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Having recently fixed up a Land Rover I was just beginning to wonder what my next project would be. A couple of weeks back a colleague mentioned she was moving house soon. I thought I'd offer my assistance. Kinda my good deed for the year. Anyway she then mentions that she had an old car she wants to get rid of. Of course my interest picked up then. All she could tell me was it that it was a red Mercedes owned by her late husband and had been parked up three years ago. So anyway, this weekend I helped with the move and was then shown the garage. She says she just wants it gone and she has given it to me for the princely sum of zero. I didn't have a chance to look at it thorougly and couldn't work out how to open the bonnet. I think it's a 6-cylinder. When it was parked there was nothing wrong with it so I'm hoping it will be a fairly straight forward recommission. I guess it's going to need new tyres from standing so long as well as a full service and likely a new battery. If anyone has any advice or tips on these things they would be gratefully received. It appears to be well cared for prior to being parked up and the garage is dry so it doesn't appear to have any rust. Can anyone tell me what model year it is? I think late 80's, early 90's? I'll be getting a trailer and recovering it in the next couple of weeks. Should be fun driving through Sydney with my 1968 Land Rover towing a car.
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kirky
Part of things
Posts: 33
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Hi, welcome to the forum. The 300e is a straight 6 and looks to be an early model, maybe an 87, 88. This has a lot of potential, so much retro goodness can be had with these when they are low with a nice set of rims. A good wash and machine polish would have it looking like a new car. I look forward to the progress on this. As for faults, only things I've found that go wrong are multi function control relays that tick and click. Interior bulbs can flicker and the speedos all seem to have jumpy needles, also, the rear beam has 5 arms either side and a few at the front too and these do tend to go through bushes pretty quick, so I would check them out when your under the car, aswell as gearbox or diff leaks.
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berendd
Europe
why do I need 3 keys for one car?
Posts: 1,449
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potential, ooohh yes.. these W124's are rock solid, they do like to rust, but the mechanical bit is almost indestructible. when it has been sitting for a few years, make sure you check all the rubber bits, also make sure you lubricate the internals before starting it up (have the engine go round by hand a few times, and change the oil and coolant) also these are brilliant towing vehicles
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Thanks for the advice. I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in on it. Love the example you've put up above. Initial thoughts are to give it a good clean, a service and get it running and registered / insured so I can give it a proper drive and work out what else needs doing to it. I've never lowered a car before but that's definitely on the agenda as well as some more attractive wheels. I like the big dish wheels you see on more modern Mercedes. Just hoping that parts aren't massively expensive down here in Australia.
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Yes Early and in great superficial condition by the looks of it Grey bumpers are the give way, there were 3 basic series in Australia, grey bumper, colour code bumpers with grey inserts and full colour code with cladding, that was usually (though not always) a half tone different to the top colour Get the VIN, there are various web sites that will give you the EXACT spec as it came from the factory with typical German efficiency (thought the one I have used is Czech) ozbenz.net is the best AU forum and MB Spares and Service are the cheapest local parts (Canberra)
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Contrary to popular opinion, I do have mechanical sympathy, I always feel sorry for the cars I drive.
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levismerc
Part of things
Learning all the time...
Posts: 205
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That looks like an excellent old thing to be gifted! Decent spec too - alloys, leather (or is it MBtex although I think 6 ribs might mean proper bull skin) and aircon too by the looks of it. I expect most mercs were specced with aircon for Australia.
Nice one. Good luck with the tow through Sydney!
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'83 Merc 280CE
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levismerc
Part of things
Learning all the time...
Posts: 205
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'83 Merc 280CE
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MBTex was more common in the early years in Australia (due to Luxury car Tax) it wasn't until 90's that the leather became more common basically when they swaped to the "E" before the number Aircon is standard as were alloys (although they were local fit, due to the LCT) cruise, auto, cetral locking But this is still a very sweet example and being NSW it will probably not have any rust at all - got to love Australia for that
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Contrary to popular opinion, I do have mechanical sympathy, I always feel sorry for the cars I drive.
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dbdb
Part of things
Posts: 821
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That's a lovely old Merc - I prefer the earlier cars in this series. Looking at these seats, I'm fairly sure they're the early style leather ones - rather than the MB Tex. The link shows later model leather seats. Retro Rides member Dieselweasel knows a great deal about Mercedes of this era - he is sure to know! He has several interesting threads on here which I read regularly. With such a nice old car I'd just clean it up and drive it about, rather than modify it at this stage. But heh, others will disagree! David
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levismerc
Part of things
Learning all the time...
Posts: 205
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'83 Merc 280CE
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So after a couple of weeks waiting, it was finally time to head to Picton and collect the latest addition to my fleet. I set off early on Saturday morning to collect the hire trailer from the City. After some adjustments to my tow-hitch they were able to make it fit :-). It was then an hour and a half drive to get to the car. I was able to push it out of it's resting place and load it up on the trailer without any drama, helped that it was completely level and there was lots of space. Took me a while working out how best to strap it down to the trailer (I have never towed a trailer before, let alone tied down a car). The drive back to my place went pretty well, though you can certainly tell you're towing something pretty damn heavy. My Land Rover was struggling up the hills and I could see the temperature gauge rising and going down the hills I could feel the brakes struggling with the weight. Made a couple of stops on the way to check that it was still properly attached. All was going well until I got to unloading it at the other end. I live on a steep hill with cars parked on either side of the road. To cut a long story short, I discovered that the handbrake does not work on the Mercedes. It ended up rolling / plouging through the neighbour's brick garden wall. It also ran over my foot. Thankfully it came to a stop before it proceeded to go through the neighours living room! Anyway, we managed to drag it out and it's now where it was meant to be. Unfortunately one of the lights got smashed and the back corner is badly dented from the impact. It could have been much worse, had it gone down the road it would have smashed into cars and well it doesn't bear thinking about! So yesterday I had a closer look at what I'd got. It's a 1989 300E and Ibeleive it is fitted with the 3.0 litre straight six. Everything looks to be in good order (except the large dent I'm responsible for). There were a couple of nests in the engine bay and some of the wires had been partially chewed. I tried charging the battery that seems long dead, it's actually been parked up for four years. Anyway I borrowed the batter off my Land Rover and put some fresh fuel in to see what might happen. After turing over a few times it then burst into life. Amazing (well I though it was amazing, but I'm easily impressed). I had it running for about ten minutes. Checked out the electrics and everything, with the exception of the rear passenger door window, works including the sunroof, electric mirrors and fold down rear head restraints. After ten minutes running it stalled and wouldn't start. I suspect it needs more fresh fuel. Next step is to buy a new batter, give it a proper service and go from there. It had full Mercedes service history and definitely looks like it was well cared for before being laid up. I have been surprised by the amount of extras this car has, including cruise control and ABS. Gutted I damaged the bodywork, it was so straight before!
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Aug 19, 2013 10:16:54 GMT
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That is a bit unfortunate, but the running and electrics are pretty good. Most likely filters have just blocked up, not sure about this model but it may have 3 filters, the one in tank is easily forgotten, one under and one in engine bay.
There were a few 260E in 89 but most 6's were 300E's.
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Contrary to popular opinion, I do have mechanical sympathy, I always feel sorry for the cars I drive.
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Aug 19, 2013 10:38:31 GMT
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124.030 is a 3 liter, yes. The seats are indeed pre-'89/pre-facelift leather seats. IMO the nicest, classic looking seats. Gassers have only a big fuel filter in the rear, next to the pump. And the fuel tank strainer. ABS and electric passenger mirror was standard for the 3.0, Only the "lesser" cars had to be ordered with ABS. But apart from that you pretty much had to order everything. Coloured glas, sunroof, electric windows, air con, radio, radio antenna(!) etc. etc. Good price for a car like this! In many cases the ignition is troublesome resp. neglected on this engine. If there's oily mist in the cap, replace the seal to the camshaft. Also the big o-ring sealign the cap is often brittle. And last but not least, good quality ignition parts are a bit costly. On the other hand the cheap-ish ignition parts don't last long... So you'r sort of forced to chuck a load of money on the ignition.
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Aug 19, 2013 21:33:18 GMT
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Strainer filter was what I meant in tank, all Aussie cars had Elec window air radio, even the 4cyl Good point about the wires, and you can't buy cheap ones from Repco and expect them to last, I think the OEM made by Bahr (sp?) ones are what you need and they are anything but cheap!
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Contrary to popular opinion, I do have mechanical sympathy, I always feel sorry for the cars I drive.
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