Mercedes 190e 2.5-16 - Dashboard Removal, More issues....

Great effort all round chap. A mint 190 Cosworth is a great looking thing.

I'm interested in getting my car resprayed, whereabouts did you get yours done? I couldn't seem to find a Premier Spray Finishers in Wimborne. Also, mind sharing how much the paint job was and how long it took.

A bit of a wordy one today, normal service will be resumed shortly!

Autodoc are offering 27% off for Black Friday!! Now, although I don't normally buy into this BS, they are genuinely cheaper for a few bits that I need...
After extensive reading (and a few forum members helping me (read above)), I've ordered the following;

- 2no. SLS Spheres. Febi, less then £70 each
- Aux belt tensioner.

I've long suspected the rubber in the tensioner being shot and on Saturday the belt was slipping at idle. That doesn't work for me, so another little job to do. Probably a rad out job knowing my luck....

Now onto the Rear Suspension Debarcle...

What i've learnt about the SLS (Self levelling rear suspension for those who don't know) Is that in most cases only 4 parts fail. This is working on the premise that everything is connected!

- Accuator Arm. Rare that they break, but can have trapped air, arm slip on the spline or the link snaps and parts ways from the ARB (last point being the most common)
- The spheres. Will give you a bouncy ride and turn the fluid black (when the Nitrogen mixes)
- The pump. May develop an internal leak. Might do a little something or just won't do anything!
- The shocks (these are £200 a piece!). You'll see a leak somewhere!

As my system is in high mode that proves that the shocks are functioning (plus it's holding pressure and fluid), so thats the expensive bit ruled out. The car (when I was using it) always bounced around a bit, but judging by ALL the suspensions overall condition, it could have been anything!

As a rule of thumb, the spheres should be replaced every 50k. Well, I have no invoice and mine say Bosche on them, so they're exceptionally old. Sadly Bosche no longer make them and (from what i've read) the best option are the Febi ones, but the quality isn't anywhere near as good. So that's what i'll try first.

If the pump needs a rebuild, it's not a disaster. Theres a chap in the States that sells a kit and rebuild video for sensible money. In the longer term I will probably rebuild it as that seems to be the way with everything on this car.

Whilst hunting around and looking at these bits I also noticed a drop of oil on the floor from the front timing cover. Its a rebuilt engine, Dammit! Something else to try and find.....

Swampy, from what I know Febi are part of the Bilstein Group which owns Swag and Blue Print as well. The Bilstein shock company is completely separate and owned by some major German industrial conglomerate.

As for Febi parts in general, I get the feeling that the quality is not as good as it was say ten years ago and now I try to buy Lemforder or Meyle. Now, I could be completely wrong but I'm happier not buying Febi. All very subjective of course.

Saturday afternoon started with a bit of DIY and then running away to work on the Merc.
After spending more money on Autodoc (surprisingly cheap at times) I needed to move on and fit the front bumper.
The temperature sensor needed refitting, but that's another story....

I bought two side bumper mounts off ebay from China and one of them broke instantly, really I only needed 1, but they where very cheap. So after swopping that, I fitted the bumper.



It took a while and a lot of faffing, moving it about, etc. The above is the newly refitted factory wing. As you can see, nice fit, all square and marrys up perfectly (I need to drill holes for the arch).



And now the curse word aftermarket wing. curse word fit, looks wrong and seems to bend in the wrong direction at the bottom.



Another of the lump of s*** aftermarket wing. I did speak with my bodywork guy (Mark) over the weekend, he's convinced that he can make it fit right. I'm of a different opinion.

The hunt for a genuine offside front wing has begun. If anybody knows of one, please say!

I agree with Darrenh tbh; if someone is going to be that anal about something like that (rather than applaud the level of work, the money invested, the time and dedication to the car as a whole) then you know what? f em.

This has aftermarket wings fitted on both sides. The same problem was encountered, simply not fitting correctly at the front. The bodyshop guy stuck with it and I was very happy with the outcome. They were still not a perfect fit. 

These are the problems with them! I've found one that looks OK on ebay for sensible money. I know what I'm like, by the time I get back from Florida I'll have one waiting. I'm not prepared to persevere with the pattern wing, it'll end up needing a repaint by the time it's been adjusted to fit correctly.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all. I hope that you stuffed your faces full of food/booze and had quality time with loved ones!

With Christmas over and the odd spot of holiday inbetween Christmas and New Years, I thought it best to crack on with a few more jobs on the car. I'd bought spray tin wax as i've been having a few issues with my compressor (turned out to be the regulator, but thats another story....) I did a small trial spot on the now-to-be scrapped front wing. It went well. Left it for a few days and checked on it. Perfect.



With that settled, the wing was dropped over to Marks for "Eurofiling"



It's going fine, but i'm dropping over the bodykit tonight so that he can be 100% sure that the fit will be right.



Here's some of the original parts number stickers!

Next up was the rear suspension. Theres a lot of rubbers and plastics to fit in this area and before I got too far, didn't want to give myself problems. In order to jack it suitably, I needed to fit the rubber jacking bungs. First off, dropping the bungs into a jug of boiling water to soften them. Then spay wax as much as possible in and around the jacking posts. To the point that it's dripping out.



This is one of the Mercedes specific points that was loaded up.



The bungs slid in without issue. Then onto the rear suspension. My original plan had been to remove the it all in place. I got fed up with that idea after a while and instead drained down the fuel tank and removed the subframe.









Removing the subframe was a pain. But well worth the hassle. Next up is cleaning the metalwork around the subframe mounts and repainting the bits that aren't being replaced. I've ordered up the 4 remaining bushes. When they arrive i'll start rebuilding it all.
Luckily, theres no play in the diff and only the breather needed cleaning. There are however a few SLS hoses that need replacing.

Roll on another few spare days to do a bit more

Ah the pattern wing game.

On my 250D, the pattern wing was rubbing on the A- Pillar (causing that to rust) and rusting far more than the factory wing on the passenger side. it was pretty tricky for the last people to make them fit. For that reason, I stuck with the genuine wings on my E320, much to the annoyance of the panter.

That said, the wings for mine are around £200 each from Mercedes. I'm surprised yours are that expensive. Are they different compared to a normal 190E?

Great progress as always!