I am seriously considering this 1998 E300.. but the dealer tells me the evaporator has a leak. What kind of $$$ should I expect to repair this? What do you think a fair price for the car is?

I found list on the evap is $710 but I can get it for $480. What would the labor be like?

I think this is the first time I've ever heard of a W210 with a leaking evaporator.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

On my 97 I had the dealer tell me my slow leak was the evaporator and the fix was to be $2700 labor and parts, for which they had to rip out the dashboard. That was at 53k miles. Instead, I decided to keep filling it with R134 twice a year. After three years and 40k miles later, when it got bad (3x/year), I bit the bullet and took it in. Turned out to be the compressor seal. The evaporator diagnosis was bogus. To this day, I cannot believe the under the dash sniffer test misdiagnosed a bad compressor seal. Stealers they are.

They tried to pull as a reason that leaves in the air intake corroded the aluminum evaporator. I pulsed this forum and no one heard of a bad evaporator. My delay in repair saved me mucho $$$.

Thank you forum members.

Forewarned is forearmed. I will shortly be purchasing a '98 300E turbo diesel,130k,from the original owners after they take delivery of their new 320 diesel.
From what I hear the cars are quite bulletproof,though it's an established maxim that every model has it's common peculiarities,be instructive to hear from others who've had this particular car.

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Well, let me put it this way. Is $10,500 a good price with the evaporator problem?

No, but $12,500 is a good price for this dealer maintained,highway driven garage kept piece of mechanical pulchritude, may not even be the Evap,unit in your case! Take it to an independent AC shop and get their 2 cents worth.....

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How do you figure? The car i am looking at has 15,000 more miles than yours, but is highway driven and one owner. Look at my thread with the photos.

Whatever hyperlink with pics of your intended purchase is not displaying on my browser.

'98's with under 200k seem to fluctuate between $10,000-$14,000, at least if you scan ebay regularly, cosmetics and options considered.

Call me a pessimist but I NEVER like to take anyone's word about something, particularly before I buy it.

You're in NJ, not too far from Long Island, I'm assuming the car is located nearby? There are a few AC shops and garages within a 50 mile area I could recommend to you.

I would hesitate before I took a dealer's word,in my experience the bottom dollar seems to be their guiding light,the more complicated the better.

AS ALWAYS ~ Simply my own opinion which could be wrong!

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Are you guys talking US dollars here? $10-$12k for a 1998 E300 turbo? Seems way cheap to me. I saw a 1987 300TD wagon with low miles (60k, IIRC) that sold last week for $14k. No type, that's nineteen eighty-seven and fourteen thousand smackeroos. It even had a salvage title! (yeah, it was really clean, but still...!) Heck, I'm not a big fan of the W210, but for $10k even I'd consider one, bad evap or not. Either replace the evap or try one of those nifty sealants. That's assuming the evap is actually bad.

FWIW, I have heard from other places that the refrigerant sniffers are highly questionable in their accuracy. I'm not surprised at all it registered a leaky evap where there was none. You're much better off diagnosing refrigerant leaks with dye and UV light, IMO.

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Check out my website photos, documents, and movies!

The car is in Florida. It was run though the shop and the only problem found was a leaky evaporator. I am pretty savvy with these cars and he assured me nothing else was wrong except this.

I'm probably going for it, I will finalize the deal on Monday.

Got done with the Xmas thing and decided to go online. If the die test was done then thats pretty conclusive in my book. PS the nice thing about injecting dye is you can buy your own test light and check your system every once in a while. Even the cheap Supermarket bought so called UV lights work to a minor extent. A true UV makes any leak stand out like a squealing pig.

I will never trust a Stealer again. During Xmas break, I checked my rear brakes on a Voyager van I have and still have good thickness on the rear shoes. 12k miles ago car developed a bad cylinder leak in the left rear brake, which was fixed under warranty. The Service guy told me the shoes were getting thin and needed to be replaced. In reality, it looks like I will have about 20-25k miles more on the car before that service that guy was pedalling is necessary. What a greedy bunch of B#$%^&. It was'nt enough that chrysler had paid ~ $400 for warranty work, they wanted to stick me with another $200.

Yes. Go for it.

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Rick Miley
2014 Tesla Model S
2018 Tesla Model 3
2017 Nissan LEAF
Former MB: 99 E300, 86 190E 2.3, 87 300E, 80 240D, 82 204D Euro
Chain Elongation References

John,

I'm with Rick. That's an excellent price.

But, I've bought a couple of vehicles from Florida dealers and I will offer you this bit of advice:

1) Pay them nothing in advance.

2) Fly down there with a bank check in hand. See if you can go down to Philly and take Southwest. You can buy a one way ticket for a reasonable price. Get the bank check at $1500. less than the purchase price. Bring $1500. in cash. Check the car out thoroughly when you get there and make sure you know what works and what does not. If it is what they say it is, then buy it. But, check it carefully. "Nothing wrong" includes what they consider "wear and tear" items such as non-functional dash controls, tires out of balance, broken cruise, etc. None of these are show stoppers, but they all affect the final price. You've then got $1500. in cash to subtract from the deal, if you need to do it.

3) If they are a bunch of theives (typical), then buy another one-way on Southwest and come home. Consider it a learning experience.


Just thought of another idea: If the vehicle is anywhere near Rick, I'm sure he would take a look at it for you and confirm its condition. Then you could get down there on a discount ticket at your convenience.

If it's anywhere near Tampa, let me know if I can help. I'll be at my second home in Ft. Lauderdale 12/30-1/4 if you need pointers for that area.

Does this mean that you'll be selling the Euro 300D?

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Rick Miley
2014 Tesla Model S
2018 Tesla Model 3
2017 Nissan LEAF
Former MB: 99 E300, 86 190E 2.3, 87 300E, 80 240D, 82 204D Euro
Chain Elongation References