sl r129 anyone taken the risk on a 3/4k car
Discussion
Crook said:
Update to my car going in:
Roof and windows are fine. That's a big phew.
Service is done as is door check strap.
However it does need disks, pads and a steering damper.
I've spoken to MB parts and the brakes are £186.66 with MB oc discount and the damper is £38.46.
I've looked at GSF and read up on who make OEM etc. and the pads there are Jurid who are an OEM. There isn't anything on the disks other than 'Premium' and the damper is more expensive than MB.
Ordinarily I would always go for disks from the manufacturer but as ever would appreciate anyone else's knowledge on OEM parts if possible please?
Thanks.
ETA:
Have found a sachs steering damper: https://www.buycarparts.co.uk/sachs/787662?grmk=1&...
for £24.40
I've not used buycarparts but heard some poor feedback, a sachs steering damper and shocks are fine, just google the part number and a few options will pop up. I used Pagid brakes from ECP and happy enoughRoof and windows are fine. That's a big phew.
Service is done as is door check strap.
However it does need disks, pads and a steering damper.
I've spoken to MB parts and the brakes are £186.66 with MB oc discount and the damper is £38.46.
I've looked at GSF and read up on who make OEM etc. and the pads there are Jurid who are an OEM. There isn't anything on the disks other than 'Premium' and the damper is more expensive than MB.
Ordinarily I would always go for disks from the manufacturer but as ever would appreciate anyone else's knowledge on OEM parts if possible please?
Thanks.
ETA:
Have found a sachs steering damper: https://www.buycarparts.co.uk/sachs/787662?grmk=1&...
for £24.40
Edited by Crook on Monday 30th July 13:43
Have now got car back and my colleague replaced the three capacitors in the instrument cluster and I've swapped out all fuses for copper ones in an effort to banish the crazy lights.
The good news is that it seems to have worked which is great (really really great), however the relay (from research it sounds like N10) is clicking and hazard lights are going at twice normal speed at all times. When I put the indicators or hazard switch on they work perfectly.
If I remove fuse 9 it all stops but so does the dash. If I remove fuse 5 in the boot it stops when the key is out of the ignition and stopped it when the engine was running but as soon as I drove it for a few hundred metres it started again.
Now, this is where I may have done myself in. Fuse 5 (alarm) was the one I sparked off fuse 4 (windows) which annoyed the windows until the battery was disconnected and the system was cleared. But it may be a coincidence and it's still the instrument cluster...
Internet says tap all fuses and tap the relay as it's not an uncommon failure. If that fails open the relay up and give it a squirt with cleaner and inspect for failed solders.
So that is next course of action.
Hours of fun. As ever any experience / words of wisdom appreciated.
Sorry to hijack this thread with my woes but at least any prospective buyer of a 3-4K car will know the possible pitfalls!
The good news is that it seems to have worked which is great (really really great), however the relay (from research it sounds like N10) is clicking and hazard lights are going at twice normal speed at all times. When I put the indicators or hazard switch on they work perfectly.
If I remove fuse 9 it all stops but so does the dash. If I remove fuse 5 in the boot it stops when the key is out of the ignition and stopped it when the engine was running but as soon as I drove it for a few hundred metres it started again.
Now, this is where I may have done myself in. Fuse 5 (alarm) was the one I sparked off fuse 4 (windows) which annoyed the windows until the battery was disconnected and the system was cleared. But it may be a coincidence and it's still the instrument cluster...
Internet says tap all fuses and tap the relay as it's not an uncommon failure. If that fails open the relay up and give it a squirt with cleaner and inspect for failed solders.
So that is next course of action.
Hours of fun. As ever any experience / words of wisdom appreciated.
Sorry to hijack this thread with my woes but at least any prospective buyer of a 3-4K car will know the possible pitfalls!
Crook said:
Have now got car back and my colleague replaced the three capacitors in the instrument cluster and I've swapped out all fuses for copper ones in an effort to banish the crazy lights.
The good news is that it seems to have worked which is great (really really great), however the relay (from research it sounds like N10) is clicking and hazard lights are going at twice normal speed at all times. When I put the indicators or hazard switch on they work perfectly.
If I remove fuse 9 it all stops but so does the dash. If I remove fuse 5 in the boot it stops when the key is out of the ignition and stopped it when the engine was running but as soon as I drove it for a few hundred metres it started again.
Now, this is where I may have done myself in. Fuse 5 (alarm) was the one I sparked off fuse 4 (windows) which annoyed the windows until the battery was disconnected and the system was cleared. But it may be a coincidence and it's still the instrument cluster...
Internet says tap all fuses and tap the relay as it's not an uncommon failure. If that fails open the relay up and give it a squirt with cleaner and inspect for failed solders.
So that is next course of action.
Hours of fun. As ever any experience / words of wisdom appreciated.
Sorry to hijack this thread with my woes but at least any prospective buyer of a 3-4K car will know the possible pitfalls!
Something that might be worth a try re the hazards, I was getting alarm and immobiliser problems. Cured by re-seating the ATA module connector with some switch cleaner. The good news is that it seems to have worked which is great (really really great), however the relay (from research it sounds like N10) is clicking and hazard lights are going at twice normal speed at all times. When I put the indicators or hazard switch on they work perfectly.
If I remove fuse 9 it all stops but so does the dash. If I remove fuse 5 in the boot it stops when the key is out of the ignition and stopped it when the engine was running but as soon as I drove it for a few hundred metres it started again.
Now, this is where I may have done myself in. Fuse 5 (alarm) was the one I sparked off fuse 4 (windows) which annoyed the windows until the battery was disconnected and the system was cleared. But it may be a coincidence and it's still the instrument cluster...
Internet says tap all fuses and tap the relay as it's not an uncommon failure. If that fails open the relay up and give it a squirt with cleaner and inspect for failed solders.
So that is next course of action.
Hours of fun. As ever any experience / words of wisdom appreciated.
Sorry to hijack this thread with my woes but at least any prospective buyer of a 3-4K car will know the possible pitfalls!
Apols if this is teaching granny to suck eggs, but a lot of this sort of thing can be just age, and can be helped with some simple but time-consumig maintenance. Because it's time-consuming and not actually in the service book, it never gets done on most cars.
On my 25 year old 500SL I had a number of obscure minor intermittent electrical glitches until I thought about the accummulated resistance that had built up in all the circuitry just from the fact that a lot of connectors and sockets had never been cleaned since the car was new, and therefore needed a good clean-up.
If you haven't already done it on your car, I suggest you devote a dry day to removing in turn every single fuse from the car and either replacing it or giving the end terminals a light polish with very fine grade wet & dry, e.g. 1200 grit. (Make sure you have plenty of spare fuses before you start though, as quite often a 25 year old fuse will look okay and be passing current to an extent but crumble when you take it out.)
As you go, give all the fuse-box terminals a good cleaning. You can clean those with something like a fibreglass cleaning pencil.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fibreglass-Abrasive-Clean...
If you feel up to it, pull out all the relays one at a time and give their contacts a clean-up too. An aerosol can of switch cleaner is a useful aid and with some cotton buds and a suitable clean rag will ensure you get any little particles out after cleaning.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Super-10-switch-cleaning-...
On my car I also pulled out all the bulbs and replaced and cleaned them and their sockets and connectors, and where there were accessible bullet connectors within the wiring (like those to the front indicators) I disconnected and cleaned those too, and reassembled the lot.
Since that day - and it's surprising how long it takes to do literally everything you can rieach I've had no electrical glitches, no blown fuses, no abnormal clickety-click from the relays, no spurious "blown bulb" warnings.
Providing you do it one thing at a time you can't really go wrong.
On my 25 year old 500SL I had a number of obscure minor intermittent electrical glitches until I thought about the accummulated resistance that had built up in all the circuitry just from the fact that a lot of connectors and sockets had never been cleaned since the car was new, and therefore needed a good clean-up.
If you haven't already done it on your car, I suggest you devote a dry day to removing in turn every single fuse from the car and either replacing it or giving the end terminals a light polish with very fine grade wet & dry, e.g. 1200 grit. (Make sure you have plenty of spare fuses before you start though, as quite often a 25 year old fuse will look okay and be passing current to an extent but crumble when you take it out.)
As you go, give all the fuse-box terminals a good cleaning. You can clean those with something like a fibreglass cleaning pencil.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fibreglass-Abrasive-Clean...
If you feel up to it, pull out all the relays one at a time and give their contacts a clean-up too. An aerosol can of switch cleaner is a useful aid and with some cotton buds and a suitable clean rag will ensure you get any little particles out after cleaning.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Super-10-switch-cleaning-...
On my car I also pulled out all the bulbs and replaced and cleaned them and their sockets and connectors, and where there were accessible bullet connectors within the wiring (like those to the front indicators) I disconnected and cleaned those too, and reassembled the lot.
Since that day - and it's surprising how long it takes to do literally everything you can rieach I've had no electrical glitches, no blown fuses, no abnormal clickety-click from the relays, no spurious "blown bulb" warnings.
Providing you do it one thing at a time you can't really go wrong.
Edited by Lowtimer on Tuesday 21st August 15:57
Thanks both.
I did go through both fuse boxes, replaced with new copper fuses and cleaned each socket in turn with a bit of fine paper and then contact cleaner and a cloth. Some were visibly grimy.
Will do the same on the relay box and then work through the car bulbs.
ETA:
I did go through both fuse boxes, replaced with new copper fuses and cleaned each socket in turn with a bit of fine paper and then contact cleaner and a cloth. Some were visibly grimy.
Will do the same on the relay box and then work through the car bulbs.
ETA:
Edited by Crook on Thursday 23 August 16:17
Taking my £3695 500SL on a four day Euro trip, aiming for Alsace-Lorraine and then Stuttgart. I've spent plenty over the last 15 months of ownership and done >5500 miles, so I hope the car is up to it and we make it to the MB Musuem in Stuttgart (and, y'know, back home again) without much drama. But given the good forecast at least I'll be stranded at the side of the road in sunshine.
Zonergem said:
Taking my £3695 500SL on a four day Euro trip, aiming for Alsace-Lorraine and then Stuttgart. I've spent plenty over the last 15 months of ownership and done >5500 miles, so I hope the car is up to it and we make it to the MB Musuem in Stuttgart (and, y'know, back home again) without much drama. But given the good forecast at least I'll be stranded at the side of the road in sunshine.
Still got it then?And SL3 & SL1?
How's the house move plan coming along, shelved?
SL3 was sold extremely cheaply to a retired German man whose hobby is buying cars from around the world and selling them back in the Fatherland for next to no profit. It keeps him busy.
It's possible that we may move house and I will have to go down to 1 R129 or maybe even fewer, perish the thought. So making the most of it while I can.
It's possible that we may move house and I will have to go down to 1 R129 or maybe even fewer, perish the thought. So making the most of it while I can.
As this thread has been going since 2012, and as we know classic car prices have moved on since then, including the R129 included, perhaps it should be "has anyone taken a risk on a £6/7K car" now.
When I viewed a few cars last year, I came across a couple of early SL 300/320 models at this price (actually the asking was £7995) that looked "clean and tidy" on the outside but had no history.
You could see straight away they needed a little TLC to get them into a "very" clean condition. Thats not to say they were going to be money pits, but there was a jump in to the unknown and you would have to factor in money was going to be spent sooner rather than later.
Thoughts ?
When I viewed a few cars last year, I came across a couple of early SL 300/320 models at this price (actually the asking was £7995) that looked "clean and tidy" on the outside but had no history.
You could see straight away they needed a little TLC to get them into a "very" clean condition. Thats not to say they were going to be money pits, but there was a jump in to the unknown and you would have to factor in money was going to be spent sooner rather than later.
Thoughts ?
^^^^ - I don't think R129 prices have really risen - if anything the last 12-18 months have seen a definite softening. There are some driveable looking cars for around 5k and even low mileage examples of the 500 can be found for well under 10k.
_________________________________
Meanwhile my jaunt to Europe with SL2 was a total success.
Bimbling around in Alsace-Lorraine (recommend the Verdun Memorial museum)
saw the car make it all the way to the MB Museum in Stuttgart without any bother.
I chickened out at 130 mph on the autobahn.
1209 miles in five days and no problems whatsoever.
_________________________________
Meanwhile my jaunt to Europe with SL2 was a total success.
Bimbling around in Alsace-Lorraine (recommend the Verdun Memorial museum)
saw the car make it all the way to the MB Museum in Stuttgart without any bother.
I chickened out at 130 mph on the autobahn.
1209 miles in five days and no problems whatsoever.
Tempted by this, anything jump out from the experts? Front wing looks a slightly different colour? Wrong wheels for that year, should they be flat face?
Love the colour combination!
https://www.gumtree.com/p/mercedes-benz/1992-merce...
Love the colour combination!
https://www.gumtree.com/p/mercedes-benz/1992-merce...
Dinoboy said:
TR4man said:
Can you live with the interior colour?
That's my favourite thing about it 
The big thing is to check the roof. Then check it again. And then again. And ... well, you get the idea.
Gassing Station | Mercedes | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff