ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,309
Club RR Member Number: 170
|
|
|
|
It's funny. Once you acheive a big hurdle, you think it will be smooth sailing, that's it! From an outsider looking in, it can seem that way! On the face of it the Merc came across as follows: -A solid car with no real blemishes -Evidence of good work done on it over the years including B4 shocks fitted and new brake lines etc. -A fancy hi-fi system fitted But, not all that glitters is quite as it seems. It's not bad, but ultimately, it is a 47 year old unrestored car, so while that's a huge advantage, things won't go smoothly either! One of the few things I noticed after getting it MOT'd was that the rear seemed to have a very slow wallow about it, which on corners with bumps on would become unsettling. Many told me 'the cars are like that', which I wasn't convinced on, but maybe they had a point! After all, I was now used to the W124 and the E46 M3, both with advanced rear suspension setups, not a Merc with swing axle suspension! I had my reason for why the rear wasn't as I expected too! - I've never been fully convinced by Bilstein B4 dampers being a great OE damper, and these were a little soft
- This car is meant to have a hydropneumatic compensator in place ; mine has long gone and now has a spring in lieu ; a common change to make. In my mind, that would affect the spring rates and thus the effective working of stock dampers anyway
I suspected the rear compensator being missing wasn't helping things. The rear would almost follow on from doing a bounce test on the car when stationary, but the front was as solid as a rock when doing the same test, which seemed to support my theory. So, what would I do? Some suggested that I should air-ride it. A nice idea, but it can get quite expensive! Others suggested  I've heard alot about these KYB Gas-A-Just and the reviews can seem mixed, but I know when I drove a Triumph 2.5PI on them, I was sold on them. So I figured I'd give them a go on the Merc. Not one for the purists, but you never know. At least I'd get rid of spiders webs and eggs!   Compared to the old dampers, at least they looked nicer anyway! But having something looking nicer doesn't mean that it will work as we all know! Since the job was fairly simple, both were fitted on swiftly. I do plan to post a video on this, but we shall see  . What I can say is that the body control has improved all round. It's surprising since I've only done the rears! It still have a very faint wallow, but it is now acceptable. Furthermore, it is much more planted in the corners. What is surprising for a car of this age is how the car is quite composed for its age! Driving it at night is a true joy, especially as Blinkin' said, " I can see!" Sorry, I meant Jimmy Cliff. I mean, I really can see clearly now!  There is more to come, but I've also got to do more work on it! So that's me for now! |
| |
|
|
|
|
ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,309
Club RR Member Number: 170
|
|
|
|
So, besides making it more usable, what else have I done? Well, I gave this car its eyeliner back! It didn't quite look right without the trim! I ended up removing it as the piece had gone missing that attaches it to the wing. I was getting prepared to make a part up if needs be!  Saying that, this gentleman seemed to really enjoy my car not having an eyelash! So, how would I fix it? Simple! I'd check I could get the parts in, fit it and then stand back. No, really, that was it!  For those wondering, that ring is the power steering filter! That's another job on the 'to do' list.    It's fair to say that it looks alot better now! Has there been more going on? Yes. For now, here's a teaser of what is to come:     Why am I showing you pics of all of this? This would happen all because the car would not start one day. |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
For me the old style number plates that you have added make the appearance of the car just so much better
|
| |
|
|
ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,309
Club RR Member Number: 170
|
|
|
|
For me the old style number plates that you have added make the appearance of the car just so much better 100% agreed! I shall do more shots with them, but that'll wait until later. The plastic plates were fitted pretty much the day I got the V5 through ; no-one near me made the black and silvers; even these took over a week to arrive from ordering them; Only an import sized plate will correctly fit the rear without converting it to a European bumper.   I almost went with ones like on my Stag, but I think I made the right choice in the end.  But, let's get back on track  . After all, there are always flies in the ointment. Like most stories, I had great intentions, but it wasn't to be. It all started with me changing the air filter. From RockAuto, I ordered a 'Standard Motor Products' Filter. Over here, a Mann filter was £50+. Sure, I know it's a Mercedes, but even a CSL filter isn't much pricier than that, and I know which filter is rarer out of the two, and it isn't the Merc item! So, I took a gamble. Would the new filter be much worse? No! And I would be in for a surprise!   Yup, the new filter was also a Mann filter, of the same type too! When compared to the old filter, it was clear that the old one had seen better days! So it was a case of being out with the old and in with the new:   With that done, it was time to move onto the HT leads! While my car ran fine, the HT leads were in a bit of a state! It was clear that with half of them having insulation tape on them, they were well past their best.  This wasn't really a surprise to me! When I searched online, decent HT leads from Bosch were £120+ and specific to the V8 only. Not a great price, but not the worst I've seen for HT leads! Obviously, I wasn't too keen on splashing out for them! However, when a set of Denso HT leads popped up from RockAuto, I decided to give them a go at £60, and I must say that the quality of the them is very impressive! Certainly better than the Magnecors I've purchased for other cars   But would the car drive differently? It certainly would! From starting on the button, it now started even more positively and seemed a little more responsive! Almost as if the car had got rid of a hangover! Was it a success? You bet it was! While the car seemed to be running well, it gave me a bit of a scare on the bank holiday weekend! After getting a new dizzy cap, I fitted it onto the car. It was in a better state compared to what I removed. At this point, it can only go swimmingly, surely?   Well, that's what we were all expecting! But our survey said:  Yup! I went from a running car to one that wouldn't start. I mean, it wouldn't even attempt to start up, after very briefly running for 1 second. When I came to check for a spark from the coil, I could see that it had 12V at the coil, but no spark coming from it! How was this possible? What kind of witchcraft was this? I then put the old dizzy cap on in blind faith, hoping for the best. Was it a futile exercise? Probably. But it still wouldn't spark! Eventually, it fired up when it randomly got a spark back. But, it wasn't perfect! The car decided that it wanted a flirtation of iffy running with me. In town, it cut out cleaning for 1 second, before catching and firing up again! This is not what you want when you are wishing to take a car to France or Goodwood! I was tempted to treat it as a one off, but it seemed Googling a non-starting 4.5 would make me question a few things! Basically, these cars run a strange ignition sytem as follows: - Ignition (Transistor) Box to take the load off the points
- Points and condensor, albeit the latter is put in as a redundancy measure and isn't needed with the above box. Mercedes even say this now.
- From the Ignition box, 2 ballast resistors (1 is a 0.6Ohm, the other a 0.4 Ohm) run in series to the coil, with a starter feed bypassing one of the ballast resistors
It seems the transistor box after time can form poor connections internally and cause iffy running! The way I saw it, I had a few choices: - Keep the system as it is : I didn't really trust the igntion side after that scare. Am I overreacting? Maybe? But I also don't want to break down on a motorway to Goodwood or France either!
- Fit a secondhand item ; I may still have the same issue
- Go electronic : Naturally, i can switch the points out for a hall-effect system or go all out with a Nodiz setup
What would I end up doing? Well, we'll see. What would you folks have done in the above? |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Go for fully electronic. Points Always wear and especially on a V8. I am not into Mercs but this is a very good looking car!
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Go for fully electronic. Points Always wear and especially on a V8. What this man said ^^^ 100% |
| |
Still learning...still spending...still breaking things!
|
|
ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,309
Club RR Member Number: 170
|
|
|
|
Well, it's time I did an update! Go for fully electronic. Points Always wear and especially on a V8. I am not into Mercs but this is a very good looking car! Go for fully electronic. Points Always wear and especially on a V8. What this man said ^^^ 100% Interesting to hear! A few people were saying I'd devalue the car and lose the orginilaity! I make no secret about being a tinkerer, but I do also know one thing! To enjoy a car, first you have to trust the car! Not having it moving will naturally compromise that . So, how would I resolve this? Simple.  Get a means of removing that complexity for something a little more reliable! Sure, people say points are easier and can get you back home, but when you have a system with a fancy box in that's knocking on 50 years old, I think I can be excused . I tried to look for less fancier options but it seems Pertronix are about the only people who make a conversion kit for my Mercedes. I had two choices on how I wired up the Pertronix system: - Ditch the points but keep the ignition box and ballast resistors. Seeing as I didn't trust the ignition box and they seem to go wrong, I wasn't keen to do that!
- Lose the ignition box, ballast resistors and coil and go with a coil compatible with the Pertronix setup
Well, you can guess what I did! I originally planned on going with a normal looking, but higher energy/lower impedance Ignitior II coil, but then choices can be the bane of our lives. Upon playing with the Pertronix configurator, I spotted that I could get a Pertronix Ingitor HV coil. It offered more volts, a lower impedance and I noticed that it was an epoxy coil ; the other 'normal' looking epoxy Ignitor II coil seemed tricky to find anyway! Naturally, this left me with a dilemna, and like anyone in this situation, logic soon went out of the window!  As it turned out, not a walk in the park. Not terrible, but I was creating more work for myself, which I seem to enjoy doing! By buying the larger coil, I'd have to make a mounting plate to secure it to the original fixing holes. So, not a real biggy in the grand scheme of things . There was another issue with going electronic, that I've created for myself, but I'll come to that later . First, I'd remove the old system. Upon removing the parts, more and more issues seemed to arise. Looking at stuff on the car, all seemed to be OK. A bit dirty but OK. I didn't look that carefully mind you, and in a relatively cramped engine bay, it's hard to see alot anyway! Some will see an issue here, and it's not the fact the ballast resistor is away from the bodywork. It was very hot to the touch too, but I understand that is normal. It was then time to liberate the entire Ignition system from the car, but not without loosening off the power steering pump. Yes, I did just say that, but why would I loosen it? The reason is that the points wire at some point had been pinched by the pump, probably during a belt change I'd have said, given that the pump's movements are adjustable. This may well have been a factor for why the car was losing spark: The second thing I noticed was the ballast resistor, and initially I thought I was responsible, until I saw the above photos off my camera. I guess taking photos can be handy at times .  Yup, the resistor had cracked. It seems to have been cracked for quite some time, and yes, my Merc had two of them! It looks to have been cracked for quite some time going by the look of it. So, maybe it was the right call to be changing all of the parts! Maybe the points were bad!  Looking at the points, they're by far the worst set I've seen. They had some very minor marks, but I've seen cars run fine with much worse points present. Just as well as Bosch points alone are around £30 for this. You can go cheaper, but I've also been bitten by cheap points in the past, so it was another plus point for the Pertronix system!  Finally, I changed the spark plugs. In all honesty, the old ones didn't look too bad, but it seems that like the plugs in my W124, the Bosch items were resistored, which is what the aftermarket catalogues say is true. It's funny, as Mercedes sell the non-resistored plugs to Joe Public. As a result, the non-resistored NGK BP6EYs went into the Merc. So, with all of these changes, would it start? Well, I'll leave that for another time . |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I wouldn't concern myself about devaluing the car by fitting an electronic ignition setup. If it did turn into a deal breaker, just keep the original parts with the car giving a new potential owner the option if the time came to sell. Besides that, you hit the nail on the head. First, the reliability (trust) is key to the ownership experience imo, not to mention that engine performance/efficiency will be improved as a bonus. I wouldn't be surprise if you actually see a slight improvement in mpg too.
Keep up the good work - lovely machine and a great project.
|
| |
Last Edit: May 8, 2019 19:47:10 GMT by Woofwoof
Still learning...still spending...still breaking things!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
P.s. I meant to say, since you're doing the ignition system it might be worthwhile replacing the injectors as they are a 60,000 mile service item (and rarely changed).
|
| |
Still learning...still spending...still breaking things!
|
|
ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,309
Club RR Member Number: 170
|
|
|
|
P.s. I meant to say, since you're doing the ignition system it might be worthwhile replacing the injectors as they are a 60,000 mile service item (and rarely changed). Given the price of the injectors, I may have to get them refurbished (ultrasonically blasted). They're not what you'd call cheap! www.german-spob.com/start.php?language=eng&land=ENG&gs=ja&ArtNr=G9-10-R5-DI've not had injectors requiring replacing previously in cars, so maybe I'll get lucky. We shall see1 Anyway, the car runs! I need to tidy up the wiring but I can crack on with that today . |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
May 11, 2019 18:53:53 GMT
|
|
Getting them cleaned is a good idea but they wear internally, thus Merc class them as a service item and recommend changing them @ 100,000kms. For reference in future search, using the Bosch part number (those injectors were used in a wide range of Merc's and other cars also). Have a look on Google (U.S.). Iirc, in the U.S. a complete set is c.500 bucks.
|
| |
Still learning...still spending...still breaking things!
|
|
keyring
Part of things
Posts: 913
Club RR Member Number: 47
|
|
May 11, 2019 19:57:26 GMT
|
Has already been said, but I’d say you went the correct route with the electronic ignition. It’s a rubbish feeling driving a car and worrying whether it’s going to start again when you stop or not! I doubt it would ever be a deal breaker if you were to ever sell, it’s going to be a well sorted and reliable example  |
| |
|
|
brc76
RR Helper
Posts: 1,108 
|
|
May 11, 2019 22:50:32 GMT
|
|
I also vote for pertronix, used them on many of my cars and never had a problem.
|
| |
|
|
ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,309
Club RR Member Number: 170
|
|
|
|
It's good to see a few are thinking that Electronix Ignition is the way forward, especially with the Pertronix setup. But before I could tackle the Pertronix Setup, I change the power steering filter. For some reason, Mercedes seem to like their filters ; most other cars have them, but they are built into the reservoir, meaning the reservoir either has to be cleaned or replaced. Since this was a replaceable one, I changed it. However, I could not find an aftermarket supplier for one of these, so Mercedes it was in this case .  So, let's get back to the ignition system. When I initially tested the setup to see if it would work, I literally threw the setup into the car, twisting wires together where I thought it would take more than 1 minute to do a decent job.  Yes, it really did have an element of RoadKill about it! Once I determined that it would work, I got to work on tidying it up. The issues I had were - Ignitor II ignition power wires were way too short
- Ignition 12V feed was miles away from the coil ; it fed the box before, not the coil power
- Mounting the coil itself
They needed to be made longer. So, how would I start resolving this simple issue? Well, I went out and got more stuff, and ended spending a good hour on doing the job in the end! I didn't even solder the wires together! While I know some others here don't like soldering due to the wire being unable to flex, thus the wire can fatigure and break, I went with crimping this time, albeit with a difference .  First off I crimped the wire. I was going to solder the wire to the very end of the terminal, but in the end I ended up running some Super glue over the connection, thus help in waterproofing it going forwards. On top of this, I ended up using the crimps provided by Pertronix for the ignition coil ; I may change these to a similar style to the above, but I must say their crimps seem to be a level above the crappy generic Red, Yellow and Blue items, with the wire being secure. Again, I ran over the bare bit of the connection with glue . Eventually, it looked something like this:  So, not bad! It could be better, but at least it looks vaguely tidy, and near enough unoticeable. But there is one more thing to add to this story.  Yup, I put a connector in place, thus allowing for the distributor to be removed easily if it needs to be. As a result, I've been rewarded with better hot starting, and possibly even a perkier engine, with all of the surge issues now gone . |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
May 20, 2019 16:30:45 GMT
|
You looked very majestic on the A34 yesterday. It was very much a chalk and cheese moment. Particularly as you gently accelerated through the traffic whilst I had a ‘I need to be in the right lane at the roundabout... but if I pull back in I won’t be able to accelerate back out in a minute’ moment.... I became even more jealous 10 minutes later when it rained The Mercedes does look a lovely thing |
| |
|
|
ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,309
Club RR Member Number: 170
|
|
Jun 17, 2019 22:09:07 GMT
|
You looked very majestic on the A34 yesterday. It was very much a chalk and cheese moment. Particularly as you gently accelerated through the traffic whilst I had a ‘I need to be in the right lane at the roundabout... but if I pull back in I won’t be able to accelerate back out in a minute’ moment.... I became even more jealous 10 minutes later when it rained The Mercedes does look a lovely thing Cheers! It's not a quick thing to drive. A 3.28 Final Drive ratio (one of the tallest rear ends fitted to a Swing Axle Merc), combined with a 3 speed auto, and 200BHP propelling along a 1600kg brick through the air never really will be . But it does have a way about it. That tall rear end also gives it superb high speed cruisability. It just wafts and romps along at 80! But Goodwood for me was mainly a test run. I have a bit more of a test planned for the car. A test run which went rather well. However, even from that test run, I could tell a few things would need doing: -Sound system tweaking a little more -No heater controls ; mine have broken off -Steering had over 1" of free play ; It's passable for an MOT but it's not right, especially going down country lanes, in addition to always correcting it. -Passenger window was not fully closing ; it seemed to be jumping off the end of the regulator, well kind of. While it seems I have prioritised the sound system. I hadn't. If anything, this was very much a reverse list. The heater I knew could come in handy, but I am aware that they are meant to be a nightmare to change in the W108s ; the dashboard is effectively part of the bulkhead, meaning everything has to be removed, and then removed from the back of the dashboard. And people thought moderns were bad. By comparison, the M3's heater controls were relocated within about an hour when I converted that to a double-DIN Headunit, and that included me taking photos, going for loo breaks, and tea breaks . So I sacked that idea off, especially with a 2 week window to do the above, with me also working all of that time. This meant I went to the passenger window. Not only was it annoying, it also meant that water could also enter. Not good on a car that would be outside for an entire weekend, and doing many more miles than I did to Goodwood! But there was nothing for it; I had to stop procrastanating and get stuck in!  Ooohhh, look a door! But, let's get closer eh?  It looks like I have found the smoking gun eh? A broken quadrant in the regulator! Great as I now have some spare regulator assemblies!  Now, hold that thought! The observant amongst you will have noticed a few things: -The teeth on my original regulator are OK ; it's the grease that makes them look bad -The older regulators are made of sturdier stuff, but they came with problems of their own ; The mounting was snapped on the passenger side door, despite the regulator working like a dream, and it was missing key stops which my original one had ; it had come off a different kind of W108 ; I was told these were off a W108 3.5 So, it seemed I was back to the drawing board. Not quite. I saw that I could salvage the regulator that was on the car. The issue was that the quadrant had become warped. I managed to straighten the quadrant enough, and sure enough, I had a window that fully closed again. So, that was one issue done. But what about the steering? The truth is the steering coupler was absolutely shot. There was no rubber left in it at all. As a result, I had miles of free play at the wheel. I'd have taken photos of the job, but something happened:  I ended up making an impromptu trip to the Nurburgring with a mate. I did say that I might not go as I knew timings would be tight anyway with me going to Laon. But I had a counteroffer made for that . So, whilst it's not Merc related, let's have a few 'Ring shots eh?      Ooooh look, an R107     Was I wishing I bought the M3 along? You bet! This trip is the first time I've been to the 'ring and not driven around it. Sometimes, it's good to just sit back and relax and honestly, I needed it! But, R&R wasn't going to sort my Mercedes out! However, I did have a plan for my return . It's just as well, as I was going to need that plan! |
| |
Last Edit: Jun 17, 2019 22:10:22 GMT by ChasR
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Good to see my car, your old W124 being put to use as intended! Carrying stuff about.
Loving the updates on this project, especially when they make the car more useable. Ignore the purists, just do anything that makes you feel good driving it!
|
| |
|
|
ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,309
Club RR Member Number: 170
|
|
Jun 18, 2019 18:29:49 GMT
|
Cheers motardman ! Glad to hear it's being used well . I'm going that way slowly with this car . But that's not to say I'm neglecting the car. The one area I didn't like of the car was the steering. It was vague! I've driven Land Rovers that are worse, but that's not really the point here . With me driving it, that was one thing. But for my friends to drive it, that's another. It had to be right. I may be used to driving old curse word, but it doesn't mean others should suffer my burden! I'd have loved to have taken photos of this, and I will include some photos later, but a few things prevented me: - I was pretty sleep deprived ; I got back at 4:30am in the morning, and had enough kip to ensure I didn't do anything stupod
- I was lacking time ; 4 days away from driving day!
- Remember that favour I mentioned because I went to Germany? It was to borrow the ramp
Naturally, I got on with the job, with some helpful muscle to hand. One thing I was told was that this job was a pain in the proverbial. Alot of this stemmed from people's reluctance to drop the steering box. What the guides didn't mention was how the coupler shield within the car would be a royal pain in the proverbial to remove! Most manufacturers would have put the coupling inside the car, as they do these days. They'd also have made the shield stay in with a few bolt. If it was an overengineered car, maybe double. Mercedes? Try 10! They were all a pain to get to and while I got them out I knew I'd struggle to get them back in again. But that could wait eh? But back to the coupling! We had to tackle it Under the guidance of one of the guys, we decided to try to remove it without removing the 'box. After trying to remove the coupling that way, it became clear it wasn't going to happen. As a result, I went with my gut feeling and dropping the steering box. This improved things much more. As soon as the coupling came off, it became clear that it really had seen better days. However, I've kept the old coupling. Strange I know! My coupling oddly enough allows the bushes to be replaced ; something quite a few of them aren't. If the new coupling goes, I'll chuck some poly bushes into this and reuse it. Then I put the new coupling in. Many go for the cheaper URO coupling, but some peeps have safety concerns over them due to the clamping bolt positions. Given that I got a reasonable price for a new coupling from Mercedes I fitted one of those, in addition to new screws:   Yup, the access was tight. Didn't someone make a thread about how old cars were easy to work on? I wonder if they worked on a W108 or W109 before... It was then a case of reassambling the steering system again. As I predicted, the coupler shield inside the car was a realy pig to fit on. However, it was all good. With that in mind, there was nothing else left to do, but to test drive it! Immediately the steering felt much better! Going by the look of the steering 'box, it seems to be a recon item fitted, which is a big plus . Finally, one big problem was solved! However, the gearshifter was still shifting all of the gears right, but it seemed ever so slightly misaligned from before. If there was an Angel and a Devil on my shoulder, I really should have listened to the devil!. But this is RR, and well, we don't work that way . I went to go and adjust the linkage. As soon as I tried to, the bushing at the gearbox end simply fell apart. Was I annoyed? You bet! I now have an almost unusable gear linkage. It couldn't get Park, or hold 1st (L) or 2nd (S) manually. That left me with Drive, Neutral and Reverse. Not terrible but not great. I sometimes use 2nd to get this car to go a little quicker, so I wanted it fixed quickly! Fortunately, Mercedes had two bushes in stock for not alot of cash. The same couldn't be said for another certain Swing-Axle Mercedes specialist or the pricing either!  With this bush done on the next day after work, the gear change still wasn't perfect, but I had 2nd gear again. There was another bushing which looked old and ropey but I didn't want to chance changing that and being left with no gears whatsoever. That bushing/rod linkage was also goin to take 2 days to get to me. Not an ideal situation. But it did mean that I could finish off a few touches on the car. Firstly, I threw a bucket of water over it. I also then attended to something many people have noticed was missing from the car. The centre caps. I was given a set by the guy who lent me the ramp, albeit the fitment was questionable. I was tempted to paint them up, but I knew that would take time and effort that I simply didn't have, bearing in mind it was Wednesday night, and I was leaving the day after!  So, what did I get? Some of these?  OK, the wheels are a little dirty! I got some centre caps. The keen-eyed will see the shabbier ones on in the shot before. These caps I bought had an interesting story. I was told by a certain specialist that I couldn't buy the caps, and only they sold the 'Mexican Hat' caps for £80! Looking on eBay, it seemed the cheapest genuine set I could get were £50 in this country for something that was decent. Turkish replicas, albeit unpainted are £20. I almost bought the latter until I called Mercedes. The price was better than the eBay items by quite a way, so they got the business in the end. It pretty worked out to being the same price as the Turkish items after delivery. And don't they look good on my Replica Mexican hats? With that did, all that was left to do was to fill the fuel tank up. At a £100 refill, it was expensive! After picking my mates up it was time to go to Dover. After 180 miles of travelling and £60 later (no, really, the consumption is that bad!), I was at Dover. OK, I was at Ashford the night before getting some R&R. I even had a few other cars to keep the Merc company too!         So, where exactly was I heading? That's simple. The Laon Historique. And that why folks, is why there were other cars down at the dock! Would the trip go well? Would the car drink more than Jordan out on the lash? Would we be able to afford the fuel? All of these questions would soon be answered. |
| |
|
|
ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,309
Club RR Member Number: 170
|
|
Sept 20, 2019 5:48:24 GMT
|
|
Well, I wrote a big reply for this, but then my PC crashed, and then pro-boards had an error
So, there will be an update, but it will have to wait!
|
| |
|
|
ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,309
Club RR Member Number: 170
|
|
Sept 22, 2019 8:10:30 GMT
|
It’s fair to say the Laon Historique (LINK) trip went very well indeed! The car proved itself a worthy addition to the trip and was truly enjoyable! However, upon getting back to Blighty, things were getting busy! My sister’s wedding date was getting closer and closer in time, with the demands of what to do getting inevitably larger! Come July & August time, near the actual date, things really got interesting! In short, the wedding preparations, including marquee buying, food & booze purchasing, and other loose ends really was taking up time. At this moment, all of the cars decided to play up! • The M3 became increasingly worse and worse to drive ; the power wasn’t there. As soon as the DSC came off, it was fine. • Mondeo I thought had an iffy driveshaft • Merc was just thirsty, and as you know, gave issues prior to this in the form of gear linkage issues. With the need for ferrying families and aforementioned stock around, the M3, even with you needing to disable the DSC every time you drove it was never going to cut it. As a result, the Mercedes ended up hitting daily service:    So, what was it like to drive? Honestly, it was quite a surprise! Sure, the body control isn’t great, especially as my Mondeo got tested the week before when an old Defender went into the middle lane just as I did, but without him indicating; I almost thought I’d lose control of the Mondeo with the last minute realisation upon me! The Mondeo dying at such a critical time was annoying for sure! The M3 was also a pain. At this point, there people who keep saying: “why don’t you have a car on PCP or a normal car?” “you know you do a few miles, this is why I have a new car and my classic” tend to be remembered and occasionally come out of the woodwork. Yes, I had the Mercedes, but Christ, a 200-300 mile week can soon become a £100 hit on fuel a week as well. Ouch! But it was the choices I made, so I had to put up and shut up with the car. But it was still mostly useless for the wedding week. I still needed a more frugal, and family friendly car, especially with no-one willing to touch the Mondeo for a month. Thankfully, a friend took pity on me, and so, enter Stage Left:    Yup, I had an 2010 Audi B6 A6 3.0 Avant S-Line lent to me! I never really ‘got’ these, but after having it for a week, I certainly fell for the car. It’s a new car on here, but it’s crazy to think that even this car is 9 years old now! If I was in a better position, I’d have bought this off my friend! It’s still for sale for those wondering . I did however try to make the deal more fair by changing his wheels from the Chromed A6 items to the factory 19" wheels it came on, with me footing the tyre changing bill of £60. Annoyingly, I didn't use my guy in Rugby, and paid the price with 'good' vibrations from one of the wheels. Ah well, lesson learned. With the Audi taking care of wedding duties, and me running around like a mad arsed fly, the pressure was certainly removed! But then it was time for the Merc’s CROWNing moment. When I said it was almost useless for the wedding I omitted one detail. It was also to be my sister’s wedding car, which was quite a nice personal touch. Besides the hassle of hiring a car, and meeting those deadlines, it’s just a little easier if it is your car ☺. And what a car to do it in!  It wouldn’t just do my sister’s wedding, it would also do a friend’s wedding as well! At both events, the car certainly was spoken about more than the hired Rollers and Bentleys there, and also had many positive comments for them!   So, it was a busy month for sure, but for now, the Merc has been put back into storage after a month long workout of it being a partial daily driver for me, and a wallet emptier! Oh, remember the Mondeo’s issues? It was the wheel nuts. No joke! I do wonder if I tightened them correctly now! However, its very strange how they only undid half a turn over an 8 month period of when the wheels were last touched, and how the wheel itself was clicking rather than clonking! At least that last point amused my friends .   |
| |
|
|
|
|
.
. After all, there are always flies in the ointment. Like most stories, I had great intentions, but it wasn't to be.
