Thanks Robert. I'm getting over the initial flush of seeing an SD in my price range and right around the corner. I walked around it on the weekend and had to take a cold shower. I think I'll talk to teh seller again tomorrow and see if I can be a bit more casual.

Bot

I fixed the water pump on my 300SE and it was a pain. You could have saved a lot of money by doing some of the work yourself. That's how I'm doing my car.

__________________
Regards

Warren

Currently 1965 220Sb, 2002 FORD Crown Vic Police Interceptor

Had 1965 220SEb, 1967 230S, 280SE 4.5, 300SE (W126), 420SEL

ENTER > = (HP RPN)

Not part of the in-crowd since 1952.

Everytime I fix something I fix no less than two things: the one I wanted to fix and that other thing or things I broke.

It would probably work for me if I did it a lot but I haven't worked consistently on a car since I got out of grad school, over 20 years ago... Now its all I can do to find the dipstick.

But 126 diesels still appear simple enough that I could probably understand one.

Its on my dream list.

B

I have a 92 300E. I bought it with 118,000 miles on it 7 years ago. I replaced most the hoses, battery, water pump, blower motor, valve cover gasket, transmission pan gasket and filter, new exhaust system, new rotors and brake pads, new plug wires, distributor cap etc. all at a cost of about $5,000 the first year I owned it. (I paid $8,000 for it in 1998)

I now have 207,000 miles on it, the car is silver and still looks brand new (it's garaged kept) passes yearly emission tests without breaking a sweat and I swear to you I have only done 3,000 mile oil changes and replaced the tires twice, brake pads once and spark plugs once since 1999! It has been the perfect car. So, the moral of the story is, if you like the car, go ahead and do the required work, it does pay off in the long run!

I have an'86 300E that I converted about 10 years ago to 134a. I live in hot, sunny, humid Florida and after the conversion the AC barely cut it. If it were any worse it wouldn't be good enough. Without replacing the condenser with the proper part for 134a you need more air across the condenser at low speeds to extract the heat. I removed the pin that the bimetallic strip pushes on to engage the visco fan. This effectively engages the fan all the time. The car is mostly driven around town although I have taken some trips in it and there is some added fan noise. This made an improvement. Next I tinted the windows with the lightest tint I could get. This also made an improvement. I installed a toggle switch in parallel with the aux fan switch on the receiver dryer. In the summer when I'm just driving around town, I turn the aux fan on for a little more airflow. That also seemed to help. But the biggest improvement by far was putting a can of TUNEair in the system. Because 134a is less efficient and your AC system was not designed for 134a, any moisture in there really saps the efficiency. The TUNEair does 3 things for you. It removes ALL the moisture by converting it to an inert substance, it reduces the compressor head pressure by 10 pounds or so, and best of all it lowers the temperature from the ducts by at least 5 degrees. The TUNEair has been in there a couple of years. It was the biggest improvement. Anyway, TUNEair, tinted windows, and if you are in Florida do the fan mods. (That’s my 2¢ worth)


TCG

'92 500E
'86 300E
'75 450SL

Where do you find TUNEair?

I bought a 300e in October that was recently converted. If I have issues this summer, I want to do these mods.

Very good post.

Lee,

Go to www.innovativeautoproducts.com .

Tom

Well, I have to do penance for failing to follow the advice of Larry Bible: DON'T SWITCH TO R134! I did it 2 years ago (on the '88 300E) and now I had to replace most of the guts of the system, likely because of the lubricant issue, according to the A/C guy. The dumb thing is that before I made the switch, I read the many detailed descriptions about what would happen and dang, I proved it again!

I've been experiencing a problem with the charging system. I get 12v at rest and just under 14v at about 3K RPM. Mechanic swears that the alternator is the problem, that its original (140K miles) and is unable to keep-up with A/C and CD and stop-n-go traffic during the summer. I have read of conversions people have made to higher amp alternators designed for newer cars. Seems a cheap route to take and if low amps is the problem, why not buy a higher amp alternator. But is low amp the problem?

Botnst,

To successfully convert an AC system from R12 to R134a the are 3 critical requirements.

1. Remove as much of the existing oil as you can and replace it with the proper amount of PAG. What is left will pool in a low spot and cause no harm. Of course always replace the receiver dryer.
2. DO NOT overcharge the system. About 15% less than the specified R12 capacity works well. Undercharge is better than overcharge. You will see lots of bubbles in the site glass.
3. Cleanliness is critical. Of course this is true for any AC system.

I have converted quite a few systems in the last 10 years with excellent success. I think that by far the biggest problem to system reliability is overcharging. My 300E was converted in 1994 at about 70,000 miles and it now has 260,000 miles and a new compressor at about 230,000. Not to bad. R12 is much more plentiful than I ever thought it would be at this point, although it is quite expensive. Larry's economic analyses makes sense in a lot of cases.

A properly working alternator in a 1988 300E will have no problem keeping the battery charged. If your mechanic thinks it’s the alternator, install a rebuilt Bosch unit. I personally would replace the brushes and see.

TCG

Yeah, I read that before I got my system converted. The guy who did it swore he'd get the lube oil out. Riiiight. Within a year it was leaking like a sieve when prior to conversion it had no leak.

Oh well, I didn't need that $1,000 I spent to repair everything.

Thanks for the suggestion about the alternator. I was thinking that since I needed to change it anyway I may as well go for more amps. I am not intending to run a huge sounds system, but I'd sure like to run my A/C in city traffic in August in south LA without running-down the battery.