Known issues by model?
 

93 400e 130,000mi

about 2 months and $1300 ago I had the dealer replace the wiring harness. After reading and reading this forum, I decided that I'd rather make someone else do it. Now I'm about to replace the water pump. Which was replaced 1 year 2 days ago just over 9000 miles. I was very busy with my house so I had someone else do it. Never again.

Now I'm wondering about the evaporator now. How do I tell if this was replaced? Also, wouldn't it be great if there was a subforum or something with a thread for each model listing all its known problems and popular performance mods? Sorry if this has been suggested before. I'm not lazy, but it just seems that I keep coming across more and more information about this car by accident. It would be nice to have a place to go to make sure I haven't missed anything.

There is a DIY section that has DIY articles by the area of the car such as engine, but not by model. I think your best bet is getting the factory manual on disc so you can do your own service and then use the Shop Forum to find out peoples real world experience with whatever you need to service or repair.

The factory discs are typically $20 for two discs. There are people here that sell them also. Good luck with your repairs.

What is making you wonder about your evaporator?

I have the discs and they are pure gold. I was just suggesting that maybe there be a thread for each model telling us what to look for. I'm only worrying about what work is ahead of me. Just throwing an idea out there. There's nothing wrong with the evaporator, I just keep seeing it mentioned when I'm searching for other stuff.

I wouldn't touch the evaporator if your a/c is working fine. On later W124's, my MB tech tells me that evap failures are the exception, not the rule.

As a general rule, common failure parts on your chassis are: wiring harnesses and throttle actuators.

And Aux. fan resistors

As a general rule if you just do a search on the forum you can figure out kown problems pretty quick.

In general with MB's its usualy just one big never ending problem!:D :D

Overall, Mercedes are as dependable as other cars
 

I get tired of seeing the negative comments about MB's on the site. People buy cheapies for $800 and then have to put $3000 in the car, because it has 185K on it! Then they complain like hell. I have owned a lot of different cars including Mercs and they all have failed systems that need fixing or replacing, especially over 100K in mileage. If MB's are taken care of, they will hold their own with any other car; the parts may be expensive -- but so are parts for Japanese cars. I think owners should be realistic about owning older Mercedes and realize that any car with high mileage will continue to need repairs and it may cost some money! One needs to average that cost out over the years of service and compare it to all other vehicle costs to really get the proper picture. Let's be good owners, with realistic evaluations of the situation!?

I disagree with the "pretty quick" part. I am trying to find out what to look out for before it goes bad and leaves me on the side of the road. If I perform a search on "124" I will read about what kind of rims one person just put on his 260E or how to replace a window regulator in a 300D, just to get to what applies to me. I have already learned to check the viscous fan whenever I do an oil change to see if it's going bad. I learned this while searching for tips on my water pump. My point is I don't want to learn by accident like this, I'd like to have a list to know what to look for before I have a problem. I'm not lazy, I know how to do research.

I completely agree with blueeagle and I realize that this is when things start going wrong with all cars. Which is why I'd like to see a list like this. One could use the list to know what to search for

I know I'm not a major contributor, but I thought that this would be a good idea to share.

I had a similar situation with my daughter's jetta water pump. It was repaired by the dealer then failed after 13 months. The dealer warranty was for 1 year but they took care of it as a warranty repair anyway. At 1yr plus 3 days maybe you can still get the shop to repair it as a warranty job.

Of course my comment was spoken in jest.;)