Spartan Mercedes 190 (w201)

[r129sl]

Of course not. Nor did they notice the broken earth strap and the loose fuel cut off wire.

[r129sl]

The genuine Mercedes-Benz battery, with which I replaced the perfectly serviceable Lucas item less than a year ago, mysteriously gave up the ghost this morning. Hopefully still under warranty, but tells a lot about MB quality.

I assume it is definitely the battery at fault. It was dead as a door nail but, once jump-started, the car ran fine over a 20 minute trip, suggesting no problem with the charging system. But make any demand of the battery, such as turning on the headlamps, and it died. The car has had a new alternator in my time.

The obligatory photo:

[r129sl]

It's not the battery.

[r129sl]

I suspect it's the alternator wiring. Or, rather, my omniscient mechanic said it will be the alternator wiring.

[r129sl]

It was the alternator regulator. No cost to fix but irritating.

[r129sl]

The 190 continues. The ignition barrel was getting sticky and we had two bad moments when the steering lock wouldn't release. I ordered two new keys and a new barrel. They came from Germany, cut to the car's original locks, in four days.

I used the instructions here: http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Mercedes-...

It's a good site with lots of very clear guides.

[r129sl]

Despite being Pistonheads' most anally retentive car enthusiast, I have lost the invoice.

The key was less than £30, however; and the ignition barrel was less than £120; both including VAT.

Both arrived within four working days, which is just extraordinary.

[r129sl]

You've shamed me into some updates.

The 190 took a bash a month ago. Mrs r129sl decided to adopt a novel approach to roundabouts and was surprised to find the old ways are definitely the best. It needs a new bumper insert (the sensible, cheap black bit that is intended for bumping) and a tiny little bit of paint on the wing. Unlike the modern Astra, which needs a whole new side. Now that the 124 is back, the next car job is the differential re-build on the r129; once that is done the 190 will go to the Man for a day to have a new bumper insert fitted (£90 from Merc) and a local paint job.

It is giving more alternator trouble, unfortunately. There is high-pitched electrical interference which I think is down to a bad suppressor on the alternator. It was replaced earlier this year, that replacement in turn a replacement of an earlier new alternator. Both have been Lucas; the next one will be Bosch.

We are also still giving consideration to retro-fitting air conditioning. This would be a completely factory job done by Alpinair in London. The price would be £2,400 plus VAT. Now that the weather is a bit cooler, our appetite for this horrific expenditure is rather diminished.

I'm just about to take it out for a run but it continues to give sterling service and over 30 to the gallon, too.

[r129sl]

They will work better with new keys but if you're not having problems, I wouldn't bother. That said, as soon as you start getting problems with the ignition, you should replace the barrel.

I think the lock code is on the data card but I just tell the dealer the chassis number and they work it out. I don't know whether other manufacturers do this, but I think it is pretty impressive that you can get new keys and new locks suited to a 30 year old car for relatively little expense.

[r129sl]

A new Mercedes used to come with four keys. Two master keys, which open every lock and start the ignition; a chauffeur (or valet) key, which opens the doors and the fires the ignition but will not open the glove box or boot; and a flat key which is to be kept in the owner's wallet for emergencies.

The master keys have a roughly rectangular black plastic handle on them; the chauffeur key has a black oval handle; and the flat key has no handle at all and is simply a blade with a little 'T' piece on the end.

The data card is the blue and white card found in the back of the service book with all of the build information on it; another copy is kept at the factory and is available electronically (it is publicly accessible on many websites) using the chassis number to find it.

[r129sl]

Youngtimer... the Germans do cool even less than they do funny. But they do make wonderful cars and all in all seem more than half decent chaps these days.

[r129sl]

I have been spending some time with the Spartan lately, mainly keeping on top of it. It is almost two years and 30,000miles since we bought it. This evening I changed the front brake pads, a laughably easy job and cheap, too, at £16 for Pagids. Amazingly, I managed not to bugger it up. The genuine items I replaced were made by Textar. I also fitted the winter wheels. At the weekend I will drop the oil and change the filter.

In the meantime I have not got round to getting the alternator replaced with a Bosch item. Lord Baister is being slow in sourcing one. At the same time, I will have him replace the timing chain tensioner. Sometimes it is a bit rattly on start up. The tensioner is behind the alternator, so it makes sense. I obtained a genuine item on eBay for £35. It also needs a wiper motor but I am struggling to source a new one. The current item is a bit slow.

[r129sl]

killysprint said:

Have seen the 190 doing the school run over the last week or so.
Makes me smile and is a refreshing change seeing it dodging between the white lease Mercedes and the SUV's with curbed alloys.

Thanks! I've been using it for a week or two and I do the school run. I hope I haven't been poisoning you: it smells a bit of petrol for some reason, I can't figure out whether it is the exhaust or a slight leak, but it is noticeable in traffic.

This week Baister put in a genuine Merc alternator which has cured the interference and electrical glitches and which replaced the third Lucas item in a year. Surprisingly the Merc item was only about £150. He also did the rear pads and a couple of odd jobs.

[r129sl]

Here is a fascinating picture of the new Mercedes alternator. The electrical interference problem was solved immediately and the part was little more than the Lucas version.




Meanwhile the fuel smell has not been resolved. The lines are dry. The boot is odour free. There are no pools under the car. It smells when stationary. Baister spotted a leak from the solenoid on the bottom of the carb. Here is the carb and beneath it is a close up of the solenoid, the leak visible:





New 'o' rings were ordered at some trifling price but they had to come from Germany. Sure enough when the solenoid was removed, the 'o' rings were shot. Here is the master at work, with the solenoid below:





Unfortunately, it still smells of fuel. The suspect now is the rubber flange between the carb and the manifold. It appears to be cracked. Hopefully this will be fitted early next week.

While at the dealer, I picked up two of these little boxes of spare fuses, one for the 129 the other for the 201, to be kept in the glove box. These are always on offer on eBay for £12 or something. Dealer price was £2. Quite a nice thing to have, the perspex case has the star on the top.

[r129sl]

All fixed and good as new. The fuel smell was traced to a tiny leak in a hose in the engine compartment. Phew, that could have been nasty. The front anti-roll bar bushes are all new, curing a slight knocking in the front end (from ARB bushes are a very cheap and easy win on Mercs of this vintage, they are about £3 each, less than an hour to fit, you should have them done for the sake of it). And finally some new (genuine) rear springs were installed. The rear end was sagging. One spring had snapped and the other had collapsed. I replaced the spring pads, too (front and rear). I think when fitting new springs, it is a good idea to experiment with different pads to avoid an uneven ride height.

Boys and I gave it a quick service: no under tray so it really does take 10 minutes. It is on 149,380. You'll be pleased to hear the trip meter does not work (they all do that, sir), so there will be no cheesy snap.

[r129sl]

olly22n said:

Over two years in now - do you have a running total/cost per mile?

Interested to see how this compares to a lease a4 et al.

All inclusive running costs are 28.7 new pence per mile over two years and 27,000miles.

I started logging costs almost two years ago in June 2015. Since then we have covered just shy of 27,000miles at 30.49mpg. The fuel cost per mile is £0.167; the expenses per mile are £0.12; the total cost per mile being £0.287.

The expenses include insurance, tax, tyres and £800 of bodywork repairs which resulted from three (three!) lapses of attention on the part of a driver who shall remain nameless. The total fuel bill is £4,550.22; the total of expenses is £3,264.63.

It is pretty cheap and reliable. It makes a very good daily driver: its size makes it very easy to drive and it is nice and comfortable.

Edited by r129sl on Wednesday 26th April 14:56

[r129sl]

I think we could get £3,000 for it if we waited long enough; we paid £2,000.

Really it ought to command more because it is like a brand new car but the colour, the mileage, the carb engine are going to limit the appeal and the whole retro motoring thing is already of acutely limited appeal anyway.

[r129sl]

Levin said:

I must admit, I'm very surprised they still make viable dailies, but my thinking may be soured by the late 1990s cars and their predilection for rust.

I'm always slightly perplexed by this approach (said gently and without internet contention). After all, they made perfectly viable daily drivers in 1990, so why not in 2017? The nature of such use has not changed: if anything, people use cars less intensely now than they did then. The only reason they might not make reliable dailies is want of repair: but that is in your hands. As cars, however, I'd suggest that Mercedes models from the w123 onwards were fully matured. In many ways, they are better-suited to daily driving than a lot of moderns: more comfortable ride and narrower body, to name but two characteristics.

[r129sl]

The 190 is coming to York next month. The 124 needs a head gasket and the 129 is not very barge so only last night I sought and miraculously obtained permission to take the Spartan.

I agree about visibility. Nor is there much safety deficit from the 201/124 onwards. By fully matured, I meant this: the car always works as a car without wants of development and it has almost all modern safety attributes (CAD body shell, ABS brakes, multi-link rear axle, airbags, side impact protection: the only big development since has been ESP). The EuroNCAP crash test is Daimler Benz's crash test régime as it applied to the w124: it was taken wholesale.

[r129sl]

Rust is the main problem. The 190 is better than most, better than the 124 and certainly the later Merc fare. Don't buy a rusty one! I live at the beach and ours seems OK. I've had it all treated for long term health. Rust is pretty cheap and easy to deal with if you catch it early.

A lot of interior trim is no longer available but everything else is available either from the dealer or on the after market. Consumable parts—filters, pads, suspension bits—are very cheap, even at the dealer. Earlier in the thread you'll see me buying things like a new key, coded to the car's locks, for about £30 or an ignition barrel, again matching the existing locks, for about £100, all coming from Germany within a few days. The parts supply is really good.

I've said this before: you can run an old car as a daily driver but you have to accept that it will need repair more frequently than a modern and you have to enjoy the business of diagnosing and fixing faults. Moderns aren't perfect and they do seem to break down but it is almost always attributable to some low resistance electrical fault which mere mortals like us have no chance of finding.

Edited by r129sl on Thursday 27th April 20:40