Serial Number Question
 

I have a simple question (I think)...and I would appreciate it if you would mind consedering it..

Here is the story. I (foolishly) bought a MB 1985 Wagon from a guy in NY. ( It only had, and I had "his" mechanic confirm the accuracy, 115,000 miles. And shifted, "like a dream."

So five weeks ago this guy i, who is a 123 fan, tells me he has found the car of his dreams, an 84 Teal sedan Then I dont hear from him for 5 weeks. Just as I write my last threatening note to him. He reappers with this nonsense story about a vacation.

My suspicsion, and I may be paranoid, is that he swapped out my transmission, or engine, or both.

I did not share this suspision with him and asked him to ship all records including the complete repair history to me - so my question is - is there any way to tell if this deed has been done.

On MB is there any way to match the numbers on the transmission to the engine and the VIN?

I would post this publicly but I just registered and do not have the approval to post puboically yet and you seem to know your MB's.

Any help will be much appreciated.

Spire

stuff
 

afik the serial numbers are not tied together. on some cars the engine and chassis are numbered the same. on mb i dont think so.

as far as your story i dont follow what happened. i got lost with the two cars involved.

Thanks and Clarification
 

Thanks for you reply. I wasnt clear.

I bought a wagon from him.
He told me in a phone conversation (before he dissapeared) the he had just bought a sedan from someone else. (A sedan with a lot of miles.)
My suspicioun was that during his inexplicable absense he decided he liked the low milage tranny in the wagon I had purchased from him - and which he has not yet shipped - removed it and put it in his car.

So I was wondering if I could tell if that had been done by serial numbers - but apparently not.

Thanks for the information however.

Spire

If you send me the VIN or take it to an MB dealership I/they can tell you the engine and transmission serial numbers that came with the car.

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

Thank You
 

That is very generous of you and very much appreciated! (Im not normally a paranoid type!)

Here is the VIN:

VIN wdbab93c7ff048088

Thanks again.

Spire

Here's the datacard info:

engine 617952 12 103586
trans 722315 02 620823
exterior 540
interior 154
features 286 411 440 451 467 491 519 531 546 575 588 593 639 640 673 722 732 805 843

You can deciper the codes at http://www.mbclub.ru/mb/code/?lng=eng

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

Oh, you can't swap a sedan engine into a wagon and retain the SLS pump. The wagon cylinder head is specific to models with SLS which means wagons only among US cars. I doubt he would have gone through the trouble of swapping cylinder heads on you.

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

I owe you one Sixto-
 

Thank you!

I will reassure myself that all is okay and my worst imaginings were nothing more than that - I hope.

And then I'm sure once the car is recieved I'll be checking the database on this group frequently. Thanks.

And thanks to all the rest of the group for indulging such a personal issue of little help to anyone else.

Spire

Was this an ebay purchase? If you have pictures of the car, which I assume you do, I would take them with me and look at them and at the car very closely. Look at the headlight doors and other items that can be seen in pics to see if he did swap things around.
It isn't being that paranoid to worry about a guy who drops outta sight for 5 weeks. :eek:

Thanks you both. I will check it out.

otta there
 

if i were in your position i would be outta there. i dont know what you have given him in money but if it is nothing i would definately get out of the purchase while the getting was good..... although i suppose i would go look at the car and drive it first if i wanted it.

Thanks for the help : Epilogue
 

Thanks again to all of you for your help. I thought I finish the story and say that I had the 85 300 MB Wagon taken to a mechanic (uwith some vieled threat to the ebay guy) and had the serial numbers read to me over the phone. I was able to match them to the numbers that SIXTO (Thanks!) provided. They all matched ; the car was loaded up and arrived yesterday out here in CA. So far Im a happy guy with the car. Im not sure how to approach the NY rust at one jack point (which is not really bad but does need addressing) but the car runs as smooth as any 300 I have heard (that is not all that many) and it shifts lurchlessly - well mostly.

So thank you all again. Now I have a question that seems to have a lot of info in the searches but just to make sure that I am not passin up a very nice looking 1985 300 CD Coupe (California bought) Ill ask it because the owner is not sure but I think you all will be.

This engine has 115,000, and from what I can tell in this picture does indeed look like it has the dreaded California emissions setup. Ill try and post the photo. I assume that most of you think that this is the model to be avoided in favor of just about anything earlier!

Spire

The only thing to dread is a trap oxidizer. I don't see one in the picture but I don't know if it would be visible from that angle. The other devices are pretty easily... uhh... undreaded.

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

Spire, out of curiosity, how much is that 300CD going for. There aren't too many of those in LA. :)