I've been back to Ernie's again, with the W126, and he REALLY knows those.

As a repeat and loyal customer, he now knows me and the car.

This last time, for a routine service, on a walkaround with the car up on the rack, he found a bad crush washer on the fuel pump leaking gasoline, and fixed it for nothing.

It was causing poor gas mileage, not to mention leaking gas onto the floor of the garage at night, and could have possibly caused a fire, a holocaust.

AND HE FOUND IT AND FIXED IT!!!!

No way I would have ever noticed that.


Ernie is the BEST!!!

Absolutely worth the trip down the hill from the Ndevada City/Grass Valley area for me.

Highest recommendation.

__________________
1991 560 SEC AMG, 197k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV installed 11/2011 ... Wie im Freien Fall. Nur horizontal.

1995 E 420, 159k "The Red Plum"

2011 E350 Sport "The no stress express"

1967 Mercury Cougar, 43k

2011 Subaru Outback, 24k (sold)
_____________


-Accelerate until you see God, wait 3 seconds, then hit the brakes.

In the Placerville/Shingle Springs area, if you don't want to take your car all the way to Ernie in Orangevale, Rob at Foothill Auto Service, 3381-B Durock Rd., Cameron Park is quite good. (530) 672-2209. They have fixed my 420SEL when it was really messed up. They figured out everything that was wrong with it and got it running well, and they have a good bedside manner.

I recently had an issue with my wife's car where her timing chain snapped! It was horrible and I didn't know what to do. The good thing is that it snapped during the startup not while it was running so I figure that there is little possibility that it did extensive damage in the engine. So....back to Ernie

I called Ernie and told him my entire situation and he told me that I would need a new engine. I was shocked becuase i told him that it happened when I was starting the car, but he would not budge. He refused to even look at the car first to make sure I needed a new engine because he said that it would be 7-10 hours of labor. So I asked him when I could have him install a new engine since I didn't want to do it myself after having put the current engine in and he told me it would be the middle of August! WTF?

So....long story short I ended up going to Silver Star Motors on Fair Oaks in Carmichael and those guys are AWESOME!!! They fixed the car no problem and didn't give me any grief about the engine being "ruined". All they had to do is replace a guide rail, the upper pan and the timing chain and I have been driving the car around for the last week with absolutely no problems! I also told them that when I bled the clutch it felt kind of squishy and they re-bled it for free for me! Needless to say that I will be taking my brand new AC compressor, expansion valve and AC drier to them next week to have them do the work.

I highly recommend Silver Star Motors. The owner's name is Frank and when I pulled up they had at least 5 W123s as well as several W126s and W107s so they are experienced with the older models.

__________________
-----
1981 240D/297K/4-spd/OM617 (mine)
1982 240D/241K/4-spd (wife's)
1979 240D/291K/4-spd/OM617 (father-in-law's)
1983 300DT/240K/4-spd (brother-in-law's)
1985 300DT/???K/5-spd Intercooler conversion (brother-in-law's)
1985 280TE/160K/5-spd (father-in-law's)
1963 UNIMOG (brother-in-law's)

I have been using Ernie now for several years.

I do not know of a more honest man or mechanic.

I do not doubt what you say, but there must be more to the story.

I would recommend Ernie to anybody.

Just a guess here, but something tells me you two did not get along on the phone conversation or something.

I don't know if you are the guy, but I had a conversation with Ernie a little bit ago and he talked about some guy....

Anyway, I hope it was just a misunderstanding, and by the way, I used to work in the medical field and people always called me on the phone wanting to diagnose their problem on the phone, asking a million questions, and sometimes after about a thousand of these calls you get a little irritated.

Now, as an attorney, nothing has changed. I can now usually tell on the phone when I talk to someone if its going to be a long day, and well, sometimes you just will tell those people something they don't want to hear just so they will go away.

Now, I am not saying this was the situation.

What I am saying, to reiterate, is that Ernie is, in my opinion a great mechanic, with a great philosophy and work ethic, and again, extremely honest, to a fault.

My opinion is based on everyone I have personally talked to who have been to Ernie's, and talking to Ernie on many, many occasions.

He is more than generous with his time.

Example: I bought my SL600, it has a strange electrical gremlin (turned out to need a new computer) that Ernie could not diagnose because he did not have the proprietary mercedes real-time diagnostic software and I didn't want to drive to San Jose where I bought it if I could avoid it.

Anyway after 4 hours and replacing some sensors that his diagnostic software fault codes indicated(simpler diagnostic tool than only MB dealers have) he could not diagnose the problem (steering angle sensor, I think)

Anyway, these 600 computers are obviously complicated, talk to JWROCK.

Charge: ZERO

I don't know of ANY mechanic who will not charge for diagnostic time when they look at your car for the 1st time.

Note, I had never been to him before, and he did that for free!

Again, he is honest and trustworthy to a fault.

I know some people will take advantage of his generosity, but that is who he is.

Trust me, if he wasn't as described, I would not waste my time writing this.

Ernie is the best, Ernie is the man.

Your experience does not seem to coincide with the Ernie I know, or have ever heard of anyone having a problem with him before EXCEPT those situations as described supra.

There you go.

That is my opinion, for what it's worth.

Let's see, that 30 minutes billable (time to read previous posts, and compose this post, proof read, etc, etc. Ha! Just kidding)

Yes, there are some good attorneys out there, I just have never met any yet!

Let me know if you know of any! Ha! Ha!

Cheers!

__________________
'98 SL600 Black/Black
2002 E320 White
'76 450SEL Sold, too thirsty
'85 300TD Sold, shouldn't have
Maybe a 280SL someday

Thanks everyone for referring me to Ernie. I know it has been awhile since I posted my original question. He has worked on my car, very honest. Knows my 126 like the back of his hand! And like my mechanic in LA, he has sat down with me and gone over stuff. That is something I really appreciate. I think we spent 20 minutes talking about synthetic blend vs full synthetic.

Ernie's is now called Bremen Motor Works AG, Inc.

Same address, 6326 Main Ave. #12, Orangevale Calif

Same phone number, (916) 989-4973

new email: bremenmotorworks@yahoo.com

Same Ernie -- same greatservice and work and good prices!

__________________
1991 560 SEC AMG, 197k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV installed 11/2011 ... Wie im Freien Fall. Nur horizontal.

1995 E 420, 159k "The Red Plum"

2011 E350 Sport "The no stress express"

1967 Mercury Cougar, 43k

2011 Subaru Outback, 24k (sold)
_____________


-Accelerate until you see God, wait 3 seconds, then hit the brakes.