Well, I picked up the car yesterday. Flew down with a socket set, air, oil, and fuel filters in a duffel bag (along with my satellite radio receiver, a Valentine radar detector, and GPS.) I landed at 10am with the thought that I would be on the road back to Atlanta by noon. 600 miles...what's that, about 8 hours at 90 mph? It was 100 degrees when I got off the plane (cooler than some places in the US this week) but I was excited that I had gotten the AC fixed. By the end of the 600 mile drive, I wasn't nearly as excited.

The car looked good for living it's entire life next to salt water. Ball joints were worn. The driver's seat was worn out, there was rust (passenger side) below the rear window at the trunk seam and about two inches of trunk lip crumbled under the trunk seal. Also some oxidation starting at the back edges of the sunroof (it tapped solid, was just starting to discolor a bit.)

Other than the seat the interior was awesome. (Trim 274) No rips or tears to the leather, the carpet and panels looked great, and the dash was immaculate. The car cranked right up (new battery) pulled strong (tons of black smoke,) and stopped quickly (new brakes and brand new Michilans.) The radio was showing hieroglyphics and the tint was so bad and old that all I could see out the windows was movement, not shapes. So I bought it. Paid $4075 and off I went looking for the dealership that had done all the stamping in the service booklet. I needed the radio code for the drive home, and I figured I'd pay to get the oil changed and see if I could talk the tech into putting it on the lift so I could walk under it.

Well the first dealership couldn't find the tool to pull the radio (???) and without an appointment couldn't fit me in for an oil change, but the service advisor did give me a printout of all the warranty work that had been done on the car (which I found out later was a big no no) and referred me to another dealer in Melbourne, 60 miles up the road. The day was slipping away, but I had made the radio my mission. I topped off with fresh dino and headed up I-95.

Wow the smoke. I cleared a trail about an 1/8 of a mile behind me every time I tromped on the accelerator and I tromped hard. It lumbered up to speed slowly, but moved solidly over all pavement imperfections and felt stable up to 85 when it started to wander a bit. It was still hungry to go when I hit 100, but I backed off, settled in at 90, and let it send the last couple years of low speed driving and sitting out the tailpipe.

The service advisor at Benz dealership was friendly, liked my story and arranged for a courtesy car (with driver) to take me to get a sandwich and to the tag office for a temporary tag. The tech was just finishing the oil when I got back, had installed my filters (oil, air, inline and fixed fuel filters) and threw it up on the lift so we could walk under it. Ball joints were shot. He also recommended thrust bearings and a new steering shock, other than that it was pretty clean. He dropped it off the lift, reprogrammed the radio, and I hit the road once again (still 580 miles to go) six hours later than I had hoped, but the AC was blowing fairly cold, I had some good tunes pumping and I started making time...

See, I'm actually building up to a question, because something happened that I've never encountered with any car I've owned. I ended up getting a hotel that night in Jacksonville because I ran out of daylight and discovered that the headlights weren't working (just a fuse I think) but all of the shops were closed and I had been up since 5am. As I pulled my duffel off the floorboard from behind the pasenger seat I noticed that the bag was a little wet. After inspecting, the carpet was damp in a couple spots and completely saturated under the seat. I dried it best I could with some towels from the hotel and racked out.

I pushed it pretty hard today, averaged about 85 mph, then got stuck in a backup outside of Macon, GA. As I braked to a stop, the engine cut off. It started right back when I turned the key, but the oil pressure was rising and falling with the tach's RPM's, and the temp gauge had risen to 90 or so. I decided to pull into a gas station and let it cool down a bit when I noticed it...the carpet on both floorboards were saturated with hot water. Not only behind the passenger seat, but from the firewall back and in a puddle under my heel.

I popped the hood and checked the oil. It was right in the middle. I took a towel to the the radiator cap and it immediatly boiled over, so I twisted it back shut and looked under the car. Other than the radiator, no fluid. No oil,
but also, no condensation dripping.

So, I finally made it home a couple hours ago. The car is in one piece, but the water has me baffled. I pulled the floormats. Saturated, with the passenger side showing signs of previous water damage to the bottom. I shop-vacced up everything I could and let the floormats hang outside (wow. they sew those things to a lot of foam) So here's my question...

Anyone else had this happen to their W126? It was not coolant. The AC had been worked on the week before I bought it (it had already been converted to R134A), but I didn't drive through any rain, and when I pulled everything out of the way the water looks like it is flowing from the firewall area. Is there a AC drain that could be plugged? Will run it today with no carpet and see if I can identify the source,,,

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71 VW Westy Camper (Lola gets new paint this fall)
72 VW Karmann-Ghia (codename Firestarter) retired
87 Mercedes 300 SDL (so it begins) Blue/Tan 144k
89 Honda Civic Hatch (now my bro's daily driver) 297K
98 Nissan Maxima SE (my home and office) 189K

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