1985 Mercedes Benz W123 230E - The Taxi

Superb. I love the basic models - just look at the room in the engine bay!

Whilst my front wing repairs are holding out as far as rust is concerned, unfortunately the paint finish has acquired an unwanted off white patina and the brush strokes were more visible than ever.



In the spirit of this project, I decided to improve the appearance of the wings using only whatever I already had in the garage.

1. Left over spray can of white paint from a R129 SL that I got rid off over three years ago.
2. Two sheets of sand paper that I foolishly bought from a pound shop.
3. Left over masking tape from a recent redecoration project of my son’s bedroom.
4. Old copy of The Sun, which contained a saucy pic of Ola Jordan.

I rubbed down the old Hammerite finish as best as I could but unfortunately it was not possible to feather in the paint and lose the raised edge. Then came the paint.





Once the paint dries and hardens I will cut it back to get a better finish but already the wings are looking better.





Some people (not on this forum) highly criticised my wing repairs, suggesting that the copious amounts of filler that I used will crack and rust will come through in a matter of weeks. I’m not suggesting that I did a proper job but hitherto the filler has remained solid and no rust has come through.

One happy W124:

I filled the tank and worked out the fuel consumption between fill ups. 37.5MPG! Ok, the 200E hasn’t seen any traffic and most miles were clocked up on M and A roads but that’s still impressive.

More about me here:

retrorides.proboards.com/thread/94932/1985-mercedes-benz-w123-230e?page=1

I sold it 18 months ago and bought a W219 CLS, which I sold six months later and I’m now leasing a Hyundai Tucson for daily duties.

The 200E usually gets used over the weekend and remains static, under a cover, during the week. When I first crank it over after it’s been standing for five days it takes 3-4 seconds to start and for the first 5-10 seconds it runs a little lumpy. After this initial imperfect phase the M102 fires on all four and runs just fine.

I investigated the condition of the ignition system. When I first bought the car I checked the condition of the spark plugs and all four looked fresh.

Removal of the distributor cap revealed that one of the two screws that secure the cap was loose.

Inside of the cap:



Rotor arm:



I can’t see much wrong with either. I cleaned the tip of the rotor arm and the pick ups inside the cap and reassembled everything ensuring that the two screws that retain the cap are tight. The engine hasn’t been run for four days and started immediately at the first turn of the key.

I’m going to keep an eye on things and see how the engine behaves when starting. Decent quality new plugs, leads, cap and rotor arm would set me back over £100 and may not make any difference to the performance of the engine, money I’d rather not spend. I wonder what effect the winter weather will have on the engine. I’ll soon find out.

After the Knebworth House classic car show I promised myself that I won’t bother attending any more random events. However, the weather was nice today and I fancied taking the 200E for a drive and I ended up going to the Farnham classic car show.

Nice that the car park attendants recognised the 200E status and pointed me in the direction of the classics only reserved spaces. I ended up parking between a Triumph and a moody Roller.



Another mediocre event but I did pick up seven old car brochures for a fiver. Car of the show for me was this Silcoo converted Lincoln Continental. The headlights are pure sex.







Following yesterday's throttle cleaning shenanigans I am pleased to report that the surging has stopped and the idle is also smoother.

There's been some good progress here.

The correct coolant is indeed G48. Mercedes however these days will only sell OAT.

I've used G48 in a few older cars now ; it seems to be the best of the IAT coolants IME.

Without derailing this thread massively...

300Ds are one of the best engines to run on veg but there are considerations to be made:
-Cost; it isn't that much cheaper these days than just running normal diesel unless you go to a chippy for used oil; but then of course it needs cleaning up before it's put in the tank.
-Residue buildup ; you will get more residue wax buildup, which can partially be done by changing the filters more often (people say to go from 30k to around 10k on the filters), and even then some residue will still get past, and affect the performance. Cleaning/refurbing injectors is cheap on these in comparison to modern stuff but there is still a cost attached.
-The smell; it will smell like a chippy behind you.
-The cold ; in cold conditions the veg really needs something else to make it work as it does congeal ; I used to put in normal diesel.

I've run other cars on veg but they were £200 crappers. 300Ds don't really seem to go for that anymore unless they have issues (rust being a problem now).

I say that as I bought a 300D which TBH didn't run as well as it could have done, and it wreaked of biofuel and veg oil. Some Diesel Purge and tuning later and the car pull much better under the new owner. My 250D which seems to have only been run on diesel drove much better from the off ; you couldn't really tell the difference and possibly due to the manual it did pull nicely ; at 45MPG I wasn't too bothered either at trying to save more.

If you do get rid of your 530d let me know. I've debated about getting one for a while.