300E wiring harness
 

Does anyone know if the 1990 W124 300E had the incredible disintegrating wiring harness? I'm going to look at a promising one tomorrow and I'm concerned about that. I thought this problem debuted on the W140 when it came out in 91? Is that right or am I playing Russian Roulette here?

- Peter.

I do not think that the 1990 E-Class models had the "bio" wiring harnesses. I know for a fact that at least on the S-Class, it was OK up through the 1991 model year. You are right, it was seen on the "new" for '92 S-Class (W140), though some say the ones made in late 1991 didn't have it, but I wouldn't bet on it. My 1993 400SEL that was made in September of 1992 had the bio wiring harness, but thankfully has been changed.

I think that the E-Class was also ok at least up through 1991, but probably even 1992.

That is correct -- only the HFM-injection M104 motor and LH-injection V-8 M119 W124 models had the bad harnesses ... 1993 through 1995 model years gas engines (1992-1995 on the M119 V-8 cars).

Any W124 with CIS-E is fine including the early CIS-E M104s.

R129 and W140 models also had wiring harness issues.

Cheers,
Gerry


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Thanks folks. Hopefully this car will work out...

- Peter.

Just Curious....
 

...nice stable of rolling stock....how many of them followed you from Durban?

Hmm, I agree! I just noticed the '72 Sedan DeVille as a "former" car! I love the old American cars, my first car was a '72 Sedan DeVille.

Personally I have a couple of old cars in my fleet... a '72 Caprice Estate wagon and a '73 Grand Ville (Pontiac).

None followed me unfortunately. I owned the 108 and 116 and the 123 200 in Durban. The rest were here in the US. And unfortunately the 300E didn't pan out so I had to buy a car by the end of the day and it's a 91 Buick Regal. Not exactly my first choice and has electrical problems!!!

However the A/C blows cold and apart from some intermittent electrical faults seems to ride decently so I'll have the gremlins looked at as soon as I get my truck's misfire issue fixed. Then my plan is I have two vehicles so I can move from one to the other as necessary if either has a fault and it wont be such a problem if one breaks. So I'll just continue saving up and hopefully be able to get something decent down the road in the not too distant future.

- Peter.

Sorry the 300E didnt work out, but those Regals are nice. I love the early 90s GM cars... well about all of them. That was about the least years you could tell cars apart from one another and they are fairly easy and cheap to work on. If your Regal has the 3800 V6, that is a bulletproof engine.

I had a '92 Buick Park Avenue that was an excellent car. Before I purchased my W140, I almost purchased a '92 Regal Limited 4dr with only 78K, like new. I wish I had of purchased that car now. lol.

Actually I no longer have it. I owned it for literally one day. Took it back to the dealer and got my money back. The electrical problems may have been as simple as requiring a new alternator but given that I discovered I had to pay a grand to get my truck back on the road and this thing, which was supposed to be a reliable alternative couldn't be driven at night because of the intermittent failure of all electrical components - speedo, radio, headlights etc, check engine light, misfire etc.. (I discovered this when I got home in the evening, it was fine during the test drive). I just couldn't bear it. The dealer was of the opinion it was just an alternator and as I said he's probably right but I'm just not going to be reliant on two GM products with over 100K miles on them. In fact apart from a Suburban, or another 72, or older Cadillac, I will never buy another GM product except (MAYBE) and that's a huge maybe a full size pickup.

I test drove six Mercedes in the last week and this Buick which I bought and then returned the following day.

I'm out a grand to fix my truck and just worn out and pissed off about the whole damm car thing.

- Peter.