What Have You Done To Your Merc Today?

[Bobby Dazzler]

Well this is not the list I had planned.

Having spent the day gardening at our old house - where I store some cars - inspired by @E55BOF receht purchase I thought I’d take our ML for the trip home to give it a run, and then take it back tomorrow when I go back to finish the garden.

It fired right up after having stood for 3 or 4 months on a trickle charger. The engin roared into life, the air suspension lifted and I took it straight to Shell to fill it with VPower. If I know I will not drive a car for a long time I tend to leave it with very little in.

It performed beautifully, such a wonderful car. The ride is comfortable and handles sweetly for a big old lump. Once fluids were up to temp I popped it in Sport mode for transmission and suspension to give it an Italian tune up on the dual carriageway.

I had planned to post gushing about how wonderful it is. However just a couple of miles from home the steering didn’t just go heavy - it would barely turn - so I limped to the side of the road, and called Mobilo for assistance.

Fortunately I’m close to home so Junior D - who passed her driving test on Friday - came to the rescue and collected both Baby D and the takeaway we had just picked up on the way. Now I’m sat in the car waiting for RAC recovery,

I was very lucky that whatever has failed failed where and when it did, as it’s a quiet lane, wide enough for cars to pass, in a safe spot, and I was only doing 10 mph, rather than dual carriageway speeds just 10 minutes prior.

The dealer already has one of my cars and have done for 5 or 6 weeks. This is possibly the third time in as many years that another car is recovered to them whilat they already have one long term. I hope to break this habit before it forms!

 

[ToeKnee]

Well this is not the list I had planned.

Having spent the day gardening at our old house - where I store some cars - inspired by @E55BOF receht purchase I thought I’d take our ML for the trip home to give it a run, and then take it back tomorrow when I go back to finish the garden.

It fired right up after having stood for 3 or 4 months on a trickle charger. The engin roared into life, the air suspension lifted and I took it straight to Shell to fill it with VPower. If I know I will not drive a car for a long time I tend to leave it with very little in.

It performed beautifully, such a wonderful car. The ride is comfortable and handles sweetly for a big old lump. Once fluids were up to temp I popped it in Sport mode for transmission and suspension to give it an Italian tune up on the dual carriageway.

I had planned to post gushing about how wonderful it is. However just a couple of miles from home the steering didn’t just go heavy - it would barely turn - so I limped to the side of the road, and called Mobilo for assistance.

Fortunately I’m close to home so Junior D - who passed her driving test on Friday - came to the rescue and collected both Baby D and the takeaway we had just picked up on the way. Now I’m sat in the car waiting for RAC recovery,

I was very lucky that whatever has failed failed where and when it did, as it’s a quiet lane, wide enough for cars to pass, in a safe spot, and I was only doing 10 mph, rather than dual carriageway speeds just 10 minutes prior.

The dealer already has one of my cars and have done for 5 or 6 weeks. This is possibly the third time in as many years that another car is recovered to them whilat they already have one long term. I hope to break this habit before it forms!

On a positive note, @E55BOF there maybe a spares car for sale soon......

 

[MrGreedy]

Replaced the flaking and razor sharp, dangerous steering wheel trim with a new piece. When I orderd the replacement, it was around £130 for a genuine piece from Merc, amd around £40 for a Chinese knock off. Both too expensive if you ask me for what it is - a piece of silver plastic weighing about 50 grams.

Well, surprise surprise, the Chinese piece as well as being 1/3 of the price of genuine, it's also 3x sh!tt£r!!. It's on and fits generally okay, and the non-OCD suffering amonst the population might not notice, but I can see this is going to bug me and I'm going to end up buying a genuine piece.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Well this is not the list I had planned.

Having spent the day gardening at our old house - where I store some cars - inspired by @E55BOF receht purchase I thought I’d take our ML for the trip home to give it a run, and then take it back tomorrow when I go back to finish the garden.

It fired right up after having stood for 3 or 4 months on a trickle charger. The engin roared into life, the air suspension lifted and I took it straight to Shell to fill it with VPower. If I know I will not drive a car for a long time I tend to leave it with very little in.

It performed beautifully, such a wonderful car. The ride is comfortable and handles sweetly for a big old lump. Once fluids were up to temp I popped it in Sport mode for transmission and suspension to give it an Italian tune up on the dual carriageway.

I had planned to post gushing about how wonderful it is. However just a couple of miles from home the steering didn’t just go heavy - it would barely turn - so I limped to the side of the road, and called Mobilo for assistance.

Fortunately I’m close to home so Junior D - who passed her driving test on Friday - came to the rescue and collected both Baby D and the takeaway we had just picked up on the way. Now I’m sat in the car waiting for RAC recovery,

I was very lucky that whatever has failed failed where and when it did, as it’s a quiet lane, wide enough for cars to pass, in a safe spot, and I was only doing 10 mph, rather than dual carriageway speeds just 10 minutes prior.

The dealer already has one of my cars and have done for 5 or 6 weeks. This is possibly the third time in as many years that another car is recovered to them whilat they already have one long term. I hope to break this habit before it forms!

I received a text message from the RAC who operate Mobilo in the UK on behalf of Mercedes, saying that the recovery would be 30 minutes later than previously advised so rather than wait 2.5 hours trying not to think about needing a wee, I got Junior D to pick me up.

I arrived home and jumped straight in the shower, still a very comfortable 2h 20m from the estimated recovery time received 15 minutes prior. The very moment I stepped in the shower the driver called to say he’s be there in 10 minute!s!

Jumped out of the shower and straight back to the car. Recovered in minutes and on its way to a secure storage yard. Overall very good service but how they go the timing so wrong is anyone’s guess. The RAC tracker still thinks I’m waiting for the recovery truck to arrive.

Whilst I was sat in the car, only five or six cars passed me. Ironically one of them was a breakdown assistance van from the very same independent recovery outfit, and he passed me twice! Remarkable coincidence!

 

[E55BOF]

On a positive note, @E55BOF there maybe a spares car for sale soon......

I definitely don't like it that much...

 

[W1ghty]

Got back from a couple of weeks in the Dordogne , France yesterday . So it was car cleaning time to get all the flies and tree sap off the old girl .
She scrubbed up well .

 

[SmartAmg]

Got back from a couple of weeks in the Dordogne , France yesterday . So it was car cleaning time to get all the flies and tree sap off the old girl .
She scrubbed up well .
View attachment 159315

Very well!

 

[Skd884]

 

[ToeKnee]

Cleaned the SL inside and out yesterday and filled it full of momentum, it's off to Edinburgh on Thursday for the weekend, back on Monday. Unfortunately I'll be staying home.........

 

[8bit]

Took the front plate and mounting plinth off to see if I can potentially mount the plate directly to the bumper, as I don't like the big, dark grey, plastic plinth. It's doable, can drill the plate in the positions that the plinth mounts to but I'm not sure if it looks a little unfinished without the plinth, also wondering if there's some functional reason for having the plinth...

Before:


"After":


If I was going to do it permanently I'd get a fresh plate made up but I stopped short of drilling this one for now. There's a company in Australia that do a much smaller plinth which can't be seen behind the plate but I don't think that's suitable for UK sized plates. Wish there was a slimmer alternative in the UK, if anyone knows of such a thing please let me know!

 

[ChrisPDuck]

Wish there was a slimmer alternative in the UK, if anyone knows of such a thing please let me know!

I've used a plate holder on the front and back of my W221 - similar to this: 2x car number plate holder frame surround gel dome best fit for Merc *LICENCED* | eBay

They look better than a bare plate IMO, and they can be screwed to the car using whatever holes are already present in the bumper or boot lid, and then you don't need to drill any holes in the plate itself.

 

[tmwsccsh]

Took the front plate and mounting plinth off to see if I can potentially mount the plate directly to the bumper, as I don't like the big, dark grey, plastic plinth. It's doable, can drill the plate in the positions that the plinth mounts to but I'm not sure if it looks a little unfinished without the plinth, also wondering if there's some functional reason for having the plinth...

Speaking from experience, but with a Jag X-Type not a Merc, the plinth saved me a cracked bumper in the snow a couple of years ago.

Was driving slowly through the local Tesco (other supermarkets are available) car park and, even though I had 4-wheel drive, it skidded and the front went into one of the bollards in the car park.

Number plate and plinth cracked but the bumper didn't have any damage whatsoever.

Even though it was a low-speed impact, I am sure if the plinth hadn't been there there would have been damage to the bumper...

Just another view on it...

TMW

 

[8bit]

I've used a plate holder on the front and back of my W221 - similar to this: 2x car number plate holder frame surround gel dome best fit for Merc *LICENCED* | eBay

They look better than a bare plate IMO, and they can be screwed to the car using whatever holes are already present in the bumper or boot lid, and then you don't need to drill any holes in the plate itself.

Interesting option, thanks. How does the plate secure to the holder, if not with screws? Also the W204 front bumper is not flat, not sure about the W221, will the holder cope with that, do you think?

@tmwsccsh - that's good to know, thanks. I'll bear that in mind. Nice to meet another ex-Jaguarista, I had two XKRs and an XF S before the C63!

 

[tmwsccsh]

@tmwsccsh - that's good to know, thanks. I'll bear that in mind. Nice to meet another ex-Jaguarista, I had two XKRs and an XF S before the C63!

Yeah was a Jaguarista (not heard that before!) for many years. 3x X-Types, 1x XJS and 1x XK8 Convertible over time. 2nd X-Type I had for over 10 years and it had 388,000 miles on it when I had to let it go owing to the dreaded sill rot that affects them. Shame - I wanted to get it to 500,000...

TMW

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Took the front plate and mounting plinth off to see if I can potentially mount the plate directly to the bumper, as I don't like the big, dark grey, plastic plinth. It's doable, can drill the plate in the positions that the plinth mounts to but I'm not sure if it looks a little unfinished without the plinth, also wondering if there's some functional reason for having the plinth...

Before:
View attachment 159324

"After":
View attachment 159325

If I was going to do it permanently I'd get a fresh plate made up but I stopped short of drilling this one for now. There's a company in Australia that do a much smaller plinth which can't be seen behind the plate but I don't think that's suitable for UK sized plates. Wish there was a slimmer alternative in the UK, if anyone knows of such a thing please let me know!

Try colour coding the plinth to mask it.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Interesting option, thanks. How does the plate secure to the holder, if not with screws? Also the W204 front bumper is not flat, not sure about the W221, will the holder cope with that, do you think?

The holder has a frame which opens up to put the plate in and then clips closed to hold it in.

You can mount them to a bent bumper (without a plinth) but you would be best to apply some heat, bend it very slightly, and then let it cool whilst bent.

I use frames and have one fitted to a car without a plinth (plinths weren’t used on that model) and I’ll try to take a photo. It doesn’t follow the curve of the bumper but is slightly bent.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

I received a text message from the RAC who operate Mobilo in the UK on behalf of Mercedes, saying that the recovery would be 30 minutes later than previously advised so rather than wait 2.5 hours trying not to think about needing a wee, I got Junior D to pick me up.

I arrived home and jumped straight in the shower, still a very comfortable 2h 20m from the estimated recovery time received 15 minutes prior. The very moment I stepped in the shower the driver called to say he’s be there in 10 minute!s!

Jumped out of the shower and straight back to the car. Recovered in minutes and on its way to a secure storage yard. Overall very good service but how they go the timing so wrong is anyone’s guess. The RAC tracker still thinks I’m waiting for the recovery truck to arrive.

Whilst I was sat in the car, only five or six cars passed me. Ironically one of them was a breakdown assistance van from the very same independent recovery outfit, and he passed me twice! Remarkable coincidence!

Finally receive a call with the diagnosis. It’s what I told them when I called Mobilo on Sunday night and then told the dealer when it arrived with them first thing yesterday.

They’re still charging me £200 for the diagnosis which I’m not impressed with given that I told them and they would confirm within 15 seconds of popping the bonnet.

Parts should arrive tomorrow.

 

[ChrisPDuck]

The holder has a frame which opens up to put the plate in and then clips closed to hold it in.

You can mount them to a bent bumper (without a plinth) but you would be best to apply some heat, bend it very slightly, and then let it cool whilst bent.

Yes - the frame clips together to hold the plate firmly between the backing and the border.
The front of the W221 has a small kink in the centre, and in my case the frame accommodated the small bend quite easily. In fact, my bumper also has a fairly slimline plinth, but that follows the contour of the bumper, so the kink is the same.

 

[ToeKnee]

Finally receive a call with the diagnosis. It’s what I told them when I called Mobilo on Sunday night and then told the dealer when it arrived with them first thing yesterday.

They’re still charging me £200 for the diagnosis which I’m not impressed with given that I told them and they would confirm within 15 seconds of popping the bonnet.

Parts should arrive tomorrow.

Another name to add to the list.....
MobBobbyilo Dazzler

 

[SpikyMikey]

Got back from a couple of weeks in the Dordogne , France yesterday . So it was car cleaning time to get all the flies and tree sap off the old girl .
She scrubbed up well .
View attachment 159315

Squeaky clean