1994 W124 300D Estate

[DITTRICH]

Dear All

I viewed the above at the weekend. The engine and autobox were very smooth and refined. All the electric bits work okay apart from 1 headlamp wiper and the driver's ewindow - both being rectified by the seller. However, I did note that...

1 169,000 miles - but full service history with bills.
Do I need to be concerned about the 169,000?
How many more miles might it be capable of? 300,000? 500,000?
In 10 yrs its done 17,000 per annum average.
I intend 6,000 miles per annum.
2 Did not see any rust anywhere coming through.
Especially in wheel arches - nothing coming through.
Would I be advised to have the odd lower plastic trim panel
/plastic wheel arch protector off to see if any rust lurking there?
3 There was a towbar fitted (after market).
The seller told me it had not been used much?! but could I get
some pointers by inspecting something? What exactly?
4 On the rearmost side window, there was a 'panel' between the window and the rear side door where the paint had bubbled at the bottom (5 sq cm).
Seller told me this panel not steel and there was no rust underneath.
Is this true?
5 The car comes with alloys but I really need steel wheels. The seller indicated that they will change. How much would a set be worth?

Please forgive so many questions but I only ever bought 1 car before in my entire life and want to get this one right.

Cheers

Les

 

[Howard]

Hi Les,

My dad just sold his w124 300te with 190k+ on it, there was absoultely nothing wrong with it, engine as strong as the day it was made etc. etc. etc.

I think the full service history is the key here.

Dads was petrol and still going strong at nearly 200k, your diesel one should go on for much longer than that !!

If the w124's are looked after, then theres no reason that they shouldn't go on almost for ever, these things are bombproof !!

My w124 has 140k+ on it now and all seems fine as well !

Good luck

H

 

[230K]

Hi

Nothing you said would worry me, if you want to be sure put her on a ramp and check for leaks etc and also check the jacking points under the plastic flap on the side skirt.
What money are you talking £3500?
Also i think that trim that is corroding is aluminium and it should be ok underneath.

Good luck,

230K

 

[Vlad]

Les,

Its only just run in

Seriously, with the annual mileage you are planning to do, I do not think you will have a problem. These engines really take the mileage as long as they are serviced correctly and receive lots of oil changes (I do mine every 3000 and it takes half an hour).

Look at some of the US websites, there are a number of owners out there with mega miles on their car and here in the UK there are many owners with 300,000 miles + who have never had the engine touched in any big way...maybe a new head gasket.

It most cases the bodywork on a W124 diesel will give out before the mechanicals, and seeing as the bodywork lasts well you should have little to worry about

Re rust, the good thing is that W124's are well protected....if your wheel arches are fine then thats a very good sign....its common for the front wings to go just above the side of the front bumper...check this out. The tailgates can go also. If you get the car, get a brush and clean out the lip on the wheel arches and then give the car a good spray of waxoyl.

I would invetigate this rust you mention by the rear door....5sq cm's sounds quite a big problem to me. I can't quite understand where you mean and I'm struggling to think of a non metal panel.....can you take a digital photo of the afflicted arear?

Ragarding the rest of the car, I would check that the rear suspension on your car is working correctly as it's like a Citroens and if its on its way out it will either have a very stiff ride and the back will hop around on a bumpy road or it will have a very bouncy ride....ie very very bouncy....it should ride nice and smooth.

Check the auto box....should be nice and smooth, although Diesels can have a very heavy shift on the first upshift of the day when started from cold. After that it should be nice slurred changes.

By the way, if you go for the car, I have a set of steel wheels + bolts that will fit your W124 which you can have for a small consideration or we can come to a deal re your alloys.

Good luck.

 

[DITTRICH]

£3,500 . That's interesting you should mention that figure. I have been plotting W124 300D's asking prices v mileage for 3 months now and my straight line graph hits that figure at about 170,000 miles. However prices vary between £2,000 and £5,000 at this mileage. However, not much data as these cars are VERY rare. The seller is asking for more than £3,500 but as they are a 'dealer' and are doing 'certain' preparation work (replacement electric aerial, hlamp wiper motor, drivers door ewindow mechanism, new tires, service - oil - filters, new load net,chips touching up... I have to accept that I'm going to pay an above average price.

***thanks for replies so far - the aluminium bit rings a bell***

Cheers

Les

 

[DITTRICH]

Les,
I would invetigate this rust you mention by the rear door....5sq cm's sounds quite a big problem to me. I can't quite understand where you mean and I'm struggling to think of a non metal panel.....can you take a digital photo of the afflicted arear?

The scanner at work is sh@gged currently, so I will try to redescribe...

Look at the car side on.
Imagine the 'frontwards' end of the 'rearmost' window.
The window which looks into the rear load space.
There is a piece of painted 'trim' which sits between the 'rearmost' window and the 'rear' door (which opens into the 2nd row of seats). The trim is a vertical piece about 3cm x 30cm - just after and next to this door. The bottom part of this trim is separated from the bodywork by a rubber seal which extends back and forms part of the rear window rubber seal alog the bottom of the rear window. Its the bottom part of this trim ONLY which shows bubbling.
Sorry scanner not working as pic is worth 1,000 words!

Thanks for the waxoil advice. I had planned to take some waxoil with me to russia this summer and completely paint 'everything' underneath.

Rgds

Les

 

[janner]

I'd echo the advice about the autobox. Make sure it changes smoothly but positively. Make sure it doesn't take ages to engage reverse.
I'm trying to figure out the rust thing. Do you mean the rust is bubbling up through the rubber window seal? If so this is common and no cause for concern.
Check very carefully around the engine bay for leaks. Particularly around the rear of the headgasket (big bucks!) and the power steering pump.
Make sure the aircon works properly if fitted.
Use the mileage to get it for a song and then drive away grinning from ear to ear

 

[mikemoss]

Had exactly the same bubbling on that piece of trim on my former 230TE. Pretty sure it's aluminium and nothing to worry about at all. Some do it, some don't. Sounds like you've found yourself a great car - enjoy it, but heed all that advice about regular servicing and oil changes.

 

[mikemoss]

Just another thought re that towbar. If a single black electrical socket, could have been used for a boat so check for corrosion of the bar underneath. If twin sockets (black and grey) then will have towed a caravan - which the 300D is well capable of. Don't worry about superficial rust on the towball, they all do that and a dob of grease is all you need. However....do check the pipes for the self-levelling suspension at the rear, big bucks if that all goes haywire. There's a fluid contained under the bonnet for this, make sure it's filled to the right level and if topping up make sure you use the proper Merc stuff.

 

[andy_k]

that bit of trim comes off easily and can be repainted - loads of them rust and it's not critical in any way.

Sounds like a good car as long as you heed the advice on the gearbox changes - The W124 box does tend to have a finite life and I've heard of a few failing at or around the 165k mark.

As for the wheels - I have a set of four W124 steel wheels which are yours (or anybody elses) for free if you fancy a trip to the seaside to collect them.

Andy

 

[Dieselman]

The car sounds good.

The corroded panel sounds like the aluminium trim around the load bay window, if so they all do it.

Have the ATF changed and the antifreeze flushed and changed to extend the life of the gearbox and head gasket.

As has been said these engines just go and go, 500k is not uncommon.

If you cant get the price down then make the seller perform a full service and fix everything you can find.