Suave but simple shite

[forddeliveryboy]

Bit of an oddity my good mate picked up yestady - an oil drinking 124 Coupe. Bit of a footballers wives car back in the early 90s with a pez straight six perhaps, but now with the legendary OM603 purring under the bonnet on free fuel, a silver 'D' stuck on the boot with some bathroom sealant and with almost a quarter century maturing, this is definitely not one for millionaires. It's even got conventional rear springs, so it's simpler than my old clockwork trainset.

 

Inter-galactic gearing not ideal with an engine which doesn't get into its stride until the needle's between 3 and 4, but the ride is good, I suspect the rear springs are softer than the saloons, which always felt harsh after the Citroen-suspension of the estates (and many coupes). The screen is more raked than other 124s and the roof lower, so should be good for cruising at an easy 110-120 across the Fatherland. Even the roof and seatbelt handers work.

 

He paid a grand, which I think is quite a bit, but most things are working and overall it's straight and tidy with no rot. The new cheap rubber is a ballache, plus it would do well with a new set of Bilsteins, but I think he's chuffed enough to keep it.

 

  

 

  

 

[mercrocker]

Very nice!  Must sample a Coupe before they are all either gone or OMGKLASSIK fodder.   I would still have my saloon if it had  not shit its head for the second time and made me send it to Africa....The dieselness appeals in that rakish body, too.

[Spiny Norman]

And a manual box for OMG4PEDALZZ shiteness too.

[garethj]

That must be very unusual, coupe with manual box and diesel engine?

 

A very handsome car, and that one looks like a good example too.  Full of win

[Guest Breadvan72]

Ruched leather ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jonny69]

Brings back some memories. My parents had a second-hand 260 back in the mid 90's and it was practically identical looking inside bar the leather. Last of the really heavy reliable Mercs as I understand it, built the old way with incredibly heavy underpinnings which results in superb ride comfort. The 260 was surprisingly fast and stuck to the road well and I'm sure the 300 isn't much different being its bigger brother. Dad replaced it with a brand new Lexus somminkorother as he wanted a smaller car with better economy round town. Well the Lexus was smaller and lighter, but it was worse on petrol, slower and had plenty in it waiting to go wrong - so it didn't last long.

[Bren]

A genuine, solid old school Mercedes - not like the crap they were turning out a few years back.

 

I was a passenger in an e class taxi the other day - it was raining - I swear I could hear it fizzing.

[the judge]

I'd roll in that. Manuel Que? box only downside. A grand?? mustn't grumble

[mercrocker]

I didn't clock the hand shift.....Blimey I think I have only seen one manual W124 and didn't think any of the coupes were hand jobs.

[chaseracer]

Fnarr.

 

[forddeliveryboy]

Me neither, mercrocker. It's quite Ilkley the manual box was hefted in along with the engine when it was swapped. To my mind, it needs tan leather (or MB tex - grey leather rarely works) from an 80s 124 (better quality back then, like the rest of the car) and hand-wound windows - one has already stopped working, 124-style. About £15 for a new part, I think.

 

A ZF 4 speed box would be good - no Merc is complete without, unless it's a workhorse 2.5TD. The car would then make even more sense. It does have a bit of a personality-crisis atm, with the box, clutch and heavy flywheel effect, which just goes to emphasise that it's fuelled by oil. It can be less refined than a DMU leaving Leeds station, through the lower gears. The autos can make them appear as smooth as an Otto-wotto.

 

But there can't be many cars which could, at a pinch, melt into the mega-jewelry of Nice or St Tropez to take you from hotel to boat but run on waste veg. Yet it would also tow (yes, towbar attached) an old dinghy to the Lakes with plenty of room for all your camping gear - the boot's huge. Woolly headscarves and Timexes for bikini-clad totty, instead of Gucci and Rolex.

 

Or perhaps it's all a bit more Brian Sewell, fine for a trip through Italy oooing and aahing at the culcha. Yorkshire to Rome and back on £15 of forecourt fuel? With the loooong top gear, 45-50mpg would be a possibility if you stayed legal. And about as eco-friendly as any trans-continental trip could be. Why doesn't Top Gear stick fingers up at the Greenies by doing something like this?

[forddeliveryboy]

A wee update on this £1000 shite. It has gone wrong, that's the bad news. One in a very nasty way - matey ignored advice - and the next time in a good way, since it rust-proofed the rear half of the car.

 

Squeaky balljoint syndrome set in after about 6000 miles, only for the wheel to take on a very unusual camber on a roundabout one afternoon. I'd told him to leave it with me! After another 8000, the oil pressure sender sprung a considerable leak, which I blamed on matey's lack of mechanical sympathy and revving 7 litres of cold oil too high on cold starts.

 

The car's now losing no oil and the rest of it's due for more complete anti-corrosion activity before the winter sets in - I think he's covered the best part of 20,000 miles at well over 40mpg on his vegoil and often over 80mph. A little corrosion has taken place behind some osf wing filler in the usual place and the sunroof has suggested it's best not to play hide and seek with the sky, but other than that it's better than most modern crap. 130mph has been witnessed, according to twatnav. It drives really well, and is as simple as pie. No computers, no bollox. Even the hydraulic rear headrests work! His parent's Insignia was brand new a year ago and hasn't the same reliability, economy, comfort or satisfaction record.

[DSdriver]

Bit of an oddity my good mate picked up yestady - an oil drinking 124 Coupe...

 

I was expecting a thread about one of these

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fiat_124_Coup%C3%A9_1972.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Fiat_124_Coup%C3%A9_1972.jpg

Showing my age again I guess.

I do love the shape of the Mercedes though and would have one in my virtual garage of advertising agency director's cast-offs along with an Avantime and Fiat 2300s coupe

[skattrd]

I was thinking Fiat 124as well.

I'd love a diesel coupe, but not manual, especially with the foot handbrake.

[Wackeldackel]

Ouch. Bottom balljoint goes ping, wheel is curiously cambered and wing is fecked and crumpled? Not nice, I've seen some of the horror stories and pictures, sounds like he was unlucky to have it go on a roundabout, normally its a slow moving full lock car park thing.

 

The 5 speed auto was an option on the coupé but I believe it was made of chocolate, but very very quick. The 4 speed auto was a lot more common, still not quite as bulletproof as the even older 3 speed autoboxes from the old s class.

 

Mine is a 3 litre petrol with a 5 speed manual, made by Getrag. Bit agricultural at times and was diabolical before I replaced the 6 little rubbers on the selectors, but good for squeezing out those emm pee gees whatever they might be. The coupés with manual boxes were very rare indeed, I went to look at one last year in Hamburg but it was too dear. As for a diesel coupé, well that really is some top notchfusion design there, very, very nice indeed and I hope your pal gets it sorted.

[forddeliveryboy]

It was recently improved with a set of 195 Uniroyals, previously cheapish 205s. The ride, silence and rolling resistance have all improved, no doubt in part due to better rubber as well as a more sensible size. Bilsteins all round sometime soon, the rear two are in the post. I think he'll be surprised by the transformation. Fresh gear oil has made the box turn into something quite enjoyable to use, it flicks through the gears well. I wonder if driving the thing fairly fast and regularly has helped too - I bet loads of 124s were trapped in Surrey traffic jams, slowly knackering pinions and propshaft rubbers.

 

It's also needing the pump delivery valve seals, he's done 30k in a year on 90% veg and it has been supping cold veg. Heat exchangers warm up fast when attached to the heater circuit and thin the fuel/reduce pressures nicely for cold winter mornings.

 

It's a hell of a smart car, people always remark on it and it always turns my head. It amuses me it will do a genuine 45mpg on veg if you keep the revs under 3,000 (which is about 90 in 5th). The screen angles are different from the saloons - it must cleave the air very smoothly.

[2MB]

That fuel economy is rather impressive, a touch better than I can get out of the 190 with one cylinder less on veg. The delivery valve seals aren't too bad a job, did mine day before yesterday. Depending on what you read the inlet manifold has to come off or it doesn't; I went for undoing it but leaving the throttle linkage attached to give enough waggle room to get the socket on. The socket itself is a special one which I have if you need one (guess you're pretty local)

[forddeliveryboy]

Yes, I was slightly sceptical at first, until we did a run down to Exeter and back. The needle never seemed to move! We managed 48 that day. The extra rake on both the front and rear screen seems to reduce the air drag a good bit, at speed. It's in fine running order, too. The best I've managed with a 124 was 39 which was on a run, but it was an auto estate. I've a 250 manual which isn't on the road yet, I'm interested to see what that does. I certainly feels a lot lighter than the bigger engined ones with autoboxes.

 

Thanks for the socket offer 2MB, I have one which came for free with the 250 estate. I read cleanliness is the critical thing with those new seals.