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Mercedes Benz - W123 230E & W124 200E - Both happy and working ok


Peter C

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The repaired driver's seat bolster, renewed gear stick gaiter and floor mats all look great but the one thing that was letting the interior down was the sill kick plates. The plastic trim was in ok condition but the silver tin inserts were damaged and looked ugly. The driver's side was the worst.

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Apparently, you can get replacement tin strips on EBay but having recently reviewed how much I have spent on the 200E on various repairs and improvements, I have decided not to invest in a new set. Instead, I purchased a £2.50 roll of silver insulation tape and achieved a perfectly good result. I did the driver's and front passenger trims and left both rear trims as they are generally in good condition. 

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Due to the c word situation, I have decided to pass the time by doing an exciting oil and filter change on the 200E.

It's a lovely day here in Buckinghamshire, so I pulled the 200E out of the garage and got it ready for some TLC.

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With the metal sump guard removed, the sump plug is easy enough to get to.

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Which is something that you can't say for the oil filter, which is tucked away to the rear of the engine, close to the bulkhead.

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To get the oil filter off, the air filter housing had to come off.

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One issue that keeps reoccurring, most likely to the cool engine temperature issue, is a build up of mayo on the underside of the expansion tank cap.

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The mayo cannot be related to HGF as the old engine oil came out nice and black and everything looks good under the cam cover.

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All being well, my next essential journey will be on Tuesday morning. 

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5 hours ago, rusty998 said:

Dodgy thermostat or blocked radiator is where I would start if it's not getting hot enough 

The 200E has had two new thermostats in my ownership, the latest and current  being a genuine MB part.

Radiator has been flushed through and is definitely clear. If the radiator was blocked, I would expect to experience hot running or overheating issues rather than cool running.

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29 minutes ago, xtriple said:

Is the temperature sender working properly?

Yes it is. When driven around town, the engine reaches high 80s deg C and the electric fan kicks in as it should. The running cool issue only occurs during higher speed runs.

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I LOVED doing the oil and filter on my 201. The carb engined cars don’t even have a tray underneath so - with a side exit sump - you could undo the sump plug from the top. This looks a nice easy and rewarding job too. 

I myself have made enquiries about a w124 this week. It’s almost exactly the right car - Bornite, 7 seats and Diesel. Shame it’s got grey cloth but that could always be changed at a later date, and I’m not sure if anything would work better with the purple paint. Cream leather maybe?

Anyway, keep the updates coming!

 

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2 hours ago, Peter C said:

Not a drop.

I could be just short runs causing condensation in the system. It may clear with some longer ones. Great post incidentally.

I have a 124 260. Mercedes supplied some really thick ridged mats in some cars - maybe an option I am not sure. Mine has them - they go over the original carpets. The mats are virtually indestructible. 

A way of telling a decently treated old 124 is to find these mats intact. Mine even had mats over these mats! Mine was a dealer demonstrator I think for its first year had one owner after and was in store a decade. Its 31 now. Good cars are still out there as people hang on to them and love them lots.

Great cars - not many cars were made this well. 

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I’m stumped on the running cool. 

my w124 experience (over several examples) with running cool has always been sorted with a new genuine stat (which you have done) 

There’s no reason why it should do it (and you have tested the fan) but could you unplug the connector to the electromagnetic fan switch and go on a higher speed run to prove that it can’t be somehow switching on.  

The electromagnetic one one my w124 4 cylinder petrol models never misbehaved (I like you had issues with the electromagnetic fan on my w123) but on the w124 would only ever come on when the temperature gauge hit 100; which is exactly when they were supposed to, they also make quite a noise due to the volume of air being sucked though.

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19 hours ago, lesapandre said:

I could be just short runs causing condensation in the system. It may clear with some longer ones. Great post incidentally.

I have a 124 260. Mercedes supplied some really thick ridged mats in some cars - maybe an option I am not sure. Mine has them - they go over the original carpets. The mats are virtually indestructible. 

A way of telling a decently treated old 124 is to find these mats intact. Mine even had mats over these mats! Mine was a dealer demonstrator I think for its first year had one owner after and was in store a decade. Its 31 now. Good cars are still out there as people hang on to them and love them lots.

Great cars - not many cars were made this well. 

Pics please. Nice one. 

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On 3/28/2020 at 8:04 PM, BorniteIdentity said:

I LOVED doing the oil and filter on my 201. The carb engined cars don’t even have a tray underneath so - with a side exit sump - you could undo the sump plug from the top. This looks a nice easy and rewarding job too. 

I myself have made enquiries about a w124 this week. It’s almost exactly the right car - Bornite, 7 seats and Diesel. Shame it’s got grey cloth but that could always be changed at a later date, and I’m not sure if anything would work better with the purple paint. Cream leather maybe?

Anyway, keep the updates coming!

 

My W123 230E is also easy to service. With a relatively high ground clearance up front and no undertray, draining the oil is a very simple task. Working on the 200E is not exactly difficult but the metal undertray can be a handful to manage with just one pair of hands.

I've had a 300TD in the past and whilst the engine was smooth and quick enough for my needs, I would never buy another diesel car again.

 

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On 3/28/2020 at 10:04 PM, lesapandre said:

I could be just short runs causing condensation in the system. It may clear with some longer ones. Great post incidentally.

I have a 124 260. Mercedes supplied some really thick ridged mats in some cars - maybe an option I am not sure. Mine has them - they go over the original carpets. The mats are virtually indestructible. 

A way of telling a decently treated old 124 is to find these mats intact. Mine even had mats over these mats! Mine was a dealer demonstrator I think for its first year had one owner after and was in store a decade. Its 31 now. Good cars are still out there as people hang on to them and love them lots.

Great cars - not many cars were made this well. 

I rarely do just short runs but due to the engine not reaching full temperature on most of them, I hope that the mayo is due to condensation. I had another look at the coolant reservoir yesterday and noted a small layer of mayo sitting on top of the coolant, which was otherwise clean. This means that the coolant is not mixing with the mayo, which is why I think that the issue is related to condensation rather than oil and water mixing together. 

My 200E had a full set of original blue mats, however the mat on the driver's side was very worn under the pedals and the passenger side mat had a black stain that wouldn't clean off. I've seen good sets of mats for W124s sell for over £200, which is more than I am prepared to spend.

Something I learned yesterday, there was a W124 280E, which had a phase 2 body fitted with an M104 2.8 engine, as found in phase 3 cars. I knew that a 220E existed (based on the same arrangement as the 280E) but I've never seen a multi-valve petrol six cylinder engine under the bonnet of a phase 2 car.

Let's see photos of your 260E.

 

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23 hours ago, HMC said:

I’m stumped on the running cool. 

my w124 experience (over several examples) with running cool has always been sorted with a new genuine stat (which you have done) 

There’s no reason why it should do it (and you have tested the fan) but could you unplug the connector to the electromagnetic fan switch and go on a higher speed run to prove that it can’t be somehow switching on.  

The electromagnetic one one my w124 4 cylinder petrol models never misbehaved (I like you had issues with the electromagnetic fan on my w123) but on the w124 would only ever come on when the temperature gauge hit 100; which is exactly when they were supposed to, they also make quite a noise due to the volume of air being sucked though.

You and me both!

I have now fitted two new thermostats, the current one being a genuine MB part and the problem persists. I have removed the original electromagnetic fan and installed an electric fan, which is triggered by an independent sensor located within the radiator top hose. The new fan is set up to kick in at approx 90 deg C and does so whenever the engine is running whilst the car is stationary for a length of time. All good there. Apart from making a lot of noise once engaged, I was concerned that the original electromagnetic fan may not have been properly disconnecting and causing the over-cooling issue but this does not seem to be the case. 

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15 minutes ago, Peter C said:

I rarely do just short runs but due to the engine not reaching full temperature on most of them, I hope that the mayo is due to condensation. I had another look at the coolant reservoir yesterday and noted a small layer of mayo sitting on top of the coolant, which was otherwise clean. This means that the coolant is not mixing with the mayo, which is why I think that the issue is related to condensation rather than oil and water mixing together. 

My 200E had a full set of original blue mats, however the mat on the driver's side was very worn under the pedals and the passenger side mat had a black stain that wouldn't clean off. I've seen good sets of mats for W124s sell for over £200, which is more than I am prepared to spend.

Something I learned yesterday, there was a W124 280E, which had a phase 2 body fitted with an M104 2.8 engine, as found in phase 3 cars. I knew that a 220E existed (based on the same arrangement as the 280E) but I've never seen a multi-valve petrol six cylinder engine under the bonnet of a phase 2 car.

Let's see photos of your 260E.

 

Gosh the mats are that valuable! Once the social lockdown stops I will buzz off to the car and snap some pics. 

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I am not the kind of guy to sit in a field full of old cars and chat with their giffer owners, however on a few occasions I found myself being asked to show the engine bay of my W123 230E. Whilst I took good care of the bodywork and interior, I paid less attention to the engine bay, which I must confess was dirty and looking dilapidated. Approx 3-4 years ago, I took the 230E off the road for a few weeks, stripped the front end and restored the engine bay to the condition that you can see in photos presented on the previous page.

This was work in progress:

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I have since kept the engine bay clean and I am happy to lift the bonnet whenever asked to display the engine. 

Whilst the 200E is unlikely to ever show its face at a classic car show, I had noted that the engine bay looked a bit ropey. As I have spare time to kill and left over materials in the garage from previous projects, I decided it was time for a tart up.

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First part of the process involved cleaning the underside of the bonnet with Flash wipes. By the time I cleaned half of the bonnet there was no going back.

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It was obvious that just a wipe over would not suffice.

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Time to bring out the power tools.

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There was no way of getting the old adhesive off and I don't want to pay £50+ for new sound insulation. The no-cost solution was to paint the underside of the bonnet black, to match the already black painted bottom part of the panel. That looks much better.

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When I first bought the 200E, the air filter housing cover was quite rusty. I temporarily painted it with waxoil and whilst the corrosion was concealed, it was no thing of beauty.

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I removed most of the old paint and rust. I am not a fan of leaving the metal bare, after all the air filter housing sits on a Mercedes four pot, not a big block Chevy. I painted the cover with high temperature enamel paint.

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Another job done, with a shiny black air filter housing cover and a clean bonnet, the engine bay looks a bit more presentable. I am not going to spend more time perfecting the appearance of the engine bay as the 200E will inevitably go out in the rain in the future and end up covered with muck. 

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