The joys of owning an old Merc

roadhog

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W124 300D x2, C124 300
If you own a modern MB and have a man service it look away now. The rest of you will be familiar with what you're about to read?

This week I've mostly been having a good look around my car getting it ready for it's MOT today. Spent an entire afternoon trying (unsuccessfully) to bring one headlamp wiper back to life, another changing the rear brakes. A little bit each day. Decided to risk the weeping rear shocks for now. It does begin to feel like the Fourth bridge on wheels.

Big day today and it passed! Yay! One advisory, rear shocks slight leak.
Total spend this week: £64! £25 for the test and £39 for rear discs and pads. Hooray for economy motoring.

Right now I'm feeling very pleased. :D
 

anyweb

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Your Mercedes
c238,w120 (diesel)
i drive my 1966 W110 every day to work :) its old and rusty but i love it
 

Jay Gee

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Honda
Good result,roadhog.At least with these cars,you can locate and fix most faults yourself.
Increasingly difficult to find though.
 

Martin-Jundiaí

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Hi, you say your W124 is OLD! I have one and I feel it's too new, my 33 year-old W116 is more my style!..and I'm 37!
 

foof1

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Your Mercedes
R129 SL320
The posts make me feel great. My 1995 W202 C280 has done 180, 502 miles and I'm proud. She goes like stink but rust is a big problem!! What do I do? restore, repair or scrap?

I love the car but time needs spending, and time I do not have! The next MOT might be a problem as the CAT will need replacing. This will probably be more than the cars worth. My problem is I love the car to bits and would hate to get rid. Any suggestions!!
 

popuptoaster

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The posts make me feel great. My 1995 W202 C280 has done 180, 502 miles and I'm proud. She goes like stink but rust is a big problem!! What do I do? restore, repair or scrap?

I love the car but time needs spending, and time I do not have! The next MOT might be a problem as the CAT will need replacing. This will probably be more than the cars worth. My problem is I love the car to bits and would hate to get rid. Any suggestions!!


learn how to fix it yourself and make the time, or pay someone else to do it (you have to love your car for this, it almost never makes economic sense) or sell it now before it fails and buy a better one.
 

roofless

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Your Mercedes
w124 e220 estate
The posts make me feel great. My 1995 W202 C280 has done 180, 502 miles and I'm proud. She goes like stink but rust is a big problem!! What do I do? restore, repair or scrap?

I love the car but time needs spending, and time I do not have! The next MOT might be a problem as the CAT will need replacing. This will probably be more than the cars worth. My problem is I love the car to bits and would hate to get rid. Any suggestions!!

you could buy a car for parts from ebay ect to use for the bits you need then sell the bits you don't & scrap it ;) eg http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1996-MERCEDES...3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66:2|65:7|39:1|240:1318
 
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SilverSaloon

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Your Mercedes
w124/1994/om606
to fix the headlamp wiper motor, take the light out and remove the motor. then take the back off with a flat bladed screwdriver and remove the large cog (which will be siezed) - grease it all and remove other cogs if needed. make sure they rack is in the original position to avoid the wipers parking in the wrong place. put it all back together and hey presto :)
 
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roadhog

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W124 300D x2, C124 300
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I spent an entire afternoon doing just that, must have had the thing apart at least half a dozen times. Every time I'd put it together it would do a couple of sweeps and then stop again. I'm planning to have another go sometime this week.
Both large cogs were/are very stiff to turn even though I cleaned and greased them. I was a bit reluctant to remove any material but it looks like that's what I'll have to do.
 
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roadhog

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W124 300D x2, C124 300
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Further to the joys of owning an old (ish) Merc, they include the odd involuntary stop on the side a Motorway. As happened to me this am.

The car started to slow shortly after leaving work, just after I'd joined a very busy Motorway full of homicidal Belgians. No warnings or indications, just a lack of power (more than usual). Felt like running out of fuel but a quick check of the gauge showed 1/4 of a tank left which tallied with the miles travelled since the last fill up. The last fill up however was 100% veg oil and as it was quite cold this morning I suspected a blocked fuel filter. I added the 5 litres of diesel I never leave home without and flattened the battery cranking the engine over. :mad:
Fortunately a friend of mine saw me and stopped to help and after a trip back to work (in a very nice C32 AMG :cool: ) to pick up a battery booster I was up and running again. I've filled the tank with diesel and it's as if it never happened. Just not what I needed after having been up for 24 hrs. :rolleyes:

Two things to add to my to-do list, 1) a Battery and 2) check the accuracy of the fuel gauge. Oh, and change the fuel filters. So that's three things to add to my to-do list.........
 

popuptoaster

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My fuel gauge is very erratic cos it got bent when the bottom of tank got dented, it bent the rod the float runs on so sometimes it gets stuck, i carry a couple of gallons of petrol just in case, but luckily and i dont know if it does this on purpose, but it starts to run very rough when its almost out of juice, gets very sluggish and starts missfiring, i've done a few miles like it before it gives in and runs out, soon as i fill up again its fine, all the other cars i've had just conk out after a few yeards of missfiring. :D
 

television

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2002 SL500, 216 CL500, all fully loaded
There are some mods that you can do with the 124 and 126 parking of the lamp wipers, if they park in the wrong place you need to hold the operation switch a bit longer, and they park correctly,hold it under 3 sec and they will not always park up correctly
 

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