W124 E320 Coupe - New Car

[MotardMan]

Hello everyone,

At last I found the car that has eluded me for 8 months. A 1994 E320 Coupe. It has a few issues that I need your help with.


Head gasket and cylinder head have just been done by the dealer, £900 bill! Also the car needs new discs all round and the door bottoms have rusted where the rubber trim traps water. These will be done prior to collection. Same deal with the aircon, it has no gas after the cyl head was removed and welded/skimmed to repair it. The things I am left to fix are:

Non functioning electric aerial.

Belt helper on the drivers side has a split rubber loop where the belt feeds through, so it will need replacing.

Puddle light on drivers door not working.

Passenger seat back does not flip forward.

O/S headlamp wiper not wiping, but the washer works fine.

Sill plate has peeling chrome trim.

Sunroof is reluctant to slide shut, but opens fine.

Arm rest needs a retrim due to the piping splitting.

Boot lid has rust along the lower edge where the rubber seal sits against it.

The remote key only works from the boot lid sensor. The drivers door sensor does not seem to work.

Electric seat switch in the door is missing the button for the headrest.

The car has a full MBSH up to 106,000, and the current miles are 109,000. Pretty good eh? 2 owner car and all the docs are present. It is a lovely colour, Bormite metallic with cream leather.

Any help with the above will be very much appreciated!

 

[Ade W124]

Hi Motardman

I'm not particularly mechanically minded but can offer the following based on my recent experience with my CE:

Belt guide is £7 from MB, you will probably have to order it, mine took 2 days to turn up and 10mins to fit.

I'd also try MB for the head rest button and chrome trim.

Split arm rest piping seems to afflict all cars as its plastic not leather and seems very brittle. I was delighted with my non-split piping when I bought the car at Xmas, it is now hanging off in places after 3k miles of use... at some point I'm going to try an upholsterer to get a leather piping installed. In the meantime superglue...

Electric aerial may simply need a good clean - mine was caked in 16 year old goo which was removed with WD40. Failing that new ones are pretty cheap.

Passenger seat should only be locked by the vacuum system when the engine is on so something could be siezed - no doubt others will be able to help out here..

Electrics are a bit of grey area for me.. ditto above.

Generally I'd check under the carpets for damp as the drains seem to block easily on older cars which can affect electrics. If you haven't already I'd poke around and flush the sunroof, front heater and scuttle, boot and door drains - there are various threads on here about it.

Sounds like an otherwise nice car - put up some pics..

Ade

 

[Clacky]

Reply.

Hey MotardMan.
Im not sure on a few of those, but they sound exactly like the sort of problems ive been having with my 126 which sadly, apparently come with age.
Funnily enough ive had the exact same problem as regards to the electric aeriel. I solved the problem by firstly checking the connections in the boot to find that they all seemed efficient, and the motor mechanism was still making the whirring noise. After much fiddling I decided to pick up a new motorised aerial from Halfords for around a tenner, its so simple I managed to fit it myself with just a phillips crosshead screwdriver and flat screwdriver, just remember that you need to make sure you remember the coloured lead connections for when you replace it. It was a simple job really, only a few minutes, but like Ade said its definitely worth checking it with some WD-40.
As for the other problems, most of them just sound like they need a few odd parts like the puddle lights. I'd say that eBay is definitely worth a check out.
Sorry I couldnt be a huge amount of help...
Clacky.

 

[dickily]

Hi
Any chance of some pictures?
I to have recently bought a 320ce (jan 07) but I just love seeing any photo`s of others
Sounds sad eh?

 

[74merc]

You can get a replacement mast for the aerial from a dealer for about 20 quid, should solve that problem.
Have you tried greasing the plastic runners on either side of the mechanism? You will see these when the roof is open. I notice that mine opens and closes much better when it is warm. I think the problem is caused by accumulated dirt stuck to grease in the mechanism. The other MB club had a feature on overhauling this in their gazette last month.

 

[MotardMan]

Pictures as requested. Sorry for the poor quality as some fo them were ripped off the dealer website, and some were on my phone!

 

[dickily]

Thankyou for the photo`s, dont see many in that colour,
mine is rose quartz metallic, (looks more gold like to me)
Still a great car that gives most modern cars a good run for the money,
brings a huge smile every time I drive it
Have fun enjoying yours