Slightly crusty Merc C-Class. Now on WBOD duty.

[AndyW201]

Well, it's been a bit of an up and down week. After the usual couple of shandies an' ebay, I woke up to the great* news.

 

 

Ah fuck!

 

This left me with a problem. A 190 shaped problem. Ive already got the Octy as a daily and our drive operates on a strictly 'one crusty heap of crap out - one in (and don't get murdered)' basis.

So , with apologies to bornite identity as I know he sort of fancied it, the 190 has gone to my neighbour's father in law, as I basically needed it off the drive on Wednesday as Ive been out in the truck until last night. The 190 has at least gone to the good home I wanted for it, it's definitely going to be restored. The Mitsubishi FTO and Subaru Impreza STi already on his drive are both absolute minters.

So Goodbye ol' friend. At least I can say I achieved the 190 in the colour, spec, and engine size that was on my bucket list. But the way prices are heading, it will probably be my last...

 

 

That left me with a heap to collect. As I was with the kids, we start with a disappointing choice of meal with no cup of unidentifiable brown liquid to be seen.

 

 

Doin' it rong!

 

So, having cadged a lift with Ma_W201 and her friend Jimmy, we hit the road. Can you guess the car?

 

 

After a steady jaunt down the A19, York is achieved!

[davehedgehog31]

Is that a Suzuki of some description?

[Schaefft]

It needs yellow front indicators ASAP

[AndyW201]

Is that a Suzuki of some description?

Correctamundo! A Celerio no less.

 

 

Not a bad steer actually. Jimmy, the owner is in his 70s and it does him fine. For a little 1.0 3-pot it did pretty well with the 5 of us in.

[AndyW201]

Aaaaaand we're home.

 

Sadly no pez station shot as I went to Tesco petrol Station at Clifton Moor and evidently petrol supplies are going to end tomorrow. If I'd stopped to take pics, I'd have been lynched!

 

A nice stiff drink tonight I think and some photos'o'lols to follow tomorrow...

[AndyW201]

So, today some photos were taken.

 

 

Not a bad 10-footer, no?

However, late 90's C Classes will be late 90's C Classes...

As usual, the edges are a shade frilly.

 

Offside, starting with front arch,

 

Bottom of front wing,

 

Bottom corner of front door,

 

Bottom corner of rear dogleg,

 

On the nearside, bottom of the rear dogleg again,

 

A little bit of crust again on the very corner of the rear door,

 

But the worst bit on a few of these facelifted W202s are the n/s/f doors. And this is no exception...

Bottom trailing edge,

 

Middle,

 

Leading edge,

 

A bit on the bottom of this front wing as well,

 

Interior wise , it's not too bad. Giffer friendly Elegance spec, so top of the range at the time. Plenty of convincing* looking wood and interestingly patterned seats.

 

 

Nothing more than a bit of a clean up needed inside. The Ken Wouldn't stereo wouldnt be my choice but it's not too modern or flashy and, importantly, works. Nice Fischer C Box CD storage as well.

 

The little uns are happy too, they like a rear armrest. Even more excitement ensued when they discovered the armrest had a built in set of cupholders...

 

While inside, onto a most important Autoshite topic - mats!

 

Not too bad up front. Non genuine but tailored mats up front. Grubby but should clean up, and the drivers mat leaves you in no doubt as to what car you're in,

 

Passenger side, urgh. Not to worry, should clean up...

 

In the rear, still tailored velour, still a bit urgh...

 

Ah bollox!

 

So, a root around the shed found another 3 out of a set of 4 mats out of one of my old 190s. Black velour but what the hell. In true Jim Wilsonsquared style, they almost fit, so they'll do!

 

The original alloys aren't too bad, other than the usual rim kerbage. Merc wheels of this era are notoriously scabby. I reckon just a clean up on these will do for now also,

 

Other points, it starts instantly and runs nicely from cold. Idles nicely.

Pulls okay, bearing in mind the old 2.0 four isnt a massive ball of fire, but keeps up with modern traffic.

The autobox seems to be bearing up okay and changes up and down nicely with no thumps or clunks.

Basically starts, goes and stops. Only issue seems to be a noise from the rear when at about 60-70. Dont know yet if it's the usual MB whiny diff or a wheel bearing.

 

At the end of the day, it's a starting, running, long MOTd Merc for half a bag.

Bodywork wise, it's not immaculate, but it's not the worst W202 I've seen either by a long way. And at least the underside is solid.

I owned an 8 year old one and had rust to sort out on that one. And after spending a fair amount on that one only to see more rust starting to come out, I realised it was a waste of time and money.

With this one I'll probably do what I did with my old red 190. Scrape the scabby bits with a Stanley blade, kurust them and brush in, rinse and repaeat. They're only relatively small areas and the bits in the pics are after I went round poking it with a screwdriver. Luckily no holes were made...

[Wingz123]

Looks great!! I love these - my first car when I was at college was a 96’ c180 elegance in black and that too was a manual! I’d love another

[Jim Bell]

Canny canny.

[BorniteIdentity]

apologies to bornite identity as I know he sort of fancied it,

 

Not sort of fancied it.  Would have crawled naked over broken glass just to hear it fail to start over a walkie talkie.

 

Hope the w202 works out.  Mine was better than my w201 in every way other than spirit, which is why I only kept it 4 months.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Looks well, good buy.

 

The wood is real believe it or not. They've done the same in my w203, and made real wood look fake. Remove some and all is revealed....

 

Sent from my F3211 using Tapatalk

[mercrocker]

Looks good for the spendage.   I have one of these on my WBoD list but I agree with the honourable Bornite - I don't think they can match the "feel" of a 190E.   We have had several as courtesy cars during the prolonged periods of W201 workshop time and I am always glad to get the old girl back again.  

 

Beats the shit out of most crummy car-for-a-monkey alternatives though....

[DaveDorson]

I'd quite like one of these to smoke around in.

[AndyW201]

Will probably start to tidy this up if the weather's fine at the weekend. I still have quite a big bottle of Kurust in the shed and cans of Mercedes Azurite blue are temptingly cheap on ebay. I'm not going for a show car with this one, just tidier than most of the W202s on the road out there.

Strange to think this car is 20 years old this year, it doesnt seem to have done too badly.

 

Fortunately the 190 has moved from next door's driveway to the new owner's house, soon it will be going to his workplace's garage. He reckons on it being show condition but he's going to take his time over it. He's not really used to German and RWD.

Again I would have liked it to go to Mr Identity, but I was left with a 24 hour window basically to get it gone so I had space for the C.

 

I'm hoping a bit of tidying work will help to bond with the C200. I'm not really feeling it at the moment. I'm in total agreement with the previous posts, there are many ways in which the C is better than the 190, but I'll always be a 190 man, there's just something about them.

 

But I'm sure once she's had a good clean, most of the scabs tidied and the interiors's sparkling, it'll start to get there...

[Ben_O]

Looks good but I would rather have had the 190.

Biggest mistake ever selling my last one as like you say, prices are going up making them unaffordable

[AndyW201]

Short, insignificant update time!

 

 

Well, this ol' heap is WBODing like a boss all of a sudden. (Actually looks better with a coating of road grime, my hastily touched-in rust spot repairs don't show as badly.)

 

It started last weekend, I remembered the Octavia, my current daily, was due an MOT. So straight down to my tame MOT tester and lo and behold,

 

 

Shitbags!

 

Ah well, couple of ball joints and the dreaded VAG rear calipers strike again. It will live again, but for now, it's at the back of the drive, to have a think about what it's done!

 

 

So, with bugger all in the way of working cars, it was time to drag the old Merc out of the cobwebs... with a duff battery that wasnt even right for the car, two flat tyres and a better half that needed picking up from work in two hours' time... And of course had to swap the tax and insurance over from the Octy.

WCPGW?

[AndyW201]

So, currently, two inactive cars, so I was going to have to spend anyway. I got the Merc in the first place to have a spare, running vehicle should the main one shart itself.

Yeah, did well on that one didn't I?

Still, as good a time as any to get the Merc going and have some use out of it! Motive, my local accessory and spares shop came to the rescue with a suitable battery. Considerig that nowadays a car battery seems to be the second biggest purchase after a house (according to most ebay sellers), £75 wasnt bad for a battery that would rouse an old German barge. It turned out to be about twice the size of the one the guy I bought the car from put on.

 

So now at least it started and ran, nicely too. Next problem was the tyres. Two of them had gone flat and had perished and cracked to buggery, despite one not looking that old (yep, it was an Avon). The other side looked better but the nsr had a nail right on the edge of the tread and sidewall. Basically only the nsf tyre was anywhere near serviceable. A quick finances check revealed the worst, so reluctantly it was down to the part worn emporium. It can be pot luck with this place with what you get, however the guy came out with a Conti Eco contact, a yGoodyear efficient grip and a decent looking Hankook. All date stamped 2017, no cracks, repairs or damage with a good 4mm at least remaining. £60 the lot fitted and balanced. Straight away the car felt better as I took it back along the A66. The droning/howling sound at 55-60 that I thought was bearing or diff noise was gone and the steering wheel has stopped shuddering badly at 60.

 

So all sorted, taxed and insured in time to pick Mrs_w201 up. It was a bit of a surprise for her but she soon cheered up as she now has designs on having the Octy at weekends to get to work in, once it's back on the road...

Next task then was my 30 mile commute to work and back through the week. This it accomplished without complaint. Crawl through the school run traffic (much easier in an automatic) then onto the A66, cruise on, lovely.

 

An urgent job came up soon enough. It isn't all granite...

[mrbenn]

Looks like a lovely old thing.

 

Would.

[Ghosty]

I'd also have a 190 over a W202 any day. 

[AndyW201]

One job that did stand out as needing doing was the boot. It opened, but was a right bastard to close again. On inspection, the striker on the slam panel didnt look too clever, like it had been attacked with a set of mole grips.

It never locked either, or worked off the interior boot release. It came to a head after slamming it shut, (with my work bag inside along with my sleeping bag and bedding for my overnight truck run), to find it wouldnt open again.

A replacement mechanism was boughted from the bay for £20 posted and arrived in two days. With some help from bro_w201, we got the boot back open without too much carnage. The old boot mechanism was removed,

 

 

Yep, that's frigged! As I took it out, the wire for the internal boot release popped out of the bootlid. It appeared the motor this plugs into was missing, and we found the actuator rod for the central locking which hadnt even been connected to the mechanism.

We surmised that the boot had previously been broken into, whether as part of theiving scumbag activity, or the W202 trick of flattening the battery, and locking the owner out of the boot, I dont know. It seems a mechanism from a Merc of that era but not a 202 has been bodged on. You can see where the striker has smashed through the plastic surrounding the mechanism.

So, on with the replacement. Luckily this came with everything on, so the wire for the internal release was plugged in, the central locking actuator rod was attached and the striker was expertly* straightened again,

 

 

Like factory*

 

After confidently removing anything I was likely to need again, gently the boot was dropped down. It closed! It even opened again! So now the boot locks and unlocks with central locking as it should. It also works off the internal release as it should and even pops open with the little boot release button on the key fob. Result! It even sat nicely, better than it ever has done since I bought the car, with factory panel gaps,

 

 

Or as good as these cars get anyway...

Next up, to investigate why the heater blower works intermittently. I've had a blower. motor fail on one of these before and theyre not too bad a job. It just doesnt seem like it's failing on this car. There's not the usual death rattle, and when they're on their way out, you can usually get them going when they stop, by thumping the bottom of the dashboard. This doesn't work on this car. The word on the MB forums is the heatert control panel causes intermittent operating on these, a strip down and a spray with contact cleaner apparently does the trick. I just need to find where my tin of bloody contact cleaner has gone...

[AndyW201]

I'd also have a 190 over a W202 any day.

Oh, so would I!

In no way is this meant to be a 190 replacement, and hopefully I'll see myself in one again. But I needed a cheap snotter, I like shonky old Mercs and this fitted the bill for half a bag. In a few ways it still feels like an old school Merc but as mentioned, in some ways it's better than a 190.

 

Just doesnt give me the buzz I used to get from a nice 2.6 190 though!

[mercrocker]

I read with some interest.....My Fiesta WBoD is not doing it for me really and I have seriously been contemplating a W202 (keeping the 190E, I hasten to add).   I have incidentally just fitted a set of Goodyear Efficient grips to my 190E and they seem to suit the car very well.  Not bad price either.....