Yeah, I think my old Benz is in pretty good hands. I'll keep an eye on the IP once I get the car back, as I realize that the one O-ring replacement hardly constitutes a fully-fledged reseal, but hopefully it's enough to keep the car on the road and in service for a little while.

As to when I'll get it back, it's tough to say. I think it'll be another full week at least to address some other small(-ish) issues that we're still looking at, but I'm also hoping to get to some suspension upgrades as long as it's in the shop, which will require ordering a few more parts, so it may be another week longer beyond that. Part of the issue is my work schedule - I simply can't get down to Portland during the week to pick up the car. I periodically have to work on Saturdays, too, and as luck would have it I'm scheduled to work next Saturday (the 13th) so I don't realistically foresee being able to get down there until the following Saturday (the 20th) at the earliest. Which is fine, as I don't really "need" the car until the school year starts, after Labor Day.

Another update, finally. Car is wrapped up at the shop and ready to be picked up. I don't have the invoice in front of me, but this is what was done as part of "Round 2," from memory:

- Blower motor replaced.
- AC recharged.
- Leak-down test performed; unfortunately, the shop thinks the AC is leaking at or adjacent to the evaporator, which is a cost-prohibitive fix, from what I understand. Big-time bummer! I guess I won't know how bad the leak is until I get the car back and live with it for a while.
- Front wheel bearings replaced.
- Timing chain replaced. I bit the bullet and had this done just based on mileage and the fact that it had likely not been done previously. Kind of hated to spend the money to fix something that wasn't acting up, but it would've sucked to have the old chain snap and grenade the engine, after spending money on everything else.
- Rear differential fluid changed.
- Transmission valve body rebuilt.
- Injection pump re-sealed. Originally just the O-ring between the block and the pump was replaced, but then when my mech replaced the timing chain he saw that the IP had started leaking from the bottom, so took it apart and replaced two more seals, which, interestingly enough, were still available through the dealer parts network.
- Belt tensioner shock replaced.

I'm looking forward to getting the car on the road and home at last. I still have a few more projects in various stages of planning, with ongoing parts acquisition taking place. Now that the car is apparently mechanically sorted more or less, I hope to be able to chip away little by little at the rest until the car in my head is the car in my driveway.

I'm planning to handle the work myself from here on out, with the exception of some light paint and body stuff, not only to save a few bucks, but also because I think it'll be fun to wrench on the old thing a bit. I'll probably have to take a few days off of work for some of the bigger jobs, though - unfortunately "free" time is at a premium these days, between work and family.

Anyway, will have updated pictures posted in a few days!

So this past Sunday, I finally picked up the car. My 7-year-old son and I caught a train down to Portland, and drove the old W124 home. First impressions are that the car looks pretty good. I had forgotten how nice the color is in person, and the new wheels look sharp. After putting a few miles on it, I was surprised at how well the motor was running - smooth and torque-y, and perfectly capable of keeping up with modern traffic at 60-80mph (not to mention passing, when called for). Now several days later, the motor is just purring. I think it really wanted to be driven! Of course, the long list of recent work certainly helped.

A few warts:

• Steering is too loose and vague for my taste. I know I shouldn't be expecting the same level of feel provided by my BMW's hydraulic rack-and-pinon, but there is more slop than I think there should be. I know the steering box is leaking a little - maybe it's worn - but it could just be old steering linkages, and maybe the steering damper?

• The supension is likewise a bit soft and sloppy. I know the strut mounts are shot, and probably some of the other rubber bits, too. I think I see some suspension work in my future...

• The driver's seat is a little tired. It squeaks a little and sort of sags to the left. I'm not sure if this is normal wear-and-tear on a 25-year-old high-use item, or if a previous owner was a bit heavy, but I think I'm going to have to look into some sort of refresh or upgrade here.

• The headliner **** the bed. There was a small-ish droop, and I sort of had it in the back of my head that it was going to go eventually. Then we went through a car wash, and the pitter patter of water on the roof caused things to suddenly get much worse. So this is going from back burner to job 1. Parts ordered and inbound.

• Weird squeal all of a sudden from behind the dash, passenger side. Quick research suggests a dying air sampler motor. Pretty cheap part and simple DIY - probably do this one real soon, too.

Since getting the car home, I've attended to a few little odds and ends:

- New gas cap, oil cap, coolant expansion tank cap, brake reservoir cap, and battery negative terminal cap.
- Popped 4 new center caps into the new wheels.
- Removed the front license plate bracket and swapped in the center fill panel.
- Replaced the missing passenger sun visor clip.
- Replaced wiper blade.

Here's a pic of how it sits now. Not bad, I think. Coming along, at least! It's amazing how much the license plate bracket delete panel cleans up the front end.

Tail lamp lenses on the 300D are cracked, right side worse than left (see first picture). This didn't really bother me at all, since I knew I wanted to update to facelift lamps anyhow, but the damaged stock lenses made the situation slightly more urgent.

I picked up some genuine OE lamp assemblies off of eBay. My preference would've been for new units, since new plastic invariably looks better than old, but as near as I can tell the facelift tails are NLA. Thankfully, tail lamps tend to hold up a lot better than headlamps. See below for before and after.

And yes, I realize the bumper cover is cracked. To be continued...

Bob,

The steering should be tight. Usually the tie rods, drag link, idler arm, or other related bits are at fault. Steering shock is easy to check, disconnect one end and push/pull... should require a LOT of muscle to move. If not, replace it (under $30 last I checked for OEM Boge/Stabilus).

Suspension should improve with your Sportline plans. Remember to replace as much as possible so you only pay for one spendy dealer alignment and yes, you want the dealer to do this if at all possible, no matter how much alignment experience your indy has.

Driver seat - see if you can find a good replacement. New springs are $$$$. You might be able to use the "HD" cushion which is a solid foam block that replaces the entire spring assembly and it's less expensive. Seat work isn't fun though. Headliner, only option is to remove intact & have a shop re-cover it. Be really careful removing, it is fragile and can break.

Looking good so far!

Took care of the rear bumper today. The old bumper cover was, as I mentioned cracked. It came off very easily, and when I removed the impact strip I could see that it was cracked beneath as well.

I knew the bumper cover was cracked when I first bought the car, and so I had ordered a used one from a well-known recycler on the East Coast through eBay 6 or 8 weeks ago. He didn't send me close up pics (and I didn't ask), but he assured me that he had "a nice '92 alto grey bumper with a nice impact strip." Well, the bumper is Alto Grey, but that's where the accuracy of his description ends. It's got some very deep gouges in the plastic, and the impact strip is beat to hell (see pics below). The impact strip was so bad I ended up re-using the stock piece.

I certainly wasn't expecting perfection from a junkyard part, and I'm going to have to re-paint it to match anyway, but I would've expected any honest seller to disclose any defect that couldn't be corrected with paint. I guess the moral of the story is not to deal with internet junk dealers, at least not if you expect anything other than junk.

The seller also sold me a front tow hook cover and threw in a jack point cover I was missing. All are also in Alto Grey, so some paintwork is on the horizon. The front bumper has sustained some pretty serious road rash, and there is some peeling on the cladding in places, so the car needs it anyway.

Also threw in some new OE all-weather mats this weekend, and while I was in the trunk pulling trim for the bumper removal, I found out why my fuel door wasn't locking: the actuator was loose and hanging from it's wires, so I re-mounted that and now it's working fine.

The morning after I brought the car home, when I started it up for my wife, we were greeted by an obnoxious squeal coming from behind the dash. The car had made it the entire drive from Portland without making that noise...and of course it starts up as soon as I get it home. I knew it probably wasn't anything too serious, since the car had just been pored over for two months at the shop, but wasn't sure exactly what it could be - of course, my suspicion was something to do with the HVAC system.

I drove the car to work that morning and did a quick Google search before I got too busy with anything else, and right away I figured out what the problem probably was: a dying air sampler motor, which sucks air from the cabin in order to monitor temperature for the automatic climate control system. Luckily, it looked like a very easy fix, and the part itself was only about $75. I sat on it for a week or two, but finally the squeal, especially after a cold start, got the better of my nerves and I ordered the little motor.

It wasn't supposed to get here until Monday, but to my surprise it showed up this afternoon, which allowed for a short and serendipitous weekend project. I knew the glove box had to come out, and after I looked at it for a couple of minutes I realized all I had to do was remove a few plastic pop rivets, which took just a few seconds with a trim removal tool. Instead of finding the air sampler motor, however, I was greeted with a surprise - an old rodent's nest. Pieces of insulation had been shredded and piled up, and there was a pile of droppings as well. No mouse, at least. So I cleaned and vacuumed that up before realizing that I had to pull the rightmost AC vent to find the sampler motor, which resided in a block of foam held in place with a big metal clamp. I also removed the right dash speaker which, while probably not strictly necessary, allowed for easier manipulation of the ducting and more thorough cleanup of the mouse mess, both of which gave better acces to the motor.

The old motor, a VDO unit, was visibly worn. Incidentally, the newer motor is made by Bosch. I put everything back together, and enjoyed the sweet sound of silence at startup. All in all a very easy and inexpensive, but satisfying, job. The whole thing couldn't have taken more than 60 or 90 minutes, including time spent trying to figure out what exactly had to be removed and how, and stopping to clean up a mouse nest. Now I'm wondering if I should pull the rest of the dash vents and inspect for signs of previous infestation - probably take a quick peek tomorrow.

Also recently arrived is new headliner material and adhesive, so I'll hopefully get to that some weekend before the end of the month.

Yesterday, I went looking for any more signs of rodent infestation, but luckily I didn't find any.

I did find a big mess of decaying leaves around the battery compartment, so I pulled the battery and the battery tray and cleaned up as best I could. I scrubbed a bunch of surface rust off of the battery tray, and hit it with some flat black Rust-Oleum (pic #1) - I'll probably consider just replacing the tray with a new part if/when I replace the battery. Then I cleaned up the battery contacts and put the battery back.

Next I moved on to the fuse box. The original fuses weren't in terrible shape (pic #2), but they were a little corroded, and I actually found a couple of them were the wrong wattage for the positions they were in. I replaced them all with the upgrade set sold by Mercedes Source - I don't know if this was worth a damn, as I didn't notice a problem beforehand, but the fuse box certainly looks freshened up (pic #3). Anyway, it just seems like good practice to replace as many consumables as possible in this scenario, and the fuses are just such low-hanging fruit, I figured why not?

Then I moved on to the smell, which originally seemed like "old man car" smell, but now just reminded me of the mouse nest I had found. So I pulled the glove box liner and blasted the whole area with Febreze. Then I hit all the carpets (front, back, and trunk) with Glade carpet powder. Let that sit for a good while, and then vacuumed it up. Then I plugged in one of those Glade vent air fresheners. Then I hit the cabin with a little more Febreze, rolled down all the windows, turned the blower fan to full blast, and went for a nice long, fast cruise. It really made an amazing difference - the old man/mouse nest smell is gone, and the cabin smells like fresh linen (my wife was impressed that I "matched" all the odors, lol).

I might try to get the carpets professionally shampooed one of these days as a finishing touch, but for now it's a big improvement.

I mentioned before that I had my hood pad replaced right away. The original pad was disintegrating, sending foamy bits flying into the engine bay at the slightest touch, and it just looked terrible. The new pad is just one of those little details that makes the car present better, in my opinion.

Unfortunately, when I got the car home and popped the hood, I realized that there was another piece of insulation, sort of a lip or gasket sealing the leading edge of the hood against the radiator support. It, too, was dried out and cracking (picture #1). It's a different material than the hood pad, and doesn't seem to be falling to pieces, but it was definitely an eyesore and I was looking forward to replacing it.

I picked up the new part from FCP Euro (p/n 1246820526). I was expecting to have to glue the piece in (like the hood pad), but it turns out to be friction fit with little tabs into the hood. R&R was just a minute or two. It's a small thing (picture #2), but l think the sum of a lot of little things can make a big difference in the way a car presents.

I also replaced most of the bulbs in the rear tail lamp assemblies (not the turn signals, because I didn't have the right bulbs with the offset pins). Unfortunately, one of the bulbs doesn't seem to be getting any current, and so the brightness of the tail lamps is asymmetrical. The same thing was happening with the stock assemblies, so I know it's not an assembly problem, and obviously it's not a bulb problem - gonna eventually have to chase down an electrical gremlin, I suppose.

This week my wife also curbed one of the brand new wheels. After a few choice words, I went and cleaned the wheels up, and the damage isn't too terrible - just some curb rash on the lip of the front passenger wheel (picture #3). Probably it won't be too much money to have repaired, but I think I'll probably have to make a trip off-island. Looking at it after a day, it really doesn't look too bad, though.

Hey Bob...just wanted to let you know that we have a newly revamped Accessories section where you'll be able to find everything you'll need for your DIY painting project. Let us know what you think and good luck with the rest of the project; sounding and looking good already!


-Dmitry

Not much action to report lately. I've been mostly in the research, planning, and acquisition phase, and unfortunately, I haven't had much time to execute anything! Between traveling for work, taking a graduate class on the side, weekly soccer games and Cub Scouts, birthday parties, baby showers, and the onset of wet PNW weather - well, the universe hasn't exactly conspired to help me. I've got a couple of projects lined up and ready to go, just waiting on the time to do them...

One (very small) thing I did get done was replacing the headlamp switch knob, because the original knob (pic #1) would come off in my hand probably 9 out of every 10 times I switched on the fog lamps. Pretty annoying. You can see the new knob (pic #2) is slightly re-designed, with a small hash mark in place of the much larger arrow to indicate position. I kind of prefer the old style, but you can see the original was pretty beat up and faded, and the new one feels much less sloppy. Kind of a small thing, but also something I noticed every single time I turned the lights on. The best part? A brand new Genuine OE knob was less than 3 bucks.

More seriously, out of the blue a couple of weeks ago, the transmission really started to shift rough, and engine power, especially off the line, just wasn't there. I spent a week reading up on transmission modulators, vacuum control valves, the EGR system, and more. When I popped the hood to check things out, I found a bunch of loose connections in the transmission-bound vacuum lines, and I found a vacuum line coming from the turbo that had split and come completely loose from one of the pressure converters! I trimmed the damaged bit of hose off, zip-tied it back onto the pressure converter, and tightened every other loose connection I could find - it made a night and day difference! The car is much more responsive at all RPMs, and shifts are back to buttery smooth. Amazing what a difference a small bit of rubber hose can do.

Besides that, I really feel like the 2000 or so miles that I've put on this car in the 7 weeks since I brought it home have really made a difference. It's just running like a top - super smooth, quiet, plenty of power, no leaks I can find - I can't believe it's got nearly a quarter-million miles on it. Clocked a few 0-60 pulls at right around 12.5s each time, and I haven't even touched the ALDA yet (it's still got the tamper-proof seal on it, in fact). There was a big difference in the way the car ran from the day I test drove it to the time I picked it up from the shop, but ther has been a pretty dramatic difference even since then - it's like the old girl just needed to warm up and be daily driven again.

Once again, it's two steps forward, two steps back with this car...

Been having some problems lately with an intermittent tach - it just doesn't work sometimes when I start the car. At first it would come back after 3-4 minutes, but the last couple of days it has been persistently dead. Along with an inop tach, I'm also losing kickdown, boost (I think), and the motor seems to be idling a little rough - plus it's taking a lot longer to start, which may be a separate issue (I hope not!). Forum searches turned up a faulty OVP relay as the likely source. I pulled the fuses, which passed visual inspection as well as testing with a meter. So I pulled the entire relay and cleaned out the contacts, and went for a drive. Nothing, until about a half mile later, chugging up a hill going nowhere with the go pedal pinned, when all of a sudden the tach sprung to life and engine power was back! I was pretty stoked. On my way home, I had to stop at the store, and when I got back in the car, the tach and everything else was dead again, and no amount of fiddling seems likely to bring it back. So, a new OVP relay is on the way. At least it's not too much money, and is very easy to get at and replace.

Next I decided to change the oil. Pulled the filter, changed the two little o-rings on the oil filter shaft, and pulled the belly pan. Found more oil than I had hoped to - some of the mess was undoubtedly due to the leaking injection pump (since fixed), but there was definitely some wet oil that seemed fresh. Anyway, on to pull the drain plug - and it's really stuck! And rounded out! And the more I fought with it, the more it rounded - so I had to stop and button everything back up. Ordered a bolt-out socket set, so hopefully that's all it takes. On the plus side, I ran the motor a while with the belly pan off, and didn't see any gushing (or even seeping) leaks present themselves.

Hopefully, by this time next week, both of these problems will be solved...

Lovely color.


Nice to see it in good hands.

The tach/boost issue is quite likely the OVP. Pretty sure I had the same issue on my 2.5T. Make sure it's an OE/OEM part, btw. If the problem persists with a new OVP, check the crank/flywheel sensor next.

Bummer about the stripped drain plug! A new OE plug (111-997-03-30) is under $5 list from the dealer, once you get the old one out. With your OE/OEM filter kit (601-180-01-09), the copper washer included is for the drain plug. The OE/dealer filter is $13.50 list, about $9 from the discount dealers, only a few bucks more than aftermarket.