need suggestions on 500sel
 

so, i bought a 1985 500sel on ebay. story was it had flipped a timing chain and tore itself up. i believe in texas. so some guy in st. louis bought it. ordered a used engine and put it in, then had to have the transmission rebuilt. then it still had problems so he got fed up and ebayed it, where i won it on what i thought was just a friendly helper bid since the guy was polite in emails. in any case i had it shipped here to seattle and here is what i found -

minor issue -

brake pad wear and abs sensor lights on dash are both on. bought new brake pads only to find that existing brake pads are at like 90%. everything is hooked up right as far as i can tell, at least down by the wheel. what should i look for?

major issue -

i dont know if this is all one issue or if they're separate.

symptoms -

dash gagues jerk all over the place, up and down, then finally max out temp and oil pressure at higher rpm. stopping to check you find that temp is not in fact a roaring 120C like the gauge says, temp is normal. gauges hold steady at high idle (see below) after the car is good and warm, but at 800 rpm they jerk back and forth. and just driving down the road they jerk all over.

voltage seems to be steady at about 13.7, should be 14.2 yes?

doesn't idle right. either kicks up to 1100-1200 rpm and is more or less smooth, or at 800 where it should be acts almost like it's missing every once in a while. makes care wobble hard.

if you give it more gas, then let your foot off the gas it will just choke and die rather than going smoothly into an idle. if you're driving down the road and come to a stop light it will often die when you come to a stop. mechanic i got it from replaced the fuel pump, i think he thought fuel was the issue. i think he was incorrect.

so, with those 4 symptoms what might that indicate? computer related? bad voltage regulator? mechanic forget to reconnect something i should look for? any advice would be appreciated.

thanks,

Nick

I'm new here so I can only give you my experience.

I had a 87 560SEL and the ABS light was on too. In my case where the ABS unit is I took off the black cover and took out one of the fuses and the light went off. I'm not sure if your car has the same unit, but it's worth a look.

From reading these threads I've heard many people say to check the connections at the wheel and make sure they aren't dirty or broken.