Hello,

First off, I know a lot of these questions might be answered with the search, but I am so overwhelmed right now. I'm not even sure what to search!!

Today I bought a 1987 230TE . . . the body is good and the interior is very clean. I was shopping for a manual trans wagon in my area and have been for a long time, this is the first car I've come accross in my price range that had a good interior and good body, I figure everything else I can fix . . . or can I?

First, I don't even really know what I have. I am a complete newbie to Mercedes. I've learned that it's a W124 chasis and that it was apparently imported from Germany to Canada some years ago.

Being a 230TE my understaning is that this model was never available here? Would I be right to assume the motor is a 2.3l 4cyl? So for parts, would I be looking for 300TE body/interior parts and 190E for engine parts?

Couple of problems that will need my imediate attention:

There is a strong smell of gas in the car after an extended drive, is there aything common to these cars I should check first?

The sunroof is flaky. It will quit, but if I jiggle the wires and/or give the motor a couple twists with a wrench it will work again for a while - is this common?

And lastly, and what I'm most frightened of:
I have the load leveling rear suspension as it's a wagon. The back of the car feels like there is no suspension at all. When driving over a speed bump, the back of the car just comes down off of the bump with no give what-so-ever. It's darn near solid. You can imagine how bouncy the ride is. When I test drove this car I assumed (oops!) that the bouncy ride would be caused by worn out shocks - no big deal. Not till I got it home and started to do some reading did I discover this might be quite major.

So, any ideas as to what this might be? Is this something a DIY guy could attempt, or is this a job for a mechanic? Or the MB dealer only? How much might I be looking at? I have a repair manual, but it doesn't include a trouble shooting section so I don't know which compnent of the self leveling system to start with and how to diagnose.

I am more than happy to spend the money needed to get this thing going and in tip-top shape, just trying to get an idea for what I'm up against.

Thanks very (VERY!) much for any help, tips or advice.

James