Quote:
Originally Posted by TylerH860
No. Evaporators don't have a near certain failure rate like wiring harness and head gaskets. Wiring harnesses are usually done by now, and are easy to pick out if they're not (date tags and inspecting insulation). Head gaskets can fail early or make it well over the 150k hump, you never know.
My first E320 wagon I purchased cheap. Though it had a new wiring harness, the head gasket was leaking oil externally. The car had 150k when I had it done. The AC always blew cold, no record of an evaporator replacement.
My second E320 wagon got a brand new head from Mercedes at 70k, and the wiring harness looked old, but perhaps not original (date tag was rubbed and illegible) AC always blew cold, once again, no record of an evaporator replacement. Purchased at 110k, sold at 120k.
My 300SEL (M103 motor) recieved a new head gasket and valve seals at about 110k.
That's the other thing to consider. If you go M103, valve seals are a certain repair if they haven't been done already.
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Yup on the valve stem seals, but it's not particulary expensive. My job was about 30.00 for the seals and a couple of hours std labor. 220-250 total. Been a few years tho.
My evap is original. But I use the a/c very infrequently. Not needed much where I live.
I did have to replace the orig radiator last year, then at few months later the water pump failed on the car. Mine is an 88 300CE. The plastic neck on the originals were a sure to fail part. Don't know if they were beefed up on later models or the M104. Mine failed because the right side seam opened up. At 21 years though, somethings gotta go. Btw the car turned 100k in Feb 2008, 111 k last august and now has 118k on the clock. I have no plans whatsoever of selling this car. Still turns heads.
R&M last year was close to 2k, but not much more than oil chnges and routine stuff for the 2 or 3 years before that. Nothing wrong with the M103 motor. And there were a gazillion of them made.
http://www.peachparts.com/300e.htm
The M103 3.0 liter inline 6 engine in the 1986-1992 300E's displaced 2962cc's or 180.8 cubic inches. While in SOHC 2 valve per cylinder trim it made 177 horsepower @ 5700rpm and 188 lb-ft of torque @4400rpm.
The 24 valve DOHC 3.0L motor of the CE(coupe) made 217HP @ 6400rpm and 195lb ft of torque @ 4600rpm.
In 1993 model year the E-class got a new inline six. This new M104 engine displaced 3190cc's and with a 10:1 compression ratio made 217HP @ 5500rpm and 229lb-ft @ 3750rpm. The new DOHC 24 valve engine had variable valve timing on the intake cams and a tuned resonance intake manifold to spread torque over the rpm band while actually improving fuel economy.
The older 300's got a few more horses in the barn, but they put on about 400 more pounds.
