We pushed through an incredible amount of work before moving to Maryland, with the Audi S6, BMW 325is, and Mercedes-Benz E55 all getting long-simmering projects wrapped up before leaving town.
The E55 was a pretty solid car overall, but a few lingering issues remained: the A/C showed signs of previous dye testing and my shop assessed that the evaporator and compressor were in need of replacement. Well, we charged the system back in May and guess what? It lost barely any refrigerant, meaning the system was far tighter than expected.
We did flag a few other issues, including a weak auxiliary cooling fan (replaced); a busted HVAC resistor (caused the system to run full-blast at all times); and a fan clutch near death based on how slowly it was rotating. With those components replaced, we now have a fairly buttoned-up HVAC system, and hopefully have bought some time before the evaporator and compressor someday do reveal themselves to be problematic.
I also elected to have the shocks replaced, as the car still had the OEM Bilsteins and it had previously been lowered on H&R springs, which I believed contributed to a very harsh ride. Koni Sports were swapped in and definitely increased the composure of the ride.
With all that done, the very daily-friendly E55 is already more so than before.