I have the axel stands, I have the big fancy floor jack,,,, now where do I put the jack to raise the front of the car??? (and while I'm asking,,, where do I put the axel stands?).

Please give me the big-print version for dummies,, so I don't mess-up.

Oh,, the car is a 1993 300CE cab.

Cheers

Placement of jack stands depends on what your working on. As far as jacking up the car, I usaully just use the original jack that comes with the car. I'm sure yours has the jack points in the rocker panels.

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No matter how many times you explain it to me, I'm still right.....Surf-n-Turf

The jack pads are located under holes for the factory jack. The problem is that, depending on your jack, the outer edges of the jack may hit the lower cladding. Some people actually use a hockey puck, I have always simply used a piece of wood trimmed to fit the indentation in the jack pad.

Jack stand location , as the other poster stated , depends on what you are working on. You are trying to find a solid piece of frame.

Just curious, what are you fixing that requires going under the car?

Steve

I'm just doing a rad flush and oil change.

I just looked in my haynes w124 manual and it says the front can be jacked up using the front suspension subframe crossmember and then inserting axel stands at the jacking points on either side. Does that sound right?

Juck, the Haynes Manual is right on ... place the jack stands under the lift pads. It's far easier to simply drive the car up on a set of ramps if what you're doing underneath doesn't include pulling the front wheels.

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Fred Hoelzle

I guess it would work to place jack stands under the jack point pads, but to me that's looks pretty precarious. You have about a 2" diameter piece of rubber sitting on a 2 " wide flat metal jack stand pad. Since you only have one floor jack, the car is going to be pretty severely canted as you place the first jack stand. By the way it is important to have heavy duty , quality jack stands. It's also easier to get the jack pad under the jack point pad, then under the suspension subframe.

I asked about your project because your e-mail implied that this was new territory for you.
You can certainly crawl under there and drain the oil, but it is not necessary for either job.
Your engine, all MB engines, are designed for extraction of oil by suction out the dipstick tube. You can change the oil in a white shirt. All you need is a suction device. There are a few different brands out there. Do a google search on Topsider Oil Extractor, Suckup Oil Extractor, MityVac Oil Extractor. Also search this forum. Many, many posts on all of this.

Coolant can be changed without going under the car. I guess if you are going to drain the block, the you may have to go under to loosed the drain cock.

Use a good quality filter like Hengst or Mann. Use the proper coolant Mercedes Brand or Zerex G05.

Good luck.

Steve

Steve, per the Haynes Manual the process involves jacking under the front crossmember to raise the front of the car evenly ... place a jack stand under each lift pad and release the floor jack so the jack stands are supporting the front end. As I mentioned it's easier to use ramps to change oil for those that can't bring themselves to use a suction device. Personally I use a Griot's Garage oil extractor ... simple, quick and no mess.

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Fred Hoelzle

The Haynes manual is simply a book. I'm not very sure they ever really tried jacking an actual 300E. The car is pretty low slung and you need a really low profile floor jack to be able to slide it under the car. I'm simply saying that from my experience with 3 W124's, (2 sold) for now going on 9 years, I'm not going under that car with it sitting on jack stands under the jack pads, no matter what the Haynes manual says.

I have two floor jacks that allow me to raise the car in stages, then I place the jack stands under sturdy sections of subframe and lower the floor jacks. Then I raise the floor jacks again as a further precaution.

Actually, I only go under for Transmission Service, Fuel Filter and Differential Service, so it's not very often.

Steve

Here's what I do with a W124: I have a small cheapo floor jack that I place under the frame rail on either the driver or passenger side. I jack the car up just a few inches, which gives me enough clearance to place my heavy duty Craftsman 2-ton jack in the center of the aforementioned crossmember. Then I jack the car up as high as possible and place 2 jack stands under the frame rail (NOT the jack pads) at even heights directly across from one another. I then lower the jack until the weight is fully resting on the jack stands, after which I raise the jack ever so slightly so that it then carries the majority - but not all - of the vehicle weight. The thought here is that the jack and the jack stands are sharing the weight of the vehicle.

Of course the whole time I have the car in P with the parking brake set and both rear wheels chocked both in front and in back.

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08 W251 R350
97 W210 E320
91 W124 300E
86 W126 560SEL
85 W126 380SE Silver
85 W126 380SE Cranberry
79 W123 250
78 W123 280E
75 W114 280

Thanks all for the comments and guidance.

>>I asked about your project because your
>>e-mail implied that this was new territory for you

Certainly new territory for me with a Mercedes,, though I was ok spinning wrenches on my old Porsches. I wanted to drain the block,, plus I just wanted to get under there and have a looky-loo.


Turns out the suspension subframe on the w124 cabrio has a couple of big steel sway bars attached that other w124's don't ,, I assume to reinforce the rigidity of the body. I didn't feel comfortable using the floor jack on there so I just jacked up each side of the car with the factory jack and popped the axel stands under one at a time (plus I used chocks, parking brake and the floor jack under the subframe,, just in case.)

All-in -all a successful afternoon,, oil and filter changed,,, rad and block flushed,, and I have a new appreciation for the phrase 'over-engineered'.

I will get a topsider for sure,,,, do they sell them (or similar) at any of the usual auto-parts stores like pepboys or Advance?

Thanks again.

I picked up a marine fluid-extractor and was so curious to try it that I changed the oil again. Wow,, sweet gizmo,,, took less than 10 minutes to get it all out.

This is probably a silly question,,, but can I swap-out some or all or my trans fluid using this suction thing? It doesn't need changing,,, just thinking out loud.

BTW,,, with the fluid extractor I got approx. 7.5 quarts out,,,, so I reckon I got all the oil out of the engine except for maybe half a quart. Not bad!

Juck, the transmission fluid must be drained from the pan and the torque converter ... no suction device for that operation. It's also necessary to remove the pan to change the transmission filter when changing the fluid every 30,000 miles.

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Fred Hoelzle