20 Year Mandatory Maintenance
 

What are some things people should be replacing on their 20+ year old cars? Especially the '87 300SDL, for me to see if I'm missing anything.

Suspension parts?, Engine parts?, anything that might be helpful to any new MB owners out there.

Thank you for ALL replys! :D :thumbsup:

That can be a real loaded question and it's answer is going to be determined by the amount of maintenance it's had. You can expect:
Front End (rack)
Vacuum Pump
Alternator
Ignition Cylinder
AC Compressor
CCU Unit
Aux Fan
Steering Box
Flex Disks
Sub Frame Mounts
Motor and Trans Mounts
Shocks

Those are a few of the bigger things I seen with both the SD and SDL

Window lifts :)

Keep your ears and eyes open
 

Assuming that your car is a driver, that is what you have to do. If it doesn't drive right, perform right, look right, smell right it is up to you to find out why. Unless you are a nut, "if it ain't broken don't fix it". Keep a close eye on fluids leaking and worn out bushings.

There is a weird murphy's law to these cars also. If you find something at a real good price and buy it thinking you will use it down the line- you most likely will never need it.

Buy a voltage regulator, put it in, and keep the old one as a spare. Your idiot light will not come on when this part wears down to the limit.

Might want to replace your ignition tumbler now, rather than worry about it failing at an inconvienent time.

These two jobs are easy and cheap ($35 adn $120).

If you have a radiator with the plastic (non-reinforced neck), I would upgrade to the reinforced style. Not sure if this is the case with the 603 motor setup.

These three items are known showstoppers.

On my 1985 300D (Federal version) the shaft from the tumbler to the switch broke. That was a !#@$! to replace because the connector to the switch is locked to the assembly and with the shaft broken you can not turn the switch to the position to unlock the connector. It took me over four hours the cut the assembly open to get the connector unlocked.

That seems to be holding true for us too. We have a whole huge bin of parts we've collected.....and so the climate unit blew out in our W123. Aux pump took it out. :o It still runs the monovalve, but no power to blower or aux pump. Of course thats one of the things we don't have. :o

We have a spare tranny though, maybe that will prevent any of ours from ever failing. :D

U-Joint, Flex Discs...#1 Priority, the rest of the items, are useless if you've got a driveshaft rammed up your @$$...LOL

Trucky ;)

I like the idea. I'll keep my spares around, ... so my car never needs repairs!

There is also nothing like having a parts car. I am on my second one, but then I have three W123's and share parts with my best friend who is a W123 junkie like me.

I replaced just about everything.:D:D

I`ve replaced just about everything except the transmission
and the rearend. some things several times.

Maybe I need more spare parts laying around :rolleyes:

Charlie

LOL, that's about what I was thinking, replace all moving parts (and a few that don't move).