First off Yes I am an electronics Tech/engineer, yes I know your not supposed to cut things if you aren't sure what they are, and yes I know Mr Murphy camps out in 18 year old vehicles.
So I finally got some time this weekend to begin changing/flushing fluids in Sherman. I also started looking into the vacuum issues. With all the pads/panels etc. off I notice a bunch of cables from an old "mobile" phone. Not wanting to find all the cable ends and take the entire car apart I whack them all out and throw them away. Some were connected to battery and just lying on the floor, yes I cut those at the battery.
WELL now my 10 disk CD changer no longer works. After a little research and remembering what I had done I figured out that the $50 Unilink cable was one of the ones I cut as it was looped and tie wrapped into the pile. DOH!
Things I learned/relearned:
After flushing the brakes and getting air in the rear lines I read the forum and found out what I was doing wrong (level to low). So I will make a pressure bleeder and do it again right. (Didn't know the air was in there until driving to work today.)
Changing oil filters in a Merc is WAY better then in a Jetta. (Thinking about selling the Jetta and getting a 300SD)
Not every part store understands Mercedes especially the power steering filter.
14 mm allen sockets are rare here in the boonies.
NOBODY around here carries the full line of Mobil 1 Synthetic products.
From now on do maintenance on MB in this order:
Read this forum
Plan
Gather needed items
Read this forum again
replan
replace wrong items with correct ones
Read once more
Get adult supervision
Run to part store one last time because I forgot something
THEN and only then will I mess it up anyway and have to do it all again next weekend.
By the way if it had been 10 times the hassle I would still enjoy this car.
