Saw this on ebay today. Has a blown head gasket though. Still sounds cheap. What do you guys think?
~DJ

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2449340057&category=6331

I added the link to the page which I had originally forgotten to do when I first posted this thread.

__________________
DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

I saw it too. Looks OK, but pictures mean very little. I'd be concerned about the air-bag suspension more than anything. Any history, records? If not, I'd never buy one a 6.9. I've considered them, for a while very seriously, but Sixto pried my hands off the door handle. Plus it's not a Euro, gotta have that!!

6.9s don't utilize air suspenion, but rather a hydropneumatic system that employs five accumulators in lieu of "springs" and hydropneumatic struts in lieu of "shocks." These accumulators contain hydraulic fluid under pressure with nitrogen, separated by a membrane. The strut dampers contain hydraulic fluid under pressure. A hydraulic pump attached to the front of the block and driven off the crank, supplies pressure to the entire system.

Airbags in the classic sense were only used on the W100 (600 Grosser), W109 (300SEL variants) and W112 (300SE & SEL) models.

Both the air system and hydropneumatic systems as found on the 6.3/600/300SE and 6.9/560SEL Euro cars are very often neglected, and should be assumed in need of maintenance or repair.

To properly repair a suspension of either type, around $3-4,000 is required. As a general rule of thumb, any 6.3 or 6.9 purchased for under $15,000 should be assumed to have a non-working or non-spec suspension.

Cheers,
Gerry

Thanks Gerry, I stand corrected.

Is the difference between the US spec 560SEL and Euro version merely a matter of the number of accumulators (2 in the rear for the former) as opposed to them "all around"?

BTW: Good to have you over here, we need a M100 guy to straighten out the neophytes.

To my knowledge there are 5 accumulators in both the 560SEL system as well as the 6.9 -- one for each corner of the car (paired with each hydraulic strut) as well as a fifth one up front to maintain & equalize system pressure.

This system was an option on the 560SEL and only for European-spec cars. Like power rear seats or ABS in the 6.9, it was never available here as an option in the US.

Thanks for the compliment. Things got too hot over time for my comfort over on the M-100.org BBS. The vitriol and politics there from former and current M-100 Group board members finally became too much for me. As a result I sold my 6.9, and my 6.3 is up for sale too. Replaced with 560SEC and an E500 For some reason folks running these cars are far nicer and "hep" to things!

I think there are a number of M-100 experts far more qualified than I here on this board though.

Cheers,
Gerry

Here's an article that I often quote to people who are in the market for an M-100 car. It's for the 6.3, but is basically applicable in principle to the 6.9 too.

http://buying.mbzarticles.org/m100/

My bottom line advice to anyone looking into a 6.3 or 6.9, is that if you are not prepared to spend at least $15,000 UP FRONT to purchase the car, it is not worth the time. Any car less than that is (sooner or later) a rolling parts car. Only the best maintained or restored examples are worth more than $15K.

Also, probably 75% of all 6.3s and 6.9s out there have rust of some sort on them. My second piece of advice is that if the car is NOT from the Southern or Western USA (that's west of the Rockies) then it is not worth buying. I have seen 6.3s that spent just a few years of their lives in salt states (what I call states that use salt on the roads in winter) before going to the South or California. They invariably have rust. Unless surface rust only, a 116 or 109 with chassis or structural rust is not worth saving. Better to just find a car that has none, so that you don't have to deal with the time, heartache and expense of dealing with it.

Believe me, it will make your ownership experience much more pleasant not to mention cheaper (ie you can put the rust-repair money into other, more beneficial, things).

Cheers,
Gerry

There's a low mileage (~90k) gray/tan example here in town that's been on the block for several months.

Started above 10k, currently between 8 and 9.
Look on cars.com zip = 37205.
Shows up about every other week or so.

If someone is REALLY interested, I might be persuaded to go check it out for ya.

Joe

Damn Gerry, my suspension works! Does that mean I can sell it for $15k?

That article was written back in the heyday of the market for both 6.3s and 6.9s. 6.3s have held their value more, and I think the 15K figure still stands. For a 6.9, I think it'd be closer to $10K nowadays.

But nonetheless, any M-100 car's suspension unless recently redone and documented, should be suspect.

I sold my own 6.9 (a showable driver) for $11K. And yes, it had fully functioning suspension. the only thing on the car that didn't work was the rear window defroster. I wasn't going to pay $2,500 for something that I only need to use once every other year or so...

Cheers,
Gerry

How's life in M-100 land nowadays? My new digs are at 500ecstasy.com. No old fogies, egos or attitudes there. Breath of fresh air.

Nothing new in M-100 world. Saw a post about an upcoming Lode Star. I am looking forward to the meet in St Louis next year, should be a good one.

Do you happen to have Brad's e-mail? I can't seem to find the IAMO web site since I installed XP on my PC (it wiped out all my Netscape settings, go figure)

thanks
Fred

handyman1962@msn.com

http://www.m-100.info