This is hilarious. Nope, my repairs have been completed on time and on budget. A model of efficiency....

My dad had me help him replace some A/C regulator on his 240D one time because the independent told him it was probably the cause of the freon leaking and that it would be simple to replace so my dad should replace it himself. I ordered the part and it was delivered. D-day, we stood there staring at the part in the engine compartment, I asked if we needed to watch out for pressure the regulator may be containing. Of course, my dad said the independent said, "No, just take the old one off and put the new one on, there's a self-sealing valve...." So we're screwing the thing off and as it reaches the end of the threading the thing goes shooting off like a polaris missile with freon spewing out like Yellowstone's Old Faithul geyser. We both stood there in shock before realizing we should cap this gusher before we lose all this gaseous gold known as freon. So we force the regulator back on like the wildcatters we be, and lament the bad information, the lost $$freon (imagine holding a can of freon like it was THE RING on the Lord of the Rings movies, "my precious", and the slighter larger ozone hole in the atmosphere. Luckily, we didn't "shoot an eye out" when the regulator blew off. Arrrggggghhh, maties!

If anyone knows how to make a '91 300SE not wander on the highway in a slight crosswind, please don't tell me. It's too late to save my sanity!

Over the last 10 years or so I have performed the following, and more, to try to solve it, all without any success. Some of the items needed replacement anyway, but most of them were probably good.
- tires, many
- alignment, alignment, alignment, alignment
- wheels
- springs and spring spacers
- shocks
- steering box rebuild
- steering box adjustment (repeat, repeat, repeat)
- wheel bearings
- idler arm kit (repeat, repeat).
- balll joints
- all steering and suspension bushings
- tie rods (repeat)
- steering damper (repeat, repeat)
- subframe bushings
- diff mount
- Chevis Regal, Jack Daniels, Crown Royal (repeat, repeat).

All I succeeded in doing was having a beautiful, tight car that rides like the day it was new around town, but still is a handful on the highway if there is any wind at all.

Cheers,
DG

S-Class Guru,

Have you replaced the thrust arm on the rear suspension. This is the usual culprit that make the car wander in cross-winds, at least, on the W124 and may be the same on your car too. The bushing on it are not replaceable and so the whole link needs replacement.

__________________
1986 300E (3/2002) Rear ended and totaled (10/2009)
2000 Xterra (5/2000)
1992 400E (11/2009) -Sold
1986 300E (12/2009) - Sold
2004 E500 Wagon (6/2013) - Sold

Raising the tyre pressure may work. My 300SE (126) also wandered with crosswinds. A cab driver (over here they usually drive Mercedes) told me that he inflated his tyres to the pressure recommended for high speed driving to prevent wandering. I followed his advice and the wandering is gone.

Rob

G, have you ever seen this BG product? Our local dealer sells/prescribes it for those squeaky pads:

S_CLASS GURU what wheel and tire package are you using [specific sizes please]?

__________________
David S Poole
European Performance
Dallas, TX
4696880422

"Fortune favors the prepared mind"
1987 Mercedes Benz 420SEL
1988 Mercedes Benz 300TE (With new evaporator)
2000 Mercedes Benz C280
http://www.w108.org/gallery/albums/A...1159.thumb.jpg

My first car was a 57 Chevy I purchased from my brother. He had removed the slip-an-slide powerglide, and put in a Muncie 4 speed. I managed to wear out the clutch in short order, and took it upon myself to fix in the driveway. I've always been pretty mechanical, so I looked at the thing for a while, then proceeded to beat apart the U-joint at the transmission rear spline. Once I got it apart, I moved on to the rear of the driveshaft & discovered the U-bolts. DUH.

Got the new clutch in OK, then put back together the front U-joint I had beaten apart. Cash was short in those days, senior year of high school.
About a week later, winding the car up to about 90 mph, loaded with friends, I hear a loud BANG. There went the driveshaft. Damn lucky the car did not flip. We coasted a couple miles to an exit ramp, walked a few miles to a phone, and I broke my meager bankroll getting the car towed home.

Did I mention I can fix anything?

Not precisely on topic, but here goes.

It seems to me that do it yourself car repair is like everything else in life. You have to somehow learn. That means that if you don't have someone to teach you, then you go it alone and learn by trial and error.

One way is the way I learned. Started tinkering at about age 14 on an old Chrysler that my grandfather gave me. Then a '56 Ford I bought for $500. I did, in retrospect, stupid things like crawling under the Ford at night and dropping the transmission down onto my chest in order to wrestle it out. I had blown the synchros and had to fix it. Cars were simpler then.

I learned more mechanical tricks when I worked at Boeing in the late 60's. I was a lead man on the 747 final assembly line.

After finishing College, I lightened up on car repairs for years. I had company cars for the most part. Last 10 years or so I have been doing certain maintenance on MB only. Things like filters and fluids, brakes, etc. I feel it's important to know your knowledge limits. I personally don't waste money trying to diagnose electronics or other very complex systems. Cheaper to pay an expert.

I read posts from people, who obviously don't know squat about wrench twirling, and want all the answers served up to them. I really wish they would buy the manual, read it, try to do the repair, and then ask questions. Learn by trying it first. A lot of the fun is figuring out a solution by trial and error.

Steve

David, sent you a PM on the wandering S-Class - didn't want to hijack this good humorous thread.

DG

Purchased a 97 Suburban with a 6.5 and it was a K1500, can you say rare bird? Anyways first winter here in Vermont the thing always started beautifully, bang and its there. Next summer Veggy oil conversion. Ok at first and then the hard starting problem. Ran great once running and loved veggy, but the hard starting was a PIA. Tried this and that and then I noticed air in my line which on both sides of the IP was telfon tubing so I could see through it. I isolated it down to where I thought the IP was causing the air and I had a low mileage used spare which was like $140 so I swapped it. No difference. What hurt more than the $140 was the work swapping the IP out. Turns out it was the compression fittings leaking air. It sounds so dumb now looking back, doesn't it always. Fixed the air leaks by reefing on the compression fittings ($0 I might add), next time I'll use the inserts that go into the tubing. Didn't use them as I didn't want to restrict at all.

__________________
Currently driving a very clean 1985 300SD from the West Coast.

All the "bull**** type type Bondo repairs that I did on my 68 Camaro in Chicago were worthless. I didn't know better and I didn't have the money to do it right anyway. True; I spent HOURS on the rear fenders behind the wheels on big rust spots, getting them just right and painting them. It really looked good for a home body+paint job. In the winter, I was parking my car for the night and kicked some snow off of the back of the car. I put my foot through the entire rear panel. Then, I had to look at the hole from my shoe the rest of the winter every time I got in the car.

I got somewhat smarter when I got a '73 Camaro: The only tools I used to attack rust were a socket set and a jigsaw with a metal-cutting blade.

__________________
86 560SL
With homebrew first gear start!
85 380SL
Daily Driver Project

http://juliepalooza.8m.com/sl/mercedes.htm

on my god damn f150...

Before I got it, it was allways the fishing truck.


My grampa decided we should fix the e-brake before he gives it to me...

Then it turned into a mess when he dissassembled the other side, when I was working on my side.................. And neither of us knew how it went... Threw new shoes in, just cause

Then they started sticking... Fair enough, take it apart again, somethings gotta be wrong... Shoulda junked it and bought something else...

We replaced the wheel cylinders, and springs... they still were sticking...

Everything we did to it never did a damn thing...

Here's everything that was done to it.

New reare-brake cables, wheel cylinders, shoes, spring kit (2X), drums, and lines... No fix
Frount rotors, pads, calipers, flex lines, hard lines, proportioning valve, and master cylinder....
not fixed...

Turned out to be a sticky slide pin, I never knew they needed to be greased, neither did anybody who ever changed frount brake pads on it

$400 into that... plus a radiator, alternator, cheap sterieo/speakers (got stolen), and a tranny filter job...

Now it runs like hell and has a hole in the dash from the bastards who stole the radio

~Nate

__________________
95 Honda Shadow ACE 1100.
1999 Plymouth Neon Expresso. 2.4 swap, 10.5 to 1 comp, big cams. Autocross time attack vehicle!
2012 Escape, 'hunter" (5 sp 4cyl)

had a strange clunking sound.checked flex discs,both shot.changed both....no difference.checked driveshaft...worn out....bought new one...replaced old one....no change...but it took about an hour of highway speed for it to return.....keep looking....bad sub-frame bushings...replaced....rides better,but....no change.....sound still there.....while under the beast checked rear axles(moving steadily towards the rear)...drivers side had excessive play to and from wheel.changed out last week.so far clunking is gone...but gotta travel to pittsburgh this weekend..so we shall see if it is actually gone.

__________________
1984 300D turbo 155k

www.interactivepainmanagement.com

car ran on 3 maybe 3 and a half cylinders out of 4.

useless repairs: replaced spark plug cables $75 because the boot got a fingernail sized crack on it.

turns out it's the sparkplugs that the last owner never changed since new - 215K on the odometer.

you have seen everything when you see sparkplugs that are rusted along the tread, as well as on the L shaped terminal...... solid solid rust brown.

new NGKs and it's better than ever.

Took my clk to the indie I trust to check the front brakes; he said I needed pads & rotors. No surprise, they were original. He lets me purchase the parts, so I bought them and returned the car to him. When I picked it up a day or two later, the first thing he said: Who told you you needed new rotors?

__________________
87 300e (white/black; amg body kit)
88 300ce (red/cream; amg body kit)
93 300ce cabrio (white/blue/blue top)
93 300ce cabrio (black/grey/black top)
98 ml 320 (totaled @ 137,000 miles)
99 clk320 (black/grey/black top)