Mercedes W124 E300D estate - progress, or not...
Discussion
Thanks. Maybe I'll start with checking over my own (recent) work, and looking at the cables & earths.
I haven't yet figured out how I can work on a car at the new house (there's a driveway, but it's on a hill, and I can't drive the car onto the lifting ramps I have), but it seems like that's coming up.
I'm not 100% on where the starter is on this car, but I'll work on that when I have time.
By the way, I enjoy the threads on your cars. Good stuff.
I haven't yet figured out how I can work on a car at the new house (there's a driveway, but it's on a hill, and I can't drive the car onto the lifting ramps I have), but it seems like that's coming up.
I'm not 100% on where the starter is on this car, but I'll work on that when I have time.
By the way, I enjoy the threads on your cars. Good stuff.
Hmm. I wonder.....
So I've had an occasional phantom oil level light when I've been driving the car (a few months ago, when the doors all worked and the engine started).
The oil level sensor cable appears to be part of the same loom as the starter circuit.
I wonder whether that seemingly-random light was caused by the well-known dodgy wiring insulation issue.
No progress on getting the issue sorted out yet. Life, plus weather, plus not being able to get the car high enough to get underneath it, plus dodgy access to get it out and to a garage.
To be continued... Although, if someone knows whether there's a connection point up top that I can connect some 12v to to test the starter operation (assuming the state of the wiring would let me do it), I'm all ears. I've heard about the middle pin of a three pin plug...?
So I've had an occasional phantom oil level light when I've been driving the car (a few months ago, when the doors all worked and the engine started).
The oil level sensor cable appears to be part of the same loom as the starter circuit.
I wonder whether that seemingly-random light was caused by the well-known dodgy wiring insulation issue.
No progress on getting the issue sorted out yet. Life, plus weather, plus not being able to get the car high enough to get underneath it, plus dodgy access to get it out and to a garage.
To be continued... Although, if someone knows whether there's a connection point up top that I can connect some 12v to to test the starter operation (assuming the state of the wiring would let me do it), I'm all ears. I've heard about the middle pin of a three pin plug...?
We have some progress.
The starter motor's knackered.
My bank-provided Green Flag membership was called into play today, and the breakdown man got the car going again with some strategic tapping.
I think I've been lucky with how the motor has ended up failing - it's been fine until recently, and now it appears to be fairly comprehensively worn out.
Still - new starters aren't ridiculously expensive and, although I don't have a tame The Man locally yet, I got on well with the breakdown man and he runs his own garage. So I maybe now have a new The Man and, albeit not in this town, they're only 10 miles away down the estuary cycle path.
Hopefully I can get booked in and fitted this coming week, and they can do the door check strap so the car can go back into service.
I've been out for a few miles, before parking the car on-street to avoid recovery problems, and it's a joy to drive.
The starter motor's knackered.
My bank-provided Green Flag membership was called into play today, and the breakdown man got the car going again with some strategic tapping.
I think I've been lucky with how the motor has ended up failing - it's been fine until recently, and now it appears to be fairly comprehensively worn out.
Still - new starters aren't ridiculously expensive and, although I don't have a tame The Man locally yet, I got on well with the breakdown man and he runs his own garage. So I maybe now have a new The Man and, albeit not in this town, they're only 10 miles away down the estuary cycle path.
Hopefully I can get booked in and fitted this coming week, and they can do the door check strap so the car can go back into service.
I've been out for a few miles, before parking the car on-street to avoid recovery problems, and it's a joy to drive.
New starter motor fitted, and I got the garage to replace the door check strap while it was there, and we're back on the road!
Still lots to do - I want to change the driver's door check strap as it's the only one not changed, plus there's some rust bubbling to attend to, and clearly the water ingress thing isn't solved as the driver's footwell is soaked again, and and. But I'm off for a longer trip tomorrow, for work, and looking forward to setting off.
Still lots to do - I want to change the driver's door check strap as it's the only one not changed, plus there's some rust bubbling to attend to, and clearly the water ingress thing isn't solved as the driver's footwell is soaked again, and and. But I'm off for a longer trip tomorrow, for work, and looking forward to setting off.
Not a lot, except for a lot of spring tension.
I think the coil has basically just snapped in the middle, and the bit on the road is two-thirds of the whole length.
It's taken out the additional wheel arch liner I put in, and that corner of the car has dropped several inches. Thankfully when parked!
It's possible that something else has let go - it's impossible to tell right now - but certainly the spring has had it. No idea how long it's been on the car, though, and the car has done 325k miles, so likely the spring has had a good innings.
Two new springs ordered from Autodoc for a little under £100 delivered. Part number A1243212204, which is hopefully the correct choice out of the six (!) options.
Now I just need to wait for the delivery, and wait for my Man to have space to do the work. I've got the spring compressor kit, but I don't fancy doing it myself.
I think the coil has basically just snapped in the middle, and the bit on the road is two-thirds of the whole length.
It's taken out the additional wheel arch liner I put in, and that corner of the car has dropped several inches. Thankfully when parked!
It's possible that something else has let go - it's impossible to tell right now - but certainly the spring has had it. No idea how long it's been on the car, though, and the car has done 325k miles, so likely the spring has had a good innings.
Two new springs ordered from Autodoc for a little under £100 delivered. Part number A1243212204, which is hopefully the correct choice out of the six (!) options.
Now I just need to wait for the delivery, and wait for my Man to have space to do the work. I've got the spring compressor kit, but I don't fancy doing it myself.
Good to see this car still plodding on! Unfortunate about the spring, but should be a relatively straightforward fix. Can you see any break marks on the bit on the ground? Mercedes springs are very long!
I miss R129SL and his updates so you'll have to take the reigns and keep updating us with tinkering.
I do love an old Merc
I miss R129SL and his updates so you'll have to take the reigns and keep updating us with tinkering.
I do love an old Merc
Northbrook said:
Two new springs ordered from Autodoc for a little under £100 delivered. Part number A1243212204, which is hopefully the correct choice out of the six (!) options.
Did you do the EPC/Xentry adding up of points for the different extras fitted to get the right spring, or order them with the same colour code as the existing?I think you're jumping the gun with the "the right spring" comment - let's hope so 
I found a spring chart somewhere online for the 124.193 model variant, which this one isn't (124.191), but it seems similar enough. I think the 193 variant is the turbo diesel estate variant somewhere, where this is NA. Seems likely close enough, though. So I went through that lost and added the points up. Having had off-the-shelf rear springs a while back (from my southerly The Man) which were too short but sorted via new-new springs through the points method, that's the route I went down again for these, albeit with a different chart.
For anyone's future reference, this is an OM606 car with air conditioning and front airbags.
I'm pondering getting a pair of the top rubber shim mount thingies - the points chart suggests A2013211184 or 1284, with the difference being 18mm and 23mm thickness respectively. While the ones on the car might be fine, and could be changed later, and I might (or might not) be able to feel the nubs in the passenger side one...... for £14ish I'll likely just get a pair of the 18mm ones and see how it looks after that.
Oh, and a pic of the spring. I hadn't thought to drag it out, but it's a measure of how far the car has settled that it was nearly jammed between car and road.
I agree that these are great cars for the countryside. Granted they don't have the ground clearance of something built for that, but in my limited experience the ride makes up for it.
By the way: MOT pass in December, with advisories on one wheel bearing, rear pads & hoses, and a minor oil leak from the diff. Lots of things I'd like to improve on the car this year, most notably the coolant leak if parked facing downhill and the usual water ingress around window seals, but getting back mobile first is the priority!
I found a spring chart somewhere online for the 124.193 model variant, which this one isn't (124.191), but it seems similar enough. I think the 193 variant is the turbo diesel estate variant somewhere, where this is NA. Seems likely close enough, though. So I went through that lost and added the points up. Having had off-the-shelf rear springs a while back (from my southerly The Man) which were too short but sorted via new-new springs through the points method, that's the route I went down again for these, albeit with a different chart.
For anyone's future reference, this is an OM606 car with air conditioning and front airbags.
I'm pondering getting a pair of the top rubber shim mount thingies - the points chart suggests A2013211184 or 1284, with the difference being 18mm and 23mm thickness respectively. While the ones on the car might be fine, and could be changed later, and I might (or might not) be able to feel the nubs in the passenger side one...... for £14ish I'll likely just get a pair of the 18mm ones and see how it looks after that.
Oh, and a pic of the spring. I hadn't thought to drag it out, but it's a measure of how far the car has settled that it was nearly jammed between car and road.
I agree that these are great cars for the countryside. Granted they don't have the ground clearance of something built for that, but in my limited experience the ride makes up for it.
By the way: MOT pass in December, with advisories on one wheel bearing, rear pads & hoses, and a minor oil leak from the diff. Lots of things I'd like to improve on the car this year, most notably the coolant leak if parked facing downhill and the usual water ingress around window seals, but getting back mobile first is the priority!
I'm wondering if the rear springs are the cause of handling issues with my car. I've found the page in a web version of EPC which lists the points, but I'm not fully sure if it is complete, or exactly how to use it. I'm inclining towards going to my local specialist, as it seems to be the most likely way of getting the right springs if they are at fault, but that means Merc parts and prices, rather than the identical part with a Sachs logo on it from Autodoc.
Personally, I'd be more confident in my workings-out than someone who doesn't have the same interest as me in getting it right...
I won't be able to speak to their accuracy yet, but this time I've used the spring charts from https://www.w124performance.com/docs/mb/W124/sprin...
I've opened the chart for the most-appropriate version of my car (124.193 as mentioned above), looked at the points for the car - 53 - then added on the points as appropriate for the things my car has:
AC - 7 points
Auto box with diesel engine - 5
Sunroof - 3
Air bag - 1
Radio - 1
Adding those together gives me 70 points, which I then looked at below to give me the spring part number, and the spring pad part number options. Looking at it again, I should perhaps have gone for the thicker spring pad rather than the 18mm I've ordered, but I think it'll be fine.
Sportline has its own section, under "sports undercarriage", presumably because they're lower and stiffer than standard.
While it was a different document I used for the rear springs, what I worked out last time worked out correctly so I'm there or thereabouts.
I hope that helps...?
I won't be able to speak to their accuracy yet, but this time I've used the spring charts from https://www.w124performance.com/docs/mb/W124/sprin...
I've opened the chart for the most-appropriate version of my car (124.193 as mentioned above), looked at the points for the car - 53 - then added on the points as appropriate for the things my car has:
AC - 7 points
Auto box with diesel engine - 5
Sunroof - 3
Air bag - 1
Radio - 1
Adding those together gives me 70 points, which I then looked at below to give me the spring part number, and the spring pad part number options. Looking at it again, I should perhaps have gone for the thicker spring pad rather than the 18mm I've ordered, but I think it'll be fine.
Sportline has its own section, under "sports undercarriage", presumably because they're lower and stiffer than standard.
While it was a different document I used for the rear springs, what I worked out last time worked out correctly so I'm there or thereabouts.
I hope that helps...?
Younger, but as you say it should be the same principle. However, the Russian-hosted ECP I'm using doesn't seem to have all the information e.g. no starting number for the specific model, and it says add a point for a driver's electric seat - but presumably there should also be a point for the passenger's electric seat (which there isn't)?
Well. Some progress, albeit not fixed yet. Which is expected.
After conversation with my The Man, I tried moving the car on Friday to limp down the hill to his workshop. And stopped that nonsense very quickly! While the car did move, something metallic was dragging on the road. And then something was making horrible noises at idle. Hmm. It then took about ten mins to very very gently & gradually move the four feet back into place at the kerb.
Next plan. Sion (my new Man) met me at the car yesterday morning. I had the unusual sight of the wheel lifting off the road very early in the jacking process, presumably because there was no spring in place to push it downwards.
Anyway, the other portion of spring had come out of the arm, and had finagled itself under the lower arm on the other side (!) hence the nasty noises. Once removed, the car went up the ramps onto Sion's trailer, and was whisked away to be worked on when he has time. The correct type (albeit cheap knock-off) spring compressor kit was greeted with much relief.
It looks like the spring pads I bought are likely too thick, and the old ones will likely be reused, but I'll leave that to Sion. There wasn't the space to furtle in the arches to try and feel the number of dots, but it looks like they are one-dot pads, so likely either 5 or 10mm thinner, and probably OEM MB.
Spring looks like it lost a small portion a while back, from the tail end, so all in all hopefully it's a relatively convenient time to get things changed over.
After conversation with my The Man, I tried moving the car on Friday to limp down the hill to his workshop. And stopped that nonsense very quickly! While the car did move, something metallic was dragging on the road. And then something was making horrible noises at idle. Hmm. It then took about ten mins to very very gently & gradually move the four feet back into place at the kerb.
Next plan. Sion (my new Man) met me at the car yesterday morning. I had the unusual sight of the wheel lifting off the road very early in the jacking process, presumably because there was no spring in place to push it downwards.
Anyway, the other portion of spring had come out of the arm, and had finagled itself under the lower arm on the other side (!) hence the nasty noises. Once removed, the car went up the ramps onto Sion's trailer, and was whisked away to be worked on when he has time. The correct type (albeit cheap knock-off) spring compressor kit was greeted with much relief.
It looks like the spring pads I bought are likely too thick, and the old ones will likely be reused, but I'll leave that to Sion. There wasn't the space to furtle in the arches to try and feel the number of dots, but it looks like they are one-dot pads, so likely either 5 or 10mm thinner, and probably OEM MB.
Spring looks like it lost a small portion a while back, from the tail end, so all in all hopefully it's a relatively convenient time to get things changed over.
Northbrook said:
Spring looks like it lost a small portion a while back, from the tail end, so all in all hopefully it's a relatively convenient time to get things changed over.
So a small portion of the spring that has now broken catastrophically had previously broken? If so, that is interesting to know as I wonder whether something similar is affecting the rear of my car. Do you suspect that the small portion of the spring was broken when somebody last looked at it during a service or MOT?Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff