Thank you!!

I was able to get a hose on there without taking the water pump off.

What I did is I went down to Autozone and bought a hose and cut it 1/2 the length as the hose from the dealer.

I then sprayed the hose with liquid grease(from Gunk). To my surprise, it fit on with not too much difficulty. As because the length was shorter than normal, I used 3 clamps instead of 2.

So far so good.

I still have the new-stock hose from Mercedes and plan on replacing if and when the water pump eventually goes. I can't remember when I replaced that pump last so it must be awhile. To my surprise the Mercedes hose is quite thinner than the ones from Autozone. My hunch tells me that the ones at Autozone will last even longer if thickness = durability.

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1990 Mercedes 300 SEL (320,000 miles)
1994 Mercedes E420 (140,000 miles)