Introduction, and Tech Question - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

1965FlaredTiger · #1 12-29-2015, 11:29 PM

Hi all! My first post, and not likely my last!! LOL I am a mechanic, machinist, welder, and fabricator but I have never worked on a Mercedes Benz, Audi, or modern VW. I am curious to know which system a 1994 S500 is using, specifically an OBD 1 or OBD2.

I was looking for the interior ALDL that has been required in CA since 1995. This is a brand new learning curve for me but after trying a local specialty shop, (Benz, and Beamers in San Pedro) I was extremely disappointed in their ability to carry out the requested repairs, or find parts. I left the car for 3 months allowing them to use it for filler work, and specified I was going to resell the car after the minor repairs were completed, and if they could give me a good guy deal I would bring all my resale cars, and my personal family cars to them,
and only them. I was sorely disappointed with every aspect of the service provided by Benz and Beamers. It had to take the car back FIVE TIMES, and still the new gauge cluster has no light in the speedometer, and the center console they took out to replace two switches, and to do bulbs in the dash, has no light in the shift window to see what gear you are in at night. I am embarrassed FOR them. The owner said they lost $$$ on the $3400 labor that had no more difficult work than replacing the hood, the seatbelt receiver, the drivers window regulator, two switches, three out of five bad bulbs, a headlight wiper motor, an oil pressure sender, and when the new VSS they installed did not fix the dead speedo, they replaced the cluster with one they just happened to have. I bought, picked up and delivered all but the bulbs, and the headlight wiper motor they paid $850 bucks for, that I priced at $230.00 NEW from my new warehouse buddies.
If any person on this website wants unobtainable genuine parts I found the best two sources you can imagine. To the amazement of Benz and Beamers the parts they said they could not locate were quite available at this huge warehouse, and the one part the warehouse did not have in stock, was located by their software in Germany, new, and like every other genuine part I bought from them, half the price of Benz and Beemers suppliers. I saw the business model of this warehouse distributor in action and was impressed. The guy you order from on the phone has three screens in front of him and each has multiple proprietary search engines. If it is not in normal stock, there in his warehouse he may pull from a warehouse in Nicosia, or Belgium immediatly on the search engine (I was reading the screen, and studying the software, and expressing my awe while firing rapid questions to a badass Asian guy that had answers). There were ten highly personalized offices, and inside each a person doing the same job. It felt like a family business, a little over half were Asian, the rest a true multicultural dream team!! Lol, the truth is always stranger than fiction. The rep. found in two or three minutes the one part they did not have in their normal stock. I asked their pricing structure, cost plus 20% to 30% unless there are unusually extenuating circumstances. I also found a university department president (major university) who's family hobby is finding Mercedes parts to resell, yeah, sounds strange, but when I gently probed his wife about why they did this she said "it was fun, and they had always done it as a couple since soon after they met". She answered this question without any sign of guile or resentment as she and her husband carried a hood of the exact color, and condition I had requested of him to my pickup (I have a very seriously injured lower spine). Again, his prices were about half what junkyards had quoted me for NOWHERE near the condition. Interestingly this family of four owns and lives in a literal mansion in a neighborhood of mansions (built in the late thirties) that I NEVER suspected existed in Long Beach CA. You drive under a freeway overpass into what appears to be a light industrial zone, but you cross a small river with a greensward on each side, and suddenly you realize there are houses set far back from a VERY wide residential street and that they are big, highly stylized, and all built to look like classic manors of Europe. His was Tudor, and in his 20 years of ownership he had kept it looking like an 8 out of 10. Of course it was full of antiques and as a collector I was actually impressed by his selections. In expectation of a long relationship with Benz and Beamers I gave them all the contact, and background info for both. Two weeks later and with 6 cars in the shop, and 20 more in the storage lot surrounding the shop had they ordered even a single part to test pricing???? I was flabbergasted. I'm thinking they had literally saved 10k in parts over that two weeks, and would be thanking me profusely. When I asked how much they had saved in parts since the day I gave them all the info, and huge price differential on five different Mercedes parts I had personally purchased, the owner and one counterman replied lackadaisically, they had not driven over to the warehouse yet, neither to inspect this goldmine for themselves, nor to negotiate even better prices than I had gotten as an individual, because they were busy. Hmmmmmm. I was stupefied. I owned a five car hot rod shop for a year, (Huntington Beach Hotrods) and there is zero markup on major brand performance equipment unless you are buying in quantity. Edelbrock for instance only discounts orders over $10,000. Holly would not even discuss it because I was not an "official distributor". Usually hot rod guys deliver the parts they want installed with the car so you can dream with them and compliment what they selected, in a slow moving social scene, but you do not make the customary and usual 20% on parts the California Bureau of Automotive Repair Suggests. Enough gab, cars is cars, and parts is parts.

JamesDean · #2 01-06-2016, 01:10 AM

Reformatted:

Quote:

I was looking for the interior ALDL that has been required in CA since 1995.

This is a brand new learning curve for me but after trying a local specialty shop, (Benz, and Beamers in San Pedro) I was extremely disappointed in their ability to carry out the requested repairs, or find parts.

I left the car for 3 months allowing them to use it for filler work, and specified I was going to resell the car after the minor repairs were completed, and if they could give me a good guy deal I would bring all my resale cars, and my personal family cars to them, and only them.

I was sorely disappointed with every aspect of the service provided by Benz and Beamers. It had to take the car back FIVE TIMES, and still the new gauge cluster has no light in the speedometer, and the center console they took out to replace two switches, and to do bulbs in the dash, has no light in the shift window to see what gear you are in at night.

I am embarrassed FOR them.

The owner said they lost $$$ on the $3400 labor that had no more difficult work than replacing the hood, the seatbelt receiver, the drivers window regulator, two switches, three out of five bad bulbs, a headlight wiper motor, an oil pressure sender, and when the new VSS they installed did not fix the dead speedo, they replaced the cluster with one they just happened to have.

I bought, picked up and delivered all but the bulbs, and the headlight wiper motor they paid $850 bucks for, that I priced at $230.00 NEW from my new warehouse buddies.

If any person on this website wants unobtainable genuine parts I found the best two sources you can imagine. To the amazement of Benz and Beamers the parts they said they could not locate were quite available at this huge warehouse, and the one part the warehouse did not have in stock, was located by their software in Germany, new, and like every other genuine part I bought from them, half the price of Benz and Beemers suppliers.

I saw the business model of this warehouse distributor in action and was impressed. The guy you order from on the phone has three screens in front of him and each has multiple proprietary search engines. If it is not in normal stock, there in his warehouse he may pull from a warehouse in Nicosia, or Belgium immediatly on the search engine (I was reading the screen, and studying the software, and expressing my awe while firing rapid questions to a badass Asian guy that had answers).

There were ten highly personalized offices, and inside each a person doing the same job. It felt like a family business, a little over half were Asian, the rest a true multicultural dream team!! Lol, the truth is always stranger than fiction.

The rep. found in two or three minutes the one part they did not have in their normal stock. I asked their pricing structure, cost plus 20% to 30% unless there are unusually extenuating circumstances. I also found a university department president (major university) who's family hobby is finding Mercedes parts to resell, yeah, sounds strange, but when I gently probed his wife about why they did this she said "it was fun, and they had always done it as a couple since soon after they met".

She answered this question without any sign of guile or resentment as she and her husband carried a hood of the exact color, and condition I had requested of him to my pickup (I have a very seriously injured lower spine).

Again, his prices were about half what junkyards had quoted me for NOWHERE near the condition. Interestingly this family of four owns and lives in a literal mansion in a neighborhood of mansions (built in the late thirties) that I NEVER suspected existed in Long Beach CA. You drive under a freeway overpass into what appears to be a light industrial zone, but you cross a small river with a greensward on each side, and suddenly you realize there are houses set far back from a VERY wide residential street and that they are big, highly stylized, and all built to look like classic manors of Europe. His was Tudor, and in his 20 years of ownership he had kept it looking like an 8 out of 10.

Of course it was full of antiques and as a collector I was actually impressed by his selections. In expectation of a long relationship with Benz and Beamers I gave them all the contact, and background info for both. Two weeks later and with 6 cars in the shop, and 20 more in the storage lot surrounding the shop had they ordered even a single part to test pricing???? I was flabbergasted.

I'm thinking they had literally saved 10k in parts over that two weeks, and would be thanking me profusely. When I asked how much they had saved in parts since the day I gave them all the info, and huge price differential on five different Mercedes parts I had personally purchased, the owner and one counterman replied lackadaisically, they had not driven over to the warehouse yet, neither to inspect this goldmine for themselves, nor to negotiate even better prices than I had gotten as an individual, because they were busy.

Hmmmmmm. I was stupefied.

I owned a five car hot rod shop for a year, (Huntington Beach Hotrods) and there is zero markup on major brand performance equipment unless you are buying in quantity. Edelbrock for instance only discounts orders over $10,000. Holly would not even discuss it because I was not an "official distributor".

Usually hot rod guys deliver the parts they want installed with the car so you can dream with them and compliment what they selected, in a slow moving social scene, but you do not make the customary and usual 20% on parts the California Bureau of Automotive Repair Suggests. Enough gab, cars is cars, and parts is parts.

JamesDean · #3 01-06-2016, 01:11 AM

As far as I know, ALDL (Assembly Line Diagnostic Link) was developed by General Motors. I do not believe Mercedes implemented it on the W140. I believe Mercedes equipped the cars with ODB2 in 1996.

Check out these links, they will give you lots of information on the diagnostic systems Mercedes built into the W140:

http://www.w124performance.com/docs/mb/diagnostics/DTC_List_W140_M119_1992-95.pdf

http://www.mbcluster.com/Media_Diagnostics.htm

anziani · #4 01-12-2016, 11:51 AM

JamesDean, Thanks for taking the time to make that mess readable.
Anziani
'97 CL600 52K

1965FlaredTiger · #5 01-14-2016, 10:37 PM

I found it now I need to build a reader.