I bought my first W126 in the dark with 230,000 miles and expired tags
 

Gang, this is my first W126 but not my first Mercedes. I bought it as I sold my 1997 E420 to a friend and thought I would have a commuter vehicle that I can put on my regular insurance.

It's a 1991 560SEL that was very cheap. It's white with gray interior, i'm not sure of the condition because I bought it in the dark, but after replacing the battery (which I bought with me). It started and idled without any scary sounds.

The rear end was sitting level but was stiff so I suspect that the air cells will need replacing. The seller indicated that the a/c compressor is not engaging. I will put my A/C guages on it and see if there is decent pressure.

A couple of issues that I noticed was that the ABS light on constantly and the car idled at around 12-1500 RPM. The transmission had hard shifts when moving from park to drive (probably because of the high RPM) and it needed brake rotors which were very warped

The wiper also ran only on high speed and would not park by itself when you turn it off.

I was able to drive 80 miles to my home from the sellers house to mine in the rain without incident and the car behaved well at speeds, but not as fast as I expected, especially compared to a Euro 500SEL that I drove recently. I know that they have around the same HP so I was expecting the same delivery.

I will have more information tomorrow when I look at the car in the daylight but I would be grateful if someone could point me towards what may be the issue with the high idle, ABS light and wiper motor.

Many thanks!

The OVP relay may be at fault for that ABS light and higher idle.

As for wipers, if it is anything like the W124 setup, find the combination relay for it and do some resoldering on the board. It should fix that up very quickly without you spending any money (assuming you have a soldering iron. Any size).

The relay is around $40 new. Is it soldered on or just a plug in?

Many thanks!

Should be a plug in. So just pop her out, get the cover off and check for any burnt or broken points. Just touch em up and test. You should notice a difference right away.