Got my R107... Now it is time to fix it
Discussion
Bought myself an R107, which is actually not too bad, despite the smilie above, but does have some issues that need dealing with. Advice on either fixes, or suppliers on these bits. Also could do with finding a workshop manual of some sort.
First up seems to be the heater blower which is so noisy I thought the engine was dropping out .
Secondly I have a leak into the drivers side which is more of a very bad flood. Havn't found the culprit as yet, but thoughts on the most common causes would be welcome. We are talking gallons not drips.
Third is a missing space saver spare wheel. Not too bad as it came with an extra full size, but that does not fit in the wheel well
Finally, is a bottom carpet set, the side carpets are OK, but the bottoms are pretty tatty.
Thoughts, answers and pi55 taking on a postcard .....
First up seems to be the heater blower which is so noisy I thought the engine was dropping out .
Secondly I have a leak into the drivers side which is more of a very bad flood. Havn't found the culprit as yet, but thoughts on the most common causes would be welcome. We are talking gallons not drips.
Third is a missing space saver spare wheel. Not too bad as it came with an extra full size, but that does not fit in the wheel well
Finally, is a bottom carpet set, the side carpets are OK, but the bottoms are pretty tatty.
Thoughts, answers and pi55 taking on a postcard .....
ok well.. not a great font of knowledge but about 6 years ago I bought a 120k mile 1 owner from new Smoke silver 500SL.
Luckily I haggled hard and at the time got the price down from iirc £14,000 to £9000.
The owner wouldnt let me drive the car until i bought it (an old boy, his p&j etc etc)
I realised afterwards why, it had so many problems & he clearly knew how to drive it to hide them. I spent about £4000 getting it to a decent level. Lesson learned but it was/is (my brother now owns it) a lovely car.
Most used parts can be sourced from ebay/specialists.
The one area that I think you potentially might have a big issue is the flooding. A good mate of mine had the same on his 300SL.
In his case (and he was told it was pretty common) that water can get trapped against the bulkhead and rot through it. Its very inaccessable (dashboard out job) and after spending a LOT of money, he gave up. You can apparently get a fibreglass moulded replacement bulkhead but you still have fitting costs. You may not have the problem of course but forewarned etc etc.
Good luck, fantastic & hugely elegant cars, a timeless classic.
Luckily I haggled hard and at the time got the price down from iirc £14,000 to £9000.
The owner wouldnt let me drive the car until i bought it (an old boy, his p&j etc etc)
I realised afterwards why, it had so many problems & he clearly knew how to drive it to hide them. I spent about £4000 getting it to a decent level. Lesson learned but it was/is (my brother now owns it) a lovely car.
Most used parts can be sourced from ebay/specialists.
The one area that I think you potentially might have a big issue is the flooding. A good mate of mine had the same on his 300SL.
In his case (and he was told it was pretty common) that water can get trapped against the bulkhead and rot through it. Its very inaccessable (dashboard out job) and after spending a LOT of money, he gave up. You can apparently get a fibreglass moulded replacement bulkhead but you still have fitting costs. You may not have the problem of course but forewarned etc etc.
Good luck, fantastic & hugely elegant cars, a timeless classic.
Hi, bulkhead seems fine from every angle I can see... both from top and bottom......obviously lots of things in the way though so no guarantees. I agree the water is my biggest worry as not only is it potentially difficult/expensive to sort, but also makes the car pretty useless until I do.
Bought the car at, what seems, to be a decent price. Drove it 300 miles home and no dramas other than the heater blower busting en-route. There is no significant rust that was visible to my body guy, other than one little area which is about £200 to sort on an inner rear arch. (From mud flaps it would seem).
Bought the car at, what seems, to be a decent price. Drove it 300 miles home and no dramas other than the heater blower busting en-route. There is no significant rust that was visible to my body guy, other than one little area which is about £200 to sort on an inner rear arch. (From mud flaps it would seem).
CraigW said:
i was just about to say same. hope its not that though.
First thing I thought when I read about your leak. I have some pics of where I found this problem on mine when I bought it. Will post them up when i find them later. ETA:
Up under the dash at the top edge of those foam backed foot well carpets (designed to hold the water!) we could just about see this:
which once I'd poked around with a screwdriver spread to look like (although I suspect this photo is upside down):-
We took it to a Mercedes specialist garage and told them we didn;t want to spend a fortune if possible, given the car was only worth around £7K. They cleaned it up, treated it and then bonded new metal plate over the hole and sealed it without removing the dashboard & at a cost of about £500. No leaks since.
That was the only corrosion on our 350SL, and in 5 years the only other thing we replaced was a water pump, and the seals on the window tops. Last week it happily took us to Stuttgart and back (1500 miles) over the weekend and didn't skip a beat - Road Trip Report for those interested
Edited by CY88 on Thursday 8th October 16:28
Thanks for that. Having done much more investigation, I can confirm it does have a problem in the suspected area, but thankfully, it does not seem to be horrendous levels of rot in there compared to some examples I have found while trawling the web.
I found a guide to 107 leaks on the MB Owners Club site, and followed a mixture of advice to really come to the conclusion that it will need patching up as CY88 had to do. I was just about to go and do some investigation into likely costs, but that question now seems to have been answered.
Love forums, you really do get the benefit of experience !
This car is not supposed to be a perfect car, but I want it to be as good looking and useable in sensible weather as possible, so a bit of patching away from an area you can see is not going to worry me.
I found a guide to 107 leaks on the MB Owners Club site, and followed a mixture of advice to really come to the conclusion that it will need patching up as CY88 had to do. I was just about to go and do some investigation into likely costs, but that question now seems to have been answered.
Love forums, you really do get the benefit of experience !
This car is not supposed to be a perfect car, but I want it to be as good looking and useable in sensible weather as possible, so a bit of patching away from an area you can see is not going to worry me.
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