How far up does the hood go?

[Joseph_H]

I was at the MB dealer the other day and noticed they have the hoods much farther up than what they usually open to. Being not such a technical guy (obviously). Is that possible with all MB cars? So I should be able to that with my 95 E420?

One of the hundreds of Mercedes Benz features is that the hoods open 90 degrees. There are differences in how various models work but generally look near the hinges to find release(s) that will allow the hood to open from 45 degrees to 90 degrees.

[speedy300Dturbo]

On each hinge there is a "catch" thing that you press in. When both are pressed in, the hood is able to be raised to the 90 degree position and they lock it into place.

[Joseph_H]

Thanks guys... just one more good reason to own MB.

As I said previously, there are differences in how these latches work. My 190D had one latch on the road side that you pulled out to release the hood (up or down). My 300E has the same kind of latch but on both sides. You must release the road side first and then the hood will riise slightly higher permitting you to release the curbside latch and raise the hood.

To lower the hood, you pull out only the road side latch.

There are so many of these neat features on a Mercedes that I doubt I could live with another brand. I once started making a list of things that were firsts on Mercedes products and came to the conclusion that just about anything worth while came from Mercedes. It gripes me that Mercedes has such great engineers but Toyota and others are better at marketing. Just about all of the features of the Lexus LS-430 were stolen from the Germans (mostly Mercedes).

[Kestas]

Joseph, if your car is like mine, the hinge on each side has a detent that must be pressed in to allow the hood to stand vertical. Kind of tough to press each side at the same time AND push the hood up (requires three hands!). I think the detents are offset a bit so you press the driver's side detent first, push the hood up a bit, then press the passenger's side detent and push the hood up to locking position.

I can't begin to count the number of times I (and others) have bumped my head on the grille part of the hood in the first position!

[A. Rosich]

On the W124 E320 the latches to raise the hood 90 degrees must be pulled out instead of pressed in.

As said before, you can pull first the left one and then the right one. Be sure to open the hood fully 90 degrees so the latches will lock in place again to protect the hood from falling.

A. Rosich
S320, 1998
E320T, 1995

[Joseph_H]

[i] Just about all of the features of the Lexus LS-430 were stolen from the Germans (mostly Mercedes). [/B]

Bud,
Do you think it was just a coincidence that Toyota named their Lexus 430 after MB came out with E and S 430s? They don't "only" steal tech/ideas, but also model names... but rest assure.. park an MB -regardless of how old and what series next to a Toyo-Lex 430 and I still see the MB superior in every way... Looks, style “originality etc.. etc..

Also the headlights of the new GS300 are similar to the ones of the W210 EClass and the W123 sedan, one big light on the outside and then a smaller one on the inside.