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W124 E220 Estate tidy up. Will I ever learn?

312 Sprinter

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Aug 24, 2010
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Following on from my thread in new members I thought I'd post up a little thread about my brother in law's E220 estate. His BMW diesel has just bitten the dust, as they're wont to do. It gobbled up a swirl flap or two; game over. To be honest I'm pleased to see the back of it, horrible unreliable torture devices that BMWs are.......

Anyway, the quest was on for another set of wheels. One evening over a good meal and a glass or two of wine I declared that it really isn't necessary to spend lots of money in order to drive a decent reliable car. I must have sounded convincing, or Bacchus clouded my brother in law's judgement :devil: whichever it was the search was on for a car. It had to be an estate, it wasn't allowed to have a BMW badge and it had to be quality. That'll be a Mercedes or a Volvo then......

He was seduced by the three pointed star. John and I started searching. I vetoed the idea of a W210, I had an E320 CDI and it made even a BMW look reliable, though I loved it when everything worked at the same time. We briefly looked at C250s but a large dog, 2 large kids and a petite wife made them look a tad small. (the latter is just in case my sister ever reads this).

That'll be a W124 on the menu then. We looked at a few. These cars are starting to attract the creative advert writers. We drove a few hours to look at a diesel with virtually no brakes, dodgy history, the aroma of dog and an interior that seems to have made and adequate substitute for Pedigree Chum for the afore mentioned canine. I'd also spotted a silver E220 with a rather uninformative description. The bad news was that it had been crashed and declared a Cat C write off. It hadn't been repaired but had been VIC tested. Since all we were finding were dogs, cars that smelled of dog, or car chewed by dogs we decided to go have a look. Coincidentally it wasn’t far from Battersea.:D

What we found is a really rather nice E220.
 
I got to get to thirty you know:p Hang on a sec, I may even post a picture of German loveliness.

marlene_der_blaue_engel.jpg
 
Anyway, as I was saying we found a rather nice E220. It is a fairly basic spec car, black cloth interior and it lacks air co. On the plus side however it has done a genuine 80K miles.

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There is a whole load of history, going right back to the mid 90s, more than enough history to confirm the mileage as genuine.

After the car was "crashed" it wasn't ever repaired fully. Apparently what happened was that a van backed into the NS headlight, broke the light and put a slight crease in thw wing. Every single panel on the car is original still. The headlight got changed, the VIC test was carried out and the car was left unused. It rells you more about the importance of having appropriate insurance on your classic car than it tells you about the damage done!

Below is the crashed NS, the headlight wiper was never replaced

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And this is the crease in the wing!

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Once we’d counted over a wodge of cash, been treated to Arabic coffee and dates, found all the papers and received the keys it was time to discover what we’d really bought. As you can see from the photos there isn’t a spot of rust on the car; pretty unusual for a W124 these days. Even the front wings don’t have the customary rot.

The plan was simple, put in some fuel and drive it home. The car hadn’t been driven for 18 months, but it had been MOTd in July this year, which made life rather easier. It started up readily and seemed eager for a taste of the open road. Unfortunately a rather congested North Circular had to substitute. I quickly found the first issue. When sitting in traffic the temperature starts to creep. It never gets anywhere near the danger zone but it isn’t right. Mercedes want 120 quid for a new viscous fan coupling, Euro car parts about £60.00 and evil bay has them for under 40. Decisions, decisions, decisions....

The second issue I found is that driving it requires a display of two footed virtuosity that would make Timo Mäkinenproud. Every time you allow the revs to drop or do something as adventurous as select Drive or Reverse the engine dies. The only solution for getting it home was to left foot brake and gently up the idle with a delicate size 12 boot. Despite these minor travails it sailed home in imperious fashion.

I rather grew to like my surroundings as I drove home. The radio is comprehensively stuffed but John wants a digital media player. The interior is perfect, no rips, no tears, flawless headlining and nary a whiff of dog. There are no nasty noises from anywhere, the gearbox changes up and down perfectly and the engine pulls well once you get your Timo impression right to get it to move in the first place.

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I began to mentally compose a list of what I want to do to the car to get it up to scratch.

The steel wheel need to go

It needs some paintwork

It needs a valet

It needs a full service

John must have his digital media player (Alpine IDA-X305S is now sitting on my desk

Bonnet star

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Passenger door handle

And stop the STALLING.........
 
Why would it be Cat C with a broken headlight and a dent in the wing ? :dk:

Surely a new light and wing is less than the value of the car ?
 
Looks tidy. Needs the MB badge and some AMG alloys :D

I'm trying to find the AMG alloys, ideally I want a set of 15" ones, but I may settle for 15". The badge has been orderd from Mercedes, togeter with a bunch of boring stuff. Unfortunately they gave me a pre facelift star by mistake. They'll swap it over on Tuesday.
 
Why would it be Cat C with a broken headlight and a dent in the wing ? :dk:

Idiot insurers, they probably decided the car was worth 400 quid. They tried to write my own car off last winter for a broken rear light cluster. Fortunately my insurer intervened and it wasn't categorised at all.
 
Anyway, the E220 had made it home and it passed another hurdle when my sister and nephews gave it the thumbs up. I'd promised John that I'd go through the car for him and get it right. Clearly the first thing to do was to investigare the stalling problem.

I suspected that the stalling was due to an air leak. I thought I might as well do a basic service so I purchased some filters, a set of plugs and some Mobil 1. Surprisingly, given the car had sat for 18 months the oil was reasonablt clean, as was the old air filter. The basic cause of the stalling turned out to be that the rubber hose connecting the plastic pipe from the AMM to the throttle body hadn't been connected properly. Its clearly been like it for a long time as the hose has become distorted. However forcing it into place cured the stalling. A new hose has been ordered from Mercedes.

The next step was a quick visit to the LVLO in Northampton. The car was registered as disabled so we needed to change the taxation class. That was soon accomplished.

The fact it now both legal and ran reasonably well allowed John to use it for a few days. And that is pretty much where I've got to. A load of small bits and pieces are on order from Mercedes and no doubt I'll find more to spend money on.

We've decided to get rid of the two tone panels, I never liked them even when the cars were new, although I'll concede the silver doesn't look as bad as the pale blue or gold used to. I'm hunting a set of AMG alloys (anyone have some?).

I could do with a workshop manual, I have no idea where mine is. I reckon the idle speed is a tad low, what is it supposed to be?

The car seems to have decided it likes the attention after being neglected for 18 months. I changed the oil on the car, and that seems to have provoked the oil level warning light into coming on. Every now and then it flashes off but it comes on again.

The sunroof worked when I picked the car up, it now does nothing.

The heater was off when I picked the car up, it is now permanently on.

It better buck up its ideas, this won't do at all. Suggestions on what could cause these oddities are wlcome.

The other strange one is that the display for the outside temperature gauge shows -38 when you first switch the ignition on and then displays nothing at all:wallbash:
 
I had a quick play with the car today. One of my pet hates on a W124 is the asymmetrical mirrors. I fitted a matching mirror on the LH side today. I'm not actually sure it is a good idea, but it looks infinitely better; the jury is still out on this bright idea.

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Yesterday I gave it a comprehensive clean. All the door shuts are now immaculate, and the interior is hoovered out and shampooed where necessary.

I also pulled out the radio. There was what I assume is a temperature sensor floating around loose behind the radio, any ideas where it belongs? I wonder if it is responsible for the constant heat. I also feel some investigation of the duo valve coming on.

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The sunroof is fixed, a good clean of the fuses got it sorted. The car seems to have been so enamoured of having its fuses fiddled with that the wipers started coming on randomly. I had intermittent wipers in the off position and only a very occasional wipe on intermittent. First line of attack will be a relay re solder. None of this stuff is serious I think, it is just a symptom of it being left standing for 18 months and then rudely awakened. It actually feels mechanically strong.

As it gets used it is running better and better. I endured some open wallet surgery at the Mercedes dealer today, gearbox oil and filter, headlight wipers, new bonnet star, new door handle, new exhaust manifold gasket. The pain was eased by it being John’s hard earned cash I was spending...

I think I've tracked down some wheels for it but I haven't as yet got my grubby paws on them; watch this space.

We should start sorting the body work out early next week. I want to have its little foibles fixed before I pull it apart.
 
Until you mentioned spending John's hard earned cash I was begining to wonder whose car this was. Your own car must be feeling quite negected.

Very good find though. All done up it will give many years of satisfactory motoring. At 82k miles its just been run in.
 
Hard Earned Cash

Yeah - it's my hard earned cash actually - but hey the car only cost £700!

It's not like paying £11,000 grand for a BMW and having to sell it for scrap because a swirl-flap failed.

Not that I'm bitter or anything - but I'd rather eat a dead rat than buy another Big Money Waster.
 
Hi John, I'm having fun driving your car around. I haven't broken too much on it yet......

Yesterday the windscreen wipers decided that life obeying driver input was dull and boring, compounded I suppose by the 18 months of enforced idlenessl. All of a sudden I had wipers on the 0 setting of the switch, and I could slow them down to a sweep every 3 minutes or so by selecting the intermittent setting. That isn't quite right I think.

The first line of attack had to be the ever popular "N10" relay. If you happen to be looking for yours on a W124 it is the one my grubby finger is pointing at.

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You need to first remove the fuse box lid followed by the lid over the relays. The fuses are just an over centre clip, the relay lid requires a screw driver. It is much easier to get at the screws if you put the bonnet in the fully upright position,

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Once you pull the relay free, lever off the cover. Be careful not to damage the PCB. Have a close look at the soldered joints for cracks, they're likely to be on the joints nearest the pins.

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If you re solder the joints, and you'll have to if you want the relay to spring back to life, I suggest that as well as solder and a fine tipped soldering iron you have a de soldering tool to hand. Someone like Maplins sell them.

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It allows you to remove solder if you accidentally blob two joints together. Before you solder look carefully at the joint, some of them are very close together. Bridging them is NOT an option! The de-soldering tool simply sucks up the molten solder.

Below is the re-soldered relay, normality has been restored!

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In other news some scabby genuine AMG wheels turned up on my doorstep today. They'll be off to the wheel reconditioners tomorrow.

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Welcome to the forum John.

Your 220 is coming along nicely.

312Sprinter appears to have more than an adequate level of care for your money and your car!!

Be iinteresting to see what the Alloys look like on a silver Mercedes.

312 is that your Sprinter in the back ground with the go faster stripe?
 
Welcome to the forum John.

Your 220 is coming along nicely.

312Sprinter appears to have more than an adequate level of care for your money and your car!!

Be iinteresting to see what the Alloys look like on a silver Mercedes.

312 is that your Sprinter in the back ground with the go faster stripe?

The Sprintere with the go faster strip is indeed mine. Predictably, given my user name, it's a 312. It's a MWB medium roof. It is a good toy.
 
Thanks Trapper,

when it comes to cars, I know where to put the petrol and er, and that's it.

Very handy having a brother-in-law like Peter.

J:thumb:
 
Now I've driven the car around for a week or so, and tinkered around with its little foibles, we’ve concluded it is basically pretty nice. The time has come therefore to do some more invasive work to it.

The first step was to spend some more of John's money, it went to benefit the local paint factors and I'm now in possession of several litres of silver paint. That burst of activity was followed by an orgy of destruction. First to come off were the interior door panels, closely followed by the outer plastic door panels. I can never get those off without damaging something and the clips never seem to respond well to being re used. I simply nip the plastic fasteners off inside the door with a pair of side cutters. The panels then slide off in the manner prescribed by Mercedes. I really don’t like paint edges and overspray. The bumpers will also come off.

I also removed the plastic sill covers so I can re paint them. The condition of the sills underneath the plastic skirts wasn't too bad at all. It is limited to some corrosion on the jacking points that is unwelcome but not unexpected. It looks like it will clean up on three of the jacking points. The fourth one looks like it will require the MIG welder to be brought into play. Never mind, we have the technology. The structure of the sill itself is excellent.

In other news John decided he like remote locking. The car has the non functional remains of an alarm system which needs to be consigned to the bin. A Toad cat 1 alarm is now on order to replace it.
 

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