What have i got?

[MartinH]

Hi all. I`m a newbie to this forum and Mercedes in particular. Previously owned a string of Bavarias finest ???? The last being a rather luxurious but terminally (For my wallet) thirsty 535SE.

I`ve just acquired a 1987 190e. 2.6 Auto, Light blue metallic. FMBSH with 105K on the clock. One familly owned for all but 2 years of it`s life. All good so far. Runs like a dream with just few small issues. One being an Antiroll bar drop link thats getting playful, additionally the drivers seat looks ok but when sat in it takes on the characteristics of an overstuffed ironing board. And finally the front wheel arches are starting to bubble up. Which i believe is a common occurence.
If anyone can shed any light as to the popularity of these motors, best place to get spares and any other issues i should be on the lookout for i would be eternally grateful.
TIA MartinH

For your delectation.

 

[mr_s]

They're pretty good cars TBH, I've had mine (2.6 Manual) for 5 years, and I like it so much, I've decided to put a V8 in it... ;-)

Main things I've had go wrong with mine were the head gasket (£100 in parts, including the valve stem seals), and I did the job myself. Water pump started weeping (£70 odd for a replacement). Apparently the rear suspension bushes are prone to wearing, but mine are still fine. Front balljoints went, and were a pain to replace (really need a press to remove/install them - I improvised with a REALLY big vice, a hammer and some hacksaw blades) but it took a while and I had to remove the wishbones to do it....

Aside from that, things like steering box wear, broken sunroof cables, diff whine etc. seem to keep cropping up, but I've not had problems with them on mine, so I'm happy!

www.eurocarparts.com and www.gsfcarparts.co.uk are good places for parts, although Mercedes themselves sometimes surprise me with inexpensive bits.

If you're interested, I've got a custom made stainless exhaust system (powerflow) for sale after mine rotted through. It was as cheap to do that as to it was to replace it with genuine OE stuff! It removed the cat too, which freed up a few HP

Oh, and if you have any kind of problem with cold starts and the ABS light being on, check the fuse in the top of the OVP relay (located behind the shield behind the battery, it's silver with a flip-top clear plastic lid), as these can blow and are difficult to diagnose!

Hope my information is useful to you!

Cheers, Martin

 

[blassberg]

Martin - sorry to worry you but someone's put the caravan extension attachment on the wrong way round and you'll never see out of the windscreen. You'll need to reverse everywhere until you get that sorted!

 

[Blobcat]

Martin - sorry to worry you but someone's put the caravan extension attachment on the wrong way round and you'll never see out of the windscreen. You'll need to reverse everywhere until you get that sorted!

Is it not 'jack-knife' parking?
Hope the hanging basket doesn't fall.

Welcome to the forum

 

[MartinH]

If you're interested, I've got a custom made stainless exhaust system (powerflow) for sale after mine rotted through. It was as cheap to do that as to it was to replace it with genuine OE stuff! It removed the cat too, which freed up a few HP

Hope my information is useful to you!

Cheers, Martin

Excellent thanks for the info. I`ll be getting her up on the ramps at work in the next couple of days, so i`ll let you know about the exhaust.

Martin - sorry to worry you but someone's put the caravan extension attachment on the wrong way round and you'll never see out of the windscreen. You'll need to reverse everywhere until you get that sorted!

Darned fitting instructions were in german... Stoopid babelfish.