The owner of the Mercedes shop I have taken my car to for years has lung cancer and I have been looking for a another independent shop to take care of my stable. I was talking with an an attorney friend in College Station, Texas who has 2 older impeccable Mercedes and asked who takes care of his cars. He gave me the number to a guy in Navasota, Texas (about 50 miles North of Houston) who is married to the niece of Legendary Helmet Holder and who's father owned a Mercedes Shop in Bryan/College Station until medical reasons forced him into retirement 4 years ago. My heater was not working in my 85 300d and I took it to Mercedes North Houston and they wanted to charge me $2,800 to change my heater core out and this was too big a a project for me so I call my freind's tech up. He was very nice (probably because it was a big job) and had a truck come get my car. He called me the next day to give me an estimate of $185 for a new monovalve and labor to intall plus only $30 for the tow fee. The best part? When I went to pick my car up it was detailed. First Class all the way!

Welcome to the forum.

If you would hang around here a bit, you'd find all the info needed to diagnose and replace that monovalve yourself.

The part that he replaced is $50. at retail (can be had for about $30) and the time to install it is not more than 10 minutes.

Congrats on the "free" detail.

Thanks! He also flushed out the Heater Core. On the invoice he has .3 hrs to replace the monovalve, .2 to diagnose and .5 to flush out the heater core at @ 75/hr. I thought that was reasonable compared to MB North Houston!

If he flushed the heater core, the labor is fine.

Where did he get $110. for the monovalve? Must be purchased from the M/B dealer and doubled..........

You cannot really measure "reasonable" by using the dealer as the metric.

I forgot to mention he recommended doing the valve cover gasket and adjusting the valves and an oil change which I told him to go ahead and do except for the oil change which I just did my self 3 months ago.

...........there goes another $250...........

So is the guy still in Navasota? Who is he? I keep a couple of Mercedes in Brenham...

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- Brian


1989 500SEL Euro
1966 250SE Cabriolet
1958 BMW Isetta 600

Welcome to the forum...I have to agree with Brian unless you have money to spend on someone else fixing your car (I know I don't) you might really want to consider posting in the diesel discussion and using the search function. I adjusted my own valves cost me 35.00 to do it and only took me 3 hours (this was my first time) but best of luck. And always ask questions.

Yes he is there in Navasota. I was told that valve adjustment take about a half an hour with the proper tools

Remember this was my first time doing it and I know what I was doing. am shooting for the 45 min mark next time.

If he charges you $37.50 for the labor to do that task............I'll pay for it personally.

Thanks Brian! I will file that for future reference.

Okay, I'll ask a second time. Who is he? Where is he?

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- Brian


1989 500SEL Euro
1966 250SE Cabriolet
1958 BMW Isetta 600

Some people just like to drive their cars. I'm not one of them, but they're out there.

carhaulin, I think POS is looking for name/number.

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1984 300TD

Oh, ok Andrew's Classic Mercedes Restoration and Repair 979-436-1331. Tell him Rick sent you. Maybe he will keep detailing my car!