High miler E300's

[Parrot of doom]

Seen 2 today, 1997-98 vintage (twin round headlamps), one saloon one estate. Both E300 diesels, with full Merc service history.

Saloon had 160k, the Estate 180k - bits of rust around the corners of the doors and wheelarches, nothing too serious (although didn't look underneath).

Both priced well under £5000. The 160k saloon was poverty spec, but the estate had the lot.

So, anything to look out for with these motors? Both looked very nice, but anything to watch out for in particular? The car will be a run-till-death motorway cruiser and lugger, doing about 15-20k a year.

[sneijder]

Make sure the wiper works spot on, that's a few hundred to correct. The belt tensioner can fall to bits as well, hundredish quid to sort out. Anything else is pocket money, ask anyone and they'll tell you how bomb proof these are and how they were the last decent car Mercedes made etc. etc.

[Parrot of doom]

Gah, saw the estate today, covered head to toe in rust! High spec but not cared for. The saloon was much better, lower spec but looked after!

Also waiting on a friend of a friend who apparently might be selling his.

[volvos70t5]

P of D

I've got a 1995 w124 E200 saloon with 184K on it in good condition with FSH that I might be willing to let go. Send me a mail if you are interested.

[jumjum]

Yep rustbig problem on the w210 e class

Father in law has a e230 estate 97 in the summer had to have work done 77000 miles, wasn't covered by warrenty two new wings, two lower doors sill work and new front valance.

Brother 99 e240 import 38000 miles, justgone in for work but his is covered.

Check with merc that they will fix it when it goes rusty, loads about this on merc sites.

Good cars though.

[Parrot of doom]

Argh.

Why is Merc spec so poor? Lots of perfectly good cars around (including the one a mate was talking about), all with no aircon!

Its a shame, so anyway I'm going to look at the 160k E300 DT I saw today. It had some rust around the rear of the wheel arches, but hopefully it'll have a FMBSH so they might pitch in to repair anything critical. I'll be checking the spring seats, they're the most important bits tbh. The chassis cross members well I'll be painting it all with POR15 just to be on the safe side.

[steve-p]

Parrot of doom said:

Why is Merc spec so poor? Lots of perfectly good cars around (including the one a mate was talking about), all with no aircon!

The spec is only as poor as the original purchaser was My E has nearly every option, including digital climate control. Mostly, the spec doesn't make that much difference to the price (except for manual box, cloth trim and lack of a/c which are all no-nos and really affect the value), so it pays to look around for one with a full compliment of buttons.

[Parrot of doom]

Well, I bought the saloon.



E300 DT Elegance
163500 miles
FSH (partial dealer, on-off so it won't get the warranty for the bodywork)
AC
Auto
Cruise
Cloth seats
Auto dimming mirrors (although driver's mirror glass was broken)

Paid £4800 for it, and they're sorting out a new MOT, its not taxed so I'm paying them to 12months tax it, and they're going to contact me about the mirror (I imagine the fancy glass is expensive).

I'm picking it up tomorrow (provided it passes its MOT).

I think I'll take it into a Merc specialist, have them check it over fully, and from then on just get it serviced by my mate until either I die, or the car dies, or I hit the jackpot I'll keep the receipts, but I don't really care about resale value as its cheap to begin with and its not going to lose much more money now.

Rust-wise, there is some bubbling around the wheelarches, a bit of rust coming through underneath the handles and indicators but nothing massive (just tiny flecks under the paint). The top edge of the driver's door (behind the rubber trim) isn't in great shape, so I'll have to get that sorted out. Underneath the car looked ok, the spring seats were fine (I'll paint all those bits with POR15). I'll also have a look behind the engine tray and paint any exposed metalwork there as well. Boot lock was perfect, as were the other doors, so either they've not really been used (it has a remote boot thingy on the keyfob), or they've been attended too already. Paint looked uniform and good, I couldn't see evidence of any crashes.

Tyres were a bit badly worn, perhaps a few months left, but they're not too expensive to replace.

The stereo was a Blaupunkt unit with some kind of keycard - is that the standard unit?

>> Edited by Parrot of doom on Wednesday 16th November 15:38

[steve-p]

Just goes to show what the premium is for a diesel... I didn't pay much more than than for a high spec 98,000 mile E320 with one owner from new and a full MB history, with hot hatch performance and 27mpg economy. Anyway the standard radio would have been an Audio 10 Mercedes-Benz unit I believe, which was pretty basic albeit quite good quality - yours may well be better.

[Parrot of doom]

One thing bothered me.

When I got on the motorway, I floored it and it went nowhere - literally. Just crawled onto the hard shoulder.

Now, I did indicate off the roundabout onto the motorway, and the cruise switch is right next to the indicator stalk. There was a yellow light on the cruise stalk that said 'restrict' or something. Once I pressed that and turned the light out, off she roared.

Did I just inadvertently hit that cruise switch? Seemed absolutely fine before and after?

[steve-p]

Parrot of doom said:

One thing bothered me. When I got on the motorway, I floored it and it went nowhere - literally. Just crawled onto the hard shoulder. Now, I did indicate off the roundabout onto the motorway, and the cruise switch is right next to the indicator stalk. There was a yellow light on the cruise stalk that said 'restrict' or something. Once I pressed that and turned the light out, off she roared. Did I just inadvertently hit that cruise switch? Seemed absolutely fine before and after?

It said 'LIMIT', and that's what happens when you press the end of the cruise stalk. It toggles between speed limiter mode and regular cruise control mode. If you had pushed the cruise stalk away from you, it would also have disengaged the limiter. Hope you got the owner's manual!

[Nano2nd]

POD how u getting on with it? like the look of these myself as i also need a 20k a year motorway cruiser, just what something cheap'ish, nice and fairly economical

what sort of MPG you been getting? can u like me any websites where i can read up on them?

Cheers

[Parrot of Doom]

Its a good car, however there were niggles and jobs needed doing. I've spent about £1000 on it repairing stuff and servicing it. Most of that was £500 from a Merc specialist, sorting out the glow plugs and front suspension. £150 was for tyres, and the rest is Merc ATF (doing a fluid change), oil, filters, etc.

I'm getting somewhere close to 40mpg on the motorway, although it seems to have risen slightly judging by today's journey from Brum to Manc, the needle hardly moved. Probably because I changed the filters. The old air filter hadn't been touched in 40k miles!!!

[vixpy1]

I did the same things on mine, front suspension, MAF..

With the tuning box i get 35 mpg on the motorway, however i only average 30..

I'll be doing the fan belt tensioner as well like you did POD in the next few days.

might change the filter as well..

[pentoman]

Re: Front suspension - what were you sorting out?

The big diesel engined and V8 petrol engined W210's (not AMG though) have a problem with.. I think it's the cups that hold the front suspension springs in rusting away and breaking off. It's only recently coming to light but obviously it's not great so worth bearing in mind.

I'm sure I posted on this thread before but apparently not.

Russell

[Parrot of Doom]

The spring seats are dead easy to see, just crane your head up there with the wheel off and you can inspect them. Mine are in 100% perfect condition, as good as the day they left the factory.

The front suspension work was drop links on the anti-roll bar, and front ball joints - the symptoms were light clonking over all bumps in the road, and a rather 'vague' feeling at speed.

[Parrot of Doom]

BTW I'm also having the tensioner inspected properly as it seems to be giving me more grief (could be a loose pulley causing the shocker to leak oil), and the propshaft might be a bit noisy (can hear something low frequency 'thrumming' at speed on the motorway).

[VOLVOS70T5]

My W124 will be getting 12 months tax and 12 months MOT at the end of the month and is then going on ebay. It has done <2000 miles since the last MOT and I can't justify keeping it.

I've had it for 10 years and bought it when it was 18 months old. Now done 184k miles with FSH. PM if interested. Ta.

[Nano2nd]

thanks for the info, sounds like there pretty good for the money

i like the look of this one only 16 miles from me



MERCEDES-BENZ E300 TD Avantgarde Auto, P reg. 1 owner, warranted 76,428 miles, unmarked Metallic Silver, PAS, 4x e/w, ABS, air con, e/seats, traction, OBC, mutli airbags, cruise control, alloys, remote c/locking alarm, 12 months MOT, 6 months Tax, 3 months RAC warranty, totally as new, HPi clear, p/x poss, bargain. £4,495. Tel: [phone] or. [phone]

£4,495

[Parrot of Doom]

If you demo it, make sure that its stone cold when you start it up. Glow plugs are a common failure, and aren't a job to be DIY'd. If the glow plug light stays on for a minute after the engine has fired, that means that at least one has failed.