E320 Bi - Turbo. Turbo Tecnics ?

[C43AMG]

Has anyone had any dealings with the E320 Sports Saloon Bi Turbo Turbo Tecnics?

A friend is interested in one that is coming up for auction (Barons) at Sandown. They say £2000 - 3000.

It is a 1994 with two owners, the blurb says it was a factory fitted option !!. Full MB History it has 355bhp, £48,000 when new. and it is an unusual colour Bornite.

I am going to have a look at it this afternoon, anything i should look out for ?

Many thanks.

 

[janner]

It belonged to GFP and then Liiive_o. Both had problems with it. Do a search for Turbo Technics.

 

[C43AMG]

This one is a Saloon.

 

[Roger Jones]

For "factory fitted", read "fitted by Hughes of Beaconsfield" with the approval of MB.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the problems experienced by the GFP were nothing to do with the turbo. I have had no problems with my 300E turbo, which I've now owned for 2.5 years and which has done 179k.

 

[maggot]

Car was on the Merc seller site for literally years, now removed, and it looked very nice. Lots of money spent, good history and all the Sportline goodies. Was on for £10,950 so looks pretty good value now, unless it has something wrong with it.

 

[Vlad]

Go in with your eyes wide open....a lot of the cars at Barons get put in by the trade and some of the stuff that goes through is pretty shabby.

At this time of year, I suspect that there are a lot of trade entries coming through as traders try to clear their stocks of the stuff thats been sitting around for ages.

Also be aware of the shill bidding thats goes on

 

[janner]

This one is a Saloon.

Oops. I didn't think there where that many of them.
The E320 TT is a hoot to drive Looks like a bargain at that price but problems are expensive to sort.

edit..
Probably the most likely problems are going to be worn turbos or blown headgasket. If it's all okay then it is a total bargain. I dread to think what I've spent on mine

 

[mercboiuk]

This sounds like the one which was for sale on Merc Seller.com and then on Pistonheads. It was in Suffolk, and had just over 100k miles, IIRC.

Very well specc'ed, too (again, IIRC).
If this one, when it was for sale on Pistonheads, it was aroun £6,500. And the estime is £2-3k!

Darren

 

[mercboiuk]

I've just seen on the website a photo, and yes, it's the one I thought it was. The wheels aren't genuine AMG, but it has the Sportline chassis and interior, as part of it's options.​

​

BARONS LINKY

Darren​

 

[liiive_o]

i still have my TT Janner lol

i found the problem and hopefully will be fixed asap. A merc/turbo specialist is working on my car from his home garage and he said everything is perfect and done to a high standard,and the main problem for fuel economy/smoke/ smell/performance is because of the Turbos. The bearing kit which spins the turbine can only move around 1-2mm's,mines moving about 5-6 mm's so need to send it off to TT as they are the only ones to fix it. £190+vat for each turbo and problem solved.


Back to subject, Go for the Sallooon as believe me,these cars are very unique and rare and not for the faint hearted as they can shift

 

[Roger Jones]

Thanks for clarification, liiive_o. How many miles on the car and is the turbo system the one originally fitted?

 

[liiive_o]

Yes everything in the car is original by turbo technics which was fitted in 1995 by hughes of beaconsfield. The car has done 147k. The turbos have been changed once i think, and i will probably change them again unless i can fix the bearing problem. Other than that, its immaculate, head gasket has been done as well,so looking good so far, hopefully by summer new paintjob and the wald bodykit will be fitted, with front mounted intercooler,splitsecond fuel/air management system,boost controller and turbo timer.

 

[neilrr]

I saw that cart when Baron's first listed it, with v. little info.

I was more interested before I discovered it has a TT twin turbo. As a standard spec car it looked like a nice well optioned car.

I've not had good luck with turbo charged cars - E23 745i Exec - crashed, 930 - crashed, Thunderbird Turbo - replaced every component on it, some several times, managed to not crash that.

 

[Roger Jones]

Thanks again.

I am interested because the turbos on mine were changed at 115k; at 179k I'm having no problems. It also had a new gearbox at 100k; I guess it had not been treated gently.

The remarkable problem in my car's history is its appetite for radiators. Looking back through all the heated correspondence and invoices, it looks like poor fitting by Hughes of Beaconsfield was the main explanatory factor. The fourth was fitted at 118k (of two in 1999 alone), the fifth at 139k, and I had a sixth fitted on acquiring the car at 172k (although could probably have let the minor leakage persist). No further problems yet.

Great car with performance matching or exceeding its much-coveted 500 sibling (and RHD and standard W124 parts too, of course).

 

[liiive_o]

i think i have a problem with my radiator too,will have a look at it after turbos fixed.
also my thermostat seems to be faulty 2 as i dnt get much hot air.
Turbos last up to 70k depends on how they have been treated, if i change the turbine bearing and everything is fine i might not go for new turbos.

as for performance, i think the 3.2 24v TT keeps up with CL55,not the kompressor 1 though.

i want to test it against a bmw M3 one day i hope its faster.

 

[maggot]

I'm sure for the price they charge Turbo Technics would like you to think they are the only people to re-con Turbos, but there are plenty of others. The original T2's from my turbo w124 were done by http://www.turbodynamics.co.uk/

i still have my TT Janner lol

i found the problem and hopefully will be fixed asap. A merc/turbo specialist is working on my car from his home garage and he said everything is perfect and done to a high standard,and the main problem for fuel economy/smoke/ smell/performance is because of the Turbos. The bearing kit which spins the turbine can only move around 1-2mm's,mines moving about 5-6 mm's so need to send it off to TT as they are the only ones to fix it. £190+vat for each turbo and problem solved.


Back to subject, Go for the Sallooon as believe me,these cars are very unique and rare and not for the faint hearted as they can shift

 

[aka$h]

Made £3.5k, so more than the guide was. Still a lot of car for the money.

 

[Vlad]

The owner of the car was at the auction and I got speaking to him.....he owns the Spearmint Rhino brand here in the UK and he's selling or has sold up and is moving back to South Africa.

He also had a 1990 23,000 mile Ferrari Testarossa in the auction.

 

[aka$h]

He also had a 1990 23,000 mile Ferrari Testarossa in the auction.

Bet that made a fair bit more! What did you think of twin turbo? Had it been a coupe, cabriolet or estate even, Id have been interested but 1 e36 saloon is enough for me.

 

[Vlad]

I loved it...so much so that I bought it!

I've missed the 300E TT that I sold a couple of years ago and this was too good to miss.

Everything stacked up, ie service history is spot on and I was pleased with its overall condition and its specification, ie Colour (Bornite which is one of my favourites....my R129 300-24SL is Bornite as well) Sportline, Climate Control, Electric Memory Seats, ASR, ...as per my previous TT, I'm pleased its another saloon, as that was what I loved most about my previous TT, ie it was very understated, even down to little 15" alloys and nothing to give the game away apart from when you put your toe down and I have some very good memories of taking that car over to Germany and seeing the looks of bewilderment from drivers in much newer metal trying to fathom out why an old W124 was out dragging them on the Autobahn......happy days!

Whats uncanny is as per my previous TT, this one has had some serious money spent on it, ie new head gasket, new turbos all at @ 95,000 miles which is similar to my last 300E TT and as per my last TT, this one has also had an appetite for radiators (Roger I hope you are reading this!) and will need a new one soon, as the espansion tank hose connector is pulling away, albeit its currently held in with araldite by the looks of things.

Service history on the car shows that its done very little mileage in the last 5-6 years, ie @ 5k.

It drives very well and performance is very strong, ie made me exclaim outloud when I gave it the beans accelerating onto the A3 last night...something along the lines of "Woah....S**t"

I'm currently building a list of things that need sorting

1) Brakes....rubbish....i suspect that having sat around for many years it needs new pads, discs and probably the calipers looking at.

2) New Radiator...luckily I've got two virtually new ones in my shed.

3) New Tyres...again due to sitting around I suspect that the tyres have flat spotted as at speed there is noticeable vibration from the steering wheel and its had a new steering damper in the last 10,000 miles and the tyres are showing no excessive wear to the inner or outer edges.

4) Wiring Harness.....I suspect that I may end up putting a new one on, assuming that its not already had one. I'll check the existing one ASAP.

5) Bodywork.....very good with very good paintwork, except on the offside front wing lip which has a small patch of rust just starting to spider out under the paintwork.

6) Exhaust....currently wearing a standard 320E exhaust, which must be strangling some BHP....I wonder what happend to the original TT Stainless unit it should be wearing?

The next dilema I have is what to do with my 300-24V SL....I spent a long time looking for it and have done virtually all of the things on the "to-do list" that I made when I purchased the car 2.5 years ago and its a lovely car, low mileage, nice spec etc, but I suspect that I will have to sell the SL as I would want to free up the garage for the TT.