I've been doing some interior rehab work on my '92 300SE. Unexpectedly, my consulting work ramped up considerably, eating up all my spare time, so the car was relegated to my storage shed.

I've been fighting with a few ticking hydraulic valve actuators. They tick rather loudly at first startup, most are quiet by the time the oil pressure gets to 3 on the gauge (1-2 seconds tops). A few reluctant souls continue to tick until the oil warms up a bit.

Anyway - I thought about doing that work myself, but reading all of the cautions on AllDataDIY about the timing chain tensioner and proper reinstallation of the intake cam adjuster, I was reluctant.

Dawned on me one day that I could just pay my mechanic to do the work and not have the worries noted above, plus I'd get a warranty on the work. $ are more plentiful with the extra consulting work.

Went to the shed to get the car out to take it to the mechanic. It starts just fine - but not a SINGLE TICKING NOISE is to be heard. How frustrating... maybe I said "repair shop" within it's hearing range? Anyway - starts right up, but there's a bit of a miss at idle. Clears up after a few seconds. I chalk it up to sitting for 6 weeks without being run.

Drive it to the mechanic, and I'm sitting at a stoplight. Windows are down and the wind is coming from the rear of the car. I smell antifreeze... I look in the driver's door mirror and see steam coming from MY CAR... uh-oh.

Now I know what's causing that pesky coolant loss...

Get it to the mechanic. He's a detail-oriented individual. Won't do work on cars if the customer tries to nickle-and-dime the process. I trust him and his group completely. Labor rates $90/hr - maybe a tad more than some shops, but way less than the dealer. He works only on German cars. Shop is immaculate - has all of the right diagnostic tools.

They agree that the headgasket is leaking. The cold start miss is from the moisture in the cylinder where the coolant is seeping in. Oil is still right color, so no fears of further damage due to coolant contamination there.

I purchased this car from my inlaws who own a repair shop. (Nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes...) They bought it from the previous owner when it was brought in for a blown headgasket. The owner popped the serpentine belt and ran it until it overheated so badly the gasket blew. Father-in-law's work ethic is one of "fix it and get it gone so I can get paid" - (which explains why noone ever comes back to his shop for further work). I've spent 100's of $ re-repairing things he "fixed" on this car. I always wondered how long his headgasket work was going to hold. Now I know - about 30,000 miles. When I got the car, it leaked coolant. Every coolant-related item that was removed from the engine during his rebuild was reinstalled, not with a new o-ring, but with the original o-ring and orange hi-temp silicone. The total cost of o-rings for the cooling system is probably less than $10. Worst was the connector at the back of the head against the firewall. A 10-cent o-ring, the R&R of which took me 6 hours...

To continue my rant...

Get a call a few days after dropping the car off. "Do you want the bad news, or the bad news?" The head is below spec. It's already .005 under. Apparently, it was warped badly with the first failure, or the machine shop just butchered it. This explains why I was never able to get the eyebrow oil seal on the front of the motor to seal right. It was getting crushed and distorted when I would tighten everything back up.

He continues - and here's where it gets worse (if you can imagine). Even if the head was millable, it's still scrap. Why? Because whomever reinstalled the head neglected to put the stress washers back under the head bolts!!!! All of the "bolt towers" were mushroomed. Had to use an impact wrench to get some of the bolts to come loose, they were so galled into the aluminum.

My FIL's group was probably wondering where all the extra washers came from after they finished the installation...

The failure to use the washers is probably what lead to the failure of the headgasket. Once the structure of the bolt/head mating surfaces in the head was compromised, they continued to deform in service, releasing the tension on the bolts, and hence on the gasket.

I authorized the mechanic to also replace any items that are easy to get at now, hard to deal with later.

So - add a new oil cooler and housing, plus the bypass pipe that feeds it to the list of parts which include:
Timing Chain Tensioner
Gasket set
Plugs
Wires (they were original!)
Oil
Filter
24 lifters (just to be sure we don't put one of the tappers back from the original head)
used cylinder head

20 hours labor - higher than standard book hours, but extra work for the oil cooler, and the additional labor to get the head out in the first place.

$550 machine shop costs - mill head and replace everything that needs it.

I'm looking at a $5000 repair bill.

For a car that isn't worth $5000....

I love the car, and since it's paid for, assuming I don't get stung with some other high-dollar repair in the next year or so, it's still cheaper than a car payment.

But daaaammmmm!

And it still needs a paint job...

And the interior rehab is still in-progress, which means a gutted interior...

I'll be lucky to be back in the car by fall...

Like folks say... "there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes."
They were a rich mans car when they were new, and they are perhaps really even richer mens cars when they get old Unless of course you get lucky and find a "good" one.

Unfortunately I've pretty much come to the conclusion that they only way I'll ever be able to afford another one is to purchase an older, 50's or 60's model as a restoration project while having something else as my daily driver. I just cant afford the kind of experience you've described with something that I need on the road.

- Peter.

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2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

Holy crap! That really sucks and it's a family deal to boot which can be touchy.

Man, $5K, that's a tough call even for a car that's paid for. You must love that car! I dumped our '99 Grand Caravan when confronted with a $4800 bill but then again I was looking for an excuse to.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

No sympathy here...well, okay , a little.

Your issue sounds the same as my 300E ails. Except I spent $2300 for the head gasket and top-end rebuild...but I still have to do a tranny swap!

Paint is marginal right now, and I just plopped $600 for a set of tires last week.

Headliner sags and interior looks tired overall. Right now, I 'm in the middle of doing a stereo subwoofer install...a reluctant install at that, as I am trying to figure out how to use as much of the OEM equipment as possible...none of which I would have tackled in the first place had the Becker not given up the ghost!

I try not to disclose $$$ figures to my wife, as she already cannot justify why I even keep the (also paid-for) car!

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2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car

Yeah - he recently offered to paint the car for me for free. We've been doing a lot of remodeling at his house - he pays for the materials, we do the work.

I was tempted to say "Hellen, I've seen your paint jobs, and thanks, but no thanks." (Hellen, as in Hellen Keller).

I held back and said - "When I'm ready, we can talk more, thank you."

He actually asked once if I could bring the car by so he could pull a module off of it to test another Benz he had in for repair... I declined.

As for the cost - the significant other knows the deal, and isn't pleased - especially knowing all of the other discretionary $ I've pumped into the car. I'm still trying to explain the "still cheaper than a car payment" logic.

I would venture to say for 5k you can probably just get a whole new engine. At least a completely rebuilt one... hmmm

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Showing up every day isn't enough. There are a lot of guys who show up every day who shouldn't have showed up at all. - James Caan

A gal was telling me about the first car she bought, new, off the lot...it was a Ford Taurus. About $20K.

Still needed gas, oil, filters, the normal everyday stuff, plus the new-car insurance cost and monthly payment to the bank...

One year later, her husband goes to the same lot, buys the same style car, w/only 13K on the odometer and pays only $11K. (BTW, hers has about 23K on the meter... ) He has a car payment, but nowhere near what hers is...

She's a bit pissed...and the other "goat" that got her? Her husband was able to buy his car in the color that she wanted, but was too impatient to wait for!

Me? Unless I'm lighting $100.00 bills for light in a dark room, it will be a used (but well cared for) car for me...

If you "bank" the money that you'd spend on a car payment, every month, when those little PITA problems come up, it won't sock you in the gut to roll out the bank-book and slap a few C-notes on the counter when you come to pick up your baby.

Besides, I'm a cheap SOB and I can't imagine giving someone $5,000-$7,000 of my hard-earned cash just so they can laugh behind my back as they hand me a set of minimally used keys to a demo-driven lunker...

I'm enjoying the fact that I have an original MB, from 1977, that was stickered around $33,000.00 when new. And I got it for only $1,500.00. It's in good shape and is still a head-turner this many years later. I don't care if it takes 10 seconds to get up to 50mph from a STOP sign, but when it's revving at 70mph and some ricer comes along side and thinks he going to get ahead of me...I enjoy the fact that while I'm ahead of him the full time, he doesn't have the nads to keep it up and always backs off and down around 90mph...I let him pull in behind me and he stays put...and I didn't have to put the pedal to the floor.

And, I maybe have to add 3/4 quart of Mobil1 0W40 before every 3K miles.

Damn, that 280E is nice!

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M. G. Burg
'10 - Dakota SXT - Daily Ride / ≈ 172.5K
.'76 - 450SLC - 107.024.12 / < .89.20 K
..'77 - 280E - 123.033.12 / > 128.20 K
...'67 - El Camino - 283ci / > 207.00 K
....'75 - Yamaha - 650XS / < 21.00 K
.....'87 - G20 Sportvan / > 206.00 K
......'85 - 4WINNS 160 I.O. / 140hp
.......'74 - Honda CT70 / Real 125
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“I didn’t really say everything I said.”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ Yogi Berra ~

You're kidding, right? This is a Mercedes...

Metric Motors shows $6500, not including shipping, which will probably be an additional $250, plus $1500+ to R&R.

I went by the shop yesterday afternoon to check on progress.

They showed me the original head. What a sorry situation that was.

Mechanic told me that the head bolts had been bottomed out into the block, because of the missing washers.

The people that did the first job just thought the bolts were tight to spec because they were bottomed out.

Oh, and the "new to me" cylinder head? $900!!!! Total cost? $5400.

Oh well.

http://germanstar.net/rengmain.htm

Check the facts...

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Showing up every day isn't enough. There are a lot of guys who show up every day who shouldn't have showed up at all. - James Caan