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Old 02-05-2007, 01:03 AM
John Holmes III
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IMHO,

The brakes would be a big point for me. Sticky calipers can let the car drive ok, but will boil the brake fluid thus losing brakes when you want to stop. How do I know? It happened to my "pampered" garage queen 450SL a few weeks after I bought it.

Transmission leaks will be a issue on a low mileage car.

Headgasket leak at rear of cylinder head(oil).

The $$$ water pump is suspect as well.

Make sure the soft top mechanism is adjusted and works well, it's hard enough to raise and lower the soft top as it is. Only a '70s British sportscar is worse. If a hardtop exists, make sue it was stored in a proper "cart", because leaning it on the wall can cause it to distort ever so slightly. Again, I found out the hard way.

I would ask for service records, and look for lack of coolant changes and brake fluid changes.

The coolant is a big deal, because the aluminum cylinder heads can corrode when the coolant gets old. I had to replace both heads on my 300SEL 3.5 due to infrequent coolant changes. In the late '80s, it cost over $3800.

They made plenty of these cars, so if it's not perfect, I would pass on it.
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