A few months ago I was looking for rebuilt front calipers for the 380 and someone suggested www.********.com. Last week I got around to this job and ordered.

I paid $50.79 apiece for the rebuilt calipers. They charged me $7.44 for shipping. They arrived in two days, looked OK, installed and bled OK, and work fine. I sent the cores back yesterday, so we'll see how that part works.

I am impressed enough that I am about to order a rebuilt master cylinder for my 280C for $43.

If anyone else has good or bad experiences with these guys, please share. From where I sit, though, ******** looks like a great resource.

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Chuck Taylor
Falls Church VA
'66 200, '66 230SL, '96 SL500. Sold: '81 380SL, '86 300E, '72 250C, '95 C220, 3 '84 280SL's '90 420SEL, '72 280SE, '73 280C, '78 280SE, '70 280SL, '77 450SL, '85 380SL, '87 560SL, '85 380SL, '72 350SL, '96 S500 Coupe

Chuck,

I have not dealt with them or anyone else in that market. I went to their web site and feel that when you buy rebuilts in that price range, it is a crap shoot. You roll them bones and hope the one you get is good. Just look at the price of $50.00. When you take all the people's cuts out of that, the rebuilder had to sell it for about $15.00. What kind of work can you expect for that kind of money. I have had two experiences with cheap rebuilds in the last year with a 100% failure rate. A guy brought his own master cylinder that he bought from Napa for $80.00. I told him that I charge $80.00/ hr for as much time as I spend based on flat rate if I don't supply the part. Sure enough the first une was no good, so he had to exchange it and pay to have the second one installed. I guess he is still money ahead if the second one doesn't fail because of inferior parts. A friend's starter failed. I diagnosed the problem, and since his wife works at Kraegans, she was able to pick one up for cheap. I warned him and within a week the car wouldn't start. He called saying it must be something else. I told him no; it was the cheap starter. I put in a quality rebuild which will go for many years. By the way, I didn't charge him for any of the work, because ov favors he has done for me. The way these discounters operate is on volume. They make enough profit on the ones that stick that they ca cheerfully give you an excellent warrantee, but who is the poor slob stuck out in the rain with a car that won't work not to mention he has to redo a job that he thought was done. I would rather pay extra for quality. My 12 year old Delta kitchen faucet started dripping so I replaced the parts with some after market Ace Hardware made in Taiwan because I couldn't find original Delta parts. The thing dripped worse. I was determined and got an 800# for Delta. They shipped me genuine parts and the faucet works like new again. Don't get me wrong, Chuck, I try to save money where ever I can, but just not with repair parts. That's just my opinion.

Take care,
Peter

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Auto Zentral Ltd.

Well, one of the nice things about a hobby situation is that you can experiment with different sources for parts. I absolutely agree with you skepticism in a customer situation.

But on the other hand, these folks have been in business for a long time, and I don't necessarily subscribe to the notion that simply paying more gets you a better product. I think in many cases more parties involved take bigger cuts and all you end up paying is more for the same product.

In this case, the parts were clean, new bleeders, inlets plugged, and dust and heat shields correctly installed. They bled out fine and work perfectly. I will keep you guys posted on how they do as the car is driven.

I have seen wild fluctuation numerous times on rebuilt parts. On the 380SL, I had to replace the blower motor, climate servo, climate amplifier, and steering box. On all of these items there was at LEAST a 200% swing in prices.

The steering box is a good example. The WorldPac guys get about $485 for a rebuilt unit, but there is a major specialty shop in San Diego that sells them direct on the internet for $295. Mercedes wanted around $795.

In the case of the blower motor, the WorldPac price was $358. George Murphy, who is on the MBCA technical committee, sells Bosch rebuilt units for $177.

I paid George $295 for a rebuilt plastic climate servo, and they range up to $600 elsewhere. AND I was deluged with mail about good suppliers selling aluminum units for the same price.

My conclusion is that you need to search out the low-overhead guys, and the supply chains that do not have too many hands getting greased!

But I do realize that this is not possible in a commercial situation where time is money and you need stable long-term relationships with suppliers, and a low come-back rate for failing parts.

But on the hobby side, I will continue to look for the deals and post my results, good and bad.

Rgds,

Chuck

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Chuck Taylor
Falls Church VA
'66 200, '66 230SL, '96 SL500. Sold: '81 380SL, '86 300E, '72 250C, '95 C220, 3 '84 280SL's '90 420SEL, '72 280SE, '73 280C, '78 280SE, '70 280SL, '77 450SL, '85 380SL, '87 560SL, '85 380SL, '72 350SL, '96 S500 Coupe

Hey Chuck,

You make some good points. I would agree with you on the suppliers that have found a niche, but I would still stay away from the mass suppliers as I have mentioned earlier.

Take care,
Peter

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Auto Zentral Ltd.

The calipers continue to work very well, and ******** was very prompt about crediting my card for the core charge.

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Chuck Taylor
Falls Church VA
'66 200, '66 230SL, '96 SL500. Sold: '81 380SL, '86 300E, '72 250C, '95 C220, 3 '84 280SL's '90 420SEL, '72 280SE, '73 280C, '78 280SE, '70 280SL, '77 450SL, '85 380SL, '87 560SL, '85 380SL, '72 350SL, '96 S500 Coupe

I would also like to go of off on a slightly different tangent: bearings and seals. Many of these are industry standard items that Mercedes sells in its own blue box. For example, the clutch pilot bearing for my ponton is available from Mercedes for a list price of $33.00. It is actually an SKF 6202 bearing marked as such on the bearing supplied by Mercedes. 6202 is an industry standard number. My local bearing vendor sold me one for $5.50.
It fit perfectly. The Mercedes box had the M-B part number; the bearing in it was stamped SKF 6202. I did this with rear wheel bearisg with comparable savings. Got SKF bearings from a bearing vendor. I have even found clutch release bearings for my car in the market place, and the difference is huge Mercedes vis-a-vis the vendor for the identical manufacturer item.

The same thing happens with oil and grease seals most of the time. The old seals one removes usually has the industry standard sizes stamped on them. I used these, for example for grease seals when I redid the wfront wheelo bearings. This has saved me a lot of money in rehabbing my ponton's mechanicals. $33.00 minus $5.50 equals $27.50 for the cardboard Mercedes box.

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Douglas
1959 M-B 220S cabriolet

I know most of us suspect that dealer and factory mark-up on parts is all profit but I recently was given another perspective.

I had to replace my windshield. The MB glass was $80 more than the same spec glass from a well-respected aftermarket supplier. I have a pretty good relationship with the dealer partsman and asked him flat out why I should pay more for the MB star on the corner.

He indicated that aftermarket suppliers state they conform to factory specs and MB does sources its glass from the same suppliers BUT MB takes samples of their batches and actually tests them to ensure compliance with specs. That testing costs money and is passed on in the price of the parts.

I believe what he said but saved the $80 anyway. OTOH, for more critical parts I think the reassurance of MB's quality testing might be worth the price....

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Dean Albrecht
"Lead, follow, or better yet, get out of the way!"E500 owners motto

My research indicates that in general MBUSA acquisition cost (item plus shipping to USA) is 70 percent of MBUSA list price. Some dealers charge MBUSA list. Others charge even up to 20 percent above MBUSA list. Discounts are taken from this higher price sometimes and othertimes from MBUSA list, depending on what the retail price is that a given dealer charges.

Of course, Mercedes does provide a superb warranty on part is tells under its own part numbers. Still, if all Mercedes is doing is packaging an industry standard SKF bearing in its own box, the quality is assured by the fact that SKF (or FAG, etc,) is among top-tier manufacturers. The question is whether the price difference ($27) for my SKF pilot bearing ($5.50 to $33.00) is wotrth the Mercerdes warranty. That is: $27 to warranty a $5.50 part?

For rubber products like windshield gaskets, I would certainly stick with M-B-supplied products. Many people report problems with aftermarket items. There may be a few exceptions to this general caution.

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Douglas
1959 M-B 220S cabriolet

I can't say enough good things about the MB parts organization. The guys at American Service Center have come through time and time again for me with obscure parts. The last time was a plastic bushing for the "gate" on my 250C's manual shift linkage. But you pay dearly for this sort of service.

And half the fun of this hobby is finding the OEM and industry standard stuff, and rebuilders selling directly to the publlic and guys who are clearing out inventory on eBay that let us keep these old geezers (the cars, not us) on the road.

Here is one I just snagged - cheapest anywhere else was $242. Hope the guy comes through and that it is what it appears to be.

http://offer.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws3/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=2453445150

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Chuck Taylor
Falls Church VA
'66 200, '66 230SL, '96 SL500. Sold: '81 380SL, '86 300E, '72 250C, '95 C220, 3 '84 280SL's '90 420SEL, '72 280SE, '73 280C, '78 280SE, '70 280SL, '77 450SL, '85 380SL, '87 560SL, '85 380SL, '72 350SL, '96 S500 Coupe