A Christmas gift from our city, tons and tons of salt


Merry Christmas to all and to all good cheer

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1999 Mercedes E300TD daily driver sold at 238K miles 106K miles were mine, rust worm got it :-(
2006 Mercedes CDI new daily driver! 56,000 miles May 2016 now 85,625 Apr 2018 and Apr 2019 101,000 miles Apr 2020 109,875. March 2024 135,250, Dec 2024 145,000 miles

Have you figured out what caused all that rust? Bad windshield seal? Water drains plugged up for years? Some nick or scrap on the metal that rusted that hole?

I'll get more pictures later. I think the rust was caused by road salt and crappy patching. I found out after I got the car that it had been delivered to a dealership in Virginia. I bought the car in North Florida. I bought it because it ran well but did need some work but had over 5 years of records from a reputable shop in Gainesville, which I later found out didn't mean much of anything.

I figure the guy I bought it from or a different PO, probably the original owner, wanted to sell it but it had rust issues so they covered it up well. It seems as if they simply sprayed undercoating and patched the holes in the rocker panels using aluminium and sheet metal screws then bondoed over it, trying to give it the texture of the plastic rocker panel covers.

I first realized I might have some rust issues when I couldn't find where the jack holes were and someone suggested that they had been bondoed over. Before that I had moisture in the carpet and had to replace the headlight buzzer as it was damaged by water and I thought it was a clogged drain hole or something.

After that I knew I had floor pan issues when I went to replace my seat with the seats from my parts car and the rear bolt in the track was completely rusted and I tried for days to get the seat out, eventually finding that the area under the car where the seat is was rusted and I was able to rip the seat out of the car by rocking the seat back and forth. I installed the seat with a bracket.

I had a look around and figured that the driver's side floor pan was shot and was thinking I would replace it with the floor pan in my parts car, which I was waiting for sufficient time to tackle. I thought that there was not any serious structural rust yet as I had only seen rust on the rocker panels and the rocker panels overall seemed to still be strong.

Since getting back from Tech on the 12th of December, the other day was the first day I really had under the car (installed euro headlights, did coolant change from universal green to Zerex G-05 and did the delivery valve seals the other day but otherwise have been working on a house my dad bought) and it was the first time I was working on the flex disc, also first time to have the car inside a garage to work on it (this new property has a huge garage, our house doesn't). I had placed the jack stands on the frame rails because I was going to drop the LCAs and put in new bushings in the front and springs in the front and rear but first I was going to change the motor and transmission mounts after solving my injection pump leak as they were all destroyed from age and diesel. While trying to figure out how to remove the flex disc, my friend said something that caused me to look over at my jack stands to make sure they were still secure. I then saw a split in the undercoating next to the frame rail and hit it with my ratchet and it was soft. At that moment I knew there was little point in me doing much more work as the rust was worse that I had thought. I poked around a bit and found it was about 12 inches down the frame rail that it was soft, the other side had no issues.


Unfortunately, yes, this car has a ton of money poured into it. Much of what I replaced was original to the car, asterisks are by those, meaning PITA for me or my mechanic. These are the job that have been done since I have owned it, most of it my work except a few of the bigger jobs, of which I can remember:

Replaced auto transmission with rebuilt unit*
Replaced 3 of 4 hubs, one new********** (three words: broken lug bolts)
Replaced rear wheel bearings
New Bilstein HD shocks and struts*
New rear tires
New coolant reservoir cap
New brake master cylinder*
New brake lines*
New brake discs and pads, twice for the front as I put in the bigger calipers from my 2.6 parts car
New glow plugs
New tie rods
New stabilizer bar*
All rear links*
All rear bushings except main subframe bushings and sway bar bushings*
Diesel purge
New injector nozzles and balancing by Greazzer
New delivery valve seals
New AC expansion valve, seals and receiver dryer with new sensors, freon
Rebuilt climate control unit
New aux fan coolant sensor and resistor
All fluids and filters including differential
Late W201 leather steering wheel
Euro lights
Great brake light mod
Late W201 seats
Headlight buzzer
Most fuel lines, about to be all fuel lines so I can move it
Throttle linkage joints
Valve cover and intake gasket
Odometer repair
CLK rims with newish cheap tires that happened to be the right size
Alignment

And jobs I had the parts and tools for:
Engine and transmission mounts
LCA bushings
Idler arm bushings
Springs and spring pads
Complete shifter rehab
Trim clips for one piece of exterior trim
All sway bar bushings

Next item that needed attention after all of that was the radio.

I had just been to my mechanic's shop earlier in the day with my car to show him some of what I had done plus check in on our Sprinter (black death #2, terrible stuff, not the most reliable vehicle) and he said that the car still sounded great as always.

I have decided the proper send off for this car is to make a last official drive to the dealership to apply for its 500,000 KM award, then it will probably sit in the garage and be driven once in a while to keep it the drivetrain working until I find a proper shell to put the parts into. The grill will hang in my room with its high mileage badges. I had been hoping to get to 750,000 KM or more in that car but it'll just have to be the engine now. I jokingly told my friend I was going to hire a bagpiper and have a funeral.

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Current: 1975 450SEL, 83 300D, 88 Yugo GVX, 90 300D OM603 swap, 91 F150 4.6 4v swap, 93 190E Sportline LE 3.0L M104 swap, 93 190E Sportline LE Megasquirt, 03 Sprinter, 06 E500 4Matic wagon.

You did see this right?

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/mercedes-cars-sale/363294-super-clean-190e-shell-no-drivetrain-rust-free-%24500.html

Hook up the trailer and head up north before it snows!

That car looks great but is too far. Our tow vehicle is in the shop and I am going to be in Miami next from Sunday to Thursday then back to school on next Monday so no time to do it even if I had something to tow it with.

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Current: 1975 450SEL, 83 300D, 88 Yugo GVX, 90 300D OM603 swap, 91 F150 4.6 4v swap, 93 190E Sportline LE 3.0L M104 swap, 93 190E Sportline LE Megasquirt, 03 Sprinter, 06 E500 4Matic wagon.