2004 Mercedes-Benz E320 problems
The 2004 Mercedes-Benz E320 has 243 complaints on file with NHTSA. The largest share (49%) concerns fuel system. Next are brakes (21%) and electrical system (5%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 243 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Fuel system 49% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 8 and 1
- Injuries and deaths
- 7 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 100,000 miles 191 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 8 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 9 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 23 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 29 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 27 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 32 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 29 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 16 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 10 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 2 |
| 200k+ miles | 6 |
What the data shows
Of the 191 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 100,000 miles. For fuel system specifically, the median reported mileage is about 90,000 miles (108 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 8 complaints mention a crash; 1 complaint mentions a fire; 7 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2004 ranks 4th most-complained-about out of 12 model years of the Mercedes-Benz E320 with enough data (23 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 2 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
Dt: the contact stated that while driving she turned on seat warmer as well as the heater and she detected the odor of something burning . She turned off the heater but not the seat warmer. She continued driving but sensed a feeling of something biting the side of her leg. She discovered a spark coming from a hole in leather seat. She experienced a small burn to her leg. There were no visible flames only sparks. She turned off the seat warmer and pulled over. To extinguish any sparks she poured water onto seat.
Driving on the freeway, 61 MPH, start raining hard, pouring, car slipped, turned and hit the wall on the side of the freeway heads on straight. Got hit by another car on the side, after couple of turns, it stopped on the middle of the freeway. Couple of side air bags deployed, the most important ones, the front air bags, driver and passenger side did not deployed.
On opening the driver's door from the inside, the driver suffered a deep laceration of the middle finger as a result of sharp edges of the chipping metal coat of the door handle. Upon further inspection, it appears that the plating of the inner edge of the handle is delaminating from the plastic structure, leaving protruding, sharp edges on the very part of the handle used to open the door. This may also be a potential site of bacterial infections.
I noticed a strong gasoline smell inside the garage when the door is closed. I walked around the car trying to determine where it is coming from. The strongest gas smell is around the rear wheelwell on the drivers side. Three days later, the gas smell went away. Then I went to fill-up my gas tank after four days and there is the gasoline smell again inside the garage on the same location.
Car started reading SRS airbag malfunction (still needs to be repaired) car is sometimes unable to read how much gas is in the vehicle. Car couldn't pass emissions. Check engine light on.the car smells of a strong gas odor. Unable to park the car in the garage because of the strong smell. Every time the tank is filled with gas the car presents a strong gas odor until it gets below half a tank.