The fresh new dollop thread....

[xtriple]

As I have decided this 'may' be a keeper, I thought I'd start a thread for it.

 

Mercedes CLK 320

 

 

I used to be really REALLY good at buying cars, I could spot a 'wrong un' at a thousand metres and knew within seconds if it was any cop or not. Now, I seem to buy any old shite with barely a glance, so I bought this Merc with loads of undisclosed (and undiscovered!) faults. What a prat I am.

 

Paid £1800 for it with a mew MOT and three new tyres, last owner for 14 years and always looked after but the history was lost (apart from all the original books which had a few early services in it) but, hey, the guy had it forever and he was in his 70s so a good buy, gotta be right?

 

To be fair, yes, it is. It drives really well, the engine has lots of poke, no smoke or nasty noises, brakes good (more on that later) suspension all good. Bit of rust around the arches but hey, it's slap bang in the middle of Mercs darkest times for rust so the fact that other than the blisters, it's sound everywhere is a bonus! Interior is good: leather (grey) and apart from wear on the drivers seat and one split seam, spot on. Roof in perfect order. Get it bought... so I did.

 

Then the learning starts. The roof handle fell off the first time I tried to close the roof, well latch it (roof is electric apart from the first or last operation). Bit of a sod to be honest as I do like the roof off if the sun even slightly shows its face so a problem there was a problem indeed! it took me the best part of half a day to work out how to repair the latch handles (drilling out rivets and replacing with self tappers - stainless ones at that!) and getting it all aligned and working properly.

 

Then it rained and the passenger side floor discovered a new occupation as a swimming pool for floor mats. Oh bum... This was a blocked drain under the passenger side air vents, mud and gallons of water poured out when I took it all to bits. All the carpets are STILL drying out as the foam moulding holds water like a fat lass on a high salt diet. Also took out the ecu for the gearbox while under there as they are prone to oil leaking up the wiring and attacking the ecu with expensive results. This one was fine...

 

Fitted new rear badges it nows says it's a CLK 320... which it is Painted the wheels, badly but better than scabby flaking paint, if only marginally. Spent ages cleaning the leather inside. The steering wheel was a righ mess and the drivers seat was pretty bloody grubby. Got leather food for it as well and finally got the proper grey leather polish which really covered all the wear on the bolster (no splits or tears) and I 'Gorilla glued' the split seam ;cos I can't sew for toffee!   The front seats/steering wheel have come up really well, like new. Obviously i have NOT bothered spending hours on the rear seats or any part of the rear compartment other than to clean it all and then fit a huge waterproof cover over the back seats. My two buddies (Phoebe and Chester) could make a mess in a clean room with nothing to mess with.

 

 

Then, I discovered the heater fan does precisely, nothing. The water from the blocked drain pours sraight through the fan assembly and this had decided that further working was not on the cards.  New fan acquired from eBay (£35) and a new pollen filter from Halfords who were the cheapest by a large margin (even less than ECP which is were the filter came from!). Other than being uncomfortable laying in the passenger side footwell, changing the fan was a doddle, the pollen filter was harder to do and that was dead easy!

 

Then the fault I did know about: the ABS/BAS lights come on the dash intermittantly. The received wisdom is that this is a faulty brake light switch. Quite why a faulty brake light switch does this I have no idea... so a new one was ordered from Mercedes Benz - £15 so not worth getting anything else. It turned up a couple of days later so I raved all the under dash out, got to where the switch was, and... it was wrong. Totally different, MB couldn't believ or accept there was an alternative, fortunately, eBay disagreed and a Febi replacement for the switch fitted to my car was bought, £14 delivered. This finally turned up yesterday and was fitted (dead easy twist to the right to release, locate and twist to the left to fit new!) but I din't know that the switch needs to be adjusted, I had a second attempt later after the new switch had made zero diference. I had the codes read (£40!) which said it has a faulty solenoid in the ABS pump. I took all the connectors off and cleaned them knowing it would make no difference... but, it seems to have done just that, made a difference... we shall see.

[Wingz123]

I would say what you have experienced above is nothing out of the ordinary given the age of car