1999 Mercedes CLK - Back in one piece + new wheels

Interesting. Love a good underdog story. Will keep up with this thread. How many miles do these engines generally last?

Looking forward to the pics.

My S320 returns 28mpg. Pretty decent for a big V6.

So it's picture time!

With the limited time I currently have I haven't even washed the car by hand yet. But since the paint is in need of a full compounding and polishing session anyway a trip to the automated car wash didn't do any harm. This is what it now looks like:







As you may have guessed from the last pic the car is has had a healthy 40mm drop all around. It looks okay in the front, but the rear seems too low for my taste. As it has H&R lowering springs my only option to raise the rear is to fit slightly bigger spring spacers so that's what's up next along with new shocks all round.

Since the shocks and all of my service items are still in the mail I'm currently limited to the not-so-important stuff. One thing I did manage to do on a rainy day was a bit of under-bonnet hygiene. Take this...




...subtract that...


...and end up with this:




Another area of bother was the driver's side window. For some reason it was totally out of alignment which luckily was an easy fix. All the adjuster screws were turning freely so after a bit of faffing around I now have a watertight window with no wind noise.

Next up was the trim panel on the a-pillar which looked something like this:


The upmost two fixings were simply gone so I decided to replace all of them with new parts which was surprisingly cheap. Here's the panel off and all new fixings in place (which were something like 4€ from the main dealer):


Now everything is looking as it should:


Another job crossed off the list. Next up was to find out why the tailgate gives you a shower every time you open it. It turns out the light clusters didn't have any seals on them. Nothing the dealer can't fix for a surprisingly low amount of coins, too:


I've filled this gaping hole...


...with a new trim panel...


...and managed to dye the leather steering wheel which now looks factory fresh again:


Phew.

It feels good to slowly fix all the little stuff to turn back the clock on this one. You do get the feeling that this is still a 60 grand car, only a very neglected one. So with every fix it feels more and more like the premium motor it once was. There are quite a few things left to be tackled, so watch this space!

Loving the attention to the small stuff. Makes all the difference.

No, I can see them all. Cracking car, I've always liked these so you get a bookmark from me and I look forward to updates

Ah,

glad the pictures have sorted themselves. And hooray for the bookmark!

As to the steering wheel: I don't have a before-pic of the CLK's wheel, but it looked rather similar to the last wheel I did after sanding. The process is simple: clean and degrease the leather, give it a bit of a key and apply the dye with a foam pad in thin layers. Tapping works better than brushing. Depending on what you're starting with you'll get a nice even coverage after 2 coats, but it's only really durable after about 4-5 coats.

I've been using Colourlock leather dye for a number of years now - in my case supplied through German Lederzentrum. On the Porsche I've used a different manufacturer since they had the blue colour of my interior in stock and had similar results - so I guess it shouldn't be too hard to find a similar product in the UK.

Felix

I've been busy this weekend.

Instead of enjoying the sunshine with a tasty brew it was time to get going on the mechanical side of the CLK.

First up: the cabin air filter. I'd say it was a bit overdue:


After that it was time to get four new shocks under the car. I'm glad to report: not a single sheared bolt and don't they look good:


Two of them were quite past it and so was the old steering damper. It came apart in my hands so it was a good decision to throw in a new one:


Oh and a bit of an owner's alert to everybody driving a W202 C-Class, a W210 E-Class, R170 SLK and A/C208 CLK: next time you're under your car have a good look at your front lower wishbones. This is how they should look...


...and this is how they often look:


The difference is that little drain hole near the outer ball joint. While my left wishbone had one the right wishbone didn't. They often got clogged with primer when these cars were being built resulting in a rather nasty place for hidden rot. I've seen people on the German forums reporting of snapped wishbones because of this so this has to be taken seriously.
A little poke with a screwdriver is all it takes to open up the drain hole (or clean the muck out of your existing drain holes) followed by the liberal use of Fluid Film to be on the safe side.

Next up was one pig of a job: changing the spark plugs. There are 12 of these and access is rather limited. Much cursing was necessary just to get the first one out:


And even more for the remaining 11 ones, so no pics here. But: we got there in the end. With many broken fingers and bruised knuckles. Nasty.

Back under the car there was one last job on my list which I suppose may be a bit unpopular: I've raised my rear suspension. It just looked a tad too low in the rear so I've changed the rubber spring tops for slightly bigger ones. New one at the top, old one below:


This raised the rear by about 1,5cm. It's definetly not much, but it now has the "lowered" look rather than the "broken suspension" look to it:


So a rather eventful weekend that was. As the sun is out today I'll limit myself to only mount the latest result of ebay scambling to the car. A genuine license plate from of the Berlin Mercedes dealership with 3D-lettering and everything:


These are quite rare outside the dealership from what I hear. The three dealerships I've contacted wouldn't sell me one - strange as you'd think of the free advertising... There was one who was willing to give me one for free, but theirs are silver with a rather nasty looking white print. Nah.
I do admit that spending a considerable amount of time on finding an old genuine license plate frame is a bit silly, but I do like the story this part seems to tell. It's of very high quality and it comes with a URL that's still valid today. And in 1999 when this car was made I got my first broadband modem at home if that helps the reasoning.

And after that I'll have a beer. I think I've earned it.

Cheers,
Felix

Definitely looking much better.

Nice work I like these cars and it's another one on my list to own at some point