ripple in the right front wheel well
Should be great content,content is KING
Chances are that a lot of those codes where set due to a low battery.
Sell it to Hoovies he’ll buy anything, and throw money at it even if it’s a lost cause.
Kick that car down the road and run! Just looking at all the issues was exhausting, lol...
New good battery and full code reset. Then drive a bit and see what comes back. Engine oil flush with some good product, fill with new oil and see if runs better. Amazing, no rust.. here in Finland all of those all rusted thru.
These are the facelift ones with better steel to resist rust
put some $200 Walmart Star tires, straight pipe it, and you got yrself a coolass beater
Don't straight pipe it that's just stupid and makes 99% of cars sound terrible
Get Mercedes of North America to sponsor the build and bring it back to life.
Your prognosis is spot on, unfortunately.
My theory is that the car was deemed salvage when all the AirMatic shocks blew, and possibly a ton of suspension parts with it. Thus the "undercarriage" damage, and someone obviously rebuilt the car at some point, due to the aftermarket coil-overs.
Pretty sure you can’t make an insurance claim because your shocks went bad.
@@robertbeirne9813 I'm talking about damage like they ran over something, like a ladder in the road, and it took out the tires and suspension. I've seen it happen
Is it possible it was salvaged because of the air suspension failing? We had a 2005 W220 just a couple of the units failing would have the car written off here, if you really wanted it to.
More like taking a "D" than an L
Me personally, I get tired of watching turds get polished. Move on to something better.
Can you provide ideas of what he should be doing?
@@alexandrecouture2462 Don't get me wrong, this is one of my favorite channels. It's his to do with what he wants to. Myself, I would love to see that old Camaro get worked on or the Rolls get finished.
Strip it(Sell Everything), install a 100 shot & have a "blast" at the drag strip!!
Next! Move it on bro!