Considering a w124 coupe

[Bill_33]

The cylinder head gasket on the 1995 E280 Estate that I had was replaced at 50,000 miles being 6 years old, (Aug 2001), by the Main Dealer at a cost of £806 inc VAT....information obtained from the previous owners records and invoices

 

[kth286]

My knowledge tells me that E320 head gasgets do not blow, but are changed needlessly to generate business for the repairer.

All that happens is that they weep a little oil, and the answer to that, is to reduce the oil capacity as per the Technical Service Bulletin issued by Mercedes themselves in 1995.

The official capacilty was reduced from 7.5 litres down to 7 litres as there was too much pressure being generated.

Must be (MAX) half way between min and max on dipstick.

Water based paints were introduced on a plant by plant basis.

I do not know off hand which plants used water based paint first but it may not have been where the Coupes were built.

 

[neilrr]

del320,

That's not a CHG failure, that's an oil weep. As kth286 says, leave it alone!

 

[Bill_33]

My knowledge tells me that E320 head gasgets do not blow, but are changed needlessly to generate business for the repairer.

All that happens is that they weep a little oil, and the answer to that, is to reduce the oil capacity as per the Technical Service Bulletin issued by Mercedes themselves in 1995.

The official capacilty was reduced from 7.5 litres down to 7 litres as there was too much pressure being generated.

Must be (MAX) half way between min and max on dipstick.

Water based paints were introduced on a plant by plant basis.

I do not know off hand which plants used water based paint first but it may not have been where the Coupes were built.

Apart from the CHG replaced at 50,000 miles, the car also had an "oil weep" reported from about 140,000 miles
looked at lot worse than it was......hardly noticable on the dip stick between services....bridge gasket I believe.

All MBZ garages should have been aware of Technical Service Bulletin, so presumably none were "overfilled" when serviced.

 

[Triple Star]

Hi All.

I just had a nice cabbie write off my 89 300CE, and in four years of ownership the car consumed about a litre of oil per thousand miles, and leaked oil through the HG, but it was minimal so I drove on throught to 155.000 beofre some R-sole cabby crashed into it.

i also replaced the injectors, popped a K+N Airfilter on it and replaced the engine mounts, serviced it annually, and I had 40.000 enjoyable miles in it.

I have now just bought a 95 E320 Coupe in green.

 

[grober]

Hi All.

I just had a nice cabbie write off my 89 300CE, and in four years of ownership the car consumed about a litre of oil per thousand miles, and leaked oil through the HG, but it was minimal so I drove on throught to 155.000 beofre some R-sole cabby crashed into it.

i also replaced the injectors, popped a K+N Airfilter on it and replaced the engine mounts, serviced it annually, and I had 40.000 enjoyable miles in it.

I have now just bought a 95 E320 Coupe in green.

Don't put an oiled K and N filter on this one or you will contaminate the MAF.

 

[Dee-124CAB]

They are also known to develop excsessive play in the steering, due to the recirculating ball steering....

Adds slopiness to the already vague steering.

 

[kth286]

They are also known to develop excsessive play in the steering, due to the recirculating ball steering....

Adds slopiness to the already vague steering.

The 124 steering is not vague at all - you can take a very precise line in a corner.

There is not much feel to it however and it is not as tactile as a typical rack & pinion system.

However it is shock free and totally relaxing as opposed to the wheel constantly jumping around in your hand on rough roads like rack & pinion.

Some very powerful and competent cars all had recirculating ball steering systems:

SL 600

E500

BMW M5 of the period

etc etc.

 

[Triple Star]

Got a bargain I think

1995 E320 Malachite + Mushroom

114k Miles FMBSH MD not Specialist. £750 service carried out recently. New steering rack, and replacement injectors and a new Maf within 18m.

Prob has the original loom but no probs as yet, nor leaky head.

Bodywork is mint as is interior, feels crisp and responsive

prob needs alignment and maybe a steering damper as there's a bit of vibe.

£2300.00 from the thames trader

does the sprint booster work for these ?

 

[Will]

Sounds like good value - congrats on the purchase

Will

 

[AlexG]

Hi All,

As per the original post by Grahamcol, I'm also interested in the W124 coupe and even after reading the whole warts-and-all expose of the main areas of failure for this model I think I'm still going to look at a few to see if they suit me

I'd want to use mine as a daily driver and by the sound of it that isn't a bad idea but I'll just need to make sure I pick a good'un and keep up the maintenance (both preventative and scheduled).

Just wanted to say hi really and thanks for all the informed comments which make good reading, I feel a little less ignorant now, if you know what I mean.

Just one quick question though. Is the 5 speed auto less robust than the 4 speed auto?

Cheers

Alex

 

[Roger Jones]

People do say that the five-speed auto is less robust and reliable, apparently because of its additional electronics. Mine's fine and the only problem I've had with it in 43k is when the MB main dealer short-changed the ATF refill. I never went back there.

 

[Bill_33]

I suppose that one of the positives of the 4 speed box is that there are lots of secondhand ones around......if you had the misfortune to need a new box