the dreaded 1995 124 e220 engine loom

brimble

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e220 estate
:-(

hi all,

i'll keep this brief for now.

my car suddenly started idling poorly and within a couple of miles wouldn't run very well at all and i had to get rescued and taken to my local garage. initial diagnosis was a failed throttle body, however this was replaced with a unit that i obtained from here but the problem still persits and the garage now have confidence that the throttle body is actually fine after all.

the next port of call they tell me, is wiring and this fills me with horror..... patrticularly after doing a little online research myself. i have spoken to the main dealer and a new loom is £800ish.. i'm keeping my fingers crossed for a relatively positive outcome, but i really do fear the worst.

if the wiring loom is to prove the issue, what do i do guys?? that is a damn good portion of the value of the car...

i was considering of selling the car soon anyway to get something a bit cheaper to run, it's such a shame though as it really is a lovely car.

IF the wiring loom does need replacing do i:

1) repair and keep
2) repair and sell anyway
3) break it and sell the parts myself (any idea of how much this could recoup?)
4) sell as is for spares/repair with wiring fault.

thanks in advance, and this scenario may well not be the case and the car and i live happily ever after as it was just a loose wire.....

thanks,
brimble
 
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jibcl500

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I had the same fault with my 220 the 4 wires running to the air sensor caused the most problems as did the fire under the battery but managed to fix it myself.

If your handy with a soldering iron repair it yourself.

jib
 

grahamcol

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My inclination would be to try to save the car. It's all well and good saying £xxx needs to be spent and the car's only worth £yyy but how much is a replacement going to cost and you can bet your life the replacement will need issues sorting out. If your present car is sound & you have no real issues other than the loom my suggestion would be to fix. You need to be certain it is this and that swapping the loom will cure it. Maybe a diy fix as above will work, at least as a tester. Good luck
 

huey

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Your car is within the range when Mercedes used bio-degradable wiring harness 93-95, as other's have said I would be inclined to repair it.
 

kth286

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E320 Coupe 95
I'm surprised the loom for 4 cylinder has reached £800.

Have you got a part number for some of us to cross check ?

Also did they offer discount ?

I'm just looking at my invoice dated Feb 2005 - I paid £469 inclusive of VAT
and 10% discount for 6 cylinder engine.
 

Mic

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Definitely repair......the market value of the car is irrelevant.

As Grahamcol above.

If the fix is only, say, £1500 that is a very small sum to pay out to keep a good car.

If you were to spend, say, £10k on a replacement you would be committing to more than £1500 depreciation in the first year in addition to buying the unknown problems of someone else's recent neglect or worse.

Always better the car you know.

Mic
 
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brimble

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e220 estate
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thanks for the help/info/advice guys. i still have my fingers crossed that a new loom isn't required so i don't have the difficult decision to make.

i got the price from milton keynes mercedes based on my reg number so i don't actually have a part number. they did affer a 10% discount once they heard me fall off my chair...... which ended up at approx £750.

thanks again.
 

tjamesbo

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1999 CLK430, 2007 VITO 3.0V6 , W124's (1994 320TE , 1993 220TE ) , 07 2.5 X-Type
If you have a spare throttle body I may be interested as mine was diagnosed as needing a new one (MOT emissions ) I will need to check that the problem on mine isnt either the CAT or the Loom first :)
PM me with your details and price if its spare . Thanks
Boyd
 

lwbnick

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expedition
:
thanks in advance, and this scenario may well not be the case and the car and i live happily ever after as it was just a loose wire.....

thanks,
brimble

Buy a second hand loom for £50 and mend it?

It's not like 4 cylinder ones are as big a problem as the sixes.
 

WG M-B

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The codes can be read out from your engine management system. This would help a great deal rather than someone just telling you next step is the loom
 

robparker

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Buy a second hand loom for £50 and mend it?

It's not like 4 cylinder ones are as big a problem as the sixes.

Exactly. Infact the only bit of the loome I have ever seen to be bad before are the wires to the MAF, which can easily be re-covered in situ.
 

Mercky

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96 W124 320 Coupe
The loom on my 96 320 went about 2 years ago, I spent a good deal of time trying to convince myself it wasent the loom by replacing coils etc to no avail, eventually it took out the ECU aswell so I had to get the drivers on that replaced by avilec, to cut a long story short I replaced the entire loom and all coils along with the repaired ECU! The loom from memory was the guts of €800. Definitely worth getting a diagnostic run first to see whats going on. Also you can remove the cover from the engine to access the plugs and coils and individually remove each plug lead in turn to see if that plug is actually firing, also useful to inspect the loom under the cover to see how brittle it looks etc. Good luck, I feel your pain!!
 
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brimble

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e220 estate
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hi guys,

thanks for the replies. i thought i'd give an update on here, as it ended more postively than i was expecting. The throttle body was indeed kaput, but there was a minor wiring issue that needed to be addressed too (i guess the delicate wiring was disturbed during rmoval-refitting of the throttle body) all sorted now though and running like a dream, as you would expect a 124 to do.

thanks again.
 

J.Heiner

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Your Mercedes
E220/1994/2.2
E220 misbehaving

I am discovering the same problem with my E220. It runs well to 2500rpm, then fades until about 2000rpm. If I cruise, it bounces between the two ... not a fun ride. I have been told that it could be the throttle body, but from my research the wiring seems a much more common problem.
I am undecided if I should go down the path you have, and replace throttle body, to then discover the waste, or start digging into electricals, without knowing what the hell I will find.
How did you do with yours?
Jim Heiner.
 

kth286

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E320 Coupe 95
your car is in limp mode, so there will be fault codes in the memory.

you need a specialist that is conversant with the generation of car.
 

Bolide

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BMW 525 Diesel Touring
E220 throttle bodies seem to be prone to faults and they may be in the mechanism or in the wiring pigtail. Sometimes rewiring the pigtail will solve the problems

They are pretty simple electrically and you can test continuity with a meter without removing the throttle body from the car

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk
 


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