1986 Mercedes S123 230TE

I think the green colour was something deliberately added to the LHM spec to differentiate it to help stop people mistaking it for normal oils/brake fluid...could be totally wrong but I'm sure I read that somewhere.

There seems to be some quite heated discussions out there between whether LHM will be fine or whether it will immediately eat all the seals and destroy the car. My take on it is that they're both mineral oils, and that's what tends to make a lot of normal rubbers not play well with LHM...so I'd think it would be absolutely fine. I could see the system maybe behaving erratically if the viscosity wasn't quite right and if that's really critical...but I'd personally be surprised if it damaged anything. I can see why a lot of people would have thought it was the right stuff to use in the day...the label on the reservoir doesn't specifically state what should go in beyond hydraulic oil (unless I'm missing part of it) and the sticker is even the exact same green as LHM labelling usually is.

Changing the oil in that is a little ways down the list yet, but I'll make a decision nearer the time. ZHM at least is relatively easy to buy online and isn't ruinously expensive...just would be nice to be able to use LHM as I've probably got about 40 litres of it in the garage!

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Hmm...can you tell which panel I experimentally gave a wipe clean then hit with the polish and wax this afternoon?



Looks like the paint might actually come up better than I expected. The actual colour change was a surprise! I honestly thought the car was a slightly warm white...no, it is actually a pure brilliant white. She just needs a really good deep clean.

Tyres have now been ordered, garage have said they'll just give me a call when they're in and I can just drop by then. Will be nice to have that done as the current set vary in age from 2017 at the newest to 2010 at the oldest and all have pretty significant perishing. Front two look superficially fine as the sidewalls are OK, but they're cracking up inside the tread area instead. Shame as I'd have probably kept one for the spare - not going to trust them for that duty though (as goodness knows how many years it might sit perishing more before I need it).

I always like to have a matched set of tyres on a car anyway so this would probably have happened anyway...as it is though these have had it. While being able to provoke a drift at just about any speed on a damp road is occasionally amusing, it's less than ideal in the real world when you're just trying to pull away from a set of traffic lights on a busy signalised roundabout. Especially when you notice there's a police car behind you. Yes the garage to order the tyres *was* the next place I stopped after that!

RJC_8527 by srblythe, on Flickr

The wheels on the car did have a matching set of tyres made within the last decade when I was using it.

Great car,

Somebody in the w123 forums could maybe guide you for the speakers?!)
For example:
www.benzworld.org/forums/w123-e-ce-d-cd-td-te-class.16/

Thom

Before:



After:



Haven't bothered tucking it in at the edges as it will come out again to do the boot struts (if they ever arrive) and the speakers. Not sure why folks claim getting the locating pegs back in is a massive pain...took me all of about 15 seconds. Though I may just have been massively lucky this time!

It's not perfect if you look too closely, but is massively improved. If it sags again I'll probably just stick a bit of metal across the back to add some strength to it.

Out and about today to collect a replacement for my broken pressure washer, a friend on another forum had one more or less identical one to mine with a busted hose. Hose and lance on mine are fine, it's just the pump that expired violently a couple of months ago.

On the run over there a few things were confirmed.

1. I really need to fit a tethered box or something in the boot or things slide around all over the place and make a racket.

2. The new tyres have definitely reduced road noise and vibration.

3. Ride seems exactly as before, always a bit of a question with tyres these days given the tendency for them to have unnecessarily stiff sidewalls.

4. Wish I could say they have transformed the handling...but they really haven't. She still corners like a drunken elephant on a space hopper. Just isn't a car for pushing on in, she's a lazy cruiser. If I can reduce the freeplay in the steering a bit that would help I think, though she's never going to be a B-Road weapon.

5. I need to replace the felt seal around the sunroof. First time I've been out on a windy day with it closed and it makes a horrendous din. Does make you realise how quiet these cars must have been in their day though.



I ran into an issue setting up the new stereo due to the fancy pants new DAB+ head unit using a tiny (SMA?) Connector, rather than the screw in mini BNC one like the older ones.

As such I'd had to order up this adaptor.



Which lets me hook it up like so.



Nice and simple. Oh. Or is it?



After a certain amount of head scratching I managed to figure out that the issue is that stupid adaptor! Stuffing the antenna connection straight into the socket results in this happening.



The "DGTL" icon on the bottom of the display shows it is receiving through DAB rather than analogue. A quick test with the meter showed that there is indeed a complete lack of continuity through the centre pin. Will need to get another one of those ordered in then.

Getting really sick of getting DOA parts these days. This wasn't even a particularly cheap one - was picked because the seller offered next day shipping rather than because it's cheap. That worked out well then!

Looking forward to having this buttoned up for the last* time.



* Of course keeping in mind I'll need to be back in here to wire in the rear speakers anyway.

I know a lot of people say terminal strip has no place in a car, and for anything under the bonnet or mission critical I absolutely agree. For stuff like this though so long as the strip is good quality, the wires are prepared properly, everything is tightened down and nothing is strained it's absolutely fine. In 26 years of messing with in car audio I've had I think two speaker connections come adrift where these were used - and in both of those cases it was my own fault for making the wires too short.

I'll tidy things up a bit before declaring it to be finished.

I have done the solder and heat shrink thing on one car - and wound up cursing myself for it! Though to be fair with ISO connectors now being the norm nowadays that makes things easier.



The replica sticker pack I'd ordered also arrived this morning. This is the main one I wanted it for as it's got a lot of useful service data on.




I wasn't quite prepared for how many other stickers were included!



I'm going to need to figure out where they all go... though obviously some aren't going to be relevant, being for other markets, diesel versions etc.

I'll try to get some better photos tomorrow, but I'm really blown away by the quality of these, if they had a Mercedes logo on the backing sheet rather than an Avery one I'd have believed they'd just been posted by the dealer. So long as they last they're well worth the asking price I feel.

These were bought from this eBay seller if you want to get some. No connection with them other than as a satisfied customer.

It's a small detail, but little things like that really can improve the feel of a car I think.

The main thing I need to get done before the engine bay ones can go in is of course cleaning it...especially as currently I've no hope whatsoever of being able to tell if we're still leaking oil and where from because it clearly has been for many years. The main thing holding that up was the lack of a pressure washer, which we've now resolved. I'm really looking forward to getting this car properly cleaned, reckon it will make quite the difference. Mean I can give her a bit of a shine up then too.

Someone with a 124 estate, uses Sainsburys hand baskets in the boot. They stack, and if you put them upside down then they fit tight up against the back seat backs.. As they are wire they don't slide about and neither does the shopping.

Allegedly.

The most obvious thing in the engine bay which was making my teeth itch (aside from the horrendous racket from the knackered camshaft anyway) was the state of the air cleaner. It was a rusty, scabby mess which immediately drew your eye the moment you opened the bonnet.



That got pulled off today for a really quick and dirty respray. The high voltage warning sticker had seen better days too.



As had the foam in the intake silencer, so I pulled as much of that out as I could just to save it getting sucked into the filter. After a really quick rub down with a sanding block it was given a couple of quick coats of satin black. I think it was a really dark grey originally, and I will probably try to get it closer to the right colour further down the road - for now "tidy" is the main thing I'm after.





The results speak for themselves I think...it won't stick out quite so much once it's got a bit of general dust and such on it.





It no longer immediately draws your attention when you open the bonnet at least, which was the main object of this whole exercise. All 30 minutes of it. Happy with the result.


The replacement for the dodgy DAB+ antenna adaptor for the stereo arrived this morning (I did look to see if I could get one locally, but the only place I could find one was Halfords - and they wanted £35 for a whole antenna kit, so eBay it was in the end), so I finally have a fully functioning stereo now with both analogue and digital modes working.



Even though I know I'll probably never really use it, knowing it didn't work was going to bug me!

While I was out a bit later in the day I grabbed another couple of photos just because I could. These will be good for a before/after comparison after I've done some polishing and a few bits of paint touchup work.








A pretty major milestone was achieved for me today in that for the first time ever I have actually 3D printed a replacement part for one of my cars.



This (while it obviously still needs some finishing off and painting an appropriate colour) will be a replacement for the broken bonnet catch pull.



Yes I know proper replacements are about a fiver...but that's not the point. I needed to replace it and I randomly stumbled across the model for this, and it's a pretty flat part so took less than an hour to print...so this was a far more interesting solution than just buying a new one. Will clean that up, paint it and hopefully get it fitted tomorrow.

Really need to try to get a replacement for the broken bit of exhaust ordered in because that blow is really quite annoying - not a huge amount of places seem to have them in stock though (especially not at silly prices), and most of those seem to be the same brand as the systems I fitted to the van and Xantia. I'd really rather not buy another one of those as the fit on both of those was diabolically poor and involves massive amounts of swearing to fit. Oh, and the silencer on the van arrived devoid of any baffles. So it's quite likely that I'll just wind up getting a replacement section made up in stainless, especially as it's a pretty short bit that's affected and the rest of the system is pretty healthy.

Nice 3d print, what did you use PLA or ABS and did you try baking it, when I was messing about with 3d printers there was a very intresting you tube i watched about the strength gained from baking it.
Love the merc i nearly bought one 23 years ago but was swayed by an Audi 100 avant.
Dan