MB idiosyncrasies
 

Does anyone know why:

* The driving wheel and dials are not centered, but noticeably moved towards the right / center instead?

* There is a piece of fabric on the rear doors' rubber joints' upper-front corners?

* Cool air is blown equally from the center and side vents, but warm air is blown mostly from the side vents only?

I have the same car as you minus + a few more in. back seat leg room.

Have also noticed the offset steering wheel. Not sure about the fabric question. Here's some info that may help with the warm air out the side vents:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/search.php?action=showresults&searchid=463561&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

* The driving wheel and dials are not centered, but noticeably moved towards the right / center instead?

It is my understanding that the offset relates to the steering column and its role in severe frontal impacts. A lot of German cars had this. Additionally, until energy-absorbing front-ends were perfected, the steering wheels were often slightly angled in that the right side was closer to the driver than the left. This is true with my old 911. Once more rigid bodies were developed, this practice was abandoned (201, 124 etc).


* There is a piece of fabric on the rear doors' rubber joints' upper-front corners?

These areas where the cloth was put there is to reduce the abrasion and sticking of the rubber molding against the body of the car.

Haasman

Idiosynchrasy is about the best way to describe why MBs of that vintage by design won't let you get warm air through the dash center vents or the rear seat center vent.

Sixto
95 S420
91 300SE
87 300SDL
83 300SD

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Webmaster: It would be nice if threads were presented as a tree (like e.g. Netscape 1.71 does for newsgroups) making it explicit whom you are answering to.

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1991300SEL: Thanks for the thread, but it apparently contains a lot of non-related info: do you have a more specific one? ;)

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haasman:

* The driving wheel and dials are not centered, but noticeably moved towards the right / center instead?

Before my MB I had a 1988 Volvo 740 GLE and the wheel was centered, at least as well as I can remember. Which is interesting given Volvo's obsession with passive safety too.

* There is a piece of fabric on the rear doors' rubber joints' upper-front corners?

Your reasons make sense, and I've also heard them before. ;-) Such attention to details is what sets (or used to set? :( ) MB apart...

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sixto

Maybe blowing warm air through the side vents only has a temp. control advantage, and may also explain why in a house radiators are often (always?) installed right under the windows?

maybe the warm air blows on the sides (and windshield base) only to help clear/defog the side REAR windows. Routing it through the middle vent would make it less effective in this role.

another one:
* why can't I operate my horn and highbeam/flasher when the ignition is off? This would be useful in emergencies, for example.

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1991300SEL: Thanks for the thread, but it apparently contains a lot of non-related info: do you have a more specific one? ;)

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Huh????

Go back and look at the tiltles in these threads. This is a known issue in MBs and many of these threads cover this problem.

There are no door lock switches on pre W202 chassis cars. :confused:

Here's another one: The engine in my '94 wagon is angled slightly to the passenger side of the engine compartment. I don't know why.

that's because it's aligned to the pinion side of the differential, which is off-center.

it is also done to lower the hood line.

Wagons have about an inch more headroom than a sedan. You can tell by putting a 124 wagon beside a 124 sedan and seeing the difference in height just above the doors in the roof section.

Speaking of ventillation, only warmed air will come out of the footwells unless you use the bi-level which would then also include AC.

Haasman

Here's another one
 

The door RV mirrors are of unequal size, one a lot bigger on the W124s and the 190 and 180Es. Looks very lopsided, but somebody said the designers thought it was better for the driver's view, one mirror being a lot closer than the other to the driver's view. They of course could easily have made both the same size so that the car wouldn't look so funny. If the driver's side was required to be bigger, then make it bigger and follow through with the passenger side. Don't have to say that the angle of view is narrower, so a narrower mirror must be placed there. No wonder they have changed this to equal sized mirrors now from the W202s onwards as no other car manufacturer followed the old design!

more!
 

The parking(foot) brake which is difficult to use if you are used to using the handbrake when starting off on an upward sloping road say at traffic lights in a manual geared car.

The fire extinguisher in the front of the driver's seat. Just makes me wonder if the car could really go up in flames while I'm driving it.

The firstaid kit in the back shelf. Half the time I think most people don't know how to use the stuff properly besides bandaid.

The black plastic pull thing to release the front hood. Why? The usual steel lever under the front edge of the hood is easier to look for and use.

The headlamp level control. I lower it in the city and raise it in the outer suburbs.

The tech help forum is supposed to be for just that - technical help. The kind of discussion in this thread is why they created the Open Discussion forum.