0ldCh0d

I didn’t know that this thread existed until @inconsistantpointed me in this direction,

So, shamelessly taken from my Show us your modern daily shite thread,

is my now regrettably sold Ford Fiesta ST150, pictured with one of my mates blue ST150. 
 

BMW X5 & the Chinese rip off/copy version 

1 hour ago, Mrcento said:

It's not. At least not now, in 2024, where even a sticker out of place in the ever tightening world of insurance = a firm NOPE from the run of the mill places.

Vast, vast majority of places will not touch a TX, Has to be specialist decommissioned cab insurance. I don't know for sure when this became a thing, because i'm absolutely sure you could stick one on a normal car policy a few years back, There's a couple of cabbies that live either end of my street that have had them up for sale when they've taken them out of service, and i'm 99.9% certain i've looked at them back then and was getting quotes fairly easy. Seem to remember they were fairly pricey for what they are, but certainly not out of the realms of realism either.

And the really weird thing is, i've looked at E7's before (the older spec Citroen Dispatch/Peugeot boxer ones based on the old Synergies etc) and could get insurance on them really easily and fairly cheaply through mainstream insurers (From memory, they wanted about £500 fully Comp around July 2023). They just treated them like the MPV version. Even though running the plate for the quote would come back as 'Peugeot E7'.

I just looked what it would be for one the other day (after reading the trouble LBF had trying to find anyone who would insure a TX4), and the identical car i tried to get insured on before and could with next to no bother, not a single insurer would touch now with a bargepole. Not even 'nope, but here's a stupid price to ensure you don't do it' price, not a single quote.

Apologies in that case. I (wrongly as you have pointed out now) just thought it would be relatively straightforward to get normal insurance for the LTi TX vehicles.

 I do remember when I had the old TX1, I never had any problem or issues with my insurance company after I added it to my then insurance policy. 
it may have been the same as what you have just explained back in January 2020, with regards to it being nigh on impossible to get insurance for it on a normal standard insurance policy. However I don’t know as I had a trader’s policy back then.

Thank you for sharing & pointing that out, as I have a little itch for another one of these, but after reading your post, I’m not so sure now. 

16 hours ago, chancer said:

They are brilliant in their own special way. Nothing else feels or drives like them. 

Who did you manage to insure it with. Asking for a friend* 🤣

At the time, I had my trader’s policy, which I just added it on to.

However, I think it would be relatively easy to insure it on a normal insurance policy.

16 hours ago, warren t claim said:

Gold spec. Quite rare.

Really? I didn’t know that. I don’t have it now unfortunately (I kind of now regret selling it to be honest) 

Pardon my ignorance here, but do you know what Gold spec is? As in over a standard TX1 model? I didn’t know that it was quite rare until you said.

Here is the one I bought straight out of service in January 2020. 
A Tx1 with the old 2.7 Nissan lump.

It had done a nice low mileage of 419,366 miles.

It still had the meter in it. 
me & a mate brought it back from Edinburgh.

These are genuinely superb things & if anyone who is tempted to get one, I highly recommend you do. 
 

Superb old things, I am tempted to get another one.

Here is my lorry.

17 minutes ago, SiC said:

I6 or V6? 

The 7G box is much more fuel efficient than the 5G box from its more liberal use of the torque converter lockup. 

Being a 2003, I would say it will be the L6 3.2 engine.
Although it appears that I am wrong here, as it has been mentioned that it’s the V6. Doh!

As for the auto box, if it’s the 5 speed 722.6 it is pretty much bombproof. The only real issue with these as they get older is the conductor plate fucking up.

this is obvious because it feels like the gears are slipping & it usually doesn’t change into anything above 3rd gear.

Relatively easy to replace (plenty guides on the Tube of you) but I will say, if replacing the conductor plate, use only genuine Mercedes transmission fluid, as the box is fussy with cheap shite.

Once replaced though, the box will be like new & shift seamlessly.

25 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Gonna do it up, or sentimental reasons?

It’s probably sentimental reasons now, as it’s been sitting there for so long now.

but, I have tried for years to get him to sell it to me, the pictures were taken last year (when I tried again to get him to sell it).

This has been sitting on one of my mates driveway for at least 15 years now, his Dad will not sell it (I have tried & tried to buy this)  the mileage is genuine also.

it’s looking worse for wear now (as you will be able to see)

A rusty W220...albeit a pre-facelift model, but rusty as fuck. Bet it still drives well though ?????
 

1 hour ago, Pete-M said:

Mercedes are like that. If you've only driven a good one for say 20 miles they don't feel anything special, if anything they're a bit dull. They take a fair while to get used to. 

I did 700 miles in one hit in the C32 the other day, other than stopping for fuel we didn't get out of it. Thing is, at the end of the run neither of us had any aches or pain and we walked about 6 miles around Bonn after arriving in Germany. That, to me, is the sign of a very comfortable car.  I used to regularly do 300 mile days in new Škoda Superbs and while they were comfy I'd often get out with a dead leg and sore back. When I drove the XJR to Czech in one hit I felt like I'd been through a mangle, yet ask most folk which is more comfy after 50 miles and most folk will say the Jag. Ask again after 500 miles I reckon most folk would choose the Merc.

Thing with a good Mercedes is the stability. Drive one for a few hundred miles and they're very relaxing, they don't tramline or need constant steering correction as they just go where they're pointed.  Even my shabby old E320 CDI S210 blew the XJR away for comfort on a run to Czech.

The other thing with Mercedes is (W210 onward) they handle far better than most people imagine. People seem to think that because Mercs don't twitch and wriggle all the time they don't handle. Drive a Merc correctly and they're bloody quick but don't feel like they're going fast. It's easy to keep up with a hard driven 5 series in the equivalent Merc, but you get out of the Merc feeling relaxed. 

I'm taking the C32 with me when I move to Germany. It really comes into its own on German roads, whether they're Autobahns or twisties. 

 

I would love to take this on the Autobahn, I might plan to do that next year sometime. I can only imagine how good the C32 would be on the Autobahn...that would be amazing. 
 

I also agree with you regarding the comfort of a Mercedes, I used to get a sore neck & leg after driving the Audi for a long distance & cramp in my right leg also, however, in the Mercedes, I don’t suffer from any of that after doing a distance in it. I went down to Newcastle on Monday just past there & it was an awesome journey in the Mercedes, I got out in Newcastle feeling as good as I did when I set off. 

47 minutes ago, Pete-M said:

I suspect the tales of doom mainly eminate from people who buy old cars for a few grand from auctions etc and imagine that an S500 won't be much more expensive to maintain than their previous "big car" which has probably been something like a Mondeo.

Shortly after, they discover an oil change using the correct oil is £100 in materials alone, that the V8 is twin spark and needs 16 spark plugs (and more often than not a new set of leads), that the exhaust system is expensive and cracked (because they didn't change all 16 plugs and ran it with a misfire for two months) and that the reason it was in the auction in the first place was because the suspension air pump was fked. They moan that the cheap Sandnail tyres that cost £150 less than proper ones don't grip as well as the factory Michelin or Continental jobs it is meant to be on.

Usual routine. If you buy a car that cost £100k new then it will cost more to maintain than one that cost £25k new. 

If you buy one that has been meticulously serviced and you continue to service it properly it'll go forever. The issue is when someone has bought it for £10k 10 years old, ran it for two years without doing anything to it, flogged it on for for £5k to someone else who just wanted cheap bling who gets his mate to stamp up the history with a blag service stamp and it eventually ends up being flogged again, three years after it last had an oil change to someone who then spends all their time slagging the thing off as being a "badly made piece of unreliable tat" on the Internet, thereby driving down the values of the good ones and making their owners think "it's only worth £3k, I'd be mad spending £1k maintaining it this year" and they all end up in car sales pitches in Alum Rock before being scrapped.

Then 10 years later someone finds one that has been properly maintained and declares them the best car in the world, driving the values of the good ones back up. 

Very well said, I couldn’t have put that any better. That’s completely true. 
I thankfully did not buy the car from an auction, it was a private sale & bought from a respectable man, who was only selling it due to his ill health, he said that he would cry when he saw it going away & I genuinely do believe that, I would have aswell if it had been me. 
He had looked after it as it should have been, it has been serviced when it should have been (the service book is testament to this, plus all receipts for any work that has been done to it over the time he has owned it) I certainly didn’t buy it blind, as you say, that would have been a crazy move.

 I can say that I did expect it to cost a bit more to run than my Audi A4 2.0T Quattro that I had up until I bought the Mercedes, but the truth be told, it genuinely has not been a massive expense between the running of them, but I was prepared for that. On a run at 70-80 mph, it averages 28.3 mpg, I only know this because I checked it on the computer display. Yes, it will cost me more to service than the Audi did, but as you say, it was a £100k car back in 2003, & it’s still going to cost that bit more to service it etc even now.

The Mercedes is a sublime driving car, you get out of it after a long distance still feeling as fresh as you did when you set off. I certainly don’t miss my Audi, that’s for sure.

 I have just covered around 100 miles in it today, it’s just one of they car’s that every time you drive it, You love it more.

1 hour ago, HarmonicCheeseburger said:

I do love how you hear stories about certain cars being certain doom, yet you see them pottering about seemingly daily.  If they are all so bad, how are they managing? 

Lovely car.

Exactly, I agree with you 100% on your comment.

You only hear about the one’s that have FTP’d, yet there are hundreds of thousands of W220’s worldwide & the vast majority of them are running about still. Yes, they will have their problems over time, but so do other manufacturers, there is no such thing as 100%  total reliability with any vehicle.

They are designed to fail or break from time to time, some issues/problems more expensive than others.
 

overall, I am very happy with the big thing, it might be 17 years old now, but it runs & drives like it is new.

Thank you also for you comment, it is a lovely big thing. 

2 hours ago, Schaefft said:

How's the 7G-tronic? I hear nothing but bad things about it, which is why there is a narrow time frame where you can get the ideal spec, facelift but still with the old 5-speed Auto.

It’s sublime, it shifts seamlessly as it should, you barely even notice it.
I also had heard bad thing’s about the 7G-tronic transmission, like valve body’s & conductor plate issues etc. But this one is extremely good.

As for the 5 Speed Auto (722.6 transmission) these are pretty much bullet proof, & if the conductor plate fails, it’s relatively straightforward to replace, unlike the 722.9 (7G-Tronic) which if the conductor plate fails, the valve body also needs to be replaced at the same time.

22 minutes ago, mercedade said:

I'll take a look, just as soon as I've worked out what on earth 'taking a look' at fibre optic cables means ?

I'm out of my depth as soon as I have to change the dial on my mulitmeter from anything other than 'continuity'

The fibre optic cables are the orange ones, they plug into each part of the stereo system, so one will be plugged into your amplifier & then so on, they can be unplugged & checked fairly easy. 
when you unplug the fibre optic plug, have someone turn on the radio & you look at the plug, you will see a little red light flash inside the plug as you are looking at it, if it flashes red, this is working, so plug it back in & then follow the orange cable to the next part & do the same thing, if you come across one that doesn’t flash, this will be your problem.

It sounds confusing, but it’s genuinely fairly straight forward to check. 
if you have any doubt, just look up Mercedes Fibre optic cable check, there is a wealth of information on how to check the cables & trouble shoot them.

again, I am not saying 100% that the fibre optic cabling is your problem, but it is certainly worth checking incase it is. 
& if it’s not, then sack my advice ???
 

21 minutes ago, Pete-M said:

Have you reset the throttle and transmission adaptations on it yet? 

Takes 5 minutes and no tools and is worth doing every now and then. 

Get in, close door, ignition on (engine off), foot fully down on throttle so kickdown engages for 20 seconds, keep foot on throttle and switch off ignition (keep key in, don't touch anything or open doors etc), take foot off throttle, wait for approx 2 minutes during which you'll hear (very quiet) clicks and clunks from the gearbox solenoids as the transmission resets.

It'll go like the clappers next time you drive it as it'll have to relearn your driving style, but after a few miles it'll calm right down and be nicer to drive. 

No, I have not done that yet, but I will give it a go over the weekend. I have not done that on it since I’ve had it.

18 minutes ago, Pete-M said:

Good man. It is good to know that I'm not the only person on the planet who likes early 2000s Mercedes. 

Then again, I was telling folk W210s are brilliant long before they became trendy. 

Ignore the naysayers. The S class was built to run on the Autobahn all day, it'll be decent on fuel if you're just doing 70-80 mph. 

When I bought my C32 people were saying "that'll be a money pit, it's high mileage, it'll be unreliable, you're mad" yet 2.5 years in I've just returned from a 1850 mile round trip around Europe in it. 

 

I am a Mercedes licker, I love them, more so big Mercedes like the E class (W210, W211 etc) I was originally looking at E55 AMG’s, but the W211 E55 are still pricey despite their age now, so I then looked at the E500 W211, but I only seen one late model & again, that was pricey. I had not thought of a W220 S Class until this one popped up on my search radar, So I decided that it was well worth a look after asking the seller lots of questions about it (suspension working as it should etc) when the seller told me that it was working as it should, I arranged to go view it & when I seen it in the flesh & got taken out a run in it, I knew then that I was buying it & I am so glad that I did.

Regarding your C32, One of my friends had one of these around 10 years ago now & took me out for a blast in it, it was seriously quick, the supercharged V6 engine in these are something else, I remember being pinned back into the passenger seat when he nailed it. 
I agree with you, all the naysayers about fuel economy & being a money pit etc are just scared of the thought of running a big engined car. 
Mercedes & High Mileage go hand in hand if they are looked after, even Sprinter vans do gung ho mileages. 
I like your C32, they are an appreciating classic now, with Values only going to go one way & that’s up.

1 hour ago, spartacus said:

Boring but mildly related story.

My mate Roy reckons that very often, if you don't like a car straight away, it will very probably grow on you, and often the reverse is true.

I can remember first seeing these in the Mercedes dealer in Truro, I was very, very ruthless with my opinion of how they looked.

I was definitely wrong, they've stood the test of time very well I think, that's a fine looking well proportioned car, even, dare I say it, in resale silver.

That looks like it's been really well looked after which hopefully bodes well for the engine, 'box and suspension. Well bought.

Thank you for your comment, it is indeed a lovely looking car, the engine is sublime, it is effortless when on the move & silent when running & idling.

Believe it or not, the car is actually a lovely light metallic blue (quartz blue light is the name of the colour) & not silver, despite it looking silver in the pictures. The interior is royal blue.

& yes, it certainly does hide it’s miles well, to drive it you would have absolutely no idea it had done 20,000 miles short of 200,000 miles, it really does drive like nothing else.

6 hours ago, bigfella2 said:

Great looking car, hides it's miles well. I would have thought a Merc 5.0 V8 of this era would have been a five speed auto. 

Because it’s a facelift model, it’s a 7g transmission, I also thought that it was a 5 speed when I first bought it, but I had the VIN number decoded on a Mercedes website & it is a 7g transmission, which was a pleasant surprise. That’s when I also found out that it was an L (long wheelbase) model also.

8 minutes ago, mercedade said:

I haven't, but that's only because I've only lost sound to one of the four output channels. 

I've tried a couple of head units (including one that didn't have the external amp lead connected - took me ages to work out why I was suddenly getting no sound at all...) 

I am not saying that it is the fibre optic cabling for certain, but it is worth a look, someone has previously been messing around with the fibre optic cabling in my S500, I got the radio & sat nav etc working for about 3 days & then it went back to what it was doing when I first got the car, no sound, nothing, just the head unit turning on..doing it’s checks & then saying system unavailable, then turning itself off. I plan to investigate it further soon.

I know I have not posted on here for a long time, but I thought that I would share my new daily wheels...

it’s a 2003, 53 (Facelift) S500 L (long wheel base)

just ticked over to 180,364 miles (I got it at 179,220 miles) 

What a car, it is NOT greedy on fuel despite everyone telling me before I got it that it would be, it’s not.

5.0 V8, 306bhp 7 speed Auto.

its seriously lovely, riding on the airmatic suspension.

barely above idle speed at 80mph & for it’s size, it’s seriously quick when it is needed.

Also, the silence inside is amazing, you can barely hear any noise, it’s so silent & insulated from the outside world.

Yes, I know that most people will tell me about the horrors of the W220 Mercedes-Benz S Class, but this is a good one, no rust or rot (early examples up until 2002 were notoriously bad for rot everywhere) the 2003 facelift model onwards were not as bad.

& my one is not blighted with any rot.

Here it is, after being fully valeted today.

On 9/16/2020 at 4:09 PM, mercedade said:

When I picked up the car, Keith mentioned it had a dodgy front  left speaker which had been cutting in and out.

These have a fancy Bose amp set up, so it takes the signals from whatever headunit is installed and pulls it through a Bose staging amp. Then, using only the front channels, it powers a mid-range and tweeter in each door, plus two miniature woofers, one behind each seat mounted in the bulkhead. 

Neither the mid nor the tweeter in the left door work, so I did wonder if perhaps some dodgy cabling had got snagged/broken.

However, no amount of wiggling and wobbling could get a signal up and running. I suspect the amp, which lives on a cool little board under the passenger's feet

I can see one on ebay for £30 so, once I've done a final shake and wobble, I'll probably just replace it.

Regarding your BOSE stereo set up, have you checked the fibre optic loop? (orange cabling) 

My new Daily is a 2003 53 S500- with the BOSE setup & at the moment it has stopped working (head unit is the comand system, which powers on but then comes up system unavailable & turns off.
It has something to do with the fibre optic cables, if one goes down, the whole thing goes down (like Christmas tree lights, it is wired in a loop)  

Might be worth a look before spending on a new amp.

On 2/16/2020 at 12:18 AM, 17-Coffees said:

So my work has taken delivery of brand new Scania R450's....

We were taken over by a bigger firm late 2018 so now being taken fully into there ranks these past few months. Meaning we are now moving to what trucks they want us to take. Which is Scania, so new vehicles are overall 'fleet' spec. We've had a few in the time I've been there, but they have been a case of acquired when taken over another componey or what not, so not been in the componey colours. Personally none of us workshop staff like working on Scanias, so this move is going down well....

Well what can I say? Delivery mileage and throwing up ABS/EBS faults and one of them with an oil leak....I shit you not! ?

 

 

I know this is commenting on an old post, but, My Dad’s work has got these new Scanias, I am not sure what BHP they are (but they are not fancy, they are tractor units with small wheels) & he say’s they are “utterly shit” & he prefers the hired in Mercedes Actros Or M.A.N’s that are always hired to replace the Scania’s as they (the Scania’s) keep breaking down. He also said that they are gutless when driving uphills etc...I am sure he said they are limited to 54mph also. I will ask him, but he hates them.

before the Scania’s, his work had Iveco Strallis units, he also said they were shit, unreliable & I do know that they were always going wrong, even the Iveco mechanic who used to come out when they broke down, told him that they were shite

I just checked my daily’s MOT which was mot’d in December 2019.....it’s still MOT’d until.....December 2020.