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1991 300SE: Premium or regular gas?+How to tell what options my car has?

1K views 9 replies 3 participants last post by  crazekid 
#1 ·
Hi, I have a 1991 300SE and my dad has been filling it up with regular gas for a pretty long time now. The car used to be my grandma's and when she was alive, she always filled it up with premium and would always get into arguments with my dad saying how it has to be filled up with premium rather than regular. My dad, of course, never listened to her and would always reiterate that regular is better and cheaper for the car. Well, now my grandma has passed away over a year ago and now it is officially our car via her will and my dad still continues to fill it up with regular. Now, I recently acquired my license(18 y.o here) and have been learning a lot about cars and Mercedes. My dad is letting me use the Mercedes until I go to college next year and I keep telling him that it should be filled up with premium but he refuses to allow me to do so. He says that the only thing premium does is that it is a little bit cleaner and gives you a little bit more "oomph" on the highway when you are passing cars. I tried to explain to him that while that is the case, it also gives the car better MPG and is faster and more efficient at all times, not just on the highway. He doesn't think so. I am going to show him this page after you guys give some, hopefully good and informed answers on this issue. Thanks!

Also, is there a way to tell what options my car has? The only options that were not standard on this model: Slip control, Premium sound, Dual airbags, and premium wheels. Anyone have any experience on what these look like? I also took down this number on the bottom of the drivers side windshield. It was like actually embedded into the windshield in black. It said in order from top to bottom:
(Mercedes symbol)
Siglas Asys(Might be wrong, can't read my handwriting)
(sidesways equal sign like " but only longer) and then E1(circled) and then 43A-001033
and then below: As1ms3-3Dot26
Vs6-ud
2615
(don't quote me on these numbers as I wrote these on a napkin in marker but I will go back out and get the correct ones if they are wrong.)

Is it possible to tell the options I have from these numbers? Thanks!
 
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#3 ·
The numbers you have copied down are the code numbers for the windscreen glass.

On the firewall should be the VIN, as I am guessing you are in North America (please fill out your profile) you will have two VIN. One which MB gave the car for the world WDB126xxxxxxx and one because NA decided they had to be different, which will read WDBCAXXXXXXXX.

From the VIN you will be able to use a decoder to tell what options the car came with.

With MB most things are options. Sure some markets routinely fitted 'options' as standard, but what is 'standard' for the market your car was sold in, may not be the case for another market.

The first owner could sit down and pretty much tick as many or as few additional option boxes as they wished.

AMG (prior to being bought out by MB) was a private aftermarket tuner of MB cars. Any MB could have had AMG modifications - again as many as the owners wallet would allow.

All W126 run better on Premium fuel - but they can run on quite poor quality fuel also.
 
#4 ·
Alright nice I found it. It was like on a silver plate thingy that could be seen on the outside of the windshield and it was horizontal on the drivers side. First it said Etr(s)/Airbag(s) and then below it, the VIN code was:

WDBCA24E8MA586814

Can someone decode that for me? Thanks!
 
#5 ·
Octane's only function is to raise the compression level the fuel can take before detonation. High octane is for high compression engines. I believe your dad's car has the M103 engine. It a compression ratio of 9.2:1—not high. It's slightly lower compression that the current V6 Chevy Malibu, 9.8:1. Neither needs high octane fuel and GM recommends regular (87) for the 'Bu.

I have a M103 in my car also. In my first six months of ownership, I ran multiple consecutive tanks of premium (91) then multiple consecutive tanks of mid-grade (89) and repeated that cycle many times, entering all the results into a spreadsheet. I've found that I get better mileage with mid-grade, while performance—measured by butt-dyno—operating temperature and all other factors remain the same. My driving habits are very consistent as are the filling stations I use and the routes I drive. In light of those results, I can only conclude that mid-grade is better for my M103 engine than premium.

One of my previous postings discusses this at some length and quotes a number of recognized experts—some from this forum, others from MB, Porsche, SAE, etc. All agree that premium, high octane fuel offers little advantage for most engines. Also, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires that all octane grades of all brands of gasoline contain engine cleaning detergent additives.

I suggest that you run the same experiment I have, using a spreadsheet and trying to consistently use the same filling stations, drive the same routes and with the same habits. Then examine the results and burn what's giving you the best results.

This is a very controversial topic on this forum. In the end, it's your car—er, your dad's—burn what makes you feel good.
 
#6 ·
Okay I found a decoder at this site: Çàï÷àñòè Mercedes-Benz: Êàòàëîã îðèãèíàëüíûõ çàï÷àñòåé
Heres what came up:


VEHICLE TYPE: Car
MODEL NAME: 300 SE JAPAN
ENGINE: 103981 12 130235
TRANSMISSION: 722351 03 479282
BODY: 15789
ORDER NUMBER: 0070412860
LIGHTS: BOSCH
INTERIOR COLOR: 261
PAINTS: 735



61
Комплектация

227 ASHTRAY, CIGAR LIGHTER AT REAR, L AND R

241 FRONT SEAT LH ELECTRIC ADJUSTABLE WITH MEMORY

242 FRONT SEAT RH ELECTRIC ADJUSTABLE WITH MEMORY

291 AIRBAG FOR FRONT PASSENGER

340 ADDITIONAL 3RD STOP LAMP

420 AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION 4-GEAR

461 INSTRUMENT WITH MILES IND. AND ENGLISH LEGEND

524 PAINTWORK - PRESERVATION

531 AUTOMATIC ANTENNA

543 SUN VISOR WITH MAKE-UP MIRROR L. AND R., BE-

551 ANTI-THEFT/ANTI-BREAK-IN WARNING SYSTEM

581 AUTOMATIC AIR CONDITIONER

592 ALL-ROUND WD-GREEN GLASS,HEATED REAR WINDOW-VSG

600 HEADLAMPS - CLEANING EQUIPMENT

611 EXIT LIGHTS FOR DRIVER DOORS

640 15-HOLE LIGHT ALLOY RIMS

673 HIGH-CAPACITY BATTERY

801 AEJ 06/1/M/X

810 SOUND SYSTEM
 
#7 ·
My questions are:

Why does it say my car is from Japan? Pretty sure my grandma bought it in the U.S. brand new.

What does all-around green glass mean?

Are the 15-hole light alloy rims the regular wheels or the premium?

Is the high capacity battery standard or was that an extra?

What does AEJ 06/1/M/X mean?

And is the 810 SOUND SYSTEM the regular one or the premium sound?

Thanks again!
 
#8 ·
The Russian decoder site can often be wrong with some details - your VIN indicates a NA car, not Japanese, just an error.

All round green glass is what MB used, very slightly tinted, almost imperceptible.

the 15 hole were pretty standard 2nd Gen alloy wheels - steel wheels with hubcaps were available, but all NA cars got alloys.

High capacity battery was just fitted - no doubt long replaced.

no ides on the AEJ code

again if it still has the Becker head unit, telling people here what it is will get a better answer. Does it have speaker grilles in the front doors?
 
#9 · (Edited)
Okay just looked at my speakers. There were six speakers in total(I think).There were two in the rear near the back window on each side of the 3rd brake light. They looked like these except they were spaced apart more: Google Image Result for http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r82/cdplayer1/Mercedes2541-1.jpg

And there were two speakers in the front on the bottom of each of the front doors. They were very big and covered most of the bottom half of the door. I also think there were another two on each side of the dash but I'm not sure if they were actually speakers. They looked like this: Google Image Result for http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/9/1/3/6/2/7/webimg/392681645_tp.jpg

(also, if anyone knows, should I have used were or was in those sentences? lol)
 
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