I've been offered a free car :-) How to get it home...

[savo]

My friend was on Holiday in Southern Ireland at Christmas when his car developed an engine problem which turned out to be from a faulty injector. A local garage then stripped the threads on the injector and has had the car sitting for 5 months. Needless to say my friend has since bought a new car and has kindly offered me the old one if I can make use of it.

The car is a 2005 E270 in otherwise good condition, no rust, good service history, garaged at night up until it's recent extended holiday.

My car is a 2003 E220 which I regularly use to tow a fairly large caravan, I've been caravanning for many years and have been licenced since the 1980s. Would I be mad towing it 100 miles home on a trailer with my E220? The combined weight of the car and trailer will be nearly 2500kgs. Obviously it being a one off journey I would drive slowly and make multiple stops etc. 2 local mechanics have said they think it'll be ok & don't understand my concers, but I thought I would also ask here. I used to drive a 3.5t lorry and will look onto the possibility of hiring some kind of lorry which could take the car.

Thanks for reading

Andrew

 

[clk320x]

If you have a trailer, I'd say do it.

 

[wu56Shoozz]

Yes, what Abs said, do it.. I believe and I may be wrong that you can helicoil the injector threads and your good to go..maybe, put a new injector in as a precaution but otherwise fine..

Update: Just Googled it - yes you can helicoil it.

 

[ioweddie]

Go For It sounds an easy project! Good Luck With It.

 

[219]

My friend was on Holiday in Southern Ireland at Christmas when his car developed an engine problem which turned out to be from a faulty injector. A local garage then stripped the threads on the injector and has had the car sitting for 5 months. Needless to say my friend has since bought a new car and has kindly offered me the old one if I can make use of it.

The car is a 2005 E270 in otherwise good condition, no rust, good service history, garaged at night up until it's recent extended holiday.

My car is a 2003 E220 which I regularly use to tow a fairly large caravan, I've been caravanning for many years and have been licenced since the 1980s. Would I be mad towing it 100 miles home on a trailer with my E220? The combined weight of the car and trailer will be nearly 2500kgs. Obviously it being a one off journey I would drive slowly and make multiple stops etc. 2 local mechanics have said they think it'll be ok & don't understand my concers, but I thought I would also ask here. I used to drive a 3.5t lorry and will look onto the possibility of hiring some kind of lorry which could take the car.

Thanks for reading

Andrew

While it may be do-able , do bear in mind that the trailer plus car will be heavier than your tow car , and well over the train weight for the car : you will be breaking the law and do run the risk , however slight , of being pulled and charged . Also , I can speak from experience when I borrowed a car trailer to dispose of a W111 Fintail ; I was going to tow it to a friend's farm about ten miles away with my W126 500SEL ; while I towed the empty trailer to my house without any problem , once I loaded the car onto the trailer the nose weight was so high that me suspension bottomed out and in the end my farmer friend came down with his Land Cruiser to take it away . There wasn't enough scope to position the car further back on the trailer to reduce nose weight . I have in the past towed car trailers with my W123 and W124 estates , which all have self levelling suspension and which coped just fine , but a saloon with standard rear suspension may have problems .

I also don't know where you are bringing the car back to ; if it is mainland UK then that would involve a ferry , and the ferry may or may not permit an illegal combo ... ? There's also the cost of taking a large trailer on the ferry .

If you can hire a car transporter , that would be a much better idea .

A friend of mine who dabbles in cars gets vehicles from NI and is friendly with another guy who works for one of the vehicle dismantlers here in Scotland and who regularly transports cars in both directions . He can generally get a car added to a load of other cars coming back to Scotland for around £100 . It might be worth exploring whether there are any other carriers who might be able to bring it back for you if they have a vehicle returning with empty space .

Final thought - is there any bill outstanding to the garage where the car is lying for work carried out so far , and storage ?

 

[SW18]

I’d think fine to take a chance and do it, except for the issue of the ferry. That’ll surely increase your chance of getting pulled for towing an excessive trailer (plenty of police around ports) and the ferry company may deny you boarding (or worse, they might let you on and then your car fail to get the trailer up the steep ramp to the car deck ).

 

[savo]

Thanks for all the replies,

Should have mentioned I live in N.Ireland, a quick look on Google Maps shows the distance as 146 miles. Possibly 50 miles or more of country roads. It could be a long day sitting at 30mph My friend is covering the cost of the garage as it includes the price of having it lifted from his holiday home. There is a new injector with the car but if it's not needed then my friend would like to try and get some money back on it. I sometimes look after his elderly dog over holidays but would never expect any payment and am a bit embarrassed with his generosity.

Your experience Derek is a bit concerning, I can't find anywhere here that would hire out a transporter and from Googling I read about someone here who got a car lifted from Southern Ireland for £300. The garage needs paid, I think I'll probably take a trailer down there with my mate when he's paying the bill and have a try.

Apparently the car was still driving just about, but I presume driving it such a long way could wreck the engine. Also my brother is in the AA, but i'd imagine that one look at the car and it'll be obvious it's been sitting months.

Can't wait to get the car safely home

 

[Harrythedog]

The last time I was in Southern Ireland I noticed the roads outside of Dublin weren't the best of surfaces so I'd take that into account

 

[kid-jensen]

Isn't the sight of an E Class Mercedes towing an "identical" E-Class Mercedes going to make it obvious that you are overweight?

I understood the police look out for this sort of thing as an easy nick.

 

[Steveml63]

Hi,
Surely it would be cheaper, easier and safer to get somebody local to where the car is currently sitting to fix the thread, refit the old (or new) injector and then drive the car home.
Cheers
Steve

 

[flowrider]

Are you in the AA or RAC or any other breakdown company, ask them to tow it from the garage to your home.

 

[kianok]

Hi,
Surely it would be cheaper, easier and safer to get somebody local to where the car is currently sitting to fix the thread, refit the old (or new) injector and then drive the car home.
Cheers
Steve

Two problems solved in one go.

 

[savo]

My parents and my brother are in the AA, but I'm sure I would have to pay a lot for them to deliver it. Having the car repaired down there would be the ideal answer, but I'm not familiar with garages near Killybegs so would be taking a gamble.

 

[m2287]

Sign up to the AA with recovery to your home from anywhere, pick up the car and call them saying you just bought it and it’s broken down, they will take you home with it and you get a years breakdown cover!

 

[219]

I suppose that if the car is still road legal you could give it a wash so that it didn’t look as if it had been sitting for five months , stick the old injector back in and drive it away from the garage , just a few miles .

Then , as long as you have full recovery with the AA , you could tell them you’d just bought the car but it broke down after five miles and you need it recovered Home .

It needs to be transported rather than towed over that distance due to being automatic.

Mercedes-Benz automatics can , in an emergency, be towed up to 20 miles at no more than 20mph , otherwise the prop shaft needs to be disconnected from the diff to avoid damage to the gearbox .

Although if you do that you could legally tow it with a tow rope , or on a dolly ( recovering from a breakdown ) . Or put the back wheels on the dolly and tow it backwards . Dolly is by some margin not as much weight as a trailer .

Other possibility is to price up hiring something like either a 3-1/2 ton van with towbar or a Land Rover to tow the car on a trailer or dolly

 

[Petrol Pete]

Sign up to the AA with recovery to your home from anywhere, pick up the car and call them saying you just bought it and it’s broken down, they will take you home with it and you get a years breakdown cover!

I was going to say exactly that. Best option ,if a bit 'dishonest' but.....

 

[saff]

I know a certain bloke who was offered a car sitting in Finchley. car was taxed and mot'd but immobile as heater matrix had burst and watered the ECU. Car was covered in bird $hit. A National Express to London then a tube ride to Finchley had them at the car. Car was washed and made to look like a recent runner and AA called. Engineer confirmed no roadside repair possible so was relayed 200 miles north to very near the said bloke's house.

Major strip out with ECU and Matrix from a donor car fixed the problem.

Was a bit naughty I guess but can be done.

 

[sturgeon]

Towball loading, noseweight, suspension bottoming out, brakes, downhill jacknife, chassis distortion, how many broken cars do you need?

Would you want to meet the outfit coming the other way?

 

[BTB 500]

Years ago I helped a friend of mine move a huge Crossley marine diesel engine (from a WW2 boat) a couple of miles by road. IIRC that weighed 3.5 tons (might have been more) ... we had it balanced on top of a single axle trailer which we towed (very slowly) behind a Land Rover. It was sitting in a garage to start with, on scaffold poles. We ran a block & tackle to a tree on the opposite side of the road and started hauling ... the engine didn't move but the tree did

 

[optimusprime]

savo i to had my w124 for free .I have been paying for it ever since lol .