Steve
Posted a lot
Making progress in small, easy to handle chunks of awesome
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Thought I'd do a thread on it although this might be a boring one for the time being..... We begin with a rough car history. Always had an interest in the Mercedes brand as a viable alternative to the BMW crowd, seemed classier and more elite as the drift scene began to swallow up all the E36's & 46's so by chance I stumbled on a cheap E-class some years ago which eventually turned out like this  E300TD - great car! It did its thing, never really put a foot wrong beside the usual stuff that comes along with W210 ownership but I eventually moved along to other things as I usually get bored. A few cars later I get the itch for another 3pointed star and hunt for a variation I was sure existed but seemed thin on the ground...eventually I find one in my usual price bracket....cheap & rough  That after much faff including it attempting to kill me on the way home bursting a rear brake pipe later turned out like this   CLK230K 6speed manual in black-on-black - another great car! Beside the annoyance of not having a proper handbrake and trying to juggle 4 pedals on hillstarts it was fun. Then life began to change, a missus joined the fray and I found myself having to think a bit more "sensible" in my approach to finding daily drivers. This led to a stream of attempts which whilst being good....never really hit the spot for me as I ended up driving them mostly and the missus at that time barely drove anywhere!  07 Suzuki Swift 1.5VVT - Good fun, great on fuel and very reliable, bought with the missus in mind(posing with said beasty) but I always thought I was thrashing the thing everywhere soooooo I bought an old beater to use for work.....  2000 Civic EJ9 - Best beater I've ever had hands down! Even did a track day in it.....all be it very slowly around Thruxton but it did highlight a need for more power so around this time we had already decided to move the Swift along and I got to choose its replacement.....  2010 Mazda 3 MPS - Wow! Newest car I'd ever had and the most powerful road car I'd ever had at this point! Great fun, good build quality and fast! The internet would try to scare you away from them due to mechanical weakness and rust on earlier models but we never really found this to be true in this case. A brief dalliance into building a "track car" came & went....  05 Astra VXR - Fun but not exactly what I wanted....ended up being a chore to sell due to the crowd that it attracts  The Civic left me around the same time the VXR appeared but I was itching for another 3pointed star sooooo VXR was sold, MPS put on the market and a chance bid on Ebay brings me to the main point of this thread............. Are you bored yet? |
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Last Edit: Mar 17, 2024 9:20:05 GMT by Steve
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Steve
Posted a lot
Making progress in small, easy to handle chunks of awesome
Posts: 2,038
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First little job was a silly one but it annoyed me to look at it and that was to restore the dealer-fit Nokia car phone setup. Someone in past years had sprayed the phone cases black and it looked rough but still functioned so I bought a sim card for it and and aftermarket case & keys to bring it back to how it should look   Tidy  The interior for the most part has held up well to 160k worth of use, seats are still nice with minimal wear on drivers bolsters and everything still scrubs up shiny. The only real show of its age inside came with the rear pillar/roof trims      Material had began coming unglued or had been snagged by stuff being shoved into the boot....as luck would have it a certain HARDCORE was in the process of breaking his former daily driver W203 wagon and had some trim in better condition which became mine  best exchange of a hug for parts I've had yet Eventually I got around to fitting it all in one lovely afternoon  Much nicer now. Beside the steering wheel stitching coming away and me damaging a vent trim trying to remove it the interior is pretty much sorted. I will be replacing the dated standard radio for a double-din Android setup at some point but that'll be when I've decided how to get around the factory Bose amp and fibre-optic cables used as they tend to not play nice with aftermarket stuff. I then pressed the car into daily use, discovered my pockets are not deep enough to run it every day at a best of 23-25mpg if I nanny it around so now alternate between it and the missus's Smart   The offer of taking part in another track day came to me, this time at Castle Combe and I nervously accepted! So that forced me to start thinking of how best to prepare the C32.....       Basic service, change a leaky rocker cover gasket AND Bilstein shocks, H&R springs and sticky Nankang semi-slick tyres should do the trick!  Was a pretty good experience This time I wasn't the slowest on track (my mates modern M3 made sure to remind me I wasn't the fastest either) but I soon realised some hard truths about trying to push a 20plus year old Merc around a race track...... Gearbox - slow & indecisive showing its age/mileage Brakes - Whist looking impressive actually fade pretty badly from 120plus mph Chassis - ITS A MERC, NOT A RACECAR! Heavy with a fair amount of understeer if you keep the traction control on(I was not brave enough to try without) Engine - Still has some balls but beginning to show its age/mileage These points made me not push it as hard as I'd wanted to and as such I didn't get in as many laps as I hoped  as a road car its perfect but I just didn't want to put it into a barrier on track. Upgrades and repairs will happen at some point but it'll be awhile. For now though....it shines up ok and looks the part  |
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longman
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 507
Club RR Member Number: 3
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Mar 17, 2024 10:06:40 GMT
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Nice one , I do like a fast wagon. Still miss my old C43 ..  |
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Paul
98 500 SL
86 911 Carrera/sold
23 Octavia Phev
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Steve
Posted a lot
Making progress in small, easy to handle chunks of awesome
Posts: 2,038
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Mar 17, 2024 10:17:39 GMT
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First time I've had a car that I felt deserved a private plate sooooooooooo this happened last year   It's dumb, spells out something the factory badges already tell you BUT it also hides how old it is which I like as when its clean & polished up does look well tidy from 10feet away  Not much has really happened to it since then (Aug 2023) beside using it....unfortunately time and age has began to take their toll and its in need of some pretty serious/expensive work soon  the engine is running rough & drinking fuel harder than ever before, rear diff howls and gearbox is undecided if it wants to continue its chosen profession. Add to that the exterior has began showing what Merc's of this era do best and thats rust in all four door bottoms, boolid and rear wheelarches. Its tired, I'm currently broke and trying to balance home upgrades and actual life in general means this might get taken off the road soon and put to one side till I can afford to start sorting it out... Just to add to my annoyance with its exterior looks.......I scuffed a sideskirt on a high kerb start of the year which really made me look at the rest of the paintwork and realise just how bad its beginning to look!  On 171K right now..... |
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,307
Club RR Member Number: 170
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These are cool in a semi-unknown way.
It's good to see you are having fun.
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Paul
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,999
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Big fan of these, and the subtle 'mods' you've done to it. Had a W210 E55 AMG and can relate on the fuel bills but it felt like driving a motorised wingback chair at any speed...was just a great place to be...
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Steve
Posted a lot
Making progress in small, easy to handle chunks of awesome
Posts: 2,038
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Mar 18, 2024 11:00:19 GMT
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These are cool in a semi-unknown way. It's good to see you are having fun. The lack of awareness was what drew me to one! Always wanted an E55 but didn't need a saloon and the C-class estate was just the perfect size for me so C32 was the only one I'd be having. It was good fun.....It may be again eventually |
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Steve
Posted a lot
Making progress in small, easy to handle chunks of awesome
Posts: 2,038
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Mar 18, 2024 11:02:44 GMT
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Big fan of these, and the subtle 'mods' you've done to it. Had a W210 E55 AMG and can relate on the fuel bills but it felt like driving a motorised wingback chair at any speed...was just a great place to be... Thanks wants better suspension or a serious weight-loss program to really make a difference though Totally agree on the W210 being a comfy place to be, if money was no object I'd be having an E55 too |
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Mar 18, 2024 11:57:24 GMT
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Material had began coming unglued or had been snagged by stuff being shoved into the boot....as luck would have it a certain HARDCORE was in the process of breaking his former daily driver W203 wagon and had some trim in better condition which became mine best exchange of a hug for parts I've had yet Great deal, would do again |
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Long roof, comfort, supercharger... What's not to like 😁
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Bicycle x1
Alfa Giulietta (now wife's)
Alfa 156
BMW 630i
Honda rc36
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Steve
Posted a lot
Making progress in small, easy to handle chunks of awesome
Posts: 2,038
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Sept 26, 2024 14:19:02 GMT
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Not much to report but here's a quick review Gave the old girl a wash  Most recently managed to finally get my Android double-din head unit in and working after much faff with the factory fibre-optic MOST system that refused to communicate with the amplifier due the CD changer and Nokia carphone setup still being connected so unfortunately had to ditch both  but now I don't have aftermarket bluetooth stuff cluttering up the centre console and a cleaner sound from the speakers....plus touch screen with app's and things to play with!  Began going through some trouble-shooting with regards to the less than stately engine running and among other things discovered a noisy supercharger pulley bearing which I of course replaced  Whilst in there I decided to go down the road of replacing the aux drive pulley setup as they are prone to eating bearings and the upper most pulley next to the supercharger takes a pounding in terms of bearing speeds due to its size.....so bought a Needswings setup from the states that rearranges it all so bigger pulleys = less speed and better spacing so as to improve belt wrap around the supercharger pulley that helps with belt slip  Found some of the breather pipes were past their best so opted for some off the shelf silicone pipe and made them up myself which seems to be working just fine at this same time I arranged to have the fuel injectors tested and cleaned just because I could, came back with a clean bill of health so refitted at the same time as the hoses  Got the car plugged into a friends Autel diagnostic scanner to see just how much would come back as faulty turns out it wasn't much but helped me with where to go looking with regard to a persistent ESP/BAS fault   Not really used the car much these past 6mths as its been parked over mums whilst we used the Civic but recently dug it out and have begun prepping it for a trip to Donnington mid-Oct as the track day itch has come back..... |
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Last Edit: Sept 30, 2024 15:32:50 GMT by Steve
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,307
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Sept 27, 2024 6:07:12 GMT
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The interior has more elements than I realise that look similar to the x209 CLKs. The buttons, climate control setup, etc.
How do you rate the Autel setup you have? I may need to get something fancier for my SL, and I'm debating stepping away from Carly, as that can be flakey with scanning Mercs. I'm semi hoping I don't need to buy STAR, but it's not been ruled out.
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Steve
Posted a lot
Making progress in small, easy to handle chunks of awesome
Posts: 2,038
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Sept 30, 2024 15:06:59 GMT
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The interior has more elements than I realise that look similar to the x209 CLKs. The buttons, climate control setup, etc. How do you rate the Autel setup you have? I may need to get something fancier for my SL, and I'm debating stepping away from Carly, as that can be flakey with scanning Mercs. I'm semi hoping I don't need to buy STAR, but it's not been ruled out. The Autel is a loaner from a garage-owning mate so can't really rate as I've only used it a few times but seems very comprehensive in its scanning of all body modules if a little reluctant to clear every code it finds in the case of the Merc would own STAR if I could justify the cost but I hear to get the full performance out of it you need the full subscription which is just not economical for us have-a-go heros |
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Steve
Posted a lot
Making progress in small, easy to handle chunks of awesome
Posts: 2,038
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Sept 30, 2024 16:14:40 GMT
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In preparation for the upcoming track day I attempted to address some of the short comings discovered during the last one! This weekends work consisted of fitting braided brake pipes all round, fresh brake fluid flushed through and EBC Bluestuff front pads and standard rear pads  After 60-70miles and some bedding in done they are biting quite nicely but part of the procedure involves some 80 to 30mph stops which could prove challenging to achieve on Britain's national road network so may put off till I'm on track In the post are some universal brake cooling scoops and some pipe to aim this nice cooling air at the front brakes, this all should hopefully help with my pedal feel and consistency after some hot laps but I'm sceptical it'll be enough....we shall see |
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The interior for the most part has held up well to 160k worth of use, seats are still nice with minimal wear on drivers bolsters and everything still scrubs up shiny. The only real show of its age inside came with the rear pillar/roof trims
as a road car its perfect but I just didn't want to put it into a barrier on track. Upgrades and repairs will happen at some point but it'll be awhile.
the engine is running rough & drinking fuel harder than ever before, rear diff howls and gearbox is undecided if it wants to continue its chosen profession. Add to that the exterior has began showing what Merc's of this era do best and thats rust in all four door bottoms, boolid and rear wheelarches.
but now I don't have aftermarket bluetooth stuff cluttering up the centre console and a cleaner sound from the speakers....plus touch screen with app's and things to play with!