New to mercedes

[kernaninternet2]

I collect many types of cars, but this is my first Mercedes. The car is a 1987 300e with 188,000 mile onboard. I have just rebuilt the head i.e. “do to blown head gasket”, and am wondering how the car should feel at idle. I have a Porsche 928 and if you didn’t look at the tack, you wouldn’t know if the car was running or not. The 300e runs smooth, but I can feel the car through the driver seat when idling. Is this normal? And while I’m on the topic of seats, are all 300e seat so uncomfortable? These are by far the worst seats I have ever come across When I go around a corner the seat feels as though it’s loose and moves around but it’s not loose just seem very cheaply made.

[Jackd]

welcome to the world of Benz.
idle: At your mileage (188,000) I would suspect faulty engine mounts. With time they tend to collapse and cause vibration/roughness at idle.
Seats: Check seat tracks for loose hold down bolts.
They could also suffer from being exposed to some very heavy previous owners.
Good luck

[kernaninternet2]

I was thinking about the motor mounts as these also cause similar problems on Porsche’s. I was hoping the seats were just showing there age. One thing I found out is I always do my own engine work, but I though to say time I would take my head into the local shop to have it resurfaced, as it was warped 8. thousands of an inch. What the local shop did was to remove 20. thousands of an inch. What would be the maximum that the head could be resurfaced?

[schumi]

the seat springs are probably worn out after so much use. mine are still good in a car the same age but it only has 88k on it. re: the idle, if you mean idle is rough even after car is warmed up (there are number of causes and fixes for rough cold idle), it may be your idle speed is too low. I would recommend the E-Class Owner's Bible, it has a lot of info about the car, as well as maintenance how-tos and descriptions of some common issues and a couple mods. It is not a repair manual but it does have some useful info in it. It has the info on how to bump up the idle by 50rpm if you have rough idle caused by too low idle speed.

[kernaninternet2]

The car runs good, I think it’s just bad motor mounts

Porsche 928, Porsche 931, Porsche 944, 1970 Charger Hemi, 1987 Mercedes 300e, 1990 Beretta Pace Car, 1979 Mustang Pace Car, and soon to be sold 1984 Corvette, I hope!!

[kernaninternet2]

The car doesn’t like to start cold, unless I give it half throttle, then it starts perfect.
1987 Mercedes 300e, Porsche 999999, ahhh forget it to many cars to list. I think my car collecting is getting out of control. Went to see a shrink about my car buying habits. I ended up buying his Porsche, just joking. Although I did buy a Porsche from a shrink but I had never seen him until I went to buy the car. Interestingly enough though, after talking with him for about an hour, he tried to tell me that buying expensive and flashy cars could be a sign for a complex, so after I though about what he had said for about a long second, I replied “well why did you buy the car”. He didn’t answer, talk about a hypocrite trying to drum-up business.

I have been part of many a message boards for the different car I own, and this message board is by far the best. Keep up the good work.

.020 is quite alot to take off one of these heads. When warped they are usually straightened, not milled. Since it's done though, I would not worry about it.

My 124 leather seats are as good or better than any seats I've ever had in any car including my 96 E300 with orthopedic seats. There is most definitely something wrong, maybe broken springs underneath.

Yes the fluid motor mounts will make it shake like crazy when they fail. The passenger side is the one that fails due to its location near the exhaust manifold. I would change it first.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas,

[bryanm]

Jay Leno appears to have the same complex so you are in fine company.

[mpolli]

Originally Posted by LarryBible

.020 is quite alot to take off one of these heads. When warped they are usually straightened, not milled.

I am interested to know more about this straightening technique. I am not trained in engine repair but I have always thought that milling heads was not really a good idea since you would then end up with the cam bearings out of alignment. I think I have read something about this. I realize that milling heads is as traditional as apple pie but it always struck me as the wrong solution to the problem.

Mike

Back in the days before much thought was given to fuel efficiency, engine parts were cast iron and much heavier and thicker than necessary. In the seventies that began to change. In those days there was so much extra meat on a head surface, you could mill enough off to make considerable compression ratio increases, and of course plenty enough to mill them straight when need be.

With aluminum heads there are quite a few shops that will put a warped head in a press and straighten it. It's not nearly as simple as that because it involves baking in an oven before or after or maybe both, I don't know. But I do know a guy in Dallas that has a high end automotive, one man machine shop and does this on a regular basis.

Good luck,

[suginami]

I wasn't aware that you could buy just one motor mount.

When I bought mine they came as a pair.

There are only two (2), and are not that expensive, if my memory serves me correctly.

Since the car has almost 190,000 miles, I'd go ahead and change them both...

[d2bernhard]

There are some supplemental pads for the seats which became standard around '92 I believe. They are from a TSB "Front Seat Bottoms or Is Too Soft" for customers who complained of lateral movement. My '92 wagon has them and the seats are much firmer laterally. There are 2 per seat and are pretty cheap each. I bought some to have ready for when I finally get around to rebuilding my seats. I believe these are the part numbers, but should be double checked when ordering.

Part # 124 910 14 50 (Tex)
Part # 124 910 12 50 (Leather)