Hi everybody,
Just bought our first Mercedes after years of admiring them. It's a 93 300CE with 121,000 miles. It appears to be well maintained. The previous owner gave me a stack of receipts. One was from the MB dealer for changing the head gasket around 100k 3 years ago. I asked the dealer if they changed the chain, but their records didn't go back that far. Would they change the chain while doing the head gasket? The owner says it was changed, but I don't really think he knows it is. I've always done all my own work on American stuff and VWs but don't know if I want to get into this. Should I change it just to be safe?

When should the fans come on? It hasn't been very warm here yet, but mine haven't come on at all yet. The temp guage is in the middle. My VW V6 Passat fans run during the winter.

Overall it runs great, but the idle does surge occationally and it has stalled once or twice. Haven't noticed any pattern yet, but all this talk about the engine harness has me paranoid. if the insulation is bad, can it be repaired? I've done lots of wiring on different projects. Does it plug in? Can a heat sheild be fabricated?

We want to take some summer trips this year with this car and don't want to get stuck. Anything you think I should take a look at? I'd love any imput. I love this car, but at this point, after reading all these posts, I'm beginning to feel a little nervous about my purchase.

Thanks,
Bruce Kaiser