Countless hours searching, found some good stuff but not necessarily 100% relevant to my specific situations. Been on the boards for near 15 years, lost username and email. Not my first Benz, more like my 8th.
Long post, bear with me. Replies quoting my areas of issue and then providing the 1, 2 or 3 likeliest culprits will be ideal and preferred (yes, I've printed out all pages of Uberalles and I have KJ6RFs page as I remember it from a decade ago, and I have an MB tech who works on the side so I get parts at cost and labor at $60/hour, but his side-time is limited,and I'd rather spend money on parts and repair labor vs diagnostics and letting the car sit un-roadworthy for weeks on end. I'm ready to get this damn thing on the road for its intended purpose.
CA car with 176k miles. 2nd owner 15 years, everything done at the dealer from 99 (and presumably 97-99) to 2014, all the way to 4 sets of dealer-bought Michelins. Tells me the owner was not trying to save $50 per service so I had confidence in the car.
Owner 3 seems to have never washed the car, put 6k on it in 2 years, lied about the condition, lied about putting all the service records in the car (or books and manuals, for that matter). Has a high-end (but hideous for this car) flip-up Bluetooth GPS hands-free head unit FWIW.
Pictures showed a car with 3 bar oil pressure and no dash lights. I specifically quizzed him about certain components and he said oh yes they work, yeah ok. Ton of issues. Ironically, for all his 2 years worth of complete neglect, AC is ice cold and fans work properly, correct Michelins have great tread and wear, and the brakes appear good. So here is what I ended up with (stuff that's been largely addressed, or in the process of, is listed first. The stuff I really need help with is lower down)
1) Check engine light on at arrival. Autozone diagnosed it as a P0304, so we ordered a coil and plugs and re-did the plugs (they looked pretty hideous) and coil #4. Unfortunately, coil 12 also has a suspect looking coil, and 2 coil boots had part of the metal spark plug contact broken off, so 2 boots and 1 more coil are on order. Hopefully P0304 becomes a moo point this weekend, and the V12 will come to life will full smoothness and can be driven without causing mechanical nightmares.
2) 3 plugs have oil on them, so it looks like a valve cover gasket is on order. How much problem/what kind of problems would it cause to drive the car like this for 1000 miles or so before changing it out? Will I toast 3 new plugs? Worse?
3) On oil, it clearly was never changed in 2 years, the cabin filter was filthy, so we're going to do all that, 2 air filters, a fuel filter, trans and torque converter drain and fill, probably it for now as far as overdue routine maintenance.
4) Driver door glass was down 1/2 inch to its apparent "door open" position and the driver had a damn tshirt rolled up in the window. Great. What I figured out was that if you shut the driver door with anything more than pinky-finger effort, the door shuts beyond the close-assist and the windows stay down. Blow on it to close it and everything pulls shut and rolls up. Bad physical latch mechanism? Sensor is technically working. Trunk pulls closed as designed!
5) Passenger door will not open from the outside. Handle feels stripped out like a stretched parking brake cable. Again, bad latch?
6) Driver seat will not move and one of the buttons on the side of the seat is missing (where oh where to find interior buttons from a 140 with every option?) Is it not moving because the motor is dead, or is there a fuse that is likelier, or a connector?
7) Rear headrests and roller shade are stuck in "up" and will not move down. They just make horrible clicking noises that make me want to cover my ears. I hope trying to operate them hasn't destroyed something
8) Seatbelt presenter for driver seat worked once and then changed its mind. I can pull the seatbelt, but it was stuck at first. Looks like someone else had the same problem, and their solution (let me guess, owner #3?) was to just pull on it with the force of a mechanical winch. The belt is frayed to hell and really needs to be replaced)
9) Passenger seatbelt presenter was observed "working" while I drove the car, the definition or "working" being it kept moving back and forth like a horror movie, possessed by demons.
10) Headlight wiper stuck in up position on the right. Tech says unscrew and move it down. I say it was MBs' flagship car in 97 and I want it to work 100%
11) ADS feels way too firm! At first I thought it was air suspension and was fully deflated. That's the sensation. I know these cars ride low, but this one looks too flaccid to me. The ride is most certainly not flaccid. The light comes on when I move the ADS button to firm, but I am not sure I can tell a difference in ride. Honestly, my seat of the pants feeling is that it's not "stuck" on firm, but that it's riding the ground and hence hugging and bobbing like a GL suv with a bad strut or 4. Hydraulic fluid looks full with engine off, power steering fluid full....?? This is on line 11 but I really should have put this on like 2, as it's GOT to be fixed before I take it on the road for more than testing.
12) Fuel light was on, so with the check engine light on and evidence that this car has only been driven 300 miles in the past 12 months, I put in 10 gallons of Vpower, a bottle of Techron, and a bottle of Heet. My goal is to get the motor running and then run out the 10 gallons of "fuel stew" (which won't be hard at 11mpg), and then load it up with a full tank of Vpower and change the fuel filter
13) Driver door mirror loose
14) rearview mirror loose (think we have this covered from Uberalles)
15) Driver seat leather TRASHED, needs bottom, back and side bolster replacement (maybe a full kit). Color is a dark gray outer, light gray inner. Back seats came back to life with a Lexol bath (they were a year or 2 away from being crispy), all headrests look good, passenger seat dye is cracking away, but leather feels soft and is not fully split - can this simply be re-dyed to match? What is this color called? World Upholstery sent me a sample based on their best guess research of the car, but the dark sample is too light, and the light sample has WAY too much beige in it. What to do?
16) Sunroof works but the "baffle" between it and the headliner (looks like an accordion) is crispy. Seatbelt presenter covers are faded and cracked. What's the best place/way to get interior pieces like this new? MB only god forbid?
I'm sure there is and will be more, but let's start here. Thanks guys
Long post, bear with me. Replies quoting my areas of issue and then providing the 1, 2 or 3 likeliest culprits will be ideal and preferred (yes, I've printed out all pages of Uberalles and I have KJ6RFs page as I remember it from a decade ago, and I have an MB tech who works on the side so I get parts at cost and labor at $60/hour, but his side-time is limited,and I'd rather spend money on parts and repair labor vs diagnostics and letting the car sit un-roadworthy for weeks on end. I'm ready to get this damn thing on the road for its intended purpose.
CA car with 176k miles. 2nd owner 15 years, everything done at the dealer from 99 (and presumably 97-99) to 2014, all the way to 4 sets of dealer-bought Michelins. Tells me the owner was not trying to save $50 per service so I had confidence in the car.
Owner 3 seems to have never washed the car, put 6k on it in 2 years, lied about the condition, lied about putting all the service records in the car (or books and manuals, for that matter). Has a high-end (but hideous for this car) flip-up Bluetooth GPS hands-free head unit FWIW.
Pictures showed a car with 3 bar oil pressure and no dash lights. I specifically quizzed him about certain components and he said oh yes they work, yeah ok. Ton of issues. Ironically, for all his 2 years worth of complete neglect, AC is ice cold and fans work properly, correct Michelins have great tread and wear, and the brakes appear good. So here is what I ended up with (stuff that's been largely addressed, or in the process of, is listed first. The stuff I really need help with is lower down)
1) Check engine light on at arrival. Autozone diagnosed it as a P0304, so we ordered a coil and plugs and re-did the plugs (they looked pretty hideous) and coil #4. Unfortunately, coil 12 also has a suspect looking coil, and 2 coil boots had part of the metal spark plug contact broken off, so 2 boots and 1 more coil are on order. Hopefully P0304 becomes a moo point this weekend, and the V12 will come to life will full smoothness and can be driven without causing mechanical nightmares.
2) 3 plugs have oil on them, so it looks like a valve cover gasket is on order. How much problem/what kind of problems would it cause to drive the car like this for 1000 miles or so before changing it out? Will I toast 3 new plugs? Worse?
3) On oil, it clearly was never changed in 2 years, the cabin filter was filthy, so we're going to do all that, 2 air filters, a fuel filter, trans and torque converter drain and fill, probably it for now as far as overdue routine maintenance.
4) Driver door glass was down 1/2 inch to its apparent "door open" position and the driver had a damn tshirt rolled up in the window. Great. What I figured out was that if you shut the driver door with anything more than pinky-finger effort, the door shuts beyond the close-assist and the windows stay down. Blow on it to close it and everything pulls shut and rolls up. Bad physical latch mechanism? Sensor is technically working. Trunk pulls closed as designed!
5) Passenger door will not open from the outside. Handle feels stripped out like a stretched parking brake cable. Again, bad latch?
6) Driver seat will not move and one of the buttons on the side of the seat is missing (where oh where to find interior buttons from a 140 with every option?) Is it not moving because the motor is dead, or is there a fuse that is likelier, or a connector?
7) Rear headrests and roller shade are stuck in "up" and will not move down. They just make horrible clicking noises that make me want to cover my ears. I hope trying to operate them hasn't destroyed something
8) Seatbelt presenter for driver seat worked once and then changed its mind. I can pull the seatbelt, but it was stuck at first. Looks like someone else had the same problem, and their solution (let me guess, owner #3?) was to just pull on it with the force of a mechanical winch. The belt is frayed to hell and really needs to be replaced)
9) Passenger seatbelt presenter was observed "working" while I drove the car, the definition or "working" being it kept moving back and forth like a horror movie, possessed by demons.
10) Headlight wiper stuck in up position on the right. Tech says unscrew and move it down. I say it was MBs' flagship car in 97 and I want it to work 100%
11) ADS feels way too firm! At first I thought it was air suspension and was fully deflated. That's the sensation. I know these cars ride low, but this one looks too flaccid to me. The ride is most certainly not flaccid. The light comes on when I move the ADS button to firm, but I am not sure I can tell a difference in ride. Honestly, my seat of the pants feeling is that it's not "stuck" on firm, but that it's riding the ground and hence hugging and bobbing like a GL suv with a bad strut or 4. Hydraulic fluid looks full with engine off, power steering fluid full....?? This is on line 11 but I really should have put this on like 2, as it's GOT to be fixed before I take it on the road for more than testing.
12) Fuel light was on, so with the check engine light on and evidence that this car has only been driven 300 miles in the past 12 months, I put in 10 gallons of Vpower, a bottle of Techron, and a bottle of Heet. My goal is to get the motor running and then run out the 10 gallons of "fuel stew" (which won't be hard at 11mpg), and then load it up with a full tank of Vpower and change the fuel filter
13) Driver door mirror loose
14) rearview mirror loose (think we have this covered from Uberalles)
15) Driver seat leather TRASHED, needs bottom, back and side bolster replacement (maybe a full kit). Color is a dark gray outer, light gray inner. Back seats came back to life with a Lexol bath (they were a year or 2 away from being crispy), all headrests look good, passenger seat dye is cracking away, but leather feels soft and is not fully split - can this simply be re-dyed to match? What is this color called? World Upholstery sent me a sample based on their best guess research of the car, but the dark sample is too light, and the light sample has WAY too much beige in it. What to do?
16) Sunroof works but the "baffle" between it and the headliner (looks like an accordion) is crispy. Seatbelt presenter covers are faded and cracked. What's the best place/way to get interior pieces like this new? MB only god forbid?
I'm sure there is and will be more, but let's start here. Thanks guys