Mercedes 190E

[theorganist]

Well bought chap! I'm having to get rid of mine.

Sorry to hear that Mo. You have quite a collection, I struggle with three! Did you get it repaired in the end?

[richardmorris]

I don't think it's sports mode on the gearchage- if it's like mine it's Standard and Economy. S is a lot more pleasant, and very oddly in my case more economical.

[theorganist]

I don't think it's sports mode on the gearchage- if it's like mine it's Standard and Economy. S is a lot more pleasant, and very oddly in my case more economical.

 

Ah okay thanks. I haven't read the handbook yet, I just assumed S was for sport, was surprised I must admit for a standard version to have a sports mode.

 

I will try S tomorrow and see what it feels like.

[Guest Hooli]

S moves the shift points up a bit & makes it more sensitive to the need to change down when you put your toe down (but not far enough for kickdown). I always got better MPG from S too, because in E it changed up so early I was always kicking down to make it move.

[AndyW201]

That's a little honey and an absolute bargain at that price, especially with sub 100k mileage. Can't go wrong with Smoke silver as a colour, brown check cloth is quite a rarity, usually cream got specified with that colour. Vibrant orange speedo markings are a good sign of a 190 that's been garaged a lot during its life too.

 

S mode is quite effective in my experience. If you are pressing on, it holds on to the gears longer rather than getting up to top as quickly as possible as it does in E. It also lets you pull away in 1st (either by flooring it and clicking the kickdown button or shifting into 3 then back into D when about to pull away) rather than 2nd. Used to upset many a high-performance rep mobile doing that in my old 2.0 auto. Even more so in the 2.6...

 

Keep that in the condition it's in now and you really can't lose.

[theorganist]

Thanks for the information, I will definately try S as it does change up early. 

 

I plan to cherish it and keep it for the long term.

[forddeliveryboy]

Sweet car by the sounds of it - well bought. Needs fast motorway trips to explain how good it is, but these are quite happy on smaller Britsh roads too. Try and carry out some rot-prevention before the salt goes down, she's over quarter of a century old and though MB used decent steel back in 1990, there's nothing worse than a badly rusting Merc.

[theorganist]

It will be getting a long motorway trip next Saturday so I can try her out then.

 

I am having the Mercedes and R5 waxoiled over the next few weeks.

[forddeliveryboy]

Preferably not waxoyl, but better than nothing. Best done by someone who knows where a particular car has a tendency to rot  - and who is diligent. It's the easiest thing in the world to aim a pressure spray of oily stuff at the underside of a car and leave it totally unprotected in the most important, hidden areas, the customer really wouldn't know any different. Rot usually starts from the inside out. 

[mercrocker]

Well bought, it looks lovely.   Same colour as mine (also H reg).   If I could buy a new one now it would literally see me out........

[Lord Sterling]

Sorry to hear that Mo. You have quite a collection, I struggle with three! Did you get it repaired in the end?

No, I simply don't have the time or money ans what with the Rovers waiting thier turn, I'll never get around to the Merc so it's gotta go sadly

[3VOM]

I had an Allegro which was silver on the log book but was definately gold. The Mercedes has silver on the log book but looks gold to me!

There was a Mercedes colour called something like Silver Bronze which was gold-bronze in colour but because the first word was "silver" it often was described as "silver". I think that's what he has there.

Edit: that will teach me to reply off page one of two, Ghosty beat me to it.

[jonathan_dyane]

Looks gorgeous

[theorganist]

That looks a Honey

 

If there's no evidence of front bottom ball joints being replaced invest in that can be nasty if they pop 

Thanks I shall check. I had both sides go within weeks on my old Rover 800 diesel which was not a pleasant experience, both times blocking busy road junctions!

[dieselassist]

...if yr doin the balljoints yourself, you will have to take the wishones off, ideally - theres another way which involves using the weight of the vehicle to press in the balljoint 'in situ', after you've chiselled/beat the shite outta the old ball joint- according to the lads on the very helpful 190Eownersforum - one lad on there managed to replace his in a pub carpark, after CATAROPHIC BALLJOINT FAILURE, n no other way of recovering the merc...

 

anyways, to 'compress' the front springs you need a 'special Merc spring compressor tool' - a Khlan compressor, I think its called...

 

When doin the balljoints on my old one, I had little hope of tracking one of them 'special tools' down here, so I made up my own copy of the same tool consisting of a thick length of threaded bar, some old vw 'auxillary v belt pulleys, n bits of 6mm plate with a hole drilled though for the threaded car... I can see if I have any pics of it on the PC, if yr bothered...??

[2MB]

I have a set of MB compressors available for borrowing if required. 190 looks lovely

[theorganist]

...if yr doin the balljoints yourself, you will have to take the wishones off, ideally - theres another way which involves using the weight of the vehicle to press in the balljoint 'in situ', after you've chiselled/beat the shite outta the old ball joint- according to the lads on the very helpful 190Eownersforum - one lad on there managed to replace his in a pub carpark, after CATAROPHIC BALLJOINT FAILURE, n no other way of recovering the merc...

 

anyways, to 'compress' the front springs you need a 'special Merc spring compressor tool' - a Khlan compressor, I think its called...

 

When doin the balljoints on my old one, I had little hope of tracking one of them 'special tools' down here, so I made up my own copy of the same tool consisting of a thick length of threaded bar, some old vw 'auxillary v belt pulleys, n bits of 6mm plate with a hole drilled though for the threaded car... I can see if I have any pics of it on the PC, if yr bothered...??

 

 

I would certainly be interested in seeing the photo's. I am not sure I would be brave enough to do them myself as I am generally mechanically incompetent, unless it involves merely unbolting the old one and bolting a new one on in it's place!

[Ghosty]

If memory serves, I might have a recon prop for a 190 in the garage, depends if Old Man binned it or not. We haven't had the 190 for about eight years.

[dieselassist]

I would certainly be interested in seeing the photo's. I am not sure I would be brave enough to do them myself as I am generally mechanically incompetent, unless it involves merely unbolting the old one and bolting a new one on in it's place!

 

as you asked so nicely -here we go from the deepest recesses of my ancient PC...

[theorganist]

Thanks for those pictures, certainly looks interesting as I said I don't think I would be competent enough to do all that but good on you for having the skills to do it yourself.

 

I have purchased two ball joints and took the car to my mechanic for him to look over and check the ball joints as I am using the car for quite a long journey on Saturday. There are no funny noises I can report.

[dieselassist]

Excessive balljoint wear will manifest itself as 'Costa Concodia' style  ship n tiller, style 'lack of communication', n direct over-correction/overcompensation 'in use'  - till, in worsesest case scenario snap of said balljoint - wheel in inner wing n spring making a break for it kerbside at 12000mph (convert to kmh as its german) - there is serious load on merc springs; they are hugely compressed when fitted- even jacked up/car weight unloaded from them...

 

Probably different in UK, but my 'learning curve' with the 190E, was realisation that, here in rural Ireland,  there are few mechanics, even Merc specialists, that are 'hugely bothered' about them; "ah'r'shur, its an aul car that merc, a 'halfway house of electronic technology n mechanics" the petrol ones..." this came from a retired, 30 years Mercedes mechanic n technician who was 'doing a bit' from the garage next to his house - a total disinterest really in the petrol ones - I had a right aul treck to 'track him down' - he had about 40 'all German cars' cars - audis, Porsche 944's scattered about' in his yard in paddock - all with inflated tyres etc etc n neatly lined up - "...only good for looking at; ye cant get the parts these days..."

 

He attempted to get the misfire out of mine, but all he did was turn up the fuel massively with the long allen key through the air filter housing; which I knew about doin already - in fairness he never charged me tho...

[forddeliveryboy]

I knew of a 124 which developed a low squeak one day and two days later, before there'd been chance to fit the new balljoints, it spat its osf wheel out mid-roundabout. The Germans always did have inventive ways of killing people.

 

Make sure the joints are MB ones, theorganist. They're barely anymore expensive (sometimes cheaper) than auto factor ones and last many times longer. Given it's not a 10 minute job to fit and when they fail it's blooming dangerous, well worth fitting good ones.