Thanks @TimeCapsule! Indeed, being a 5 speed transmission it has the newer silver style mount. All mounts I got are original MB.

@quakercity this is the one you've looked and commented on BaT (the CL not SL), yes. I've been enjoying it so far!

 

@quakercity this is the one you've looked and commented on BaT (the CL not SL), yes. I've been enjoying it so far!

I hope it works out well for you. If I recall correctly, it was a one owner car? I had estimated about $5K of repairs to get it to good driver condition. It seemed like a good deal but I was not looking to take on another project with the 4 MBs I allready have. Let us know how it turns out.

 

Thanks for the warm welcome @JLCampbell!

 

I have the same vibration on my 1999 S600, the car has 175K miles on it. I found that when I got the last set of Michelins, they did a road force dynamic balance which took 1 1/2 hours to complete. They have a special computer system that shows the imbalance in the wheel and tire. They dismount the tire and then remount according to the marks. I gave the guy a $20 tip because it is the best it has driven in over 10 years of ownership. I still get a little bit of vibration especially after the car has sat. Once the tires warm up and the flat spots disappear, most of it goes away. The car still rides well at 80+.
My 1998 S600 with 60K miles rides great. I bought new Michelins and had the balance done. I do need some minor front end work because they were not able to check the allignment. Car still drives better that the 99, I guess because of the fewer miles.

 

It's on my todo list to get new tires and try to get this road force balance thing. Would have to ask where I usually go if they have it as after a quick check I concluded that they may not.

 

A bit of new development. Unfortunately, couldn't get the motor mounts changed as the shop underestimated the difficulty and time, and on top there's a hose that they wanted to remove but it's in bad shape and they were afraid to go ahead without having a replacement. So I got the car back and I am at square 0 again. Will have to reach out to a few other places and see if they'd be willing to help out. Ultimately, I could take it to where it's been serviced for the last 15 years, but it's a bit farther out from home.

This hose does not look right. It's a cohline, so I think it's a fuel hose that I should replace immediately.

I am still considering doing the mounts myself over the course of 2-3-4 days, but my main fear is not being able to torque the top bolt to 55nm as per the spec.

I also need to take apart the right mirror to change the rubber seal, but I need to study more on how to disconnect the wires.

 

How I repaired my bubble fuel hoses. Cut old hose from end connectors. Use sturdy clamps!!

 

Excuse my ignorance but i'm a little Confused ( i'm not really familiar with later models) .
By the small Engine pic of your repair there , i notice your MAF's are from an early W140 & the Accelerator linkage which a 99 dosen't have . Has this Engine been replaced ?.
Unless you inserted one Pic just to show the Hose .... .

Small Tip , be careful with Fuel hoses & to many Metal Clamps ,these Engines get Verry Hot not warm like todays engines ,they get "HOT" - you can cook a BBQ on them .

 

My 600SEC is 1993. Everything original on my engine. I've probably put 15,000 miles on the fuel hose repair. No problems. My V12 runs pretty normal heat wise. And I live in hot Tucson. But I did make some modifications to make my 600 more drivable in 100+ temps.

 

Had a look at the front suspension. Tie rods look good, lower control arms look good, so are the idler arms bushings.

The upper control arm bushings are not great for both sides, but there was no play in the wheel.

 

Both upper control arms are fairly easy to replace. A little tight getting to some of the Allen bolts. Be sure to Locktite those bolts and tighten the horizontal through bolt with the axle at close to ride height. The lower ball joint is also an easy replace.

 

I also tried to replace the trans mount but cannot get the 13mm bolts to move. Tried using WD40 penetrant without succes. Same with diff oil plugs.

I am also missing a clip from the front air filter to the MAF sensor, and found this in the left headlight bay, no idea what it is.

 

and found this in the left headlight bay, no idea what it is.

Looks like the cap for the air conditioning freon service valve.

 

Managed today to finish the rest of the items I wanted to change, as it's been siting for quite a while.

Changed on the driver side:

• upper control arm; this was in pretty bad condition. The joint was completely loose (I attached a video). Both of them were stamped with Mercedes logo (and had TRW logo too), so I wonder if they're original or replaced at some point.
• sway bar link; this was bad as well, also its joint was completely loose (also see video). These were also TRW.
• sway bar bushing; this was in pretty decent condition.

Took it for a drive for 30 miles and I would say the steering and front suspension is tighter. Definitely less vibration at 45-50mph, I would say 80% of it is gone, which is great. I also just got new tires I ordered, so next week will do an alignment and tire change. If I have time, I should also do a road force balance for the tires (America's Tire has this service in my area, so will think if I go there or try some other town 35min away from home).

I would still like to change the lower ball joints, but I couldn't do it on the passenger side and I don't want to injure myself or damage something on the car if I hit it with the 4LB sledge hammer I got. I'll think more about it.

Edit: I saw online a few people using vaseline or some other stuff to lubricate the stabilizer bar bushing to get it out and put the new one in. I managed to rotate it and used just a bit of water and soap to more easily take it out. It can also be cut very easily with a cutter. Putting it back it's super easy, just rotate it clockwise and it slides right in. I wouldn't use vaseline or other lubricant, as it can damage the rubber I think.

 

This is such a mysterious car.

A few updates. Got the new tires installed, road force balanced, and a wheel alignment. Now the car pulls slightly to the right 🤷‍♂️. Will take it again somewhere else for alignment, see what they say. What I can see is that the rear right camber is -1.49, which is a bit out of range. Maybe there's some suspension issue that's not visible with the naked eye.

Now the vibration is less visible around 40-60mph, but still there. The wheel is not shaking crazy anymore, which is good.

I changed the differential oil and it was black, thick, and smelly. Looking at it and the way the plugs looked like, it's either original or changed very long time ago. I am not sure if that had a bad impact, but there is more "clunk" when shifting into gear or when accelerating from coasting or taking the foot off from gas. That's a bummer, maybe I should have not changed the oil.

Going under the car I can see two things.

The rear flex disk says Made in W. Germany, so maybe it's original? It has one little metal ring off, but other than that looks good.
I am a bit puzzled though by the part number. It is: 129 411 00 15. I checked through the service records and I found that one flex disk (129 410 01 15) was replaced in 2007. I think that's the front one because it has the new style bolts. The rear one though, I could not find the part number in the forums at all. I can find it on mbpartsgiant, so I am considering ordering both a front and rear one and changing them.

I also tried to look at the center support for the drive shaft, but couldn't see much. Probably that bearing should changed too if I get to change the disks.

When I rotate the drive shaft, there's a little play that I feel/think comes from the differential. Not sure that it's normal or not, I believe it's not. It feels more like what Kent is showing in this video (though I think that pin would maybe not create this play?!? - so probably is something else)

That's a bummer. I don't have the space to work on this myself, so I called a few MB indy shops around. One does not work on these older models but recommended me another one. I called that one and they said we can have a look at it. I hope I can take it there next week.

To me this sounds like a little bit of preventive maintenance would have gone a long way!

P.S. Strange thing, at 95K miles the transmission was changed (M140 270 93 00). I have a lot of old (early 2000s) service records, would be fun to take a few screenshots with the work and prices, maybe when I have a bit of time.

P.P.S: I had a bit of water leaking around the exhaust binding, I think that's not normal.

 

Late to the party,

I travel for my job, and I was in another country for a month, so missed the start of your thread.

I appreciate your thread, and the pictures. Keep them coming.

You have a beautiful car.

I do have a question, where did you get the TRW upper control arms?

Maybe also mention where you get some of these parts as others may be curious. Our cars like other MBs are suffering from parts not being available.

Continue with your journey,

Thanks,

Martin

 

@MAVA yeah, I will not do it myself. Plenty of other stuff I can try to do myself.

@quakercity - I found a youtube video showing how to remove the panel for the coupe. Looks simpler than the sedan where most tutorials and videos show that you need to remove the wood with the seat adjustment, which is tricky and the wood can break. Apparently, for the coupe it's not needed, so I am going to try that. Waiting for the parts to come before taking the panels down.

 

Thanks @PoNoMo for your insights. Unfortunately, I don't have the tools for welding or trying to heat & unscrew the shock top mounts. I will wait on those a bit and might bite the bullet and order new ones. I have not decided yet - still waiting to hear from the indy about the order for the LCA bushings and have them replaced.

Tried last weekend to take off the driver's door panel to replace the door check strap with a new original one (which to my surprise came already greased) but was unsuccessful and did not want to force it. I have this image with how to do it (see first pic below), but I think it's for pre-97 models. I took 1/2/3/4 out, and the one screw around 5 that's under a little plastic cover in the rest and then under the arm rest. Then I managed to pop all the lower / left / right rivets out, but it somehow felt that it's held from the top and around handle or around seat adjustment. In this Youtube video, it comes off pretty easily so maybe I just need to be a bit more firm and getting it out from the top:

I have another diagram (see 2nd pic) for 1997+ models, but it only shows it for the sedan and I think the coupe version is different. Does anyone have the version for the coupe?

 

Got the motor mounts replaced, the LCA bushings, and the lower ball joints in the front suspension. Unfortunately, that did not fix the vibration issue so back to reading and thinking what other stuff to chase down!

The shop managed to change the mounts in 3h but they had to take down the exhaust on the driver's side for easier access.

A noob question: how do you open the hydraulic reservoir cap? I don't seem to be able to take the line that is connected to the cap off.

 

Today I changed the rear shock (1403209613) on driver's side as it had a loud clunk when going over bigger bumps. As expected, the top shock mount was wiggly, almost as bad as the one that @Aerosurfer showed a few years back.

Even worse, the bottom mount was also bad and the rubber gone. Found another shock in good condition on eBay and went in person to see it, and overall, I am happy with the result. No more clunks!

I followed mainly this thread here to do the replacement, but one thing I can add is that in the coupe it was very easy to pull a bit of the carpet in the trunk on the left, which gave enough space to access and remove the top nut. It's really not needed to take apart more stuff there, just that area (mine even had a hole for easy access).

Another good tip is to use some cardboard (I used the largest moving box from home depot) under the car for when removing the shock's hydraulic line as the oil will spill everywhere until you manage to separate the line from the shock line. I also used a big oil pan catcher (it's for 4 gallons), which caught everything. Consider also putting some rags around that line as oil can spill all over that frame bushing and even the exhaust.
Pro tip: once the old shock is out, don't forget to compress it to remove all the fluid in it, otherwise depending how you store it, you might get oil everywhere. Ideally, use a screw/plastic cap to block the oil from getting out.

When installing the new rear shock, I had to wiggle a bit to get the two lines together again, that was annoying. Once I did that and reconnected them, I used the floor jack to push up the control arm so that I can put the bolts to the bottom of the shock and torqued it to 100 NM. The top nut needs 40 NM.

After all this, I took out the fluid in the SLS reservoir and replaced with fresh new fluid from MB (000989910309). Then I started the car and pushed a few times in the back to get the fluid going, then topped the reservoir again and checked that the level is between min and max. Took it for a ride and then checked again the levels. All in all pretty straightforward, but it can get messy.

Now I need to do also the passenger side. I hope then I can also change the SLS reservoir filter, but I could not figure how to take it out just yet.

P.S I am thinking to recondition my old shock, but 1403200944 (the top mount) is not available anymore / backordered, and fcpeuro has it priced at $200. Will see if it will come back but I doubt it. The only ones one can find now are from URO, which might be less qualitative.

 

P.S I am thinking to recondition my old shock, but 1403200944 (the top mount) is not available anymore / backordered, and fcpeuro has it priced at $200. Will see if it will come back but I doubt it. The only ones one can find now are from URO, which might be less qualitative.

I do not think the bottom mounts are available. I saw something where someone made a replacement. I had the top replaced years ago on one of my cars, but when the bottom goes you have to replace the whole strut.

 

Love driving the car. It is really fun!

Wanted to share an update here.
Been waiting for parts for a while, but now they are slowly arriving. I decided to buy only genuine MB parts as I don't want to do the work again anytime soon (which might be needed with lower quality parts).

Will try to refresh the rear suspension a bit. The outer bushing on LCA is gone, got the new ones (2043250027) and will buy one of the tools to press them in and out. Mercedessource used to have one ($80) and didn't order it in time, now it's gone from their website. Other options are Baum, CTA, and other ones. Ebay Europe has them for 35 euros. There is one place to rent (it looks like a CTA one) for $20 a week.

Also got new rear tie rods (1403503153), new sway bar links (found original MB on partsouq 1403203589), and sway bar bushings (1403261781).

A few weeks ago I replaced the rear left spring with a new one (1403241904 - got the las one available...) and also replaced the rubber pad as well (1403250184). I did use a schwaben spring conpressor and it went well.

I also got new flex disks from MB (1294110015) but they did not come with screws so I will reuse the old ones. I think that should be ok? The front disk has the new style screws as it was replaced many years ago, but the back one might be original. Got the center support bearing too (0089814325) but the support itself is NLA. Will see when I take down the drive shaft to change the flex disks if the support rubber is still good and if I can only change the bearing.

Has anyone replaced the rear tie rods? Do I need to be aware of anything special or it's mostly a drop in replacement? What about eccentric bolts there?