I have a 500 SEL, and is having problem with the evaporator for the AC system. It is going to cost me $2500 to replace. I check couple of places and they all gave me the same quote. Does anyone know is this price about right? Pretty expensive. I already paid 100K for the car when it was new.

We would be about 20-25% cheaper than that but we are in the rural South. its a 23 hour job. We would use an aftermarket evap with a copper core and the early cars need a baffle added as the replacemnet evap is made differently. Doing the job with a MB evap would add $200 to the job.

The job is massive with every thing removed from the firewall to the rear seats. It may sound like a lot of money but numerous pieces of very valuable interior are subject to degradation from the job. Its real easy to have to buy a $600 piece of console wood say because pieces that should come apart, come apart the wrong way. (Ask me how I know).

Over the years we have scratched at least one dash while removing it; luckily your dash is only $1800 the 94 on models are over 4 grand and people who pay $2500 for one of these jobs easily will expect you to cough up four grand to repair a scratched or dented dash. Its your basic high risk job.

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Steve Brotherton
Owner 24 bay BSC
Bosch Master, ASE master L1
26 years MB technician

May have trouble getting it cheaper. There are guys that can do the job in 10-12 hours, but getting them to do side work is tough.
Stick with original parts.

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Mercedes-Benz Master Guild - 2 years
Shop Foreman - 20 + years - dealer.
Part owner - MBZ Transmission remanufacture
2000 SL500
1995 E320
1989 300SE

$2500 quoted price includes labour or excludes?? If $2500 is including everything, it's a fair quote. My local dealer quoted me $3200, including labour, but plus taxes(14%).

Andy Kuo

I had the exact same thing done to my E320 T (1995) and it costed me about $2000 (labor is extremely cheap here). Although I agree is a very high risk job. I saw my car stripped down to metal on the inside (everything was taken out: dash, center console, seats, airbags, wiper motor, everything!). A very sad and depressing sight. The cooper evaporator, according to the mechanic, is more efficient than the original M.B. part.

The interesting thing is that my car had only 10,500 original miles on it (two-year old when the job was performed). The mechanic told that the original evaporator was damaged since new (showed it to me) and that this problem often happened with M.B.s The dealer refused to cover the repair since the warranty here is only one year-period.

Good luck!

A. Rosich
S320 1998
E320T 1995

[This message has been edited by A. Rosich (edited 09-10-2000).]

[This message has been edited by A. Rosich (edited 09-10-2000).]

I'm not sure your labor is so cheap A., the evap in your E320 is only half the labor as the 140 chassis.

I'm not sure your labor is so cheap A., the evap in your E320 is only half the labor as the 140 chassis.