230ce buying advice

[caf]

Hi,

I've seen a 1993 Merc 230ce with 123000 miles on the clock for £1995. The pictures show it in a good condition - cant see rust, dents etc. I'm viewing it this Saturday so is there anything I should look closely for before I buy?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Bolide]

I wrote a list of things to look for. It's estate-specific but much of it is relevant to all W124s

The list is on Honest John's website
http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/index.htm?md=242

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk

 

[White230CE]

I'm no expert, but I do have two of these that I have worked on over the last couple of months, so these are the things I found:

Driver's window regulator: mine failed on the donor car after 1 month. Very rare to get one second hand or pattern. New from Merc is £100. Fitting can be a DIY job - door card removal is straightforward, thanks to many posts here, but fitting the regulator itself requires riveting, and can be fiddly.

Wheel arches: even if apparently rust-free, the prep and paint may not have been done well, so the rust emerges after a couple of months. Also, alot of crud gathers inside the front plastic inner wheel arch, and rusts the metal above. It creeps under the factory rubber underseal, and can emerge on the other side - check around and under the washer bottle, and same place other side. Immediately inboard of these two locations, there is a deep V-shaped channel where crud and moisture can gather, also causing rust. The plastic panels which cover the lower part of the front and rear wheel arch, together with the plastic sill mouldings can also conceal rust, especially at the rear arch where the inner and outer are only spot-welded, masticked and sealed.

Rusty battery tray: try and see if the bodywork under it is ok.

Jacking points: can be rust-eaten, if so no longer stable, will need re-welding. Hidden by plastic sill panel.

Underseal: May be hiding creeping rust, in which case it will be loose and peel-able. Check where the boot floor is welded to the inner rear arch - you will see a flange running down the end of the curve of the rear arch and continuing towards the rear.

Overheating when stationary: A common problem, usually needs a new fan switch, cost £10-£20, easy DIY. You won't spot it unless the seller allows it to run stationary, cos driving it usually keeps the engine cool enough. A working fan switch keeps my engine temp at circa 80-90 degrees.

Blower blows only hot, or only cold: Duo valve, I believe. A simple fix apparently, but I've not had the pleasure...yet!

Front bumper mounts: covered in crud, can be badly corroded, fixings ready to fall off.

Rear number plate screws: These are supposed to screw into 4 rivet nuts embedded in the body. Instead of rivet nuts, I found rawl plugs on one, and self-tapped holes on the other. No effort had been made to paint the hole edges, so rust had begun to form.

It's getting late and I'm dropping off. If I think of more, I'll post tomorrow. In the meantime, just look for any of my posts, to get a flavour of my 230CE discoveries!

 

[The Crooner]

Make sure that when the car is started it settles to a steady and regular idle with no "hunting" apparent on the rev counter or to the ear, and no tendency to stall.

Check again with the car in D and the footbrake hard on - again look for a jerky idle or stalling.

Idle issues on cars of this age can be complicated and expensive to diagnose and fix though this one has reasonable miles on its side.

If it runs OK the 230 engine is a good one, powerful and if driven sensibly will return over 30mpg on a run.

Tony

As with the post above, if you look for others of mine you will see my troubles and solutions.