Hello all. I am new to this forum as well as to the Mercedes community. A little about the vehicle, it's a bought from a dealer new 1985 500SEL it now has 140K on the odometer. It belongs to my Father and Mother-in-law. My Father in law is a retired Mercedes mechanic and has performed all of the maint. on the car since new. The car has not been abused in anyway,as a matter of fact the windows have never been rolled down,AC has never been used at all (I know thats a bad thing) always garaged and religously washed and detailed. About three years ago he suffered a stroke that confined him to a wheel chair. Needless to say the car has been garaged ever since. Now my mother in law wants to give us the car but for some reason she swears that it needs 10K worth of work to get it road worthy she is not even remotely close to being car maint savvy I dont know where she is getting this idea from It does need a battery. The car ran perfectly until they parked it the garage and now it just sits there collecting dust. What could cause 10K worth of damage??? she did say that the steering is stiff and might need a new power steering pump, does a new powersteering pump with installation run 10K? and would you guys and gals consider this a good reason to just give up on this car and send it to the junk yard? she says she will pay up to 2K to get the car up and running but not the 10K which makes perfect sense, I still dont know where she gets the 10K figure What do you guys and gals think? keep or junk?

Where is the car located. Maybe it been sitting so long that it ran out of fluid?

The car is located in Southern California (San Diego County). Are you talking about the power steering fluid? I myself havent looked under the hood yet but I will go look at it this weekend.

Hello -
The gas engined MBs can be maintanence intensive. Perhaps your FIL told your MIL that the 10K expenditure was needed? Can;t think of her getting that info elsewhere. If it were me, I'd take the car, check it over for fluids, etc to make sure everything is as it should be and then drive it! That'll show any problems pretty quickly. No, replacing the PS pump will not cost $10k to replace. Right now we'd just be guessing to try and imagine what she might be referring to. Perhaps SP wires ($80-$120 parts) and SPs ($2 each), along with fuel ($22 parts) & air filters ( $25), cabin air filter, basically a 120k maintanence. Check brake pads ($40-$60 for parts to replace), adjust parking brake, water pump ($110-$180 parts), PS Pump ($250 parts)check that everything works - that kind of stuff. A waste of time IMHO.

Drive it and tell us how you did! You may have gotten incredibly lucky! But you should be prepared for spending a fair amount of money on maintanence each year. Get a workshop manual and maintanence schedule and find what your local hourly rate is for MB technicians - and you should come up with a close estimate of what it will run you each year. Surprises will always occur and you can add 20-30% to cover that stuff.

This is just a general suggestion of what you can suspect - people who own 500SELs probably have a better idea of what it will cost.

Good luck -

Moved for better answers.

Well, if the timing chain rails are getting brittle (good odds there), and one breaks and throws the timing off, you could be looking at around 4-5k for repairs.
Other than that, you really need to check the car out. Ask the FIL what sort of work was done....doesn't he have any maintainance records??

Is this a Euro model?

__________________
It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so. Robert A. Heinlein


09 Jetta TDI
1985 300D

just put in a new battery and drive it till it dies!

Then again, if it's free, should you be looking a gift horse in the mouth?

Even if it does die, you can make a few $'s by parting it out.

__________________
It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so. Robert A. Heinlein


09 Jetta TDI
1985 300D

Its better to sell whole than to part out. Or even better give it to me!!!!

well I have some good news, and that is the total cost to "repair" is going to run 1650.00 and thats was mostly labor of course. Turns out it just needed the powersteering pump to be flushed. We also had to replace fuel filter,shocks,steering shock,do a brake job, all the fluids and the battery and I had him do a smog test since it would need one anyway to get it re-registered. So I guess it turned out to be a pretty good deal as soon as I get it from the shop, I will post some pitures. Oh I almost forgot the shop across the street is a upholstery shop and I went ahead and gave them the ok to repair a small tear well not so much as a tear but more a loose seam on the rear seat by the headrest, the guy charged me fifty bucks and they had to remove the seat anyway to replace the rear shock so that was cool. With 142K on the odometer I think this MB has plenty of life left in it for my family to enjoy!

Dear 65- Perhaps you'd like to share with us the name and address of this repair shop as the amount seems very reasonable! Good luck and have fun with your Benz!

Not a problem, here is the info: VISTA INDEPENDENT Volks & Foreign Car Repair 760-727-5110. Rony (Pronounced Ronnie) is the mechanic/owner, I beleive he has two other mechanics working for him. The majority of cars at his shop were MB's but he did have one Volkswagen beetle, one Volkswagen Bus and one Ferrari.