If you are looking to pay to have all the work done, in my mind, its a no brainer. Dump it. If you put 2800 in repairs to a car with 228K miles on it and you only paid 2 grand for it, its still worth 2 grand but now you have 4800 in it. Bad math in my book and it could still need more work fairly soon.

Some of the things you could fix yourself depending on how much of a shade-tree mechanic you are. Disk brakes are fairly easy, probably the front wheel bearings too. The rear diff could get very spendy and the tranny might be expensive as well.

And as far as I'm concerned, KBB prices are out to lunch. Sure I would quote them when I'm trying to sell, but they are a joke if you are on the buying end. Way overinflated. You paid probably what the car is worth, 2K. With all these problems I don't think its even worth that. Don't throw good money after bad. Find a benz with less than 100k on the clock, at least that has some life left in it. I don't buy into the "at 100k its just broken in" mantra that lots of people like to say. Find something with fairly low miles on it for reasonable price, like something with 90-100K for maybe 4 to 6 grand. Then you have a good shot at getting your own 100k out of it for probably 4 to 5 grand worth of depreciation, not counting any repairs or maintenance.

Really cheap cars are not always the cheapest to run, better to find one in good condition, low miles for a bit more. But I think you already know that.

Good Luck.

 

Dragging rear caliper can cause diff to go bad.

If you want to keep the car for awhile, the only thing you need to fix are the rear brakes. Change caliper, and pads.

There is an adjustment for the front wheel bearings, which may be all you need.

If the diff noise is not too bad, you can certainly ignore it. It shouldn't get any worse once you fix the dragging brake.

That said, I would only drive it till you can replace it with another car. Then I would dump it, and get what you can for it.

 

That's a good idea. I can do brakes no problem, I hate bleeding them but I can replace a caliper and pads.

 

225.000 miles is around 350,000 kilometers - getting right up there.
In my country adding another $1,000.00 to your $2,800.00 would get you another car with half the miles on it.
You would also get around 800 to a 1000 selling your existing car on that great auction site

 

If the tranny seal sleeve is anything like the BMW mechatronics sleeve odds are it is a very slow leak that will never really become a major leak. Just check the fluid level regularly.


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You can probably HALVE that 2800 if you just look and get the parts online from like Amazon or Ebay.. Most of what you need done shouldn't be a big problem just DIY..

Agreed if you have a 2k car its still a 2k car no matter what you put in it.. But like I have found out alot of people don't really release their Mercs that easily.. There is a lady in my town driving around in a 80s model with 600k on it.. At 300k Mr. Cheaps ( Owns Cheaps Cheverolt ) her husband, asked if she wanted a new car or just keep what she had please note the car was still strong even at this point.. She told him to put a new engine in it..

So I guess it depends on how well you love the car.

 

Replace the rear calipers and pads yourself, then re-assess the situation.