Hello.
Sorry if this post does not belong there, but I just wanted to share my experience with my W140.
So It all started in 2020, when I was browsing through FB marketplace and randomly stumbled upon this 1991 300SE. Did not had any plans to own a W140, but decided to give it a look in person anyways. The next day took a look at the car and made a deal with seller, that I'm buying it for 2500EUR.
After buying this machine, there was a huge problem already - no power. Lack of proper diagnostic tools in my city lead me to "throwing" parts at the car. Was thinking that problem lies within engine computer or different sensors that it is communicating to. After all those unnecessary part replacements, I told my mechanic to just cut out the catalytic converters. And what do you know? They were clogged and car got back all of it's power.
Another problem was the fuel pump. Was driving around the city one night and car just stalled. Turned out to be a dead fuel pump. But that's a maintenance item and it was 30 years old. Swapped the pumps and all was good.
The third failure of this car was kind of surprising, did not ever expect this to happen - broken distributor rotor arm. On one summer day I mashed the gas pedal to the floor, car screamed at 6.5K rpm's and there was a BAM!!!. Car stalled and I could not get it started again. After sleepless night, I decided to take look under the cap and yeah - distributor rotor was just flopping around there. Pretty cheap fix, the rotor arm costed only 40 EUR genuine. Have had no problems since then.
After those issues above, it was smooth sailing. Yeah, changed some bushings, spring broke in rear axle, bearings failed... but that's to be expected from 30 year old car with 300000km mileage. But, after driving it pretty regularly, I noticed lack of power. Compression test showed pretty weak results and engine was completely disassembled to get rebuilt. New rod bearings, new rings etc... Power was restored and car now drives perfectly.
Have gone through 5 sets of wheels on this car too. But in the end, stayed with 8-loch R16 alloy wheels. All I can say, is that they ride the best and look period correct. My car is HISTORIC VEHICLE and I need to keep it all OE.
In summary I can say, that my W140 is very well maintained over all of these years and owners. I live in "rust belt", but my car has barely some rust. Aside from dying pumps and maintenance items like that, it is very reliable for 30 year old car.
knocks on wood
But despite me tinkering with this car every week. there are still a lot of things to fix. Sunroof failed last summer, the rear axle needs to be addressed, never ending engine oil leaks need to be sorted.
To conclude this story, adding a pic of my W140.
