Has anyone here
 

...gone more than like 6-12 months without major repairs on your 10+ year old Benz?

Man ya'll seem to work on these things a lot! I like driving cars, not so much workin' on 'em...

Yeah, my 1979 280CE is holding up just fine, no major repairs in many years, just normal stuff like brakes, battery, alt. I guess the last big thing was about 7 years ago when the AC heater servo unit when out and it was like 500 to replace.

You gotta remember. Most of these cars are our "toy" cars and since we're mostly guys, we gotta tinker with them.

My '73 280 is my daily driver and other than restoration stuff, it has been trouble free. Of course, since I said that I suppose it is fair to mention I really should replace the lower control arm bushings.

My wife's '72 250C, after restoration, has been trouble free.

My '74 280C, which I am building as MY toy, is undergoing a valve job. Everything else is fine on it and I probably won't touch it with the exception of normal maintenance for at least three years.

Once I did initial maintenance on my almost daily driver (83 240D) car which had previously been neglected by someone, the car was fine. Then semi annual valve adjustment and fuel filter changes and oil changes as normal maintenance.

Weekly fluid checks don't count, that's like checking for underinflated tires. A look and you're done.

I went close to two years with nothing major on my SD....then the trans failed this July. Honestly it was more of a time/labor intensive project than it was a $$ project. I've driven my car for over 6 years and 73k....and I've had maybe....3-4 "major" things done to it.

My 300E has not really had any "major" work done to it since I bought it over 9 months ago....just a bunch of smaller stuff, and valve stem seals, which is not all that major IMHO......its been driven about 8k since I bought it.

These are not our "Toy" Cars in my family! :eek: Myself, my wife, my brother, and my dad...all depend on them as daily drivers....technically my dad has two, and one is his "summer toy".....but his winter one is down for repair, so he really only has one right now. :D

If I had more $$ I'd have a couple extras....so I'd have more time to tinker and perfect them as I go....but I don't have that luxury....yet.

workin' on it
 

You can easily get a distorted view of reliability from reading these forums. People usually don't post unless they are having a problem they need help with. If there were a way to survey, I'll bet you wouild find many more simply enjoying the ride with few or very minor problems. I usually read hoping to find something I can help with given my limited experience.

Ours have been relatively trouble free.

They have needed water pumps and an OVP... oh...one needed a new aux fan.

I did valve stem seals on two of them as well. But we are talking in 20 year territory here.

My son's car has just needed a water pump in 4 1/2 years of ownership.

That's a very good point. I owned an '88 300E for about 11 months and it damn near put me in the poor-house... I'm not exaggerating when I say at least monthly something pretty major went wrong with it. I guess I have no idea how or if it was taken care of before me. It was frustrating because I really wanted to like the car but I just could not depend on it (it was my daily driver) so I had to let it go. Unfortunately I'm not very mechanically-inclined, so had to depend on my local shop and of course that's very costly.

Rocky hit it on the head! People are posting here when they have problems, OR they are just into them as a hobby or even profession.

I've driven multiple MB's to very high miles. My first was a 77 240D that I took to 280,000 miles without even taking care of it very well and with no major repairs up to that time. My second 240D went to 380,000 miles before an overhaul and then on past the 500,000 mile mark. Also this car delivered me to numerous meetings reliably and on time all over several states. It was more reliable than any of my co-workers were.

Mercedes Benz automobiles built up until the time when they started getting overly computerized were known for EXTREME reliability.

About when was that Larry?

W140
 

I don't know about Larry's time frame. I would suggest around the time of the introduction of the W140 series of cars. The were introduced in the US for the model year 1992.

'92 for the W140, '96 for the W210, '94 for the W202, all more digital than their predecessors. I agree that the 140 was the most excessive, the door-closer and HVAC alone can keep your credit card warm.

I refuse to post details and jinx myself.

I believe that the W203 car was when the technology got out of hand. This car had a fiberoptic CAN bus and was EXTREMELY problematic in its first few years.

Fiber optic? WHY? Fiber optics are for transmitting data long distances....not inside a car...that's just crazy.

It must have been poorly maintained, or you ended up with it right at the point where it would need a bunch of repairs. My 300E has been quite reliable.....

Weight mostly.

I think that Mercedes cars through the early '90s were engineered and built to last, to be used for a very long time but still cars. The pressure to have extended service intervals and "permanently lubricated" systems doesn't fare as well for them in their old age, plus many of the items that typically wear out, such as sunroofs, do have a service interval that is usually ignored once out of the original owners' hands.

My 88 300E just hit 500,000 kilometers. It's had normal maintenance along with a few driveshaft, diff mount issues and a few other minor repairs that are to be expected throughout 500,000 kilometers of driving. A valve job is the most serious work that I've done on it.

At this stage it doesn't look like much cosmetically, but I wouldn't be afraid to gas it up, check the oil and tire pressure and then take off on a 2,000 mile trip. I would leave with as much confidence as anyone could have that it would be a trouble free trip.

Cars are machines. Machines require normal maintenance. It doesn't matter if it's 56 Rambler or a brand new Mercedes, if it is not properly maintained it will give trouble and lots of it.

My $0.02,

My W124 is finally sorted out mechanically, so I haven't had to deal with underhood issues for awhile.

However, the Texas heat has permanently damaged the interior, so I have a sagging headliner, torn seats, and all of the plastic panels are so brittle that touching them for removal results in shattered pieces!

So I'm looking to overhaul the cockpit down the road, and have started to acquire a number of these panels...noting that the replacements are nearly as brittle as the pieces I'm trying to replace...obviously, I'm not the only one experiencing this.

I've heard all kinds of things about the interiors being poor. My car has leather and has almost always been stored out of the heat. As a result, the interior is not perfect, but it is actually pretty decent. It's the paint and exterior trim that needs help on my car. Part of that is my doing because I have not kept the car waxed over the years. Of course, the deer that I hit about 6 or 8 years ago along with a few other smaller animals have not done the old girl any favors.

I've had '87s with great interiors, my worst interior was a southern '95. Depends on whether they were garaged regularly / parked out of the sun or a northern car I guess.

Rust is the other side of the coin, if a rust-belt car that is neglected, there can be rust (but a perfect interior).

Neither my 190E nor my S420 have ever required a major repair. (Knock on wood.) All of the work I do on them is regularly scheduled maintenance or replacing plastic or rubber parts that have become brittle and broken due to age. I have absolutely no complaints about either of my two vehicles and have never regretted purchasing them. The main reason I come to these forums is because I enjoy learning everything I can about the technical aspects of my vehicles and to assist anyone who may need some advice on their MB. This forum has saved me tons of money by allowing me to do maintenance myself, especially on my S420.

If not I start doing preventative maint

I dunno exactly why, but engineers often use fiber optic connections where electrical isolation is desired. Hard to get a ground loop over glass.

The fiber optic saves weight. Rather than a zillion, copper cables carrying signals and power to various portions of the vehicle, they run one copper power wire and a fiberoptic cable to an intelligent device that controls the accessories in that location.

I'm not defending it, I'm just being a Parrot, regurgitating what I read some years ago.