simon_wall69
Senior Member
Mine has no problem up hills and will comfortably do 100mph and mine really is a slow car! There is a problem with your car.
Your car is definately sick. A 280 isn't going to be as lively as the 300-24 but then my 320 doesn't feel as lively as one either- unless pressing on. Age and mileage are obviously going to have an effect but not to the extent that you'd need to change gears manually to make progress, even with 185,000 miles (not high for one of these but enough to put many off) on it mine'll take off like a scalded cat if prodded.
Someone who knows these cars needs to drive yours but in the meantime...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBvYZRO-k14
After driving it today; I think the issue here was that I haven't been depressing the accelerator enough, In 'S' mode and with the accelerator flat to the floor it really is quite quick, even enough to create some tyre squeal when swerving out to overtake someone foolish enough to pull out in front of me earlier. In the 300TE-24, the throttle was noticeably lighter, and didn't need pushing much beyond half-way, whereas the 280 benefits from full-throttle. The 300TE-24 had 210k miles, the E280 has 138k.
There is a mod where you just remove a spring and its a first gear start every time
Well, Lambda & MAF have both been replaced recently, and it's just had a full engine service. It's also running on 97RON Super Unleaded.
It makes sense to be honest; 190hp is not a lot in a heavy automatic like the W124.
Adjusting the kickdown cable makes a huge difference to the way these cars drive. I'd say that 90% of the W124s I drive have badly-adjusted cables
Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk