1985 Mercedes Benz W123 230E - The Taxi

I read a pistonheads article about the 250d being under rated. the manual one was actually quicker than a 300d auto. I know that whatever w124 I get it is not going to go down in value either. Interesting to know about the timing chain.

I thought when I set up the VP37 fuel pump on my e39 that I was going to have to get rid of it as I had messed up the pump timing when I changed the seals.

I bought one of those cheap diagnostic tools that gave live values and managed to get it set up my tiny tiny adjustments. It ran alright before doing the setup to absolutely brilliant afterwards. I even got an extra 3 to 4mpg after doing the job.

The e39 covered 27k miles on veg, the zx around 15k and the punto 5k. the w210 did about 7k and never missed a beat but the amount of work that needed done was too much to justify fixing it.

I have already enquired about potential causes of crunchy gear changes here:

autoshite.com/topic/33764-gear-change-issue-question-faulty-synchro/?hl=w124+gear+change

Today I investigated the cause of a stiff change from neutral into first. Whilst every other gear goes in ok, first often baulks, regardless whether the engine is hot or cold.

Underneath the selector rods and bushes look fine.





And up top there’s nothing to see.



Could there be something amiss inside the gearbox?

A DIY gearbox oil change on the drive is not an option, time to pay my old mechanic a visit.

The 200E’s engine was coated with decades of oil, muck and neglect. It needed cleaning for three reasons:

1. The MoT tester would probably flag up the mess come May’s test.
2. After a run there was an oily smell coming from under the bonnet.
3. Aesthetics.

Pre-wash photos:

Once cleaned and dried, I started the engine. It fired first time, no problems whatsoever.

Clean and sparkly.



No more oily deposits here.











Underneath everything looks much cleaner.





I cleaned the sump guard and gave it a coat of waxoil.



The paint on the cam cover was already badly cracked so I’m not surprised that most of it peeled off. I will give the cover a lick of paint next weekend, refit the sump guard and replace the engine oil and filter.

I had planned to visit an autojumble this morning.

Details here: autoshite.com/topic/34182-kidlington-oxford-autojumble-this-sunday/

After yesterday's engine cleaning shenanigans the engine re-started first time and ran fine. However, this morning it took a lot of cranking to get the engine started but once running everything seemed fine or at least I thought it was. I set off and within less than ten minutes the engine started to misfire. I stopped on the M40 slip road to investigate.



I fiddled with the plug leads and checked for any evidence of moisture. There was none. I figured that I would drive to the next junction and come off and go home if the engine was still running rough or continue if the problem cleared up. Luckily the engine seemed fine and I continued my journey north on the M40.

I drove past Handy Cross (J4), the car running just fine, happy that I only lost 5 minutes of my time, I noticed a familiar looking car on the hard shoulder - my brother in law's Volvo.

Previous Volvo related episode here: autoshite.com/topic/34031-christmas-day-mishap-w124-to-the-rescue-now-properly-fixed/?hl=volvo+diesel+unleaded

Since the mis-fuel issue, the fuel level float has been playing up and despite showing half a tank on the gauge, the tank was dry. My BIL's girlfriend was on route to work so I figured I need to stop and help.

Silly girl left the car inches from the nearside lane.



So I gave her a quick tow to a safer location.



Then the old bill turned up for a chinwag.



And twenty minutes later the nice RAC man turned up with fuel.



With fuel in the tank the Volvo burst into life without any problems. Amazingly, there were no issues with airlocks or blockages caused by filth in the tank (there was loads, I could see it when we were draining the tank).

It was so ******* cold on that hard shoulder that once we got the Volvo going I turned back and went home for a cuppa.

That's the second time the 200E saved that Volvo.

Mercedes 2 - 0 Volvo

Last year I removed the silly ICE from my W123 and fitted a period Becker radio cassette player. The fancy Bluetooth Kenwood head unit found its way into my Boxster whilst the boom box ended up sitting up in my office. I have now returned the Boxster's ICE to stock, in preparation for its sale, which led me to think of a cunning plan. Time to upgrade the 200E's ICE.

The most time consuming part of fitting a sub in the boot is extending wiring through the car. Firstly, I had to take the glovebox lining out to get to the rear of the bulkhead, via which I extended a power cable connected to the battery.



Then I had to remove various bits of trim and the rear seat to extend the cabling from behind the dashboard to the rear of the car. Fortunately, having done this before to my W123 and having fitted various head units to my previous W124s, I actually knew what I was doing.







4.5 hours later, job done. The head unit and microphone (for a hands-free phone connection) are in place.



And the money shot.



Having taken my time, I managed a discreet installation without breaking any trim. All the cables are hidden and I did not have to drill any holes or damage any part of the car - the installation is 100% reversible.

On a low bass setting the four speakers sound nice and clear and with the head unit suitably set up, most of the bass is being produced by the sub. The effect of the install is very pleasing. The W124's boot is far better finished than a W123's, which has no lining to the underside of the boot panel and hard plastic side panels. The W124 has soft linings on all sides and the result is almost no vibration of external panels. Great result and the whole job cost me nothing.

I haven't updated this thread for a while mostly because I've spent very little time driving or tinkering with the 200E.

Firstly, the new original Mercedes Benz thermostat appears to have made very little difference to the engine's running temperature. I suspect that the cheap Ebay water pump is causing the electro-magnetic fan to engage prematurely and thus the engine is over-cooling. The gap between the two faces of the clutch is smaller than what it should be, even with my cunning plastic shim fitted and the clutch is clearly not working as intended. I can hear the fan turning as soon as the engine temp reaches 87 degrees, which can't be right. As a solution, I propose to remove the clutch and fan and wire in an electric fan.

The second issue relates to a rattle that could be heard from the engine bay whenever engine revs dropped below idle speed. At first I though the metallic sounding noise was related to a loose exhaust clamp but further investigations revealed that the noise is actually coming from the auxiliary belt tensioner. Today I decided to remove the tensioner and see whether anything can be done to silence it.

As usual, access to the engine ancillaries was superb. I had the tensioner out within ten minutes.



Unfortunately, whilst removing the manual tension adjuster, part of the tensioner body, where the manual tension adjuster connects, cracked. Not a problem as the tensioner was knackered anyway.



I took the old tensioner to Hughes of Beaconsfield and ordered a new one. A snip at £173 and that's with a discount. Should be with me by Thursday.

On a happier note, I went for a drive via Wendover on Sunday and took a couple of photos of the 200E next to another white 200E, which also has a manual 'box. The other 200E looked tired and unloved compared to mine.





Hopefully I'll update this thread again later this week, once I've got the new tensioner fitted.

I drove down to Sandown Park yesterday for the first BP Fairs toy collector fair of the season. I got a couple of nice W124 models.

Whilst the 200E drove fine on the M40, M25 and A3, once in traffic approaching my destination the cooling fan kicked in and ruined the driving experience - so much noise and the engine, which has to turn a 16" fan that acts like a propeller, doesn't want to rev. I've decided to buy one of these:



Before I left the fair I took a nice shot of the 200E next to a period 520i. Two great but very different cars.

It's mostly the dynamics. Where the Merc has to make do with a rough old four cylinder motor, the BMW has a sweet six pot, albeit both are of similar capacity. The Merc is also tuned more for comfort where as the BMW has sharper handling and much more communicative steering. It's impossible to say which is the better car, both are bona fide classics, it all depends on the kind of driving experience that the owner is looking for.