1968 280se,should i buy?..advice needed

[Woodzster]

Hi

I have been hankering after a stacked headlight Merc for a while now and have come across this one for sale,

http://www.volkszone.com/VZi/showthread.php?t=220935

Does the price seem ok?...and could the heater blower or autobox be a worry?

Any advice appreciated

Woodz

[PagodaLover]

The heater motor and gearbox should certainly be a worry.
There must be a leak in the car as well. Look at the windows.

It's just something that needs a professional inspection before buying because the price of the vehicle can skyrocket very fast no matter how small the asking price. Get it inspected and a laundry list made out. Noone can tell you here, no matter how much they think it looks good.

[Woodzster]

thanks for the quick reply,i know its a bit silly to ask if its worth buying on a forum but i am new to mercs and just wondered if the heater blower was an expensive fix and if the clunky downchange was a normal thing.

i spend most of my spare time restoring old VW's and the odd triumph etc so fixing potential problems isn't a big worry,but the price of parts could be

Oh and i dont think the windows being steamed up is too big a deal,most cars in the UK look like this about this time of year,gotta love UK weather!!

[kpb]

you can run a search here for the full story on 108 heater blower replacement. If owner is accurate in reporting it merely "grumbles" sometimes, spray lube may work wonders on it as well as cleaning out the leaves, twigs, and dead bugs from the cage!

[PagodaLover]

Probably you're biggest enemy over there isn't the dreaded heater blower motor, but rust instead.

[BradleyP]

Ugh, the thought of having to hold that large license plate down for 10 minutes every time I fill 'er up... OH, How I love the states....

[kpb]

hey bradley, doesn't your MB have the little cap holder inside the fuel door where you can wedge the filler cap and it holds the door open? elegantly simple solution...

[Woodzster]

will do a search on heater motor troubles..good plan!

the fuel filler is behind the plate?...how cool is that ...you see i really know nothing about Mercs!....hey its not the large plate thats the real problem over here..its the price of the fuel your putting in that makes you cry

[Benzmeister]

I recently bought a 79 450SLC and the heating system is a nightmare, I had the ACC servo rebuilt, new pump, vacuum lines replaced and still no heat or heat now and the. You could have it replaced with a digital unit, but if there is a basic fault int he system that is not the Servo, you still won't have heat. Also the tranny's can be academic. If it works well it's probably been taken care of. My 450SLC 3 speed automatic need a bushing replaced to keep the sihifter handle in place. Other then that the car is terrific. If the owner has service records, and the car does look good, you will be buying a very desirable classic Benz.

[Mark DiSilvestro]

Thankfully, no ACC or similar nonsense on the W108 280SE As for fueling, the 280SE requires premium gas (do they still call it 4-star petrol in the UK)
Usual issues are failed heater blower and heater valves sticking and causing the plastic heater levers to break. If all this is still functioning, you can postpone worrying about the heater for now. (Besides, this car isn't going to be your primary foul-weather vehicle, is it?)
The automatics tend to be jerky-shifting, which I prefer to 'mushy and slipping'. More important though is that the automatics tend to use more gas and hinder performance because, unless you floor the gas to the kickdown switch or downshift it manually, most of the early automatics start from rest in second gear.

Rust is the real killer of these cars, so make sure
this one had a proper restoration and isn't full of filler and/or all the rust isn't ready to pop out anew! Again, foul weather and winter driving eats up the bodies on these cars.

The price sounds reasonable if that car is in really good shape, otherwise, I'd hold out for one of the manual-shift versions, which were more common in the UK and Europe, than in the US. As a friend who owned a manual-shift example once told me "These cars feel 500 pounds lighter with a stick-shift!"

Happy Motoring, Mark

[Woodzster]

thanks for all the great replies,this forum is really informative and friendly!(which makes a change from most VW ones)

4 star gas is no longer on sale over here in the UK,(can you still get it in the US?)which sucks,apart from maybe a few specialist pumping stations,none of which are near me,I have owned a couple of late 60's Triumph 2000's in the past and ran them on 95 octane unleaded with an additive and they ran fine,although annoying having to buy bottles of additive.but cheaper than pressing in hardened vavle seats!!

As for the autobox i would actually prefer one,having only ever owned stickshift motors i would like to have a nice relaxing cruiser to shuttle me around .Also you would not believe the amount of speed cameras here in the uk now(as my licence can attest to!) so maybe it would stop me getting flashed so much!

Rust the salt they lay down in the winter over here just devours your car if you dont wash the chassis,arches etc every week,the Merc probably would be my daily driver though to be honest,I have a 95 Honda Accord at the moment which while reliable etc is just soooooooooo boring!I also have a 1978 VW camper in my workshop which is nearing completion so that can share foul weather duties!!...oh joy two rusty classics to repair in a few years then

Paul

[Mark DiSilvestro]

They never called it 4-star here in the US. Back in the early '70s they changed the octane rating method here so that the current 93 octane is close to the old rating of 96, which should be adequate for the old Mercs. As for unleaded gas, it's not a serious issue as the aluminum Merc heads already have hardened seats and bronze valve guides, though some recommend more frequent valve adjustments. (Ironically, the only car I ever owned that suffered from excessive valve and seat wear, was a low-compression Ponton 180b, that had been run mostly on leaded gas!)

As for winter motoring, if at all possible, I'd keep the Honda to sacrifice on the salt altar!

Happy Motoring, Mark

[Benzmeister]

Originally Posted by Mark DiSilvestro

Thankfully, no ACC or similar nonsense on the W108 280SE As for fueling, the 280SE requires premium gas (do they still call it 4-star petrol in the UK)
Usual issues are failed heater blower and heater valves sticking and causing the plastic heater levers to break. If all this is still functioning, you can postpone worrying about the heater for now. (Besides, this car isn't going to be your primary foul-weather vehicle, is it?)
The automatics tend to be jerky-shifting, which I prefer to 'mushy and slipping'. More important though is that the automatics tend to use more gas and hinder performance because, unless you floor the gas to the kickdown switch or downshift it manually, most of the early automatics start from rest in second gear.

Rust is the real killer of these cars, so make sure
this one had a proper restoration and isn't full of filler and/or all the rust isn't ready to pop out anew! Again, foul weather and winter driving eats up the bodies on these cars.

The price sounds reasonable if that car is in really good shape, otherwise, I'd hold out for one of the manual-shift versions, which were more common in the UK and Europe, than in the US. As a friend who owned a manual-shift example once told me "These cars feel 500 pounds lighter with a stick-shift!"

Happy Motoring, Mark

79 450SLC has become a nightmare. Had it fixed it was running, and now there is something up with the vacuum and I have to trace under the dash. and so on and so forth. that alone would encourage me to buy the car.

[Woodzster]

too slow

Its been sold...i thought about it for too long!!...oh well ill just keep looking