Titivating my Mercedes 124

Titivating my Mercedes 124

Author
Discussion

r129sl

Original Poster:

9,518 posts

204 months

Wednesday 26th January 2022
quotequote all
A bit of Insta-love for the fleet (or portfolio seems to be the mot du jour) from MB Newcastle here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CZMiS5QoNVY/

r129sl

Original Poster:

9,518 posts

204 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
quotequote all
You might want to try a different brand of filter. I seem to recall that making a difference for me once upon a time. I can't recall the switch I made, I think from Mann to Hengst.

r129sl

Original Poster:

9,518 posts

204 months

Monday 31st January 2022
quotequote all
I used the 124 today to commute to Sunderland, dropping off a set of four alloy wheels at SEM for refurbishment. On the way home I noticed this little lane down to the River Wear. I was convinced I'd do an old-man-wrong-pedal job and zoom off the unguarded side into what looked like 20' of dirty water. I also happened upon Kish Trim who are going to repair the driver's seat bolster of this car and the 190 and who also will fit the new hood to the 129.


r129sl

Original Poster:

9,518 posts

204 months

Sunday 13th March 2022
quotequote all
The 124 is out of MOT and won't get another one while it has a big windscreen crack. That in turn is attributable to rust in the aperture, so it goes to the Man soon to have that rectified. Meanwhile, I borrowed its wiper linkage for my other Mercedes 124, giving me an obviously much needed opportunity to change the cabin air filter.




r129sl

Original Poster:

9,518 posts

204 months

Saturday 23rd April 2022
quotequote all
Argh, Northbrook, I have been working on this today and forgot your enquiry. I will endeavour to take some pictures tomorrow. Prompt me if I forget.

First of all, MOT time. It passed, tough with a few advisories. Irritatingly, the dog that I did not want had one trip in the boot of this car and started eating the seat belts. That accounts for one of the advisories. The front springs are a bit corroded but fine. The underside is looking fresh. I think the prop shaft damper was about the only thing I didn't replace last year.






I'll have to get new wings later this summer. Merc has stopped supplying them so it is aftermarket only, unfortunately.






This afternoon I set about sorting out the wiper, which is hopeless on intermittent. It stutters and stalls on the return leg. I thought it would be damaged cogs in the mechanism so swapped over bits from a spare set up that I had. I stripped it and greased it and fiddled with it and spent three hours trying to make it work, to no avail. Finally, I thought to myself, maybe it is the new Febi Bilstein motor that I installed a couple of months ago. Sure enough, a swap with an ancient Bosch item cured all faults. Irritating in the extreme. Still, I feel I now have an in-depth understanding of how the wiper works.


r129sl

Original Poster:

9,518 posts

204 months

Saturday 23rd April 2022
quotequote all
Rusty.

r129sl

Original Poster:

9,518 posts

204 months

Saturday 23rd April 2022
quotequote all
OEMster said:
r129sl said:
The 124 is out of MOT and won't get another one while it has a big windscreen crack. That in turn is attributable to rust in the aperture, so it goes to the Man soon to have that rectified. Meanwhile, I borrowed its wiper linkage for my other Mercedes 124, giving me an obviously much needed opportunity to change the cabin air filter.



Out of interest does the 190 have a similar Cabin Air Filter?
No; and nor did pre-1993 w124s. It significantly impedes air flow through the ventilation system.

r129sl

Original Poster:

9,518 posts

204 months

Tuesday 10th May 2022
quotequote all
I did a decent service on Sunday night, changed the oil and filter, the air filter, the fuel filter and the fuel pre-filter. The latter has not been changed for far too long, maybe 50,000 miles. The air filter was pretty mingy, too.

It all seemed fine but on Monday morning the car wouldn't go: air in the fuel lines. This problem always is the fuel pre-filter. I used was an aftermarket job, made by Stark; aftermarket or genuine, they never come with a new sealing 'o' ring and I forgot to order a new one; the old one had been an old one once already and was probably into a six figure mileage. I decided to start again and ordered a job lot of Merc pre-filters and new 'o' rings (they only come in packs of ten). I ordered these on Monday morning and collected them at 8h05 on Tuesday, not bad for non-stock items, well done Merc Newcastle. The Merc filter is better quality than the Stark item (which disintegrated when I removed it, after two days and zero miles on the job) and cheaper, too. The new 'o' ring cured the air leak.

You can see the old pre-filter was way past its best but still making a decent fist of collecting dirt.