W124 - worth keeping or not?

[mekon]

Hi,
My mum has an 88 200T, we originally bought it as a cheap run around whilst we got our main car sorted (290ish with 75 quids tax on it that we got refunded so really twas very cheap). She has now rather decided that she likes the car alot (not surprising really her usual car is a volvo 240! which u would have???) the MOT is up at the end of the month and we have been told by our tame volvo mechanic that there is some corrosion on the brake pipes (I wasnt there so I dont know exact details) and that it might fail an MOT on them, also i'm pretty sure the spheres for the self levelling shocks have gone, we know the self leveling is going to cost a fair bit to sort, but the interior is pretty good, and apart from some cosmetic stuff on the arches the body is reasonable, and the engine overall seems pretty good. We have been looking at selling the car and buying another one, however my mum is hell bent on having no electric windows and is keen on a leather interior....... the current car fits this description and apart from bouncing around alot on country roads is pretty good.
Does anyone know of a cheap Merc friendly garage in the norwich norfolk area? we'd really like it looked at by someone whos familiar with them, my logic being any replacement car we get would need the shocks doing cos its a common thing at this age, is it worth us doing this one up and keeping it, or should we keep looking for a replacement?

Good things
Clean, tidy leather interior
Smooth quiet engine
No electric windows
fairly low mileage (for one of these) 178k


Bad things
Corroded brake pipes
hydraulic spheres
Wheel arches
Locking is a bit weird. Drivers door wont unlock with drivers key but sometimes will with passenger key....which is not supposed to work at all according to the handbook.


(yea i know im crap at punctuation and sentence structure... feel free to ridicule)

 

[Dieselman]

Any car will cost money in ongoing repairs, so if the bill isn't really steep then I'd say fix it if that's all that's wrong.

Those items aren't going to crop up again so I't not as if there will constantly be repairs needed.

Are the brake pipes definately corroded bad enough to fail te h MOT test.? Maybe a clean-up and some waxoyl is all that's required there.

 

[aka$h]

If you dont need to have the self leveling suspension, you could just replace the rear shocks with standard ones.

 

[mekon]

is it possible to do that? put normal shocks on the estates? cos self leveling isnt a must, mostly its only carrying people or the occasional piece of furniture, it doesn't spend its time carrying 2 tons of sand or anything!

 

[6CylinderMerc]

<Does anyone know of a cheap Merc friendly garage in the norwich norfolk area?>
Autotechnic in Chedgrave nr Loddon. Never used them so can't comment on what they're like........

 

[bolide]

If you dont need to have the self leveling suspension, you could just replace the rear shocks with standard ones.

Except that will cost more than a pair of spheres and won't work as well

Why is everyone so terrified of self-levelling suspension?

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk

 

[GRAV888]

I was going to put normal shocks on the 190 I bought a couple of years ago.
The price to change systems was stupid and in the end I got 2 spheres from ECP for £49 each.

 

[mattc]

keep it, get sorted. self levelling is great for ride comfort (compred to my coupe on sportline anyway!). 178K is not much mileage.

 

[willy]

keep it and get it repaired, its just run it at 178k and old mercs are pretty cheap to run as they don't depreciate anymore

 

[mekon]

ummm ok im NOT a petrolhead/mechanic or anything of that ilk but ive just poked me head around and i couldnt see anything that looked corroded.... any suggestions as to exactly where i should look?

 

[grober]

If you dont need to have the self leveling suspension, you could just replace the rear shocks with standard ones.

Can be done but not straight forward since the springs rates may be different on the self levelling cars AFAIK. Bolides the authority on these. there is a hydraulic pump involved also so might be worth getting that checked also.

As for changing the car -body condition is paramount. Check the sill jacking points and the rear subframe chassis mountings and rearwheel inner arches on a ramp for any potential future MOT problems. If the body frame (chassis ) is OK its probably worth repairing. New front wings are a bolt on job according to Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future

 

[mekon]

LOL somebody recognises the name

"according to Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future

"

 

[bolide]

Corroded brake pipes are the #1 MOT failure down here. The brake pipes, fuel pipes & self-levelling pipes will all corrode over time. Cleaning off the corrosion and greasing the pipes will stop the corrosion & probably get you an MOT pass but is obviously only an option if the car is safe

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk

 

[mekon]

Corroded brake pipes are the #1 MOT failure down here. The brake pipes, fuel pipes & self-levelling pipes will all corrode over time. Cleaning off the corrosion and greasing the pipes will stop the corrosion & probably get you an MOT pass but is obviously only an option if the car is safe

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk

i have waxoyl and wire brushes, the gravel has already killed all sensation in my knees lol so now is the time. Where do i brush????

 

[Ade B]

Obviously a different car, but when I was poking around under mine over christmas the brake pipes all looked pretty accessible - presumably they dive off into the bodywork at some point to make life difficult, but is it also possible to replace sections?


Ade

 

[mekon]

car is going into a local garage for a pre mot check, had another look and im quietly hopeful it would pass an MOT the underside looks pretty reasonable fingers crossed it passes. I cant for the life of me find any corroded brake pipes :s maybe the other guy just thinks it ought to have them and didnt actually check, he is a volvo person after all so he would like us to get rid of it....

 

[Ian B Walker]

On a 124 estate or a saloon come to think of it, the place where corrosion starts is between the rear of the subframe and the body where the brake pipe sits in 2 plastic clips. Hard to get at and see unless you have a ramp.

 

[glojo]

car is going into a local garage for a pre mot check, had another look and im quietly hopeful it would pass an MOT the underside looks pretty reasonable fingers crossed it passes. I cant for the life of me find any corroded brake pipes :s maybe the other guy just thinks it ought to have them and didnt actually check, he is a volvo person after all so he would like us to get rid of it....

That was going to be my suggestion. If your not sure what your looking at then listen to a mechanic you can trust. The car may well be worth keeping, or it might be an extremely costly bottomless pit that eats money at an enormous rate. Judging by what you have said, I would lean towards keeping it, but if the pre-inspection finds major issues then perhaps that advice might change.

good luck and fingers crossed
Regards
John

 

[mekon]

That was going to be my suggestion. If your not sure what your looking at then listen to a mechanic you can trust. The car may well be worth keeping, or it might be an extremely costly bottomless pit that eats money at an enormous rate. Judging by what you have said, I would lean towards keeping it, but if the pre-inspection finds major issues then perhaps that advice might change.

good luck and fingers crossed
Regards
John

im very definitely not sure what im looking at.... im a computing god not a mechanic.... may have to become one..... anyone know of a free online "become a master mechanic in 3 easy lessons" type page??? XD