New 380SE owner

[raymr]

Hi,
I'm new to this list. Dad just gave me his '85 380SE with 190K miles on it. He told me to either sell it or keep it. It's in overall nice shape, cold A/C, no smoke, no rust.

I'm thinking about adding Euro headlights and 16" wheels. But first I want to make sure it passes state inspection. Are there any major issues with this model?

So far I am noticing a sloppy throttle. I am replacing the front linkage bushing but there seems to be a lot of play in the slotted cam that activates the rod to the throttle body.

1-2 shift is a little hard, but maybe that is normal? Reverse takes a couple seconds to engage.

The A/C fan has a blade missing, making an amazing jack-hammer noise thru the car whenever it is on.

Door panels creak pretty bad when its cold, and it seems to be coming from the plastic map pocket area. Does silicone spray take care of that?

I have never dealt with Mercedes cars before. I'm hoping I can do a lot of my own work, since I don't know of any trustworthy reasonable mechanics in the Rockville MD (Washington DC) area.

Thanks for any help or pointers.