[JC220]

Wow!

Either you are one sick puppy, or you are preparing to open a W220 PSE used parts business...



That's impressive!

I am a very sick puppy with MB disease 😄!

Seeing how w140 PSE pumps increased to £450 used in recent years makes me want to hang on to all of these pumps! There is a yard that sells them to me for £20 per. So of course as soon as I see a new w220 cadaver there my first point of call is to open the boot and grab the PSE

Any other stuff behind my list above I should also target on this well optioned ABC 430?

 

[JC220]

The S430 is aparantly being scrapped this week. They told me this on sat and to pull whatever I could from it. Only had a couple hours but went for ABC bits first. (No time to remove pipes had to sawzal them)

Got the EIS and stop start shifter. That should make a set I'll zip tie them together. And a clean pair of front window regulators + more electrical stuff. And full set of Bose speakers from it to go with the spare Bose Amp. Rear sam, front sam and ABS + trans modules from the diesel w220 also.

£70 for that lot including ABC valves ain't bad. If I were ever to use the valves I would of course rebuild them first.

 

[cowboyt]

Over here, they're hip to the PSE pumps. That's what usually goes first...followed by the AIRmatic valve block and pump.

PSE pumps here in the States go, even at a discount, for US $650 new. Ouch. So, whenever a W220 comes into the Pick-A-Parts lot, the vultures head straight there looking for the PSE pump.

 

[wallyp]

And the Airmatic struts.

 

[260e crusier]

Over here, they're hip to the PSE pumps. That's what usually goes first...followed by the AIRmatic valve block and pump.

PSE pumps here in the States go, even at a discount, for US $650 new. Ouch. So, whenever a W220 comes into the Pick-A-Parts lot, the vultures head straight there looking for the PSE pump.

I go to P&P all the time. Maybe I should start grabbing PSE pumps . What usually goes bad with them and is there a way to determine if its good at the yard? Can I use a 6 AH Dewalt 20V battery pack with adapter alligator clips to test?

 

[260e crusier]

I notice lately that P&P yards in my area has been setting cars on the ground or on new welded steel support stands.

Something must of happened.......................so be careful/safe out there. I always slip a double stack of spare tires under the car before going underneath.

 

[wallyp]

My yard uses welded-together steel wheels as supports. The cars are at a very good working level, whether I am in the engine compartment (although, being height-challenged, I do have to find a wheel to stand on to get to the back of the engine room), or underneath.

 

[260e crusier]

My yard uses welded-together steel wheels as supports. The cars are at a very good working level, whether I am in the engine compartment (although, being height-challenged, I do have to find a wheel to stand on to get to the back of the engine room), or underneath.

My yard did and still do. They're starting to change over. On some cars, they were using three of those welded wheels stands on a car. Two on the rocker panels and one underneath the trunk. The trunk where the spare tire is store is made of plastic . Over the years, I've have seen several cars that fell off their stands.

 

[cowboyt]

Over this last weekend, I was at the Pick-A-Parts getting wood trim (console, dash, and door) off of a 2004 S500 Designo and a 2006 S600. It's beautiful wood trim, too, just dusty, and it cleaned up very nicely. Also got the door panels from the S600, since those are Alpaca Grey (color code 278A), which is the same as our 2003 S430. This being an S600, it also included both the front door control modules and the right rear door control module that was still there.

The S600 has both front seats as well, the massaging ones, and both are in pretty good shape. I simply don't have a place to put them, plus I already rebuilt the S430's seats with new lumbar supports and new(er) leather about three and a half years ago.

 

[cowboyt]

One more thing to grab is 4Matic splash shields! Yep, splash shields, especially the one that covers the oil pan. I just tried to order one for the project 2006 S500 4Matic, and it's No Longer Available (NLA). The part number, with skid guard, is 220-524-07-01. Go figure that! You'd think that splash shields, since they can get easily damaged, would continue to be a stock item....

This is especially true if you have an S500 Guard, with the bulletproof cabin, etc., or an S600 (bulletproof or not). About four years ago, I bought the all-steel oil pan splash shield for the 2003 S600. Good luck finding one of those now; it's apparently not listed for the S600 anymore, if I'm reading the dealer's Web site correctly.

 

[wallyp]

I suspect that we are really in the sweet spot for DIY maintenance and restoration. Cars are about as cheap as they will ever get, there are quite a few in the wrecking yards so used parts are available, and there is still a good supply of dealer parts. Every one of these factors will just get worse over the next few years...

 

[tonylinc]

Wrecking yards are good as well as craigslist or local ads for people breaking apart wrecked cars.

 

[cowboyt]

Our Pick-A-Parts junkyard has been getting in some cars that are pretty good for certain parts.

I just got back from an all-day session there. There's a 2003 S500, which has the exact same interior as our 2003 S430 (Alpaca Grey, 278A), so I'm getting things that the car might need for that. Apparently there are parts specific to 2003 and only 2003. So, this was a fortuitous arrival.

 

[cowboyt]

Here's another part, for pre-facelift cars. Grab the mirrors, or at least the LED turn signal lights inside of them. I just had one go bad in A.) the wife's 2000 S500, and B.) Dad's car. That's one each in two separate cars. Fortunately, there were two model-year 2000 cars, so this afternoon I took the mirror housings off of one at the Pick-A-Parts lot and got the LED turn signals. Pretty easy to do.

Why do this? Because replacement turn signals are not available for the pre-facelift mirror housings.

Of course, one can just install entire post-facelift mirrors. Yes, this does work on pre-facelift cars, as long as you do the whole mirror assembly. Post-facelift turn signals continue to be available from MB for a reasonable price.

 

[Digmenow]

I stalked the pick and pulls for nearly two years looking for a shifter knob that was:

1. Tight
2. Right color
3. Good leather
4. Relatively clean/ cleanable

Mine was worn AND loose when I got the car. I finally found one and installed it but transmission problems forced me to have a local shop work on it. They are usually VERY familiar with Mercedes so I didn't give a thought to the knob when I left it with them. Sure enough, I picked the car up and the knob was loose. I now have a knob from an E class (with the star logo) standing in until I find another S class knob.

Twist the bottom ring to remove, NOT THE ENTIRE KNOB! When the ring is loose, pull the knob straight up and off without twisting it. For some reason, I recall having to pull the ring downward before twisting it but it's been a while so I could be wrong.

Anyhow, if you see a good one, grab it.

 

[Digmenow]

Also, if nobody already mentioned it, hood ornaments. You can't have too many.

 

[Tonye]

If its an R129, take the lot 😇

 

[Digmenow]

I was reminded yesterday of another item. In my experience, the dashboard message almost always follows the tail light socket. If the message says LEFT and I swap the left bulb and socket assembly to the right, then the message changes to RIGHT. This is a $16 item from the Jungle web site which may or may not be a genuine item that fits. I get them from the dead soldiers for pennies and just replace the old with the salvaged.

I know there's a couple of "permanent fixes" out there involving soldering on pigtails or filing down copper to sandwich in the assembly but I get lazy sometimes.

 

[Digmenow]

I stalked the pick and pulls for nearly two years looking for a shifter knob that was:

1. Tight
2. Right color
3. Good leather
4. Relatively clean/ cleanable

Mine was worn AND loose when I got the car. I finally found one and installed it but transmission problems forced me to have a local shop work on it. They are usually VERY familiar with Mercedes so I didn't give a thought to the knob when I left it with them. Sure enough, I picked the car up and the knob was loose. I now have a knob from an E class (with the star logo) standing in until I find another S class knob.

Twist the bottom ring to remove, NOT THE ENTIRE KNOB! When the ring is loose, pull the knob straight up and off without twisting it. For some reason, I recall having to pull the ring downward before twisting it but it's been a while so I could be wrong.

Anyhow, if you see a good one, grab it.

Bastardos!
Iffin' they didn't know how to remove, why'd they have to break it?

On the other hand...

 

[cowboyt]

Yeah, I see that sort of thing a lot, too. Some guys go in there to remove HID headlight assemblies and end up (unnecessarily) ripping up the front bumper cover. Ugh. It's not that hard to remove them without damaging things!