[jaymaynard]

Well, that was anticlimactic.

I got out to the county fairgrounds about 7 minutes after they opened. The building was open, and I walked right up to the 380SL. There was a guy in there with a '68 El Camino, about to try it. We traded wishes for problem-free starts.

I opened the passenger door, reached across and opened the driver's door, walked around, got in. Turned the key to ON. I was happy to be greeted with the seat belt buzzer and warning light. (Edit: The clock was even dead-on correct!) I crossed my fingers, twisted the key, and it started, right off. Yay!

I pulled it out of the building at idle, making sure I was clear of the door. Went across the parking lot and stopped at an out-of-the-way place to let it idle; I wanted the temp gauge to come up to something approaching normal temperature before I took it out onto the road. While I was waiting for that, I plugged in the USB stick with my music library on it. The stereo - set to random shuffle - rewarded me with The Final Countdown. :yelrotflmao:

I transferred my toolbox from my roommate's Corolla to the 107 for the drive home, just in case. I didn't exceed 45 MPH, and was gentle with it. It drove fine, and everything worked. It did smell of burning oil, but I'd had that after it sat for the trailing arm repair, and found it was oil on the manifold. Even so, it's getting an oil change before I drive it for real.

I did have a grinding noise out of the rear end as I drove. I'll have to investigate that first. I think it's dragging brakes, but I'm not going to guess until I get it in the air for a look.

This coming week has lots of rain in the forecast. That'll give me time to take care of the oil change and the rear end before I'm tempted to start using it.

 

[ChiefRider]

I did have a grinding noise out of the rear end as I drove. I'll have to investigate that first. I think it's dragging brakes, but I'm not going to guess until I get it in the air for a look.

This coming week has lots of rain in the forecast. That'll give me time to take care of the oil change and the rear end before I'm tempted to start using it.

Brake rotors are rusty, calipers probably dragging a little.

This is how most spring start-ups go. Shouldn't be any big problems.

 

[MBGraham]

Haven't got to the SL yet, but today I put two of our cars back on road (we have been away for several months).

E320 was on trickle charger - Started right up with all systems working as they should. Vacuumed interior and applied leather conditioner to seats. Ready to go! (My wife's daily driver)

300D had battery disconnected. Re-connected and started no problem. Just had to set time on clock and radio presets. (My daily driver)

On both cars, one or two tires were soft. One was only 10 psi. I drove the 300D before checking - not a good idea - steering feels loose if pressures are wrong.

Anyway, SL is next in line. It too has battery disconnected.

GLK250 needs a rest - But first a good clean in and out.

Nice to get the cars back on road again.

 

[MBGraham]

BTW, had to let Google translate Rostlaube. Oxford Dictionaries came up with:

picturesque old rust-heap

Surely not!

 

[jaymaynard]

Well, my signature says, in German, "It may be a German rust bucket, but it's my German rust bucket."

Yeah, it's a rust bucket. But it runs and drives, and pretty well. Not gonna win any car show trophies, though. Picturesque? You can say that about just about any 107.

Got the door handle fixed yesterday afternoon. Thanks to rockcrusher's reminder in his thread about the door handle, I remembered how easy to was to get the handle out, and then I just bent the operating lever inside the door inward (away from the edge of the door, toward the front of the car) to make it engage the bit at the end of the lock cylinder better. So far, so good. We'll see how well it holds up.

Today, I get the oil changed and look at the rear end, and then take the hardtop off. Might even drive it to work tomorrow.

 

[jaymaynard]

So I think I know why it's scraping. Here's the left rear rotor:

And the right:

They appear to be unevenly surface rusted. Is this one that will just go away if I drive it? Those rotors were new when I put the car back on the road just before putting it in storage, and have 26 miles on them now.

 

[MBGraham]

So I think I know why it's scraping. H
They appear to be unevenly surface rusted. Is this one that will just go away if I drive it? Those rotors were new when I put the car back on the road just before putting it in storage, and have 26 miles on them now.

I have had that problem on our E320. One time after parking at Daytona airport for just 3 weeks. Another time while parked for winter.

I see two things. One is that you have an "imprint" where the pads were when parked. I read on-line that there can be a transfer of material between the pad and the disk that causes the imprint. It probably wouldn't be cause of scraping, but may causes juddering when braking.

The scraping could be caused by corrosion around the rim of the disks - just outside the braking region. That catches on the pads and makes a scraping sound. Check fronts too. Sometimes sound that seems to come from rear is from front and vice-versa!

You could try sanding out the imprint and grinding off the rim rust. One time I had to replace almost new discs (because of imprint). Other time, cleaning rust of disk rims eliminated noise.

While you are in there, you might check the sway bar links. I had one of those loose and scraping on my 107.

 

[SinSL]

Those rotors were new when I put the car back on the road just before putting it in storage, and have 26 miles on them now.

I would go on empty country road, and just burn it off...

Get up to 50 or so, hard brake to 10, then don't touch brakes until they completely cool down (~1-2 mins). Do this 2-3 times and everything should be well.

 

[jaymaynard]

Get up to 50 or so, hard brake to 10, then don't touch brakes until they completely cool down (~1-2 mins). Do this 2-3 times and everything should be well.

Did that. Got rid of most of the scraping, but it still does it when turning (more on a right turn than a left turn), and the last little bit of stopping hard.

Drove about 20 miles. I could tell it was a lot happier once I'd done that. These cars really do like to be driven, and driven hard.

 

[MBGraham]

Pulled my SL out of back of garage and fired her up.

At first heard a repetitive fast mechanical sound from engine. Stethoscope located source - PS pump. Went away after a while.

Drove car a few km. Forgot soft top wasn't fully latched. Noticed a metallic clunking sound when going over bumps. Doesn't do it when I bounce car when stopped. That will have to wait - watching Masters!

 

[ejboyd5]

Right rotor looks fine, don't worry about the "imprint." Left rotor on the other hand appears to have some serious grooving, particularly for an item alleged to have only 26 miles on it. My question is what caused this excessive wear. Examine the brake pads and retainer; what does the rear face of the rotor look like? Something is scraping that rotor and it must be eliminated.

 

[MBGraham]

Right rotor looks fine, don't worry about the "imprint."

Hmmm. I WOULD be concerned about the imprint. What I have seen happen several times, is that pads pick up corrosion products from the imprint area and these then score the disk. Same happens if rust from disk rim gets onto pads.

Here is an example of one of my 300D disks caused by just sitting in storage for about 3 months and then being driven for a few weeks. Prior to storage disks were smooth. Where the white "saturn" ring is, the imprint had gouged a groove in the pad.

May get away with attempting to rebed seeing Jaymaynards pics are of rears. They only provide small % of braking. But if fronts are like that too, it will, from my experience, show up in reduced braking performance and judder.