Reliability of older Mercedes?

Originally Posted by cowmoo32

I'm jealous man. I'm still debating tint on this one because I'm not sure how good it would look on a navy car. If it was black or white I'd be all over it.

My friend's dad's '76 450SL does the same thing, so I'm guessing/hoping it's normal, but going from park to drive/reverse, the rear of the car shifts up or down ever so slightly. Is that anything to be worried about?

For sure. I'm thinking I want to go with 50% on the side windows and 35 on the rear. I would almost feel guilty going darker.

Yeah that sounds pretty normal, especially in older cars, and especially when they have sticky throttle bodies too.. My 88 Pathfinder will literally move up and down about 2 inches when shifting from Drive to Neutral.

^. yes. my same with my dads w126. also when putting the car into park and releasing the brake, theres some play and the transmission will roll and truly engage in park 1.5 inches further.

check out this custom w126 coupe interior build
http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w126...or-retrim.html

^^I came

Originally Posted by cchrisstopherr

^. yes. my same with my dads w126. also when putting the car into park and releasing the brake, theres some play and the transmission will roll and truly engage in park 1.5 inches further.

I've noticed that too.

Walked out this morning to a good little puddle of transmission fluid. While it was in the shop they flushed the transmission so I'm guessing the gasket didn't seal or the pan is a litte loose. I dropped it off this morning and should have it back on wednesday. I'm going to see if they can take care of the master cylinder too.

Dad had an '83 300 TD sedan, man what build quality, this must have been the car in mind for whoever coined the quip, "machined out of a block of steel." Once got into an accident where he was rear ended hard enough to knock the motor off its mounts and pushed into the car in front. Both other cars were nearly totalled while my dad drove away to his mechanic to fix a tail light, re-extend the rear bumper and put that lump of a motor back on its mounts. Simply incredible, back in the day when Mercedes were built to the Nth degree of engineering rather than the fancy, mega power gadget machines of today.

I'd love to pick up some clean, low mileage (<200K) 300 TD wagen, should be nearly broken in at that point.

Nice merc cowmoo

I'll choose an old Benz over a new one any day. The classics do it for me. Mine has 210 thou on the clock and feels like it was built yesterday.
If it's survived 25-30+ years, that should be a testament to it's reliability. Of course there are maintenance issues as with any car, but the most difficult thing you will encounter is the availability of discontinued parts (as I have discovered on my 2.5-16.

OT: i just hit 143k on my 92 300ce today! what a great feeling! i will honestly drive this thing till it falls apart, will do more aesthetic mods within the next few years. after this car, whenever that is, i want a G wagon or ml amg. lol

G wagon

Originally Posted by cowmoo32

G wagon

i dont think any other car on/offroad has the same stage presence as a G wagon! its the most impractical daily driver, $$$, awful aerodynamics and mpg but fully capable off road.

Originally Posted by Mercedes190E2.5-16

I'll choose an old Benz over a new one any day. The classics do it for me. Mine has 210 thou on the clock and feels like it was built yesterday.
If it's survived 25-30+ years, that should be a testament to it's reliability. Of course there are maintenance issues as with any car, but the most difficult thing you will encounter is the availability of discontinued parts (as I have discovered on my 2.5-16.

You can't just casually mention you have a Cosworth 16V and then not post pics of it.

I used to drive (then) old Mercedes most of my life. I like convertibles but during those times I needed at least a mid-size sedan to pull horse trailers. I really recommend them, and my father still drives them. At the time BMW had too low quality electronics and I lived in an area with too high humidity, not a good combination.

These days my rule of thumb is that for small sedans the 3-series is better than the C-class. With new-ish mid-size I would probably prefer the base E-class over the base 5-series.

How about the W221? Are they reliable?

what's the best merc forum? I need to find out where I can hardwire my V1

Originally Posted by cchrisstopherr

i dont think any other car on/offroad has the same stage presence as a G wagon! its the most impractical daily driver, $$$, awful aerodynamics and mpg but fully capable off road.

G AMG isn't very capable offroad I don't think.

Originally Posted by cowmoo32

what's the best merc forum? I need to find out where I can hardwire my V1

The car encourages you to drive fast enough that you need the V1? Woah!

Originally Posted by zhp43867

The car encourages you to drive fast enough that you need the V1? Woah!

I don't care what I'm driving, I like to have my radar detector.

Have you checked here? Seems pretty active...

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w126-s-se-sec-sel-sd/

Yeah but the only thing I've found with good info is a thread about someone hard wiring GPS from the cig lighter. I'd rather do it from the dome light or the sunroof motor so I don't have to snake the wire up the A-pillar and across the windshield, but I'm 90% sure the dome light is always hot.

2 words: Air Suspension