How To Identify & Source Parts

This is another potential sticky if the mods deem it so. I'm outlining how to find and identify parts primarily, especially for parts that are not general commodities and would typically be dealer only or reproduction parts, not parts you could find from "regular" vendors:

OE parts:

Mercedes-Benz of Naperville:

https://www.mboemparts.com

You can call and speak with a live body there, too, if necessary.


Aftermarket parts sources:

https://www.mbclassics.de

Alexander is a great guy, very knowledgable, and will communicate promptly if you have any questions. He ships promptly via DHL which arrives stateside amazingly fast. Be sure to set up an account on the web site first - when you do this you’ll see lower prices, as your location “tells” the site you’re not paying the VAT that would be applied for EU customers. He has good deals on both OE as well as aftermarket and reproduction parts. I highly recommend him - please tell him I sent you - I get nothing for it other than his awareness that he’s getting word of mouth promotion around here.

https://www.ebay.com/str/w114selo

This is Selahattin, a guy in Turkey that sells aftermarket parts that are good quality and reasonably priced. I would buy door and trunk seals from him. Some of his other stuff may be questionable as I haven't used it, so if you’re not sure, ask around. It’s good stuff, but he can have issues with getting things right sometimes - an example would be sending you grille trim for a W123 or W126 instead of a W110/W111.

https://www.authenticclassics.com

This is Authentic Classics. I wouldn’t buy anything from them myself as they’re usually stupid expensive, often charging more for a part you could get at the dealer for less. I list them here as they’re a good resource to get pictures and identify part numbers of things. When you go to a page for an item there are 2-3 little tabs just below the pictures, one of which is “Manufacturer’s Product Number”. With this you can get the Mercedes part number and do your own research for finding it (cheaper).

https://www.niemoeller.de/en

This is Niemöller, a German parts supplier that’s been around forever. I’ve never bought anything from them as shipping makes it cost prohibitive as do their prices, but like Authentic Classics, they’re a good point of reference when you’re trying to identify a part.


Researching parts:

Trying to identify a part, or determine if it’s still available from Mercedes? Here’s how I do it:

Go to the online EPC: Mercedes-Benz Teilekatalog (Ersatzteile online)

Click on “Car” under “Assortment class:”

Here things can diverge. If you wanted to look at engine or transmission parts, you would click on the appropriate button under “Maj. ass:”. If you want to look up pretty much anything else that pertains to the car, click on the Model designation button that corresponds to your car. For example, my car is a 220SEb, so I click on “220”.

This will open a list of all models with that designation. You can scroll down the list and find yours. In my case, there are three listed under 220 SEB. The first six digits of your VIN are your chassis’ number, like this: 111014. Click on the chassis number for your car and it will take you to a page with all of the parts groups listed.

Click on a parts group and a page will open with drawings of the assemblies in that group and a list of the parts in the drawings below. Note that in some cases there might be more than one chassis shown. With my 111.014, there was a coupe version, too, so the drawings for the coupe parts are with the group as well. They will always be second to the sedan, so you will often see a drawing with the front doors of the sedan, for example, and then another drawing with the doors for the coupe (much longer than the sedan doors.) You have to kind of sort this out on your own, but once you look at the various groups if it applies you’ll figure it out.

Identify the part in the drawing, scroll down the list to the corresponding number, and there you are. Note that there can be supersessions, and when there are the part description will tell you there’s a newer number and it will be listed next in the list, so it’s pretty intuitive.

Now you’ve identified your part. Cool! but - there’s more….

Copy the part number, leaving the letter prefix (“A”) off of the number. It’s not necessary.

Go to this web site:

https://partssearch.mercedes-benz-classic.com/parts/result

This is the parts search page at the Mercedes Classic Center in Germany. Drop your part number into the search field and click on the search button or hit “Enter”. If you’re living right you’ll get a response with the part number and a description. If not, they’re not in the running. At that point I do a Google search with the number and “mercedes”. That will tell you if there are other options as far as sources - or not. You get a price from Classic too, but it’s in Euros and not relevant to our market. But that’s not all!

Click on the part description in your search results. A new page opens with the description as well as details on the part’s status and whether or not it’s a reproduction or new. This is a good thing, as it means the part is still available. If it shows up here you can order it from Naperville like any other Mercedes part.

Be aware that parts that are in Germany may take a week or two to get here. They’ll tell you if that’s the case when you order. It costs nothing to get a part out of Germany other than time.


To circle back - if you want to look up parts for your engine, you would click on the “Engine” button under “Maj. assy:” and would get a list of engines similar to the list of model numbers you got under the chassis section. Gas engine models start with an “M”, diesels with “OM”. If you don’t see your engine model listed in full, like “M127”, you would just click on the “M” button.

Once done, you’ll see a list of engines by model number. Just like the chassis section, you click on the engine model you’re interested in and it will take you to a page with a list of the parts groups for the engine. Drill down as before and identify the part number.

This should be enough to make you dangerous when it comes to finding or identifying parts. Enjoy!

Dan