Did a few jobs on the car this morning

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Sp!ke

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SL500 & The Fart Car
First job was to remove and replace the radiator which after 18 years was past its best and had been weeping for a while (2 years :) ) from various pin sized holes.

Less than an hour to drain off all the coolant, flush the sytem through with plain water a few times and then swap rads before adding the correct (original pink coloured) coolant. The stuff that came out was green :mad:

Old Rad looked like it had been on the receiving end of a shotgun. New one looked miles better. :D
 

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Next job was a simple oil and filter swap before squeezing under the car once again to change the gearbox oil.

The gearbox oil was like water, it also stunk. The magnetic sump plug was also covered in loads of swarf ( maybe a cubic centimetre of the stuff) so it doesnt look like this had been changed in a very long while. Despite the fact that it was supposedly done by a MB specialist a little over a year ago. :mad:

Feel much better for doing the jobs myself and knowing that they were actually done and done right. :bannana:
 
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Its a manual gearbox :D
 
That radiator looks alot better. Thanks for posting it, Sp!ke, especially as I'd seen your old rad in the flesh! Shotgun, indeed! ;)

Darren
 
I wouldnt worry about the swarf, nearly always swarf on every manual box i change, trucks and cars.



Lynall
 
Looking at the amount of cooling fins gone from that rad was it still providing adequate cooling when really needed.?

Two jobs worth doing and cheap other than the rad cost, which was unavoidable.

The old adage is that every £1 spent on maintenance saves £10 in repairs.
 
I wish the rad on the 500 was so easy! I want to change it simply as its 15 years old but its very very tight!

well done.. I did the full service on the SL last week.. all the fluids and changed all the brackets & hangers for a new fuel filter as all the bolts looked rusty..
 
The old rad seemed to cope ok surprisingly but I figured it was only a matter of time before it failed in a big way so thought it best to swap it out.

It was only £80 for the radiator so not such a big expense really.

The other remaining things to do is fix my drivers side window. I'm tempted by the idea of welding and grinding new teeth but waiting to see how others get on with this in the other thread.

I also need to take a look at my heater blower which rater oddly, sometimes makes a noise when I turn right. :confused:

Other than that, mechanically the cars very sound.
 
you can get regulators second hand for around £30 plus p&p.. i doubt a weld would work..

just look on ebay for W124 breaking...
 
Actually, I suspect the weld may be stronger than the metal used on the regulator. I figure its probably worth a try anyway.

Has anyone got a dead drivers side regulator for a W124ce that I could have a bash at welding up?

Wouldnt a second hand regulator likely to be worn or on its way anyway?
 
If you have managed to get 18 years out of a radiator, that is truly an achievement !!!!

They dont make them like that any more :)
 
Next job was a simple oil and filter swap before squeezing under the car once again to change the gearbox oil.

The gearbox oil was like water, it also stunk. The magnetic sump plug was also covered in loads of swarf ( maybe a cubic centimetre of the stuff) so it doesnt look like this had been changed in a very long while. Despite the fact that it was supposedly done by a MB specialist a little over a year ago. :mad:

Feel much better for doing the jobs myself and knowing that they were actually done and done right. :bannana:



Are you going to reveal who the specialist was?:confused: :confused: :confused:
 
Are you going to reveal who the specialist was?:confused: :confused: :confused:

I think before doing that it would be worth ascertaining whether the lubricant was indeed changed or not and what was used.
The spec may be for ATF in which case it would indeed be very thin. The swarf may be old particles left from previously, and also don't forget Spike has had a clutch problem since so may have generated more swarf than normal.

I once finished a new Ford box in under 2 weeks due to intermittent dragging clutch. The cable would release half way through a change.
 
Your right Jay, the manual box does use ATF.

This doesn't change things however as the oil that came out was very much past it. It was very dark in colour, it smelt rotten and it had the consistency of water. I cannot believe thats only been in there for such a short time. (less than 10k miles)

The clutch issue I had couldn't exacerbate gearbox oil wear as the clutch wasn't dragging at all, nor slipping. It just sometimes didn't work. :D

Another thing I noticed the other day when changing the clutch was that the rhs tie rod that had been replaced with a non genuine part. (how small is the difference in price for this item - can't be much?) The lhs one although considerably older was in a much better condition. The new one was already covered in rust and corrosion, and was clearly of a lesser quality. My moneys on the old one outlasting the new before a replacement is required. I thought it was a false economy not to replace as a pair anyway :confused:

Does anyone else get frustrated when they spot this kind of thing or do the masses think I'm just being picky?
 
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If you've ruled out the part having evolved (parts do change over the years) and it's definatelly not genuine, I wouldn't say you are being picky.
 
continue to be picky and put genuine Merc coolant additive in the new rad .

and only use ionised water with it.

The Merc coolant is ph neutral and will keep the various materials that comprise the cooling circuits intact and prevent sludging up through eating away at it.

I am still on original Rad at nearly 170k miles.
 
I wish the rad on the 500 was so easy! I want to change it simply as its 15 years old but its very very tight!

well done.. I did the full service on the SL last week.. all the fluids and changed all the brackets & hangers for a new fuel filter as all the bolts looked rusty..

Is that the 107 rad?

Did one in the week. Very straight forward. It will take you no longer than an hour.
 

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