Diplomatic/Dictator/Mafia

[Volksy]

It certainly seems to get a lot of attention on the morning commute. Had a cyclist give me the thumbs up as he passed me in traffic this morning, followed by an old guy come up to the car whilst I was waiting to turn right at a junction, he was waffling on to me about a W116 280S he had years ago. 

It's certainly a '10 Footer' but in the morning rain, and having had it washed on the weekend, it does pass as pretty smart. 

[Volksy]

The Big has decided to shit its heater blower, this week of all weeks. It was a little noisy, but is now blowing fuses as it tries to seize up. 

I've contacted a few electrical motor repair places, but most only deal with big commercial stuff. So looks like a replacement is the only option. 

Second hand stuff is around the £100.00 mark, and most comes from Germany/USA/Lithuania. However Autodoc 'new' ones were £185.00 - until yesterday, where they had them for £100.00

 

I've ordered one, it's not too bad to fit, as it's an under-dash unit. But it'll probably arrive in the spring... 

[Volksy]

In for an oil and filter. .

Tame garage charged me £19.20 to do it. Bosch filter was £5.40. The free excess order of Oil from Amazon covered the rest. Result! 

 

No sign of the new heater fan yet. Brrrr!

[Volksy]

This arrived today. 

Although the original has decided to work now. Obvs. 

Will get it fitted on the weekend. As Mr Imp and I are planning on a tinkering day on Saturday. 

[Volksy]

Ordered some new window sliders for The Big. As the rear windows don't. 

They are a common fail on these. Another job for the weekend...

Autodoc packaging is a little excessive..... 

[Volksy]

Managed a days 'Tinkering' on Saturday. 

Job #1 SUCCESS!

Replaced the seizing blower fan, of course the replacement was LHD, so a mirror image of the original (Autodoc didn't state that they were handed). Managed to swap the new motor into the old housing and also reattach and sort out the small air sampling fan which had fallen off. This sits next to the blower under the dash, but sucks air through a tube which runs up the 'A' pillar, across the headlining to a small vent near the sunroof controls. The tube had detached which meant that the air sampler was taking its measurements from air under the dash and not engaging the rudimentary climate control.  Seems to work now, even varying the temp controls has an effect, and the fan is no longer blowing fuses. 

Job #2 FAIL
Had a look at the rear electric windows. The NSR has a blown motor by the looks of it, as I couldn't coax it into any semblance of life. On the OSR the small plastic slider has disintegrated, so the arm is no longer connected to the window. I have some new sliders, that are correct. However the motor needs to come out to fit them, as the stupid design means you have to hammer the slider to flatten out the connecting 'rivet'. Someone prior to me, has hard wired the wiring to the motor. Great. So to repair these I'll need two new motors. 

Job #3 FAIL

Investigated the central locking. Which works from the passenger door, but not the drivers. Need to find a replacement microswitch for the drivers door lock. Also the NSR door will unlock, but not lock when the central locking is used, the vacuum actuator has a couple of diaphragms inside, one of which is blown. I ordered a new actuator, which was slightly different to the original. So now need to order some larger diameter vacuum hose as well. 

Job #4 F*CK KNOWS

I put new Bosch plugs in and a Bosch air filter on, as it was on ancient NGK plugs and a no brand air filter. The old plugs were badly fouled, given how rough it was running, I'm not surprised. Driving around all day on Saturday and Sunday. it ran like a dream. This morning however (it has pissed it down all night) it ran like a complete bag of shite, cutting out at every opportunity until it was fully warmed up. I think moisture is getting into somewhere it shouldn't.

These were all in between assisting M.Imp with the crank seal/cambelt replacement on his recently acquired Volvo 740. Which seems to have been a success.  
 

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, Volksy said:

Managed a days 'Tinkering' on Saturday. 

Job #1 SUCCESS!

Replaced the seizing blower fan, of course the replacement was LHD, so a mirror image of the original (Autodoc didn't state that they were handed). Managed to swap the new motor into the old housing and also reattach and sort out the small air sampling fan which had fallen off. This sits next to the blower under the dash, but sucks air through a tube which runs up the 'A' pillar, across the headlining to a small vent near the sunroof controls. The tube had detached which meant that the air sampler was taking its measurements from air under the dash and not engaging the rudimentary climate control.  Seems to work now, even varying the temp controls has an effect, and the fan is no longer blowing fuses. 

Job #2 FAIL
Had a look at the rear electric windows. The NSR has a blown motor by the looks of it, as I couldn't coax it into any semblance of life. On the OSR the small plastic slider has disintegrated, so the arm is no longer connected to the window. I have some new sliders, that are correct. However the motor needs to come out to fit them, as the stupid design means you have to hammer the slider to flatten out the connecting 'rivet'. Someone prior to me, has hard wired the wiring to the motor. Great. So to repair these I'll need two new motors. 

Job #3 FAIL

Investigated the central locking. Which works from the passenger door, but not the drivers. Need to find a replacement microswitch for the drivers door lock. Also the NSR door will unlock, but not lock when the central locking is used, the vacuum actuator has a couple of diaphragms inside, one of which is blown. I ordered a new actuator, which was slightly different to the original. So now need to order some larger diameter vacuum hose as well. 

Job #4 F*CK KNOWS

I put new Bosch plugs in and a Bosch air filter on, as it was on ancient NGK plugs and a no brand air filter. The old plugs were badly fouled, given how rough it was running, I'm not surprised. Driving around all day on Saturday and Sunday. it ran like a dream. This morning however (it has pissed it down all night) it ran like a complete bag of shite, cutting out at every opportunity until it was fully warmed up. I think moisture is getting into somewhere it shouldn't.

These were all in between assisting M.Imp with the crank seal/cambelt replacement on his recently acquired Volvo 740. Which seems to have been a success.  
 

Mentioning the obligatory "replace o-ring of distributor caps" warning here. If it suddenly works again after running rough once the engine is warm it's water/condensation building up in there without regular use, which then needs to dry out first. A new o-ring should help immensely with this.

[Volksy]

23 hours ago, Schaefft said:

Mentioning the obligatory "replace o-ring of distributor caps" warning here. If it suddenly works again after running rough once the engine is warm it's water/condensation building up in there without regular use, which then needs to dry out first. A new o-ring should help immensely with this.

Looking to see where I can order one from, it's had a new Bosch Cap about a month ago.

 

It behaved itself perfectly on the way home last night, and on the commute this morning.  

 

[Volksy]

This happened today...

So just shy of 3000 miles since I bought it. 

Not exactly uneventful or cheap miles. (Should buy some shares in Bosch). But it's getting better...

It did reward me by absolutely disgracing itself by cutting out repeatedly as I tried to reverse parallel park uphill on the high street. There was obviously a bus waiting to get passed, and a load of initially admiring dad's watching as they were picking up their sproglets from the after school club next to Morrisons. 

It's done three weeks of city commute since it last stretched it legs. So it'll get a run on the weekend.  As per the fable of CDC's 190. The Potentiometer may get unplugged. 

I've a new one in the stack of parts. But need to obtain a decent multimeter before I head back into the black hole of KEJet shenanigans. 

 

[Volksy]

Another Year. FFS. 

[cbowditch]

Impressive not a single advisory

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

@Volksy How is this running now?

[HillmanImp]

Spotted Turkish @Volksy earlier today.

Wonder if this car would shit itself everytime it drives through Guiseley? 

[Volksy]

Yet another impromptu model shoot going on with the battlecruiser this morning. 

 

[Dave_Q]

You can take your pictures if you buy me a £20 Autodoc gift card

[IronStar]

4 hours ago, Dave_Q said:

You can take your pictures if you buy me a £20 in Bosch shares

EFA

[Volksy]

I’ve been running this as a daily for over a year now, and (grabs something wooden) it’s been a pretty reliable old boat.

 

I’ve thrown quite a few bits at it, mostly in the view of preventative maintenance rather than repairs.

So far in my custody it’s had the following

Waterpump & Aux Belt

Thermostat and Housing

Cooling fan clutch

Heater Fan

Radiator

Idle Control Valve

Temp and Atmos sensors

OVP relay

Fuel pump relay

KE Jet Potentiometer

Throttle Body Base Gasket

Cap/Rotor/Leads

2x Front Tyres

Full Service

Centre Steering Rod

4 Wheel Alignment

 

Despite the above, it hasn’t once failed to proceed and 95% of the time gives me a grin when I drive it.

I still haven’t got to the bottom of the random cutting out. I think it’s definitely temperature related as it’s perfect in cold weather, I don’t know if some odd bit of the ancient electronics starts to freak out at a certain temperature. As said (and experienced by other forum members) Bosch KE Jetronic is a very sensitive and overly complex system. I had a mobile classic car tuner come and have a look at it about eight months ago, which although didn’t cure the fault, turned into a lesson on how to set these systems up. The previous owner had tinkered about with it, and had cranked up the mixture to, I assume, try and work around the issue. So it was using huge amounts of fuel, smoking, and generally acting up. Turns out the rubber bottom of the fuel injection unit was porous and cracked, causing a vacuum leak.

You need to set these up on a gas analyser, as the slightest adjustments can cause a huge degree of difference. Once I got it back under control (I did think I’d bricked the system at one point) it sailed through the MOT emissions test, the tester commented on how clean it was running, give it’s a non-cat vehicle. So I may be able to tweak it a little going forward.

As a daily driver, it’s a comfortable old cruiser, it’s even pretty economical* – it does way better than the 3.2 Jag X308 I used to have, given that was ten years newer and used far more modern fuel injection etc. Granted that was a V8 and this is an Inline Six, but I was lucky to get mpg’s in the teens round the houses in the Jag.

I had a minor mishap the other day, where the airhorns I had fitted had over time been rubbing against the radiator, which then holed it. A new radiator was £150 delivered, and a pretty easy job to fit. Oops.

I’d certainly recommend one of these if you’re in the market for a big saloon. Parts, even from Mercedes, are quite easy to get hold of, and surprisingly not ruinous on the old bank balance. It does get a ridiculous amount of attention, thumbs up in traffic, people snapping photos with it etc. which I didn’t expect.

I’ve a few jobs on the list going forward. Mechanically it needs a couple of bushes on the front suspension and it would benefit from an ATF change I think. But the rest of the work needed is bits of knackered damaged trim, which is more a case of keeping my eyes peeled for second hand parts (at a reasonable cost) on ebay etc.

 

[Volksy]

I managed to find a chap breaking a matching 300SE. Unfortunately he'd only removed a few bits a bobs before scrapping the rest of it. 

1989 is a changeover year for the W126 in the UK, so injection parts are pretty specific to this model year. Mine is a non-CAT car, 1990 brought the UK W126 in line with the rest of the US and Euro market cars by fitting CATs, O2 sensors etc. This means that the ECU is year specific.

I bought a complete un-messed with Fuel distributor complete with the crucial (and eye wateringly expensive) electronic shenanigans that these came with. He had run the car for a few years before breaking it, and claimed there were no issues with idle or stalling. He even had a video of it sat happily ticking over, so fingers crossed this may cure my issue. If not, having a spare will allow me to rebuild my Fuel Distributor without the car being off the road.

He also threw in the year specific ECU which will also allow me to see if something in mine is breaking down with heat, which seems to be a symptom. 

Parts arrive Thursday, so weather dependent I'll fit them over the weekend to see if there is any improvement.

I've done about 10000 miles in this now, and absolutely love it. 

 

[Volksy]

Well I'm not holding my breath, but it seems I may have cured the Idle/Stalling issue on this.

I fitted the second hand ECU the other night. It's buried under a false floor in the passenger footwell.

What a difference, idle is rock solid, there is no hesitation or change as the car warms up. Previously at certain parts of the warm up process you could smell the mixture suddenly become rich, and it would idle all over the place etc. Same if it was idling in traffic for a long time, if the temp started to raise above it's standard running temp it would freak out also. I had thoughts that OMGHGF was possibly the cause, but as it used to misbehave at the exact same point on my commute and showed no other symptoms I figured something else was amiss. 

I figured that some component in the ECU was, at various points in the warm up cycle, misreading the signal from the engine temperature sensor, and altering the fuel pressure/mixture to compensate against a false reading. The sensor itself was replaced with a new genuine Mercedes one a while back, so assumed it wasn't that. I had suspected this for a long time, but there is no real way to test the ECU as it's pre-diagnostics, also as it doesn't have a cat or an O2 sensor most of the info you find online for these is irrelevant. There is very little available about these temp controlled KE-Jetronic systems.

So now I need to set it up on an Gas Analyser as I've been tinkering with the mixture in an effort to make it run better with the faulty ECU. Will try and do that tomorrow and see how it goes next week.

@Conrad D. Conelrad I'm not sure if you sold your 190 that was behaving in a similar way,  but it might be worth seeing if you can find a S/H ECU for yours. I would assume they are probably a lot easier to come by for a 190e

I spoke to an ECU specialist last week, who I can mail my faulty one to, They said they would test all the components in mine for £45 + vat. So that will be sent off next week. They recon that it should be reparable, as they are about as complex as 1980's electronics go. But still sorcery to me.

Although it's never failed to get me where I need to be, it'll be nice driving it without the traffic light anxiety. And I can start spending what little car budget I have on nicer bits than Bosch components. 

 

 

[PhilA]

Sounds like it was missing a data or address line on one of the chips if you got abruptly changing characteristics- miss a bit and things don't count in a nice even progression, rather all over the place at steps. 

Old one might be repairable but the cost of the repair would probably outweigh the cost of a replacement.

[Volksy]

1 hour ago, PhilA said:

Sounds like it was missing a data or address line on one of the chips if you got abruptly changing characteristics- miss a bit and things don't count in a nice even progression, rather all over the place at steps. 

Old one might be repairable but the cost of the repair would probably outweigh the cost of a replacement.

Interesting, I know nothing about electronics, but I guess after 30+ years a chip could have corrupted?

New ones, if available, are £900+ so it won't be getting one of those! 

 

[Bear]

4 hours ago, Volksy said:

Interesting, I know nothing about electronics, but I guess after 30+ years a chip could have corrupted?

New ones, if available, are £900+ so it won't be getting one of those! 

 

Could be failing capacitors, leaking electrolytic goo, bad solder joint - chip probably okay, but data signal messed with. And refurb is not that much - it's worth having it done and saved as a backup...

FWIW the times I've had bad running on distributor-equipped Mercs it's been:

Degrading HT lead (king lead from coil on 200T)

Cracked dizzy cap (500SL)

Bad earth and worn arm and cap (190E)

The arcing lead did my head in as the car was perfect when I used it every day, but broke down when parked in a cold corner of the drive at my dad's and stuttered/stalled when he used it. Damp really annoyed it!

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

10 hours ago, Volksy said:

 

@Conrad D. Conelrad I'm not sure if you sold your 190 that was behaving in a similar way,  but it might be worth seeing if you can find a S/H ECU for yours. I would assume they are probably a lot easier to come by for a 190e

Nah, I've still got it. Still my only working car! We've done 10,000 stall-free miles together, so I'm happy it's fixed. HOWEVER, it is "fixed" by me running it without the air flap potentiometer, which doesn't seem to have any effect on running except for it idling too high in park and needing a 20 second warm up before pulling away when stone cold. 

I did fit a new potentiometer but it started stalling again after a while so I unplugged that too. Maybe it is the ECU, it's getting the right signal but misinterpreting it?

[Volksy]

Glad you've still got it. 

It could well be, there are plenty of second hand ECU's on ebay for around £40, they are plug and play so possibly worth a shot.

Just make sure that the ignition is off when you swap them, as apparently it's a sure fire way of borking it if you don't.

The ECU's have a clear part number 0 280 --- --- so just make sure it matches. 

[Volksy]

On 02/01/2024 at 14:56, HillmanImp said:

Just spotted ze führerwagons older posher brother in Ilkley. 

That number plate screams old money doesn't it. 

I saw this one twice yesterday, once when I was test hooning mine to see if I'd managed to sort out the tuning, and secondly whilst coming back from buying a car for a mate. He pulled over for a chat.

It was bought by his dad brand new in 1988, it's only just about to clock 100k miles. Despite it having a bodywork restoration about six years ago the rot is appearing again in the arches etc. 

It's good that there are two roaming Leeds!

[Volksy]

Given we had some nice weather over the weekend. I thought I'd spend a bit of time on this.

I'd purchased a smoke tester for the vacuum system, which these are so reliant on. Given I've no inside space to work on the car I needed a wind free day to conduct the test. 

It works by disconnecting the brake servo hose, covering the air intake with something suitable (a marigold glove did the trick) and then using the machine which pressurises the system through the servo hose. Smoke is made, essentially like a vape by heating baby oil and it pumps this through the system. Any smoke you can see shows you where there are leaks/bad connections. 

To be fair, I half expected the system on mine to smoke like the warranty department at Lucas Electrics, so had bought a load of vacuum hose and fittings/clamps. However I only found a couple of leakage points. One was the hose to the idle control valve, they other was very minor leaks from the injector seals. Tightening the jubilee clip to the idle unit sorted that and the car could probably do with a new set of injectors. So the seals will get changed when they do. 

Next job was to set up the mixture. Mine - being an awkward non-cat car - can only be set up on a Gas Anal-yser. I had borrowed an elderly Gunsons one from H.Imp, but it didn't seem to like being stored in the boot of my car for a couple of months so was jiggered. I bought another one to replace it, and plumbed it into the car.
The Bosch KeJetronic is now working as it should with the replacement ECU so a bit of tweaking by adjusting the 'tower' mixture screw (Merc aficionados do not like you playing with this screw of sorcery) had it idling happily with the CO reading between 0.9 and 1.1%. The autodata sheet for these say that it should be 1.0% +/- 0.5% so it was now bang on. 

So much on these is dependent on this system being correct, including the gearbox - as it regulates the gearchanges via an engine vacuum supplied modulator on the side of the box. That it really does need to be working as it should. With it now set up (I hope) properly I took it for a test drive and everything seemed in order. The gearbox was changing when it should, and not harshly like it would occasionally do before. It is due a fluid change as well so that'll only help further. 

I'm pretty chuffed that I've got to the bottom of the issues, but it's been a hell of a learning curve.