I bought a 1993 300E about 6 months ago. I bought it from the 2nd owner who bought it as a Starmark car from the Mercedes dealer in Long Beach, California. The original owner purchased it there, as well, and the car has had every service performed there, including the 127,500 mile service, which I had done there the day I bought the car. I even spoke at length with the service advisor who was in charge of the maintenance on the car since new. He never mentioned the wiring harness issue, nor the possibility of an oil leak from the head gasket (it didn't leak then but does now). In the last 6 months, I have been plagued with check engine light problems, and have spent over $3,000 fixing things like oxygen sensors, EGR valves, coil and plug wires, catalytic converters, etc., etc., etc. The damn light keeps on coming on when nothing really seems to be wrong! I found this site last week (thank God!), and read many of the posts, found mention of the wiring harness problem, ran a search, and after reading hundreds of posts, am realizing that I have many of the symptoms of a bad wiring harness. The check engine light comes on about once a week, and I drive to my new mechanic (a benz only specialist) and he resets the light because I don't like looking it.
Today, I had him take out the bulb for the check engine light. He says that if something really does go wrong in the future, there should be obvious driveability problems so I'll know when to take it in. He is aware of the wiring harness problem, but says I can just leave it alone until it exhibits problems other than the light coming on.
If I don't change the wiring harness soon am I taking a risk in possibly damaging other parts, particularly electrical related parts, computer, etc. ???
The car now has just over 130,000 miles. Do you think the dealer may fix it for free considering their history in servicing the car? The problem is I live about 60 miles away from them and they'll know I'm not likely to be a returning customer...