adrianb
Senior Member
- Joined
- May 24, 2004
- Messages
- 60
- Reaction score
- 1
- Location
- Nr Saffron Walden
- Your Mercedes
- W210 E320cdi Est. W124 E220Est, W124 230TE, W123 230TE (various) W123 200T.
Hi all,
Not been on the forum for a long while - I'm a "born again" Mercedes owner, having by pure luck just last Thursday come to own a slightly tired 1991 230TE auto - the newest Merc I've ever had. It also came with the three original keys (I've never had a "three key" car before), and all the handbooks and service books, from a friend of the family. It was cheap as chips, so naturally it has a few problems, so I can do something with all that spare time I didn't have. The engine runs smoothly enough, though the idle is a bit slow, and the auto box a tad jerky when cold. Main things are water leaks, a battery drain, no heat, iffy central locking, sun roof, oil pressure gauge, rusty wings. I'll post the battery/central locking, oil pressure gauge and other stuff in the electrics sub-forum.
I figure the water leaks are the first on the list cos I reckon they're responsible for some of the other problems, and the main leaky problem areas are the luggage area and the sun roof..
Rear luggage area windows leaks
There's plenty of water / damp in the luggage area, in both storage compartments (under the spare, and below the jack etc.) all of the mats, and when I unfolded the rear bench seat there was a lovely smell of compost and alot of fungus growing on the seat. Suprisingly little rust, given how much water there is. I can see water oozing down under both of the rear luggage area windows, and have read the threads I could find about these, but need a bit more guidance on how I should go about checking / removing the window seals. Do I need to remove any interior trim to remove the windows, and if so, how do you go about removing it?
As there's so much coming in from the rear windows, I'm not sure if there is any coming in from the tailgate seal, but looking at the damp in the rear seat well, it looks like it might be. The tailgate seal looks OK though.
Sun roof
I had leaky sunroof problems with my last 123TE so I had a head start on this one. Dripping from the top of the screen/headliner right from the off, it couldn' really have been much worse. I might have partially cured it now, as I took televisions advice and had a go at clearing the drains first chance there was over the weekend. The front near side one was fine, the front off-side needs a bit more attention to clear. How do you get access to the rear ones though.
Rusty wings
Not really something that needs an immediate fix, but as with most things, if I don't make a start now it'll never get sorted out. A big rusty hole above the bumper in front of the wheel arch on the offside front wing, and some big bubbles on the near side, but at least they look like the original wings. Assuming when I get a chance to have a closer look they aren't both about to crumble into dust, I figured I'd just try and stabilise the situation for now by removing the existing rust and applying rust treatment. Should there be plastic liners like on the 123?
Wheel trim
Has the standard steel wheels. Missing one wheel trim, but at least the other three are matching. I've not been able to find one to go with these on ebay etc. Not a priority right now really.
Useful books
I had a "Brooklands Books" manual for the old 123 230TE, and although that wasn't exactly perfect, it was pretty useful. Can anyone recommend something similar for the 124? Haynes?
Apologies for stuffing so much into one thread.
Anyhow, despite all the problems, it does feel good to be a Merc owner again. No "warm feeling" yet though, cos the heater still isn't working...
adrianb
Not been on the forum for a long while - I'm a "born again" Mercedes owner, having by pure luck just last Thursday come to own a slightly tired 1991 230TE auto - the newest Merc I've ever had. It also came with the three original keys (I've never had a "three key" car before), and all the handbooks and service books, from a friend of the family. It was cheap as chips, so naturally it has a few problems, so I can do something with all that spare time I didn't have. The engine runs smoothly enough, though the idle is a bit slow, and the auto box a tad jerky when cold. Main things are water leaks, a battery drain, no heat, iffy central locking, sun roof, oil pressure gauge, rusty wings. I'll post the battery/central locking, oil pressure gauge and other stuff in the electrics sub-forum.
I figure the water leaks are the first on the list cos I reckon they're responsible for some of the other problems, and the main leaky problem areas are the luggage area and the sun roof..
Rear luggage area windows leaks
There's plenty of water / damp in the luggage area, in both storage compartments (under the spare, and below the jack etc.) all of the mats, and when I unfolded the rear bench seat there was a lovely smell of compost and alot of fungus growing on the seat. Suprisingly little rust, given how much water there is. I can see water oozing down under both of the rear luggage area windows, and have read the threads I could find about these, but need a bit more guidance on how I should go about checking / removing the window seals. Do I need to remove any interior trim to remove the windows, and if so, how do you go about removing it?
As there's so much coming in from the rear windows, I'm not sure if there is any coming in from the tailgate seal, but looking at the damp in the rear seat well, it looks like it might be. The tailgate seal looks OK though.
Sun roof
I had leaky sunroof problems with my last 123TE so I had a head start on this one. Dripping from the top of the screen/headliner right from the off, it couldn' really have been much worse. I might have partially cured it now, as I took televisions advice and had a go at clearing the drains first chance there was over the weekend. The front near side one was fine, the front off-side needs a bit more attention to clear. How do you get access to the rear ones though.
Rusty wings
Not really something that needs an immediate fix, but as with most things, if I don't make a start now it'll never get sorted out. A big rusty hole above the bumper in front of the wheel arch on the offside front wing, and some big bubbles on the near side, but at least they look like the original wings. Assuming when I get a chance to have a closer look they aren't both about to crumble into dust, I figured I'd just try and stabilise the situation for now by removing the existing rust and applying rust treatment. Should there be plastic liners like on the 123?
Wheel trim
Has the standard steel wheels. Missing one wheel trim, but at least the other three are matching. I've not been able to find one to go with these on ebay etc. Not a priority right now really.
Useful books
I had a "Brooklands Books" manual for the old 123 230TE, and although that wasn't exactly perfect, it was pretty useful. Can anyone recommend something similar for the 124? Haynes?
Apologies for stuffing so much into one thread.
Anyhow, despite all the problems, it does feel good to be a Merc owner again. No "warm feeling" yet though, cos the heater still isn't working...
adrianb