d215yq
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2008
- Messages
- 2,664
- Reaction score
- 702
- Age
- 39
- Location
- Valencia, Spain
- Your Mercedes
- 1987 W124 300D 280k miles
Not me unfortunately (I'm 33) but today as I took the W124 for the itv (Spanish MOT) I noticed the build date was exactly 30 years ago! And it passed...so to celebrate I will hoover it and clean it for the second time in the nearly 3 years I've owned it.
Was wondering if anyone else actually uses these old timers daily and not just as classics? Mine has done 24k miles in the last year, taken all my furniture when I changed cities, taken me all over Spain on business, been up to 2500m fully loaded many a weekend (both in 35 degree summer heat and 0 degrees for skiing), transported all the materials for renovating my flat (including 450kg in boot when I overloaded it accidentally) and not to mention the daily commute/weekend trips. Been 15 months since the last big bill and in that time just oil/filter change, new fuse, refitting a coolant hose and a puncture repair. Total cost 70 quid (did all but the tyre repair myself! 0 breakdowns and 50mpg + average so certainly can be used as a daily and not pampered if that's what's required
Of course not all plane sailing and it picked up a fair few advisories, though mostly stupid stuff to do with number plates, cracks in light units, etc (my favourite being "tape used to secure drivers door mirror not of sufficient quality" - so I've promised to buy some "proper" gaffer tape and redo it more carefully before next test).
That said two struck me as being worth investigating:.
1. Left headlight not very bright - does that mean bulb or more likely wiring/bulb holder needs some switch cleaner/replacing?
2. Defects in the state of the steering box - he did say that it's normal and not worth worrying about yet and is very expensive to replace so leave well alone. Would anyone expect free play in the steering box normally?
Other than that it's all serviced on schedule so plan to just enjoy it until the clutch goes and then maybe think about what else I might want to fix at the same time (something I've been waiting to happen since I bought it but that never seems to get worse despite biting very high up and juddering occasionally).
Was wondering if anyone else actually uses these old timers daily and not just as classics? Mine has done 24k miles in the last year, taken all my furniture when I changed cities, taken me all over Spain on business, been up to 2500m fully loaded many a weekend (both in 35 degree summer heat and 0 degrees for skiing), transported all the materials for renovating my flat (including 450kg in boot when I overloaded it accidentally) and not to mention the daily commute/weekend trips. Been 15 months since the last big bill and in that time just oil/filter change, new fuse, refitting a coolant hose and a puncture repair. Total cost 70 quid (did all but the tyre repair myself! 0 breakdowns and 50mpg + average so certainly can be used as a daily and not pampered if that's what's required
Of course not all plane sailing and it picked up a fair few advisories, though mostly stupid stuff to do with number plates, cracks in light units, etc (my favourite being "tape used to secure drivers door mirror not of sufficient quality" - so I've promised to buy some "proper" gaffer tape and redo it more carefully before next test).
That said two struck me as being worth investigating:.
1. Left headlight not very bright - does that mean bulb or more likely wiring/bulb holder needs some switch cleaner/replacing?
2. Defects in the state of the steering box - he did say that it's normal and not worth worrying about yet and is very expensive to replace so leave well alone. Would anyone expect free play in the steering box normally?
Other than that it's all serviced on schedule so plan to just enjoy it until the clutch goes and then maybe think about what else I might want to fix at the same time (something I've been waiting to happen since I bought it but that never seems to get worse despite biting very high up and juddering occasionally).