1991 Mercedes W124 250D Manual
Discussion
As you say they gather pace rather than accelerate.
They just cruise lovely on the motorway and in a comfortable yet grippy way are a nice drive on country roads.
Speaking of which mine is back out doing the daily rounds. 38MPG was what was had from the last tank. I must have been feeling flush as I have brimmed the tank to the top with V-Power Diesel ; I know the PD diesel I had responded very well to this, to the point of being cheaper to run. While I don't expect any difference here it may clean things out and perk it up a bit, you never know.
It seems to be pulling well enough anyway
.
They just cruise lovely on the motorway and in a comfortable yet grippy way are a nice drive on country roads.
Speaking of which mine is back out doing the daily rounds. 38MPG was what was had from the last tank. I must have been feeling flush as I have brimmed the tank to the top with V-Power Diesel ; I know the PD diesel I had responded very well to this, to the point of being cheaper to run. While I don't expect any difference here it may clean things out and perk it up a bit, you never know.
It seems to be pulling well enough anyway
.Is there much to update?
In all honesty, no. It's been a faithful workhorse since I got it and it's been gathering the miles as I go along while giving me a comfy ride as I go along the way.
However, I bought an Apple CarPlay unit for the M3. Seeing as it is not on my drive and I wanted to try the HU before I kept to committing it I figured I'd try it in the Mercedes. A brave measure I know but it didn't take long to realise that I'd be installing this into the M3:
February 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr
You can see why as despite the headunit's single DIN chassis it wasn't exactly a great fit ito the Mercedes, albeit very usable. That's not to say it can't be done.
![]( <a href="https://flic.kr/p/238iHch" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4666/39464077034_e4f374d572_c.jpg)
Mercedes February 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Soon after the Alpine from earlier on in this thread was reinstalled. This reminds me. I've sold one of the Alpine units and I really should sort out the headunit wiring, which isn't to the standard I would do it.
Speaking of standards the W124 made a friend for 2 days the form of an S205 C350e Estate. It's fair to say that both are unsurprisingly very different. I got the C350e as hybrid technology has intrigued me lately. All I will say I can see the benefits of hybrid technology even though the fuel savings aren't that convincing at all. It's an impressive car for sure with plenty of poke in the mix and usable poke, espeically in town.
That said, the real world MPG between the two isn't miles apart.
Mercedes February 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Mercedes February 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Mercedes February 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Mercedes February 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Mercedes February 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr
In all honesty, no. It's been a faithful workhorse since I got it and it's been gathering the miles as I go along while giving me a comfy ride as I go along the way.
However, I bought an Apple CarPlay unit for the M3. Seeing as it is not on my drive and I wanted to try the HU before I kept to committing it I figured I'd try it in the Mercedes. A brave measure I know but it didn't take long to realise that I'd be installing this into the M3:
February 2018 by Charlieboy, on FlickrYou can see why as despite the headunit's single DIN chassis it wasn't exactly a great fit ito the Mercedes, albeit very usable. That's not to say it can't be done.
Mercedes February 2018 by Charlieboy, on FlickrSoon after the Alpine from earlier on in this thread was reinstalled. This reminds me. I've sold one of the Alpine units and I really should sort out the headunit wiring, which isn't to the standard I would do it.
Speaking of standards the W124 made a friend for 2 days the form of an S205 C350e Estate. It's fair to say that both are unsurprisingly very different. I got the C350e as hybrid technology has intrigued me lately. All I will say I can see the benefits of hybrid technology even though the fuel savings aren't that convincing at all. It's an impressive car for sure with plenty of poke in the mix and usable poke, espeically in town.
That said, the real world MPG between the two isn't miles apart.
Mercedes February 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr Mercedes February 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr Mercedes February 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr Mercedes February 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr Mercedes February 2018 by Charlieboy, on FlickrThere are times when sometimes you see your life flash before your eyes. While that didn't happen to me, I probably wasn't far away from it. Why? I lost braking power approaching the Princethorpe crossing on the Fosse Way!
I tried an ambitious overtake (read, any overtake) in the W124 where some sleepy woman was doing 35-40MPH in an NSL limit! Bailing out of the overtake was fine but it wasn't for when I came to stop for the Princethorpe crossroads! The first pedal stroke went to the floor with little braking with the second pump was fine. Oddly, if I let the car cool down the brakes were fine again for 15 minutes but then I'd need a second pump to get meaningful/normal power out of the brakes. I can only assume one of three things
1)The master cylinder was iffy - It did however look to have been replaced recently and the fixings have been disturbed on it previously too
2)The brake fluid had boiled due to a high water content ; given its lovely brown colour this is a likely scenario.
3)The level dropped during the overtake which is what introduced air into the system. The reservoir is not the easiest thing to read off and it can be misleading.
Out of the above the latter two scenarios seemed likely with the boiling of the fluid looking possible ; I did manage to syringe out the brake fluid after all. The annoying thing? The brake fluid was on the list for being changed but once the weather had begun to warm up. It was fair to say that the priority of this changed somewhat very quickly!
With the Eezibleed and the spare tyre deflated to 20PSi I was able to bleed all 4 calipers within an hour and a half. It involved me taking the tyre valve on an off the tyre as my 15 year old Eezibleed was leaking air slightly from the bottle cap! It did however allow me to get the job done well.
Mercedes Brake bleed by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Mercedes Brake bleed by Charlieboy, on Flickr
What was the end result like? A pedal that was much firmer than it ever has been in my ownership! With the vacuum source depleted the brake pedal is tricky to press down now. Once the engine is running the brake pedal biting point has risen towards the top of the pedal ; it previously wasn't miles away from this but there is a marked improvement from before. Maybe the system wasn't bled properly before, who knows?
What's the moral of the story? Change your brake fluid kids! Besides having superior and more dependable braking it should also extend the longevity of the braking system too! This car has only done 3-5000 over the last few years as well!
Now that I have managed to change my underwear and the car has now been pushed swifly back into service it's time to update the other thread. Maybe the W124 got envious of the C350e I had for a few days last week!
I tried an ambitious overtake (read, any overtake) in the W124 where some sleepy woman was doing 35-40MPH in an NSL limit! Bailing out of the overtake was fine but it wasn't for when I came to stop for the Princethorpe crossroads! The first pedal stroke went to the floor with little braking with the second pump was fine. Oddly, if I let the car cool down the brakes were fine again for 15 minutes but then I'd need a second pump to get meaningful/normal power out of the brakes. I can only assume one of three things
1)The master cylinder was iffy - It did however look to have been replaced recently and the fixings have been disturbed on it previously too
2)The brake fluid had boiled due to a high water content ; given its lovely brown colour this is a likely scenario.
3)The level dropped during the overtake which is what introduced air into the system. The reservoir is not the easiest thing to read off and it can be misleading.
Out of the above the latter two scenarios seemed likely with the boiling of the fluid looking possible ; I did manage to syringe out the brake fluid after all. The annoying thing? The brake fluid was on the list for being changed but once the weather had begun to warm up. It was fair to say that the priority of this changed somewhat very quickly!
With the Eezibleed and the spare tyre deflated to 20PSi I was able to bleed all 4 calipers within an hour and a half. It involved me taking the tyre valve on an off the tyre as my 15 year old Eezibleed was leaking air slightly from the bottle cap! It did however allow me to get the job done well.
Mercedes Brake bleed by Charlieboy, on FlickrMercedes Brake bleed by Charlieboy, on FlickrWhat was the end result like? A pedal that was much firmer than it ever has been in my ownership! With the vacuum source depleted the brake pedal is tricky to press down now. Once the engine is running the brake pedal biting point has risen towards the top of the pedal ; it previously wasn't miles away from this but there is a marked improvement from before. Maybe the system wasn't bled properly before, who knows?
What's the moral of the story? Change your brake fluid kids! Besides having superior and more dependable braking it should also extend the longevity of the braking system too! This car has only done 3-5000 over the last few years as well!
Now that I have managed to change my underwear and the car has now been pushed swifly back into service it's time to update the other thread. Maybe the W124 got envious of the C350e I had for a few days last week!
JakeT said:
Just read this thread and thought I recognised the car. Then realised I saw it at roadkill! You were parking in front of my mates 190. Pic is stolen from his insta.
Aha, so you were one of the 3 or 4 guys in that car? I remember discussing whether you wanted to switch places given how low your friend's 190E was! It was good to bump into a fellow Merc owner there. The RoadKill event was a great thing and IMHO a bit of a signal to what is possible over here, MotorTrend after all have been like Bauer Media in the States for a very long time now.MJK 24 said:
I note your spare is a 15 hole Alloy and your road wheels are steel. You'll need some different, much longer bolts to fit the spare should you ever need to use it.
Cheers for pointing that out .I saw the Spare on Monday as I planned to bleed the brakes then. However, it did occur to me yesterday that for now the alloy wheel is indeed a lovely paperweight in the boot of my Merc. I'll possibly keep an eye out for a steelie.
I really need to check the spec of my Merc. I always thought it was a strange spec. In short it has:
-Full Walnut trim inside including the doors
-Height adjustable lights
-Auxiliary water pump
-Chrome strips on the door handles
-Electric Windows all round.
The steel wheels on it don't really fit with that specification even if mine is a 250D and is missing leather and AC from the above list.
r129sl said:
Brakes and gears are very interesting without vacuum. So is switching the engine off.
My vacuum pump failed 100miles into a two week touring holiday. We managed.
I've only once had the no vacuum scenario whilst driving but yes it does get interesting. This is the probably about the third time I've had the long pedal problem however. One of those times was bringing the car back from a garage after a brake caliper swap!My vacuum pump failed 100miles into a two week touring holiday. We managed.
That must have been interesting for you given how much runs off the vacuum system in a W124!
Are the gearboxes on W124s vacuum controlled like the W123s? I was under the impression only the W123s were!
JakeT said:
I was not one of them, I had to rock up earlier with a mate in his Fire Engine 
When we came to leave he had to wait for you to leave before he could get if off of the pavement. It still rides well being so low though!
RK was a good event, I felt bad the lads had to just sign autographs all day, and the burnouts were done on the most grippy surface there I think.
You're right there, TEN have done well really, with some great car content online. I wish MTOD was a little more compelling for the money, as it seems to offer more for American subscribers. I still try to support the stuff they make by purchasing some merch though.
Ah yes, I remember him saying that he'd be there for the entire day as I was hoping he'd switch spots with me!When we came to leave he had to wait for you to leave before he could get if off of the pavement. It still rides well being so low though!
RK was a good event, I felt bad the lads had to just sign autographs all day, and the burnouts were done on the most grippy surface there I think.
You're right there, TEN have done well really, with some great car content online. I wish MTOD was a little more compelling for the money, as it seems to offer more for American subscribers. I still try to support the stuff they make by purchasing some merch though.
You have to give your hat off to Freiburger and Dulcich ; that must have taken alot of patience! But OTOH I get the impression that they as well as MT massively underestimated just how popular they were over there. They were saying in their Q&A session that alot of their viewers come from the Middle East as well as pockets of Europe, with us being one of those pockets. DF was saying some blokes from Dubai were treating them like rockstars at SEMA!
That said, there is something in their contract which I suspect makes them sit out to do the autographs.
What I found strange was seeing a queue this long, and yes it goes outside of the photo!
It was surreal to bump into the cigar smoking Big Time Drag Racer Jeff Lutz! He had a few people meet him but nowhere near as much as the RoadKill hosts. The best thing? A few of us had a regular chat with Jeff and it's refreshing to see someone at a show with a very down to earth nature, sharing his experience and generally having a good time with the rest of us! That was one of the highlights of the show for me!
r129sl said:
The gearbox is vacuum modulated. Shifts are very hard without it. The brake servo depends on the vacuum pump, too. And of course there is the central locking although that wasn't an issue in the far north. Without vacuum you can only switch off the engine by going under the bonnet and interrupting the fuel supply.
I did have the long travel pedal (on a separate occasion); it always came back up on the second press. That was a bad master cylinder.
The 300D had the solenoid ruptured for turning off the engine. That was a fun job to continuously turn it off!I did have the long travel pedal (on a separate occasion); it always came back up on the second press. That was a bad master cylinder.
It's interesting to see they stuck with the vacuum modulation for this one!
As for the brakes mine are still working spot on! Maybe it's a sign of mission creep but I scored a bargain on a pair of Coupe 4 pot calipers! Will they go on? We shall see.
Edited by SebringMan on Monday 19th February 17:47
You would have thought with the updates going on with the M3 thread this old girl was being neglected! Well, not so fast!
The truth is this has been my daily runner! Yes the rust on the driver's wing is getting slightly worse but overall it's been earning its keep and it's been doing a sterling job there! With that in mind it was time to deal with a few of the niggles. Most of which I dealt with today!
The first was to test drive yet another car! This time it was a fully electric car ; a BMW i3S!
Untitled by Charlieboy, on Flickr
OK, it's older and not an i3S! What were my impressions? Firstly electric cars are quite an experience to drive; Intuitive and easy to pick up but generally great ; the response was literally electric! Overtaking in it was like nothing else I've been in ; you can see why people love these things! The second thing is that it's quite a quirky thing! However, there is something about the W124! I'll be honest. When I went from the S205 C350e back into the Merc I did miss the C350e ; It's a great machine with super splendour and class! The i3 simply didn't do that for me! The W124's charm won me back upon driving it away! It was strange as I was so enjoying the drive of the i3! Like an old dog it has a few external warts and so on. But it is utterly faithful and has a real grandeur about just rolling up and down the roads in great comfort, German style! It has a sense of Americanness in its steering and comfort levels without being wayward or ill handling!
Anything, that's enough mission creep there! The few issues I had were as follows:
-A diesel leak from the fuel thermostat area
-No rear fog light
-A driver's door barrel that was a jackpot as to when it decided to work
-Tidying it up!
The first thing to deal with was the diesel leak! I don't need to tell anyway how slippery diesel can be out on the cold wet roads! While it wasn't gushing out the problem did need fixing! With that in mind a local RRer fixed me up with some decent Cohline fuel hose. As you probably know even R6 fuel hose these days is very poor quality and not always fuel resistant ; I know of a few cars that have gone up in smoke thanks to crap piping! To add further complications some of my fuel hose had been changed already!
Initially I thought it was the hoses going to the diesel thermstat. A couple previously (the R6 ones) were cracking at the ends! I then replaced the thermsotat hoses with the new items and new jubilee clips the old clips had gone weak. However, the R6 lines then started to leak! With that happening I then changed those! At this point I saw the plastic outlet of the fuel thermostat twisting! Since I'm not sure if it is meant to move I figured it was best to bypass it as many people elsewhere do. However, should it ever be needed I looped a bit of hose around to preven the inside of it getting dirty but also so that it can be plugged back in again for an emergency. In the meantime I'll be keeping my eye out for a replacement thermostat (they can stop being a thermostat/heater) or getting a rebuild kit from Mercedes, which is an O-ring and a plastic outlet although mine seems fine on the latter.
by Charlieboy, on Flickr
The wetness on the block is the carb cleaner I used. It's always nice to clean things up! The plumbing of the fuel pre-filter was also tidied up and put more into the factory position ; the extended hose previously was quite messy and rubbed on just about everything in comparison to now!
The second issue was the rear fog light not working. This was down to the light switch knob falling off when it was pulled! To be honest it was very tired looking and when a new one from Mercedes is only £2 it made no sense to persist with the old item! It really freshened up the interior on that side of things! I didn't take a photo of this as I was running out of time and I had one final thing to do.
Finally there was the matter of the door barrel. The central locking does work on this car thankfully but you can only utilise this by opening and closing the locks from the boot and passenger door lock! The driver's door would only lock and open a handful of times. Cleaning it out didn't do much! What solution did I have? A new key? A new door barrel I hear you ask? No. I went a little leftfield but also down a well trodden path:
by Charlieboy, on Flickr
In case you are wondering the yellow vacuum lines going to the box are is the vacuum pump for the central locking. What I did was add on the smaller box to give remote central locking, using the existing vacuum pump as it is! The kit I had was relatively inexpensive and didn't take too long to install at all! I did have to buy one that could work with pneumatic locks however; they required a 3.5 second pulse in order to activate the vacuum pump for long enough! And in truth it works like a charm and really makes life easier. Not just for opening the driver's door but for also getting to the boot with your hands full! Yes, the purists may not like it but it does add a great touch of convenience to a retro daily driver! Oh, and circumvent the driver's door lock issue. It was easy to wire up too! I interrupted one of the existing wires going from one of the door lock switches and then made a subloom up to go in between the vacuum pump's power plug. This way I cut a minimal amount of the car's wiring and the wires in the subloom could be soldered for a more long term reliable connection!
And I gained a keyring too! OK, I lied. I gained a keyfob!
Who said an old retro couldn't have modern convenience features? This one almost has the lot!
There is more that should be coming but for now it's time to hit the hay.
by Charlieboy, on Flickr
The truth is this has been my daily runner! Yes the rust on the driver's wing is getting slightly worse but overall it's been earning its keep and it's been doing a sterling job there! With that in mind it was time to deal with a few of the niggles. Most of which I dealt with today!
The first was to test drive yet another car! This time it was a fully electric car ; a BMW i3S!
Untitled by Charlieboy, on FlickrOK, it's older and not an i3S! What were my impressions? Firstly electric cars are quite an experience to drive; Intuitive and easy to pick up but generally great ; the response was literally electric! Overtaking in it was like nothing else I've been in ; you can see why people love these things! The second thing is that it's quite a quirky thing! However, there is something about the W124! I'll be honest. When I went from the S205 C350e back into the Merc I did miss the C350e ; It's a great machine with super splendour and class! The i3 simply didn't do that for me! The W124's charm won me back upon driving it away! It was strange as I was so enjoying the drive of the i3! Like an old dog it has a few external warts and so on. But it is utterly faithful and has a real grandeur about just rolling up and down the roads in great comfort, German style! It has a sense of Americanness in its steering and comfort levels without being wayward or ill handling!
Anything, that's enough mission creep there! The few issues I had were as follows:
-A diesel leak from the fuel thermostat area
-No rear fog light
-A driver's door barrel that was a jackpot as to when it decided to work
-Tidying it up!
The first thing to deal with was the diesel leak! I don't need to tell anyway how slippery diesel can be out on the cold wet roads! While it wasn't gushing out the problem did need fixing! With that in mind a local RRer fixed me up with some decent Cohline fuel hose. As you probably know even R6 fuel hose these days is very poor quality and not always fuel resistant ; I know of a few cars that have gone up in smoke thanks to crap piping! To add further complications some of my fuel hose had been changed already!
Initially I thought it was the hoses going to the diesel thermstat. A couple previously (the R6 ones) were cracking at the ends! I then replaced the thermsotat hoses with the new items and new jubilee clips the old clips had gone weak. However, the R6 lines then started to leak! With that happening I then changed those! At this point I saw the plastic outlet of the fuel thermostat twisting! Since I'm not sure if it is meant to move I figured it was best to bypass it as many people elsewhere do. However, should it ever be needed I looped a bit of hose around to preven the inside of it getting dirty but also so that it can be plugged back in again for an emergency. In the meantime I'll be keeping my eye out for a replacement thermostat (they can stop being a thermostat/heater) or getting a rebuild kit from Mercedes, which is an O-ring and a plastic outlet although mine seems fine on the latter.
by Charlieboy, on FlickrThe wetness on the block is the carb cleaner I used. It's always nice to clean things up! The plumbing of the fuel pre-filter was also tidied up and put more into the factory position ; the extended hose previously was quite messy and rubbed on just about everything in comparison to now!
The second issue was the rear fog light not working. This was down to the light switch knob falling off when it was pulled! To be honest it was very tired looking and when a new one from Mercedes is only £2 it made no sense to persist with the old item! It really freshened up the interior on that side of things! I didn't take a photo of this as I was running out of time and I had one final thing to do.
Finally there was the matter of the door barrel. The central locking does work on this car thankfully but you can only utilise this by opening and closing the locks from the boot and passenger door lock! The driver's door would only lock and open a handful of times. Cleaning it out didn't do much! What solution did I have? A new key? A new door barrel I hear you ask? No. I went a little leftfield but also down a well trodden path:
by Charlieboy, on FlickrIn case you are wondering the yellow vacuum lines going to the box are is the vacuum pump for the central locking. What I did was add on the smaller box to give remote central locking, using the existing vacuum pump as it is! The kit I had was relatively inexpensive and didn't take too long to install at all! I did have to buy one that could work with pneumatic locks however; they required a 3.5 second pulse in order to activate the vacuum pump for long enough! And in truth it works like a charm and really makes life easier. Not just for opening the driver's door but for also getting to the boot with your hands full! Yes, the purists may not like it but it does add a great touch of convenience to a retro daily driver! Oh, and circumvent the driver's door lock issue. It was easy to wire up too! I interrupted one of the existing wires going from one of the door lock switches and then made a subloom up to go in between the vacuum pump's power plug. This way I cut a minimal amount of the car's wiring and the wires in the subloom could be soldered for a more long term reliable connection!
And I gained a keyring too! OK, I lied. I gained a keyfob!
Who said an old retro couldn't have modern convenience features? This one almost has the lot!
There is more that should be coming but for now it's time to hit the hay.
by Charlieboy, on Flickrian316 said:
What is the kit and where did you get it from please?
I got the kit from Amazon! It was £25 delivered to my door.It came with two wiring diagrams. The original diagram is correct and the seller's are not. I made a mini loom to go in between the Vacuum pump power plug and the pump itself. This provides the power to the RCL box. It also meant that I didn't have to cut any of those wires.
You will however have to cut one of the wires on the round plug; it interrupts that signal which is why it works. Most people go with the looser of the two green wires to do it, which I did. One of the green wires will work, the other won't apparently. Mine had 12V once the door was opened and 0V the other way which was the correct wire. W126s don't have this issue as they only one one wire per door as opposed to the W124's two per door. There will also be two yellow wires (the boot) and two blue wires (the driver's door). They also have the same principles as the green wires but simply operate another part.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Universal-Remote-Central-...
If you want a better quality kit the Toad A101CL will do the same thing, but that's around £80.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/312052680097?chn=ps&a...
Edited by SebringMan on Sunday 25th February 18:37
I forgot to say, there was one thing I left off my day of W124 caring. The headlight knob.
Mine could put on the front foglights but it could not do the rears at all; it kept on slipping off the end, probably from the rear foglights never being used! Of course, this would never help it to pass the MOT! Let's be honest, being an older daily it's probably also more likely to be pulled over and checked for things. This car thankfully had great tyres all round and is sound where it counts. Visually it could be better! Since a new knob was £2 from Mercedes it seemed crazy not to change it. It looks a little out of place but then the old one was quite an eyesore too!
W124 Feb 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr
I also went on my travels to the Pistonheads Sunday Service at Ginetta. I have to say that I loved driving up in the old girl. It was a wonderful place to tour the Ginetta factory. The staff clearly have a passion and were certainly more inviting than the folk at ProDrive, that's for sure! Many props to Ginetta for taking their time to do their stuff over the weekend.
Ginetta Tour by Charlieboy, on Flickr
One of the two jigs used for building the cars
Ginetta Tour by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Ginetta Tour by Charlieboy, on Flickr
A Ginetta G40 spaceframe
Ginetta Tour by Charlieboy, on Flickr
And its powerplant ; a Zetec 1.8
Ginetta Tour by Charlieboy, on Flickr
You have to love the older stuff they made! Uncompromising yes! Stunning, however, they most definitely are!
Ginetta Tour by Charlieboy, on Flickr
A built-up G40
Ginetta Tour by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Will you survey the magnificence!
What did the Mercedes average on the fuel run up there? With me not exceeding 80 I somehow got 43MPG with 3 people on a bit! TBH I wonder if it did more given that the fuel was pretty much to the top of this fuel cap, and that last time it wasn't despite using the two click method. A bit of a result for the old Mercedes for sure!
Mine could put on the front foglights but it could not do the rears at all; it kept on slipping off the end, probably from the rear foglights never being used! Of course, this would never help it to pass the MOT! Let's be honest, being an older daily it's probably also more likely to be pulled over and checked for things. This car thankfully had great tyres all round and is sound where it counts. Visually it could be better! Since a new knob was £2 from Mercedes it seemed crazy not to change it. It looks a little out of place but then the old one was quite an eyesore too!
W124 Feb 2018 by Charlieboy, on FlickrI also went on my travels to the Pistonheads Sunday Service at Ginetta. I have to say that I loved driving up in the old girl. It was a wonderful place to tour the Ginetta factory. The staff clearly have a passion and were certainly more inviting than the folk at ProDrive, that's for sure! Many props to Ginetta for taking their time to do their stuff over the weekend.
Ginetta Tour by Charlieboy, on FlickrOne of the two jigs used for building the cars
Ginetta Tour by Charlieboy, on FlickrGinetta Tour by Charlieboy, on FlickrA Ginetta G40 spaceframe
Ginetta Tour by Charlieboy, on FlickrAnd its powerplant ; a Zetec 1.8
Ginetta Tour by Charlieboy, on FlickrYou have to love the older stuff they made! Uncompromising yes! Stunning, however, they most definitely are!
Ginetta Tour by Charlieboy, on FlickrA built-up G40
Ginetta Tour by Charlieboy, on FlickrWill you survey the magnificence!
What did the Mercedes average on the fuel run up there? With me not exceeding 80 I somehow got 43MPG with 3 people on a bit! TBH I wonder if it did more given that the fuel was pretty much to the top of this fuel cap, and that last time it wasn't despite using the two click method. A bit of a result for the old Mercedes for sure!
ian316 said:
Wow a wiring diagram I can follow cheers for this, when I've looked into this before only the more expensive one was available thanks again
Anytime, it's good to see a cheap but easy way to add convenience.You'd have thought with me doing things on the M3 that the Mercedes was being neglected. Far from it. The car did admirably well through the snow and really was a great companion!
250D & snow by Charlieboy, on FlickrHowever, since the M3 needed to be sent away for a short while the Merc strangely went back into storage. This is just as well as I have a plan to take it to the Laon Historique. But the car is not quite ready. The first thing is I'd have to make it safe!
It has a few issues I'd like to deal with. The one I really wished to fix was the braking issue. It still wasn't fixed! There I was going down the M69 and the car started to vibrate alot, as if the driveshaft was going to escape! When I came to brake, it went back to having the pedal on the floor again! This time I pulled up prompty, with more of a clue this time. There was a distinct burning smell coming from the rear of the car. When I went to check the rear right wheel was hotter than the rest by quite a way, enough to boil the water I put onto the wheel! It's funny as the wheel trim itself has always had more brake dust staining than the other pads. It was looking like the caliper was at fault.
The first thing to do was to lift the back end up. Despite the car rolling nicely being pushed once the handbrake was off on the ground the offside rear wheel was hard to turn by hand! It would eventually free off, but it took its time! I've normally always had brakes notably dragging on a car if the calipers are shot, so this was interesting.
Rear brake calliper swap. by Charlieboy, on FlickrWith the cause found I set about stripping that side down. Once the caliper was off it was clear it had seen better days. One piston was just about going back in, but the opposing side had the outer rim looking like it had lived in the ocean! It would explain why the brakes were being random!
Rear brake calliper swap. by Charlieboy, on FlickrWith that in mind it was time to assemble the new brake hose and refurbished brake caliper:
Rear brake calliper swap. by Charlieboy, on FlickrUnfortunately the copper brake pipe put up a fight with it turning with the union. Eventually I managed to work around the the issue and had the union spinning nicely again. It's one reason why I don't like Copper brake pipes; it's not the first time it has happened to me. The pipe is now straight but I may well replace it; Mercedes want £30 for a new pipe and my flaring tool isn't all that; for peace of mind I may well take that avenue:
Rear brake calliper swap. by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Rear brake calliper swap. by Charlieboy, on FlickrOnce that was all sorted I went to fit it to the car. Pushing down the brake pedal 40mm or so, and holding it there helped significantly in minimising the brake fluid loss.
Rear brake calliper swap. by Charlieboy, on FlickrAnd there it is, all finished! Note the light coloured rust staining; I've seen this before with a seized caliper so it does look like the cause has been found. The other side surprisingly is in good condition.
That's one thing down. If I am fussy I could do the bodywork but I do like the lived in look of the car strangely!
I previously mentioned that I planned to take the W124 to the Laon Historique. As a result I've been sorting out alot of the issues with it. They basically are:
-[s]Vibration at high speed that gets severe[/s]; I changed the brake caliper but I'll need to drive it to confirm that
-[s]Crank seal leak, it's leaking quite a bit.[/s]
-Sort out the exterior; I doubt that will happen
-[s]Give it an oil change; That's inadvertently happening![/s]
-Finish off the ICE; I threw my Alpine 9887R in, and then a CDE-178BT. I was going to sell the 9887R but I ended up selling the easier to install HU of the two, being me. Unfortunately the W124's interior is a pain to take apart, and the 9887R requires a bluetooth module fitting! Oh and I need to still sort the wiring; it's dimming the HU lighting it's that poor! But the Alpine can consume alot of power in 9887R form.
I decided to sort out the crank seal. After all, it's leaking like mental and marking its territory wherever it goes! With that in mind I cracked on with stripping the front end of the engine down. I forgot just how oily the front engine of that engine is! It's a mess!
W124 crank seal saga by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Once this was done it was time to clean down the front of the engine. Wow, this thing was filthy in front! Carb cleaner was just about breaking through the grime, with it coming off in chunks! As soon as I finished cleaning it I progressed onto removing the old crank seal.
I was not prepared for how stubborn it would be to remove! I also didn't bank of the woodruff key falling into the sump!
W124 crank seal saga by Charlieboy, on Flickr
I'm hoping not to remove the sump! It basically involves lifting the engine slightly, and only then removing the sump, with many of those fixings looking not to have been disturbed for quite some time.
W124 crank seal saga by Charlieboy, on Flickr
It's fair to say I am annoyed and it really has put an extra bit of work in prior to the car being ready for the Laon Historique, which is now only a month away!
W124 Woodruff Saga by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Will it be done or will the towel be thrown in?
-[s]Vibration at high speed that gets severe[/s]; I changed the brake caliper but I'll need to drive it to confirm that
-[s]Crank seal leak, it's leaking quite a bit.[/s]
-Sort out the exterior; I doubt that will happen
-[s]Give it an oil change; That's inadvertently happening![/s]
-Finish off the ICE; I threw my Alpine 9887R in, and then a CDE-178BT. I was going to sell the 9887R but I ended up selling the easier to install HU of the two, being me. Unfortunately the W124's interior is a pain to take apart, and the 9887R requires a bluetooth module fitting! Oh and I need to still sort the wiring; it's dimming the HU lighting it's that poor! But the Alpine can consume alot of power in 9887R form.
I decided to sort out the crank seal. After all, it's leaking like mental and marking its territory wherever it goes! With that in mind I cracked on with stripping the front end of the engine down. I forgot just how oily the front engine of that engine is! It's a mess!
W124 crank seal saga by Charlieboy, on FlickrOnce this was done it was time to clean down the front of the engine. Wow, this thing was filthy in front! Carb cleaner was just about breaking through the grime, with it coming off in chunks! As soon as I finished cleaning it I progressed onto removing the old crank seal.
I was not prepared for how stubborn it would be to remove! I also didn't bank of the woodruff key falling into the sump!
W124 crank seal saga by Charlieboy, on FlickrI'm hoping not to remove the sump! It basically involves lifting the engine slightly, and only then removing the sump, with many of those fixings looking not to have been disturbed for quite some time.
W124 crank seal saga by Charlieboy, on FlickrIt's fair to say I am annoyed and it really has put an extra bit of work in prior to the car being ready for the Laon Historique, which is now only a month away!
W124 Woodruff Saga by Charlieboy, on FlickrWill it be done or will the towel be thrown in?
I left the thread with it looking like I'd be taking the sump off. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to!
I then started on attempting to remove the woodruff key. Initially I drained the sump. Unfortunately it didn't do alot! With a speaker magnet I then progressed to get out the woodruff key. I could hear something rattling about with the magnet inside but I just could not get it out! Since I had drained the oil and got further into the job I then proceeded to buy the following:
-Gulf 10W40 oil
-Mann Oil Filter
-Gold Plug sump plug. These have a strong Neodymium magnet. I can confirm these are very strong!
-New Woodruff key. Since the old one came out I figured it was wise to fit a new item
-An extendable Magnet. I do have one of these somewhere but I could not find it!
With that in mind there was nothing left to do but to crack on with the job.
W124 crank seal saga by Charlieboy, on Flickr
W124 crank seal saga by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Initially I installed the Gold sump plug. With the magnet I then went on to fish out the metal particle. Except it wasn't the key! It was instead the remains of a chain link! The strange thing is the link looked undamaged! I then ended up checking both the oil pump chain and the cam chain through both apertures with each of them seeming fine. I can only assume that the link was dropped down into there when the chain was changed many years ago. Mechanics, you have to love them! On the plus side, the little I could see of the cam chain tensioner pad confirmed all was well. One thing I found strange was how I could see the cam chain from the tensioner pivot bolt aperture! It was strange how the this pivot bolt was very loose when I removed it too! Was this the reason the link was present in the sump?
I then measured the potential thread engagement of the bolt with the tensioner spacer in place. It would never hit the tensioner or cam chain unless the spacer was missing. I then cleaned the super grubby tensioner. Only then did it became apparent that the tensioner itself had been replaced at some point in the past. It explained why the pivot bearing felt fine and why the idler pulley felt like new; both had been changed fairly recently in the car's life. But why was the bolt loose? In short, I don't think the mechanic tightened it enough. With a 12mm allen key the Haynes manual says this bolt should be done to 100Nm. Yup, it's tight, tighter than I'd go without seeing to factory figures! With that in mind I torqued it up and yes it is quite tight in there now, with the pulley once again being straight!
W124 crank seal saga by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Along the way I cleaned up all of the removed pulleys in carb cleaner. A cleaner engine in a diesel is a nicer thing to work on after all!
I then went on to remove the oil level sender at the side of the sump where I then placed my magnet.Strangely, I found the woodruff key on top of the oil pickup pipe strainer! As soon as I fished that out there was a large sigh of relief!
W124 Woodruff Saga by Charlieboy, on Flickr
After that it was a case of fitting in yet another crank seal, but at £8 it was hardly a deal breaker! Once that was done I got a little carried away for the night. In short, I refitted the crank pulley back on, which I'll torque check later on (it's meant to be at 320Nm, yikes on a 27mm headed bolt!). After that, once I cleaned up all of the pulleys I fitted the Gold Plug, removed the oil filter and refilled the engine with oil, refitted the level sender, refitted all of the cleaned ancillaries up front with the exception of the viscous fan and shroud, as well as refitting the radiator, and filling it up with coolant. I then went to fire it up where it is nice to not have an engine that leaks!
The above took me about 4 hours, including tool packing and cleaning time; diesels are filthy things to work on! I'm not the quickest worker it can be said! But at least the car is no longer leaking and the car is once again drivable and not filthy underneath!
Now to go onto the fun stuff! ICE if I can find a home for the bluetooth box behind the HU, and possibly a seat repair! I may even change the wings!
I then started on attempting to remove the woodruff key. Initially I drained the sump. Unfortunately it didn't do alot! With a speaker magnet I then progressed to get out the woodruff key. I could hear something rattling about with the magnet inside but I just could not get it out! Since I had drained the oil and got further into the job I then proceeded to buy the following:
-Gulf 10W40 oil
-Mann Oil Filter
-Gold Plug sump plug. These have a strong Neodymium magnet. I can confirm these are very strong!
-New Woodruff key. Since the old one came out I figured it was wise to fit a new item
-An extendable Magnet. I do have one of these somewhere but I could not find it!
With that in mind there was nothing left to do but to crack on with the job.
W124 crank seal saga by Charlieboy, on FlickrW124 crank seal saga by Charlieboy, on FlickrInitially I installed the Gold sump plug. With the magnet I then went on to fish out the metal particle. Except it wasn't the key! It was instead the remains of a chain link! The strange thing is the link looked undamaged! I then ended up checking both the oil pump chain and the cam chain through both apertures with each of them seeming fine. I can only assume that the link was dropped down into there when the chain was changed many years ago. Mechanics, you have to love them! On the plus side, the little I could see of the cam chain tensioner pad confirmed all was well. One thing I found strange was how I could see the cam chain from the tensioner pivot bolt aperture! It was strange how the this pivot bolt was very loose when I removed it too! Was this the reason the link was present in the sump?
I then measured the potential thread engagement of the bolt with the tensioner spacer in place. It would never hit the tensioner or cam chain unless the spacer was missing. I then cleaned the super grubby tensioner. Only then did it became apparent that the tensioner itself had been replaced at some point in the past. It explained why the pivot bearing felt fine and why the idler pulley felt like new; both had been changed fairly recently in the car's life. But why was the bolt loose? In short, I don't think the mechanic tightened it enough. With a 12mm allen key the Haynes manual says this bolt should be done to 100Nm. Yup, it's tight, tighter than I'd go without seeing to factory figures! With that in mind I torqued it up and yes it is quite tight in there now, with the pulley once again being straight!
W124 crank seal saga by Charlieboy, on FlickrAlong the way I cleaned up all of the removed pulleys in carb cleaner. A cleaner engine in a diesel is a nicer thing to work on after all!
I then went on to remove the oil level sender at the side of the sump where I then placed my magnet.Strangely, I found the woodruff key on top of the oil pickup pipe strainer! As soon as I fished that out there was a large sigh of relief!
W124 Woodruff Saga by Charlieboy, on FlickrAfter that it was a case of fitting in yet another crank seal, but at £8 it was hardly a deal breaker! Once that was done I got a little carried away for the night. In short, I refitted the crank pulley back on, which I'll torque check later on (it's meant to be at 320Nm, yikes on a 27mm headed bolt!). After that, once I cleaned up all of the pulleys I fitted the Gold Plug, removed the oil filter and refilled the engine with oil, refitted the level sender, refitted all of the cleaned ancillaries up front with the exception of the viscous fan and shroud, as well as refitting the radiator, and filling it up with coolant. I then went to fire it up where it is nice to not have an engine that leaks!
The above took me about 4 hours, including tool packing and cleaning time; diesels are filthy things to work on! I'm not the quickest worker it can be said! But at least the car is no longer leaking and the car is once again drivable and not filthy underneath!
Now to go onto the fun stuff! ICE if I can find a home for the bluetooth box behind the HU, and possibly a seat repair! I may even change the wings!
I left the thread with it looking like I'd be taking the sump off. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to!
I then started on attempting to remove the woodruff key. Initially I drained the sump. Unfortunately it didn't do alot! With a speaker magnet I then progressed to get out the woodruff key. I could hear something rattling about with the magnet inside but I just could not get it out! Since I had drained the oil and got further into the job I then proceeded to buy the following:
-Gulf 10W40 oil
-Mann Oil Filter
-Gold Plug sump plug. These have a strong Neodymium magnet. I can confirm these are very strong!
-New Woodruff key. Since the old one came out I figured it was wise to fit a new item
-An extendable Magnet. I do have one of these somewhere but I could not find it!
With that in mind there was nothing left to do but to crack on with the job.
W124 crank seal saga by Charlieboy, on Flickr
W124 crank seal saga by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Initially I installed the Gold sump plug. With the magnet I then went on to fish out the metal particle. Except it wasn't the key! It was instead the remains of a chain link! The strange thing is the link looked undamaged! I then ended up checking both the oil pump chain and the cam chain through both apertures with each of them seeming fine. I can only assume that the link was dropped down into there when the chain was changed many years ago. Mechanics, you have to love them! On the plus side, the little I could see of the cam chain tensioner pad confirmed all was well. One thing I found strange was how I could see the cam chain from the tensioner pivot bolt aperture! It was strange how the this pivot bolt was very loose when I removed it too! Was this the reason the link was present in the sump?
I then measured the potential thread engagement of the bolt with the tensioner spacer in place. It would never hit the tensioner or cam chain unless the spacer was missing. I then cleaned the super grubby tensioner. Only then did it became apparent that the tensioner itself had been replaced at some point in the past. It explained why the pivot bearing felt fine and why the idler pulley felt like new; both had been changed fairly recently in the car's life. But why was the bolt loose? In short, I don't think the mechanic tightened it enough. With a 12mm allen key the Haynes manual says this bolt should be done to 100Nm. Yup, it's tight, tighter than I'd go without seeing to factory figures! With that in mind I torqued it up and yes it is quite tight in there now, with the pulley once again being straight!
W124 crank seal saga by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Along the way I cleaned up all of the removed pulleys in carb cleaner. A cleaner engine in a diesel is a nicer thing to work on after all!
I then went on to remove the oil level sender at the side of the sump where I then placed my magnet.Strangely, I found the woodruff key on top of the oil pickup pipe strainer! As soon as I fished that out there was a large sigh of relief!
W124 Woodruff Saga by Charlieboy, on Flickr
After that it was a case of fitting in yet another crank seal, but at £8 it was hardly a deal breaker! Once that was done I got a little carried away for the night. In short, I refitted the crank pulley back on, which I'll torque check later on (it's meant to be at 320Nm, yikes on a 27mm headed bolt!). After that, once I cleaned up all of the pulleys I fitted the Gold Plug, removed the oil filter and refilled the engine with oil, refitted the level sender, refitted all of the cleaned ancillaries up front with the exception of the viscous fan and shroud, as well as refitting the radiator, and filling it up with coolant. I then went to fire it up where it is nice to not have an engine that leaks!
The above took me about 4 hours, including tool packing and cleaning time; diesels are filthy things to work on! I'm not the quickest worker it can be said! But at least the car is no longer leaking and the car is once again drivable and not filthy underneath!
It would be another week before I tackled the car again. But it was all heading in the right direction>
This weekend turned into a bit of a car-centric Sunday! I started off by going to the Bicester Sunday Scramble, where there were tons of awesome cars about! I'll provide an update on that in a separate thread.
While I was busy enjoying my day there the Mercedes needed work doing to it, fast! Given that my Merc day of Saturday turned into cleaning off the patio and then wreaking of algae for an age I really put some time in on Sunday somehow!
Firstly, I went to an old friend who breaks Mercs for a living to source a few bits. This included a spare wheel as well as two working window switches. His Mrs. breaks a few parts; look out for Jasmine, aka FrauBenz for selling decent used parts. My bill. That said I did a straight swap for my early alloy spare for the steel wheel.
W124 April 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Some will say I should have been offered money. In truth, I was happy to not travel miles away or pay a fortune like what most sellers want for a steel spare wheel. The alternative was to get alloy wheel nuts but that seemed like more hassle than it was worth personally!
So, I now have 4 working windows instead of two in addition to having a usable spare wheel with decent tread. This left the music scenario!
As much as I love the sound of a 5 pot it's great to have some tunes on a long road trip, especially in a cruiser like a W124! With that in mind I had a second go at installing the Bluetooth box into the Merc, onto my Alpine. In short, it worked very well!
W124 April 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr
W124 April 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr
As the keen eyed may be able to see I alluded to the HU's wiring being very sketchy previously! I plan to fire up the soldering iron and sort that out. If I then get time the ICE may get a further makeover. Seeing as it may not happen and that it will improve things alot if my plans do come to fruition I'm going to keep those plans to myself for now
.
What I can say is that I dialed in the crossovers and EQ on the Alpine and the W124 actually sounds very pleasant inside now! Unfortunately I cannot really enjoy the sound while driving the car. Why, I hear you ask?
W124 April 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr
There is something missing in the form of a seat! In truth, I've sent it off to a friend of mine to retrim the bolster, using material from another seat that I picked up from Jasmine.
With the deadline drawing closer things were getting more tense!
[added piece]
So, I had two weeks to have a working and driving car for the Laon Historique. It was almost there but not quite. At the start of this post I had a headunit where its sound worked by telepathy, no driver's seat with it being down at the trimmers and finally I still have some minor mechanical work to do. The latter can be left but it would be nice to deal with all. Oh, and I still had the front end of the engine in pieces.
Since the last post I was not looking forward to doing the wiring on the W124's HU Harness! Mainly because the masking tape was proving tricky to cut off, while attempting not to injure myself with the craft knife!
With that in mind I moved to finishing off the work in the engine bay! I still needed to find a means to hold the crankshaft while I tightened up the crank bolt; it's done up to 320Nm, and the in gear trick isn't really enough, and I wonder how the clutch will fare with that much torque against it! I shall have to investigate what other options there are for tightening the crank bolt. I know for a fact it's tightened over 150Nm, but of course is that enough? I put the bolt in with my Kielder rattle gun, so it's a question of how tight that got the bolt. Ideas here are welcome.
While I was deliberating that it seemed it would be a good time to refit the auxiliary belt and refill the cooling system with OAT coolant:
W124 work April 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr
As always, this is a cheap car but it doesn't mean I am skimping on things or getting the poorest quality items! This arrived from CP4L for £17 and being a Dayco item should last well. It's a shame the relatively new Gates belt couldn't be kept but I suspect it had worn funny from the previously loose tensioner on the engine. Thankfully the car is now silent from the pulley area.
W124 work April 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr
I initially had a problem with an airlock in the system. Coming back a week later to top the coolant up right to the top of the reservoir however seems have solved this thankfully, with the car having toasty heaters once more!
But there was nothing for it. I'd have to tackle that shonky wiring if I ever wanted a reliable audio system in this car, especially with my rare Alpine 9887R headunit fitted! In the end however I am glad to report that there were no trips to A&E surprisingly! I merely got my craft knife out, and just went for it, albeit precariously at times!
W124 work April 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Once the insulation was done it was time to sort out the speaker wiring! I say sort as the channels were wired incorrectly! It went soemthing like this:
Headunit Wiring - Speaker Wiring
Left Front - Left Right
Left Right; Left Front
Rear Left & Right - correct but the polarity was wrong on both!
I ended up getting a 9 volt battery, tracing the wires back and then checking the polarity of the speakers that way! By the evening I had all of the wires soldered up, the wiring is now correct in addition to the speakers no longer cutting out on their own! Some people are against soldering here but IME I've almost always had those Halfords style crimps fail on me, where here I wanted a longer lasting solution!
But while the sound of the car had improved there was still room for improvement! My car has lost its factory speakers some time ago, where instead of the factory fitted speakers it now has 10cm JBLs up front:
W124 work April 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr
To quite a few of you the above would be fine with the above installation I suspect but the audio conscious will be aware that you can get some cancellation without a decent baffle for the speaker. Not a problem I thought; I have a HU which has fully active crossovers (i.e it takes place of the speaker crossover boxes, giving much more flexibility) and so I better put an audio setup in! Stuff which I haven't used for about 4 years now! In my mind I put out the kit list to include:
HU; Alpine 9887R with the BT-400 iPod/Bluetooth box
Amps: Genesis Series 3 4 channel with a Phase Linear Monoblock for the sub
Sub: Phase Linear Aliante Si 12" in a ported box.
But what about speakers? Enter stage left:
W124 work April 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr
These are a pair of Dynaudio GT240 5.25" components. I've been after a set of Dynaudios for a very long time and when these came up at a bargain price years ago I snapped them up. Now it was just a case of fitting them. Or so I thought:
W124 work April 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr
It's sort of in there.
W124 work April 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr
No, that isn't going to work!
The above created a bit of a stumbling block for me. I assumed the W124 speaker apertures were 13cm like the Dynaudios, but it was not to be. It turns out they are 12cm with Mercedes' own fastening scheme which thankfully is still intact! I then considered a set of original factory speakers and even Rainbow's Custom Fit offerings, albeit at £100. I'd have to sell the Dynaudios to buy them, but I already have a few people asking me to buy the things off me! Further research ensued. A known face in the W124 in the form of Nick Bolide informed me that while the Merc stock speakers weren't great, the Rainbows weren't much better! With that in mind it was back to the drawing board. Without alot of effort and time it will be tricky getting the Dynaudios/ICE in with other jobs still to do on the car.
I may well fit the Dynaudios in, but it will be in a non-invasive fashion, and probably with the mids in the kick panels of the car. But that wouldn't help me now! I debated making a baffle for the JBLs but seeing as they may not be used for the long term it seemed like alot of effort to go to for not much of a gain. They are £30 speakers after all.
Later on I came up with the idea of using some SecondSkin Damplifier Pro sound material to seal off the mids. It is fair to say that it looks quite Heath Robinson in my attempts:
W124 work April 2018 by Charlieboy, on Flickr
However, it made a bigger difference than I imagined! For 10cm speakers they actually have some bass! This was very apparent though a back to back comparison! Furthermore, the ear-piercing midrange in the vocals (remember, these are cheap JBL speakers) is now much more forgiving. Not great but acceptable now. It sounds sounds alot nicer and with less volume from the headunit required now that alot of that cancellation has gone.
All that was left for me to do there was to refit the stock speaker grilles and then do some EQing to make it a little nicer. It now has the mid-range tamed down a little more still (but still nowhere near as bad before I did the above and tried EQing) and generally sounds fine for an old Mercedes inside, just how it should be! As I have alluded to above, I may do one more thing to the audio side of things prior to going to Laon, but we will see.
[/added piece]
That brought us to last weekend.
Bank Holidays. they are great for many people out there. A day off work to do as they please. Some go away for a weekend. Others go on a weekend binge, while some go and meet their family and friends. Me? I may have dabbled in all of the above, but did not lose sight of the goal in mind. The Laon Historique.
With the 2 week deadline fast approaching I had my aforementioned list to work through. With that in mind I went down to the unit and progressed with working on the car again.
This is probably the first time the old girl has seen daylight for almost two months.
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (1 of 15) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Firstly, I would finish off the previously botched wiring:
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (2 of 15) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
As you can see, the wiring is becoming an improved. All signs of the twisted/masking tape wiring have gone!
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (3 of 15) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
All that was left to do was the tape up the wiring into a tidier form and then refit the lot. Oh, and still checked that everything worked! Thanfully it did!
With that done and me still looking quite clean I decided to refit the repaired driver's seat; it had a ripped driver's bolster. Unfortunately I had no pre-repair shots but at least the interior is looking fine again courtesy of The Trim Shed.
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (6 of 15) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (8 of 15) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
With the driver's seat refitted it was time to move onto the brakes. A fellow RRer saw that I changed the other rear caliper and suggested that I change the other side. I begrudgingly bought one from ECP. After all, with a basic inspection the wheel was working fine.
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (9 of 15) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
However, he was right. Upon further inspection, 1 piston hadn't been working for some while but it wasn't catching the disc. The other was OK. But the seals were not so great on both. But look how shiny the new parts are!:
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (10 of 15) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Yup, at least the new caliper would look a little blingier! With that in mine I cracked on and fitted the new items onto the car.
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (11 of 15) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
The bleeding didn't go so well I admit! I used the Eezibleed to bleed the brakes. Normally, this is a simple operation. I am aware some people hate them. This time however, something caught me out. Despite previously using the Eezibleed on cars with no hiccups this was not to be. It blew the clutch master cylinder hose clean off the reservoir! Very swiftly I ended up grabbing a load of water and started pouring over all of where the brake fluid had gone from the reservoir! The other difference this time was I used the rear tyre and not the spare; after all, I normally only use an Eezibleed at 20PSI, and no more! Being a wheel at 30PSI may have affected things. However, I have decided to fit on a jubilee clip onto the master cylinder reservoir line for future purposes.
On the plus side the rear brake was bled in time and with all of the air taken out. With both rear calipers changed the pedal position has dropped a little but is still at less than 50% pedal travel, possibly as a result of having 4 pistons working on the back of the car as opposed to 1 1/2! I am hoping that with the previous owner doing the master cylinder and these calipers being changed, that this end of the braking woes and the intermittent floor pedal scenario. Reading around it seems it should be with the logic also making sense.
But it's fair to say I had to cheer the old girl up. I had some treats in store after all! Yes, I may be trying to do things on the cheap but it was not going to be getting budget parts fitted either! We had Delphi, Sachs & Pagid in the house! Amazingly, most of those parts came from DoctorCarParts, a retailer who sells decent quality parts for reasonable prices. I've gone outside of ECP for some parts it for the Carina I had to use DCP, but it was no bad thing. Here they delivered again.
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (5 of 15) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
It was then time to change the steering damper and drag link. The drag link I was unable to do since my tools in the unit could not get enough of a fit onto the nuts. I did debate persevering but also didn't want to damage things and make life awkward later. In truth, the nuts will come off with a flexible spanner/flexible ratchet spanner as well as going from above with a rattle gun. I have both, but none were down at the unit. Since I could do the steering damper I persevered on with the suspension repairs.
It is said that the steering dampers can go weak on many old Mercs. Mine was shot to be fair. With the damper nearly compressed all seemed fine and it almost worked as good as the new one. But with the damper semi-extented it would go in quickly for an inch then then stop, sometimes boucing back to the position I left it in. Yup, it was a little shot! With that in mind I continued with fitting the new damper:
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (12 of 15) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
It was certainly grubby, was the old item I removed! The bushes weren't great either where it attaches to the body and the drag link. But it was then time to clean off all of the old grime from the old unit. It's always interesting to see what you are removing after all.
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (14 of 15) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Both of them look perfect right? Well, one of them is working as intended, and it's not the older one! Upon closer inspection, the damper I removed was the original damper to the car. It was a genuine Stabillus item and dated back to 1990. Considering the age and the mileage of the damper it hadn't done too badly.
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (13 of 15) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
All that was left to do was the fit the new damper to the car. To my surprise the steering is a little heavier than previously with the damper swap, but still quite on the light side! It will be interesting to see how the car drives when I take it on its road test prior to Laon.
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (15 of 15) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
It's fair to say that the car is almost getting there. It's certainly ready for the roadtrip, despite me doing more than I planned with the car in addition to jobs I have been putting off for some time like the headunit wiring. So much for this being 'just a winter smoker' eh?
I then started on attempting to remove the woodruff key. Initially I drained the sump. Unfortunately it didn't do alot! With a speaker magnet I then progressed to get out the woodruff key. I could hear something rattling about with the magnet inside but I just could not get it out! Since I had drained the oil and got further into the job I then proceeded to buy the following:
-Gulf 10W40 oil
-Mann Oil Filter
-Gold Plug sump plug. These have a strong Neodymium magnet. I can confirm these are very strong!
-New Woodruff key. Since the old one came out I figured it was wise to fit a new item
-An extendable Magnet. I do have one of these somewhere but I could not find it!
With that in mind there was nothing left to do but to crack on with the job.
W124 crank seal saga by Charlieboy, on FlickrW124 crank seal saga by Charlieboy, on FlickrInitially I installed the Gold sump plug. With the magnet I then went on to fish out the metal particle. Except it wasn't the key! It was instead the remains of a chain link! The strange thing is the link looked undamaged! I then ended up checking both the oil pump chain and the cam chain through both apertures with each of them seeming fine. I can only assume that the link was dropped down into there when the chain was changed many years ago. Mechanics, you have to love them! On the plus side, the little I could see of the cam chain tensioner pad confirmed all was well. One thing I found strange was how I could see the cam chain from the tensioner pivot bolt aperture! It was strange how the this pivot bolt was very loose when I removed it too! Was this the reason the link was present in the sump?
I then measured the potential thread engagement of the bolt with the tensioner spacer in place. It would never hit the tensioner or cam chain unless the spacer was missing. I then cleaned the super grubby tensioner. Only then did it became apparent that the tensioner itself had been replaced at some point in the past. It explained why the pivot bearing felt fine and why the idler pulley felt like new; both had been changed fairly recently in the car's life. But why was the bolt loose? In short, I don't think the mechanic tightened it enough. With a 12mm allen key the Haynes manual says this bolt should be done to 100Nm. Yup, it's tight, tighter than I'd go without seeing to factory figures! With that in mind I torqued it up and yes it is quite tight in there now, with the pulley once again being straight!
W124 crank seal saga by Charlieboy, on FlickrAlong the way I cleaned up all of the removed pulleys in carb cleaner. A cleaner engine in a diesel is a nicer thing to work on after all!
I then went on to remove the oil level sender at the side of the sump where I then placed my magnet.Strangely, I found the woodruff key on top of the oil pickup pipe strainer! As soon as I fished that out there was a large sigh of relief!
W124 Woodruff Saga by Charlieboy, on FlickrAfter that it was a case of fitting in yet another crank seal, but at £8 it was hardly a deal breaker! Once that was done I got a little carried away for the night. In short, I refitted the crank pulley back on, which I'll torque check later on (it's meant to be at 320Nm, yikes on a 27mm headed bolt!). After that, once I cleaned up all of the pulleys I fitted the Gold Plug, removed the oil filter and refilled the engine with oil, refitted the level sender, refitted all of the cleaned ancillaries up front with the exception of the viscous fan and shroud, as well as refitting the radiator, and filling it up with coolant. I then went to fire it up where it is nice to not have an engine that leaks!
The above took me about 4 hours, including tool packing and cleaning time; diesels are filthy things to work on! I'm not the quickest worker it can be said! But at least the car is no longer leaking and the car is once again drivable and not filthy underneath!
It would be another week before I tackled the car again. But it was all heading in the right direction>
This weekend turned into a bit of a car-centric Sunday! I started off by going to the Bicester Sunday Scramble, where there were tons of awesome cars about! I'll provide an update on that in a separate thread.
While I was busy enjoying my day there the Mercedes needed work doing to it, fast! Given that my Merc day of Saturday turned into cleaning off the patio and then wreaking of algae for an age I really put some time in on Sunday somehow!
Firstly, I went to an old friend who breaks Mercs for a living to source a few bits. This included a spare wheel as well as two working window switches. His Mrs. breaks a few parts; look out for Jasmine, aka FrauBenz for selling decent used parts. My bill. That said I did a straight swap for my early alloy spare for the steel wheel.
W124 April 2018 by Charlieboy, on FlickrSome will say I should have been offered money. In truth, I was happy to not travel miles away or pay a fortune like what most sellers want for a steel spare wheel. The alternative was to get alloy wheel nuts but that seemed like more hassle than it was worth personally!
So, I now have 4 working windows instead of two in addition to having a usable spare wheel with decent tread. This left the music scenario!
As much as I love the sound of a 5 pot it's great to have some tunes on a long road trip, especially in a cruiser like a W124! With that in mind I had a second go at installing the Bluetooth box into the Merc, onto my Alpine. In short, it worked very well!
W124 April 2018 by Charlieboy, on FlickrW124 April 2018 by Charlieboy, on FlickrAs the keen eyed may be able to see I alluded to the HU's wiring being very sketchy previously! I plan to fire up the soldering iron and sort that out. If I then get time the ICE may get a further makeover. Seeing as it may not happen and that it will improve things alot if my plans do come to fruition I'm going to keep those plans to myself for now
.What I can say is that I dialed in the crossovers and EQ on the Alpine and the W124 actually sounds very pleasant inside now! Unfortunately I cannot really enjoy the sound while driving the car. Why, I hear you ask?
W124 April 2018 by Charlieboy, on FlickrThere is something missing in the form of a seat! In truth, I've sent it off to a friend of mine to retrim the bolster, using material from another seat that I picked up from Jasmine.
With the deadline drawing closer things were getting more tense!
[added piece]
So, I had two weeks to have a working and driving car for the Laon Historique. It was almost there but not quite. At the start of this post I had a headunit where its sound worked by telepathy, no driver's seat with it being down at the trimmers and finally I still have some minor mechanical work to do. The latter can be left but it would be nice to deal with all. Oh, and I still had the front end of the engine in pieces.
Since the last post I was not looking forward to doing the wiring on the W124's HU Harness! Mainly because the masking tape was proving tricky to cut off, while attempting not to injure myself with the craft knife!
With that in mind I moved to finishing off the work in the engine bay! I still needed to find a means to hold the crankshaft while I tightened up the crank bolt; it's done up to 320Nm, and the in gear trick isn't really enough, and I wonder how the clutch will fare with that much torque against it! I shall have to investigate what other options there are for tightening the crank bolt. I know for a fact it's tightened over 150Nm, but of course is that enough? I put the bolt in with my Kielder rattle gun, so it's a question of how tight that got the bolt. Ideas here are welcome.
While I was deliberating that it seemed it would be a good time to refit the auxiliary belt and refill the cooling system with OAT coolant:
W124 work April 2018 by Charlieboy, on FlickrAs always, this is a cheap car but it doesn't mean I am skimping on things or getting the poorest quality items! This arrived from CP4L for £17 and being a Dayco item should last well. It's a shame the relatively new Gates belt couldn't be kept but I suspect it had worn funny from the previously loose tensioner on the engine. Thankfully the car is now silent from the pulley area.
W124 work April 2018 by Charlieboy, on FlickrI initially had a problem with an airlock in the system. Coming back a week later to top the coolant up right to the top of the reservoir however seems have solved this thankfully, with the car having toasty heaters once more!
But there was nothing for it. I'd have to tackle that shonky wiring if I ever wanted a reliable audio system in this car, especially with my rare Alpine 9887R headunit fitted! In the end however I am glad to report that there were no trips to A&E surprisingly! I merely got my craft knife out, and just went for it, albeit precariously at times!
W124 work April 2018 by Charlieboy, on FlickrOnce the insulation was done it was time to sort out the speaker wiring! I say sort as the channels were wired incorrectly! It went soemthing like this:
Headunit Wiring - Speaker Wiring
Left Front - Left Right
Left Right; Left Front
Rear Left & Right - correct but the polarity was wrong on both!
I ended up getting a 9 volt battery, tracing the wires back and then checking the polarity of the speakers that way! By the evening I had all of the wires soldered up, the wiring is now correct in addition to the speakers no longer cutting out on their own! Some people are against soldering here but IME I've almost always had those Halfords style crimps fail on me, where here I wanted a longer lasting solution!
But while the sound of the car had improved there was still room for improvement! My car has lost its factory speakers some time ago, where instead of the factory fitted speakers it now has 10cm JBLs up front:
W124 work April 2018 by Charlieboy, on FlickrTo quite a few of you the above would be fine with the above installation I suspect but the audio conscious will be aware that you can get some cancellation without a decent baffle for the speaker. Not a problem I thought; I have a HU which has fully active crossovers (i.e it takes place of the speaker crossover boxes, giving much more flexibility) and so I better put an audio setup in! Stuff which I haven't used for about 4 years now! In my mind I put out the kit list to include:
HU; Alpine 9887R with the BT-400 iPod/Bluetooth box
Amps: Genesis Series 3 4 channel with a Phase Linear Monoblock for the sub
Sub: Phase Linear Aliante Si 12" in a ported box.
But what about speakers? Enter stage left:
W124 work April 2018 by Charlieboy, on FlickrThese are a pair of Dynaudio GT240 5.25" components. I've been after a set of Dynaudios for a very long time and when these came up at a bargain price years ago I snapped them up. Now it was just a case of fitting them. Or so I thought:
W124 work April 2018 by Charlieboy, on FlickrIt's sort of in there.
W124 work April 2018 by Charlieboy, on FlickrNo, that isn't going to work!
The above created a bit of a stumbling block for me. I assumed the W124 speaker apertures were 13cm like the Dynaudios, but it was not to be. It turns out they are 12cm with Mercedes' own fastening scheme which thankfully is still intact! I then considered a set of original factory speakers and even Rainbow's Custom Fit offerings, albeit at £100. I'd have to sell the Dynaudios to buy them, but I already have a few people asking me to buy the things off me! Further research ensued. A known face in the W124 in the form of Nick Bolide informed me that while the Merc stock speakers weren't great, the Rainbows weren't much better! With that in mind it was back to the drawing board. Without alot of effort and time it will be tricky getting the Dynaudios/ICE in with other jobs still to do on the car.
I may well fit the Dynaudios in, but it will be in a non-invasive fashion, and probably with the mids in the kick panels of the car. But that wouldn't help me now! I debated making a baffle for the JBLs but seeing as they may not be used for the long term it seemed like alot of effort to go to for not much of a gain. They are £30 speakers after all.
Later on I came up with the idea of using some SecondSkin Damplifier Pro sound material to seal off the mids. It is fair to say that it looks quite Heath Robinson in my attempts:
W124 work April 2018 by Charlieboy, on FlickrHowever, it made a bigger difference than I imagined! For 10cm speakers they actually have some bass! This was very apparent though a back to back comparison! Furthermore, the ear-piercing midrange in the vocals (remember, these are cheap JBL speakers) is now much more forgiving. Not great but acceptable now. It sounds sounds alot nicer and with less volume from the headunit required now that alot of that cancellation has gone.
All that was left for me to do there was to refit the stock speaker grilles and then do some EQing to make it a little nicer. It now has the mid-range tamed down a little more still (but still nowhere near as bad before I did the above and tried EQing) and generally sounds fine for an old Mercedes inside, just how it should be! As I have alluded to above, I may do one more thing to the audio side of things prior to going to Laon, but we will see.
[/added piece]
That brought us to last weekend.
Bank Holidays. they are great for many people out there. A day off work to do as they please. Some go away for a weekend. Others go on a weekend binge, while some go and meet their family and friends. Me? I may have dabbled in all of the above, but did not lose sight of the goal in mind. The Laon Historique.
With the 2 week deadline fast approaching I had my aforementioned list to work through. With that in mind I went down to the unit and progressed with working on the car again.
This is probably the first time the old girl has seen daylight for almost two months.
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (1 of 15) by Charlieboy, on FlickrFirstly, I would finish off the previously botched wiring:
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (2 of 15) by Charlieboy, on FlickrAs you can see, the wiring is becoming an improved. All signs of the twisted/masking tape wiring have gone!
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (3 of 15) by Charlieboy, on FlickrAll that was left to do was the tape up the wiring into a tidier form and then refit the lot. Oh, and still checked that everything worked! Thanfully it did!
With that done and me still looking quite clean I decided to refit the repaired driver's seat; it had a ripped driver's bolster. Unfortunately I had no pre-repair shots but at least the interior is looking fine again courtesy of The Trim Shed.
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (6 of 15) by Charlieboy, on FlickrMercedes Laon Prepartions (8 of 15) by Charlieboy, on FlickrWith the driver's seat refitted it was time to move onto the brakes. A fellow RRer saw that I changed the other rear caliper and suggested that I change the other side. I begrudgingly bought one from ECP. After all, with a basic inspection the wheel was working fine.
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (9 of 15) by Charlieboy, on FlickrHowever, he was right. Upon further inspection, 1 piston hadn't been working for some while but it wasn't catching the disc. The other was OK. But the seals were not so great on both. But look how shiny the new parts are!:
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (10 of 15) by Charlieboy, on FlickrYup, at least the new caliper would look a little blingier! With that in mine I cracked on and fitted the new items onto the car.
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (11 of 15) by Charlieboy, on FlickrThe bleeding didn't go so well I admit! I used the Eezibleed to bleed the brakes. Normally, this is a simple operation. I am aware some people hate them. This time however, something caught me out. Despite previously using the Eezibleed on cars with no hiccups this was not to be. It blew the clutch master cylinder hose clean off the reservoir! Very swiftly I ended up grabbing a load of water and started pouring over all of where the brake fluid had gone from the reservoir! The other difference this time was I used the rear tyre and not the spare; after all, I normally only use an Eezibleed at 20PSI, and no more! Being a wheel at 30PSI may have affected things. However, I have decided to fit on a jubilee clip onto the master cylinder reservoir line for future purposes.
On the plus side the rear brake was bled in time and with all of the air taken out. With both rear calipers changed the pedal position has dropped a little but is still at less than 50% pedal travel, possibly as a result of having 4 pistons working on the back of the car as opposed to 1 1/2! I am hoping that with the previous owner doing the master cylinder and these calipers being changed, that this end of the braking woes and the intermittent floor pedal scenario. Reading around it seems it should be with the logic also making sense.
But it's fair to say I had to cheer the old girl up. I had some treats in store after all! Yes, I may be trying to do things on the cheap but it was not going to be getting budget parts fitted either! We had Delphi, Sachs & Pagid in the house! Amazingly, most of those parts came from DoctorCarParts, a retailer who sells decent quality parts for reasonable prices. I've gone outside of ECP for some parts it for the Carina I had to use DCP, but it was no bad thing. Here they delivered again.
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (5 of 15) by Charlieboy, on FlickrIt was then time to change the steering damper and drag link. The drag link I was unable to do since my tools in the unit could not get enough of a fit onto the nuts. I did debate persevering but also didn't want to damage things and make life awkward later. In truth, the nuts will come off with a flexible spanner/flexible ratchet spanner as well as going from above with a rattle gun. I have both, but none were down at the unit. Since I could do the steering damper I persevered on with the suspension repairs.
It is said that the steering dampers can go weak on many old Mercs. Mine was shot to be fair. With the damper nearly compressed all seemed fine and it almost worked as good as the new one. But with the damper semi-extented it would go in quickly for an inch then then stop, sometimes boucing back to the position I left it in. Yup, it was a little shot! With that in mind I continued with fitting the new damper:
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (12 of 15) by Charlieboy, on FlickrIt was certainly grubby, was the old item I removed! The bushes weren't great either where it attaches to the body and the drag link. But it was then time to clean off all of the old grime from the old unit. It's always interesting to see what you are removing after all.
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (14 of 15) by Charlieboy, on FlickrBoth of them look perfect right? Well, one of them is working as intended, and it's not the older one! Upon closer inspection, the damper I removed was the original damper to the car. It was a genuine Stabillus item and dated back to 1990. Considering the age and the mileage of the damper it hadn't done too badly.
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (13 of 15) by Charlieboy, on FlickrAll that was left to do was the fit the new damper to the car. To my surprise the steering is a little heavier than previously with the damper swap, but still quite on the light side! It will be interesting to see how the car drives when I take it on its road test prior to Laon.
Mercedes Laon Prepartions (15 of 15) by Charlieboy, on FlickrIt's fair to say that the car is almost getting there. It's certainly ready for the roadtrip, despite me doing more than I planned with the car in addition to jobs I have been putting off for some time like the headunit wiring. So much for this being 'just a winter smoker' eh?
Edited by SebringMan on Sunday 13th May 09:21
ian316 said:
Some good diy going on there
Thanks for the comments! You'll be glad to know that thanks to r129's efforts and thread comparison there has been even more work being seen to!I've added in "[added piece]" above so as to highlight the post that I was meant to add.
It's been quite a few crazy weekends lately! Mainly a few family weddings, a milestone in my mum's birthday, thus ensuing celebrations, working on the car with some spare time as well as housework. But would we have it any other way? Unlikely I suspect! It's about time this thread was updated slightly more
.r129sl said:
I saw in your Retrorides thread that you have tried installing Dynaudio speakers in this car. I would be very keen to hear how you get on with that. However, I would (very politely) disagree with Mr Bolide about the Rainbows. I have them in my 124, front and rear (12cm in the dash, 10cm in the rear doors), and I am quite favourably impressed by them, the fronts at least. What I would say is that they need a bit of running in and they definitely benefit from separate amplification. Mine sounded much better when run through a little Alpine amp than when driven off the headunit. However, I suspect they would not be a patch on the Dynaudios, so please do persevere!
Aha, we have a lurker on RR as well? It does seem there is a bit of a crossover between a few of the forums, and I know of a few people on both myself .The Dynaudios are possible to get in but I won't be destroying a dash (well, maybe not) in order to fit them. The kick panels in many ways make far more sense to mount them; I will just need a spare set of panels, that's all
. But it's not something that will happen overnight .To be fair to Nick, he did compare his Rainbows with decent W124 speakers driven off the headunit, where the stock speakers would give a better sound due to the speaker efficiency favouring the stock items more over the less efficient Rainbows. He did say that with an amplifier the game could change to being in favour of the Rainbows. I tried to find out if that was the case with little to show for it but it seems the information was had by a poster here all along!
.I suspect you are right about the sound. The ease of the Rainbows being installed is a plus point however! But the effort may well be worth it with the Dynaudios. Watch this space.
Since you have added an amplifier how do you suggest to route in a power wire from the engine bay to the boot? I was going to look but I have a few other things to do on the car, albeit that list has shrunk alot lately
.The car's not been sitting idle however. It's now come out to play again for the first time in 2 months. After all, I fancy giving it a roadtest prior to me leaving!
With Laon now only a week away things are getting real! Really tense that is! With that in mind I got the W124 out of the unit after its two month hibernation.
Firstly, I started off by removing the centre drag link.
Weekendwork by Charlieboy, on FlickrPeople don't like these tools but in my experience they don't destroy the boots when they are used carefully. In my case the boots on the drag links had split anyway! I did cheat however with the balljoint splitter! The impact wrench also came in handy for removing the drag link bolts without needing to use a counterforce to hold the balljoints, since I didn't split them and the taper was holding them in place.
Weekendwork by Charlieboy, on FlickrBefore I knew it the old item was out. On first inspection both looked fine. But it was deeper where the flaws became apparent.
Mercedes Laon Prepartions v2 (1 of 8) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Mercedes Laon Prepartions v2 (3 of 8) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Mercedes Laon Prepartions v2 (2 of 8) by Charlieboy, on FlickrOriginally I thought only one balljont boot was split! It turned out that both were in exactly the same place! It seems they may have been split for some time as the balljoints were gritty in them operation. It was no bad thing that I was changing the drag link it seemed!
With that done I fitted on the new drag link, torqued up the bar and didn't refit the steering damper. Why? I was still thinking about the crankshaft bolt that I didn't tighten up correctly as discussed here. My previous attempts didn't allow me to! With that in mind it seems the car Gods looked favourably on me this weekend! Firstly, I have a couple of package arrive! One of them was for the crank locking tool I had ordered from Germany.
Mercedes Laon Prepartions v2 (7 of 8) by Charlieboy, on FlickrIt looks a little specialised and I wasn't convinced that two M6 x 90mm bolts would be man enough to hold the flywheel! Since the crossmember prevented me from getting in a crowbar I had no choice except to precariously fit the new flywheel lock:
Mercedes Laon Prepartions v2 (5 of 8) by Charlieboy, on FlickrAll that was left to do was to grab my torque wrench and set it to 320Nm. It's the first time I have ever set it to its maximum torque! You can just make out the removed sump bolts in that photo!
Mercedes Laon Prepartions v2 (6 of 8) by Charlieboy, on FlickrThe linked thread should describe things. But I really was expecting something to break with that much torwue! When I finally heard that torque wrench go click it was a massive weight off my mind! With that done it was time to deal with the second parcel!
Mercedes Laon Prepartions v2 (8 of 8) by Charlieboy, on FlickrYup, I acquired and sort of faked a set of Mercedes dealer plates as if the car came with those plates as if it came out of the showroom! It didn't help that the old ones were looking unkempt and generally tatty! Fitting those was a doddle but that can wait until next time! The poor car really needs a clean!
It's fair to say that it is getting there!
Edited by SebringMan on Sunday 13th May 09:39
Edited by SebringMan on Sunday 13th May 10:03
JakeT said:
I like those types of ball joint splitter too. Especially when combined with an impact doing them up. A pickle fork always destroys the gaiters and seems to not work as quickly or easily.
I found exactly the same thing! The two tools make balljoints a relatively easy removal process!As tradition with these threads, it's time to come onto detailing. Or rather to not try! This was how it looked after being stored for 2 months in the unit. It did indeed look like a genuine 'barn find'! Maybe I missed a trick here. Maybe I should have put my investor hat on and pointed it was a barn find, a super rare W124 at that!
Weekendwork by Charlieboy, on FlickrBut, that's not me. It doesn't really help that I am enjoying the relaxing yet surprisingly swift progress! I've been busy cleaning the Mercedes prior to the trip. The bodywork on mine isn't the best as some of you know! But at least it doesn't stop me using it, unlike me trying to save the M3! The polishing has given mixed results but overall for the better, I suspect. It took some mopping, cleaning, and waxing to get it here with various products!
Final Preparations W124 (21 of 21) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Final Preparations W124 (18 of 21) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Final Preparations W124 (16 of 21) by Charlieboy, on FlickrI even installed a USB cigar voltmeter as another way to keep an eye on things:
Final Preparations W124 (14 of 21) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Final Preparations W124 (13 of 21) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Final Preparations W124 (10 of 21) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Final Preparations W124 (8 of 21) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Final Preparations W124 (7 of 21) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Final Preparations W124 (6 of 21) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Final Preparations W124 (4 of 21) by Charlieboy, on Flickrhelix402 said:
I enjoy your old Merc thread. It reminds me why I prefer to own and fix BMWs!
That era of Mercedes really was when “they made them better in the olden days”.
What’s the big trip? Your car does appear to have some slight colour variations from panel to panel (not intended as a criticism-just an observation, mine has new front wings which are darker than the rest).
Cheers! I think it's those reasons for why I bought it! Yup the bodywork is a mismatch. The front wing and rear quarter aren't the best! At least both now have a shine; I now wonder if when the wing was changed the rear quarter was also done.That era of Mercedes really was when “they made them better in the olden days”.
What’s the big trip? Your car does appear to have some slight colour variations from panel to panel (not intended as a criticism-just an observation, mine has new front wings which are darker than the rest).
As for the trip, it's not the biggest I've been on, but still a bit of a car getting on for almost 30 years old. It's the Laon Historique.
The iteneray will include around 400 miles of roads, albeit on French D roads! I'm glad it's not in the M3! But we shall see how I get on
.So, I mentioned Laon recently and how I felt I was pushing things a bit close!
Before I knew it. I had a clean engine bay, a new crank seal installed, a new Dayco belt in addition to a car that didn't mark its territory wherever it went.
I still had the small matter of correctly torquing the crank pulley! Without locking the engine correctly I could tell it was done to at least 150Nm, quite a way short of the correct figure. But we'll get to that later. I would end up buying a tool begrudingly and using it with care! Thankfully this ensure the pulley was tightened correctly! Wow, 320Nm is bloody tight! The tensioner bolt turned out to have the same issue. The bolt is meant to be done to 100Nm, in the timing chain cover! Yup, that is not a misprint! With a firm tug of a breaker bar I had the pulley lined up in no time! To be honest, I never would have gone that tight without consulting the manual!
While all of the above was going on I sent the seat away to Stu at the Trim Shed! It seemed crazy to let the bolster get destroyed for the sake of worn material, especially when Blue seats are super rare in the Mercedes world. I saw a couple of blue interiors go for £100 a set in similar condition to my ripped driver's seat, in addition to Blue MB Tex seats seeming not to exist! I did consider beige leather seats but I knew it could come back to bite me! Still, after the retrim, it transformed the tatty interior of the car and really improved things! Simultaneously, the seat runners were freed courtesty of a vacuum and WD40, truly helping one to enjoy the W124 experience. The wet vac of inside also erradicated any iffy odours as did removing what looked like ancient leaves buildup under the seats!
With a week left to go it was fair to say that the car was almost ready, with some serious issues like the brakes and wiring dealt with! I then decided to the balljoint on the centre drag link. Along with a new steering damper this weighed up the steering a bit more and make the car more stable over bumps in the road! Always a bonus
!
Finally, I somehow had the car ready a week before we were due to go! I just had one thing left to do. A mop! The paintwork on this car isn't the best I wasn't expecting in miracles and in truth they didn't happen! But some careful application of 3M Fast Cut Plus, Meguiars 105 and 205 as well as Collinte 476S wax soon had the car looking a little more presentable! Oh, and some new period numberplates for the car.
[img]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/957/40306882160_a84fbf2667.jpg[img]
Well, before I knew it the car was ready! All I had to do now was to test it! After not driving a car for a couple of months and messing around with key parts, it's always unnerving driving an old retro! But I needn't have worried! The car behaved perfectly! It drove beautifully and I soon felt that W124 charm coming back!
With a 200 mile test drive done over a week it was finally time to hit the Dover docks. On that Friday morning I truly was in for a treat! But would it last?
Before I knew it. I had a clean engine bay, a new crank seal installed, a new Dayco belt in addition to a car that didn't mark its territory wherever it went.
I still had the small matter of correctly torquing the crank pulley! Without locking the engine correctly I could tell it was done to at least 150Nm, quite a way short of the correct figure. But we'll get to that later. I would end up buying a tool begrudingly and using it with care! Thankfully this ensure the pulley was tightened correctly! Wow, 320Nm is bloody tight! The tensioner bolt turned out to have the same issue. The bolt is meant to be done to 100Nm, in the timing chain cover! Yup, that is not a misprint! With a firm tug of a breaker bar I had the pulley lined up in no time! To be honest, I never would have gone that tight without consulting the manual!
While all of the above was going on I sent the seat away to Stu at the Trim Shed! It seemed crazy to let the bolster get destroyed for the sake of worn material, especially when Blue seats are super rare in the Mercedes world. I saw a couple of blue interiors go for £100 a set in similar condition to my ripped driver's seat, in addition to Blue MB Tex seats seeming not to exist! I did consider beige leather seats but I knew it could come back to bite me! Still, after the retrim, it transformed the tatty interior of the car and really improved things! Simultaneously, the seat runners were freed courtesty of a vacuum and WD40, truly helping one to enjoy the W124 experience. The wet vac of inside also erradicated any iffy odours as did removing what looked like ancient leaves buildup under the seats!
With a week left to go it was fair to say that the car was almost ready, with some serious issues like the brakes and wiring dealt with! I then decided to the balljoint on the centre drag link. Along with a new steering damper this weighed up the steering a bit more and make the car more stable over bumps in the road! Always a bonus
!Finally, I somehow had the car ready a week before we were due to go! I just had one thing left to do. A mop! The paintwork on this car isn't the best I wasn't expecting in miracles and in truth they didn't happen! But some careful application of 3M Fast Cut Plus, Meguiars 105 and 205 as well as Collinte 476S wax soon had the car looking a little more presentable! Oh, and some new period numberplates for the car.
[img]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/957/40306882160_a84fbf2667.jpg[img]
Well, before I knew it the car was ready! All I had to do now was to test it! After not driving a car for a couple of months and messing around with key parts, it's always unnerving driving an old retro! But I needn't have worried! The car behaved perfectly! It drove beautifully and I soon felt that W124 charm coming back!
With a 200 mile test drive done over a week it was finally time to hit the Dover docks. On that Friday morning I truly was in for a treat! But would it last?
ian316 said:
You'll get there and back without breaking sweat, just sit back and enjoy the cruise
It would be spoiling things if I did say how it went. You might just be right!Turning up at the Docks really was quite something! From this moment I knew it was going to be a great trip! There was such a variety of cars there for everyone! Part of the guys there were waiting to go on the Spa Classic tour, also done by Scenic Car Tours.
You may not like the TTs but age hasn't treated them badly! The Z3M Roadster was a lovely thing!
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (1 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrSo, a variety of Cobra reps, a clean NSX, XKs and Granadas of varying marques all in one place? This is the place to go!
These two cars would end up sharing the hotel car park with us! That is the Maserati Bora, and and the 997 Carrera S.
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (8 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrIt was then a case of cruising down to Laon. This is where the W124 really excels. It's not exactly a racer but it can hold motorway speeds superbly! I did seem to be overtaking alot of cars too without breaking the speed limit!
But Scenic laid on a mini show for us on the first day. That was to take place in Arras! I didn't realise it initially but I had been here a few years ago! Then it was full of XMas Market traders. Now, it was full of classic cars!
Which one for you? The Blue Pill or the errr...... Black pill?
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (9 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrThe Jag presence was strong there! The D-Type Replica was a lovely looking thing too! It was a shame for it to have been driven there on a trailer mind you!
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (11 of 51) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (12 of 51) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (16 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrThere's my mate looking chuffed! I don't know why, he had only paid his bit and turned up at this point! Maybe he had the last laugh with being a passenger for then:
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (17 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrThis 'B brought back many memories for me! I often thought recently that I shouldn't have sold my Sebring bodied 'B. But if I did have it still I'm not entirely sold on the black! Either way it was a nicely finished car for a Sebring:
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (20 of 51) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (21 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrThese may be on the edge of retro, but when was the last time you ever saw one? It was the only ST to make it there, amongst the plethora of MkI & II Escorts and Granadas!
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (22 of 51) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (25 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrThis Carrera 2 looked lovely! Just as the doctor ordered!
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (27 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrA special mention goes to this chap in the Fiesta! He was quite a youngun who was clearly a grafter. By the looks of it the car wasn't just a chequebook exercise! There were a couple of standout cars. From being a 1.0 Fiesta Popular Plus the Plus part actually counted for something! Gone was the wheezy 950cc Valencia/HCS engine and in went a 1.6 CVH, together with a Kent cam, RS1600i rocker cover, XR2 carburettor (or a 38DGMS; I can't remember), tubular manifold, with an Escort RS Turbo gearbox completed with a Quaife ATB! Sure, the black Recaros didn't quite match inside being generic units, but when the package looks this good in the flesh and it is a homebuilt car you can do nothing but admire their efforts!
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (28 of 51) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (29 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrThere are more shots here to look at! Of course, this album will be growing over time. With the Arras car show done, meeting some people and enjoying a spot of lunch, it was time to go to my humble abode in Laon and get used to a few things. The first was the lovely achitecture there and the 'Frenchness' of everything. The other? Stairs, and hills. Big ones, and many of them! Stay tuned for the next installment!
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (31 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrEdited by SebringMan on Monday 25th June 22:19
ian316 said:
Some stunning looking cars there looks like a great trip
It was a great trip, thanks . Things are about to spice up a little though!After enjoying a few beers and having a meal it was time to go to bed and to recover from walking the many hills of Laon! You almost need a holiday after walking all of those massive hills, especially since we were staying in the outskirts of Laon! But at least there were a few cars to admire right in the heart of the old town!
The first one was an Aston Martin DB2/4!
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (32 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrThis fabulous 2002 Baur was a great looker too. Did they ever made a full on drop top I wonder?
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (33 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrOf course then we retired back at the hotel. That wasn't so bad after all, with some wonderful stuff in the car park! The E-Type there wasn't the most concours example I've ever seen but it did have a lovely honesty about it despite the photos making it look great:
Laon Friday and Saturday Shots. by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Laon Friday and Saturday Shots. by Charlieboy, on FlickrAnd what about the Mercedes? Despite being called a taxi, and the multicoloured car it got down to Laon very well indeed! The MPG was also the best I have ever seen from it! After filling up at the local petrol station my findings showed it to have done 46MPG! 46! Yup. No higher tyre pressures, nothing like that really! It seems a good service and fixing the brakes really helped things there! I was doing about 80MPH going down towards Laon too!
The very next day was the day all of the fun would begin! From seeing a load of bits we were now seeing a load of other cars, both from France as well as Belgium!
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (34 of 51) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (36 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrYup, it was getting busy! These pictures only cover one of the two car parks as well at Parc Foch!
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (37 of 51) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (39 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrYou have to love a Capri in such style
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (35 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrWhen I was speaking of the French being there I wasn't kidding! Just look at those chinos! It's a lovely 356 Replica there mind you!
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (40 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrAnother mention goes to this chap! It's a 1999 Alpina B3.2! This car is a great example of how retros should be owned! Despite having what some would call a high mileage of 121,000 miles it was immaculate from the top to the bottom of it! The seats were in perfect condition, and the bodywork also! Sure, it had been titivated in the past but the car is in use, enjoyed and I understand is a regular attender of the Circuit Historique, just how retros should be done and enjoyed.
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (42 of 51) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (43 of 51) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (44 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrSome people however were not as lucky as the rest of us! Paul who some of you know here had his fantastic Cortina Crusador Estate come down to Laon, which I believe is his second time! For those that don't know this car is sporting a wide arch kit of sorts, possibly made by Paul himself, a 5 speed 'box along with a Scorpio Cosworth V6! The difference here however is what induction it has. His is now sporting Tripple Webber IDFs! It sounds absolutely awesome and it really compliments the looks of the car!
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (46 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrUnfortunately for Paul, one of the Webers decided that its float would get stuck. It ended up with him have a carburetor flood itself and then catch fire, right in the Dover Docks! It's crazy to think I was having a conversation with him only an hour or so before he went on! Thankfully and very luckily he had the fire put out, albeit with now a messier engine bay full of extinguishing powder! Paul however, is not one to get down by such things! While he missed the boat scheduled for him, he did make it down in the end, and what a pleasure it was to meet him
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (45 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrIf you lust after Renault Alpines this is the place for you! There were more of their fair share here and how great it was to see them all!
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (47 of 51) by Charlieboy, on Flickr
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (48 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrLeft or right?
Laon 2018 Friday & Saturday (49 of 51) by Charlieboy, on FlickrBefore we knew it, we had our rally plan and were ready to go! The Mercedes actually did the rally superbly! There we were in comfort and even on the forrest roads it was a joy driving the old girl around! if only it had more power behind its right foot! It was great going through a number of towns and admiring the French scenery!
But I have to dash out for now! More will come soon! All I shall say for now is that we ended up at this place:
Laon Friday and Saturday Shots. by Charlieboy, on FlickrGassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff