Hello ! I finally got my hands on the car that I have wanted for a long , long time. I got it for pretty cheap and its in a decent shape. There is no rust on the car but the clearcoat has peeled off from the hood and roof in some places. I dont mind that. Its more the mechenical side that I look for in cars that I buy.
Anyways, the car has 185k miles on it and it was perfectly maintained till at least 150k miles and after that, it was well maintained but not perfectly I guess. There are a few things I want to work at to make the car in to a daily driver. I appreciate any help in diagnosing the problem. Its my first MB but I am used to diesels and dont mind wrenching. However, since I don't have my own garage, I have trouble getting under the car .

here is a list of things that I have found need attention right away .

1. The transmission has a host of issues . It has trouble upshifting to 3rd and fourth . I often get it to engage 3rd but 4th is very rare. When i do get it to shift to 3rd or 4th by blipping the throttle a couple of times , it will randomly downshift on its own without change in speed . The 3rd usually engages at around 3,500 rpm and for 4th , i usually have to take it up to 4,500 or 5,000 rpm. There is also flares in transmission some time shifting to 3rd or 4th but not every time. I am not too keen on driving the car that much as the sudden downshifts at 65mph make the rpms jump through the roof for a few seconds.
I have tried checking the vacuum pump , but following the MB service manual is hard. I need to take the vacuum hose that goes to the brake booster off and connect a vacuum guage to measure how much vacuum is being generated. I just cant get the hose to come off the valve and i fear using force and breaking it.
I did connect the pump to the other hose coming off the vacuum pump ( i am assuming thats what it is . Its right in front of the IP ) and got a decent reading . I don't have any values to compare against as i could not find the information in the service manual or in my search here. Also connected to the three hoses that main hose feeds to through a three way splitter. The first two held vacuum but the third just kept losing vacuum. Again, I dont know what they feed in to and if they are supossed to hold vacuum or not.
Any suggestion on how I should go about finding what the problem is ? I am sure there is some vacuum leak as there are a couple of things that indicate to that. The car is a bit slow to shut off when i turn the ignition off. I still havent figured out which one is the shutoff valve . Its still cold here in MI



2. The instrument cluster at startup is doing some weird stuff. I have a video on youtube that I will link to. Observe the rpm needle go to a random position just before startup . Also get a rough idle and a lot of shaking at startup but after a minute or so, it smooths out. It starts on the first try without any problems and there is no excessive smoke coming out of the back at all at startup.
I have read some material on diagnosing it and am going to check the grouding point and fuses . Hopefully, its something simple as I do not want to take the whole dash apart just yet. There is screeching sound from the blower fan and the dash has some cracks in it but I am not looking to open the panels without it being warm outside .

Youtube link for startup : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSO2-neKK00


3. There is a weird pulsating noise that comes on after a couple of minutes of starting the car. I think its coming from the alternator pulley but I might be wrong. I recorded it on video focusing on what i think is the source of the sound. Maybe some one has experienced the problem before. The sound is present utill i get to about 2000 rpm when driving and then it disappears. The car sat for a year because of transmission trouble so there might be something thats not properly lubricated. Any ideas on how to go about isolating the problem ?

engine noise link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGVWRkLKPqY

4. The centeral locking works but only from the trunk. The lock cylinders in the front doors just spin around without unlocking or locking the doors. The strange thing is that the interior lights turn on as if the door has been unlocked but only for a second and then they go out. Going by the ill fitting door trims and what the previous owner said about trying to fix the windows, i am sure there is something wrong with the lock connections inside the door. Again, its too cold to work out in the open right now so i will come back to it later.



I have seen a ton of stuff for the w124 and 2.5 turbo 190d but there isn't a lot of things for the non turbo 190d . I plan on taking pictures and making some DIY threads when I fix something. Any ideas and help will be much appreciated.