1988 W124 300 TurboD Coupé ''Gold'nBrown'' - intercooling it

[TurboDieselWeasel]

hi Onne!

Yes, that's the one. But two thoughts I had to converting to 4-pin: a) availabillity. My local car parts store can only get the 4-pin type, the 2-pin type seems to be only available at Bosch's or MB's. And b) the early 2-pin sensor costs 2-3x more than the other.

And last but not least; I don't expect the new sensors to be as longlasting as the first, factory fitted ones... It'll pay out to convert to 4-pin. And it's only two wires more (the 4-pin gets it's earth via a wire, not vie the threaded bit). [edit] Actually, it's allready cheaper... 21€ f. sensor & 10 for a 2nd hand connector. New 2-pin sensor is at least 45€

Uhm yes, that's basically my thought for doing it. As I'm pretty sure I will keep my 'Rocher' coupé

[Onne]

Sounds like a good plan to me! I got mine directly from Merc. Part A005 542 10 17. Cost €19,97.
Assuming "geber" means sender...

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Sept 24, 2012 17:48:09 GMT Onne said:

Sounds like a good plan to me! I got mine directly from Merc. Part A005 542 10 17. Cost €19,97.
Assuming "geber" means sender...

Hi! That's the one with a single connector, right? As far as I know it's only for the temp. gauge? I have 3 temp. feelers in the head... It's the last one, closest to the firewall I'm on about

Cheers,
Jan

PS: 4-pin connector arrived, but I can't solder - fail... I'd need another set of hands to hold the two wires, hold the solder iron and the solder... Hmmpf!

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Sooooooo - the wheels are finaly on the car! After a long search for the correct wheel bolts - without any luck - I bit the bullet and spend a unexcusable amount of money for new bolts. On the other hand I got a good amount of money back for the ugly Borbet wheels I got with the tyres.







I love those wheels! They'r just a tad wider - but the car looks much 'stronger' now - and understated. Could be factory fitment. Exactely what I was hoping for

[Onne]

Looks great! What size tyre have you got on there now?

[TurboDieselWeasel]

205/60 R15 Affordable & suit the 7" wide wheels the best, IMO. Not too ballony, not stretched.

[stretch]

they do suit the car looks so much better on them good choice

[TurboDieselWeasel]

They are basically a copy of the original 'square hole mancover' wheels, but with a bit lower offset & a slight amount of dish. The wider, the more dish.

Take for example the Lorinser R107 wheels, 8 or 9x16" I think; they just added more dish on the outside to make 'em wider ;D

[Onne]

I'm running the same size, good combo. I assume I have 7x15" wheels...?

[dangermouse]

Yes! I love the 'Rochers new wheels, they really set it off without shouting about it

[Mark]

Same wheels as I have on my car, apart from the fact that they are much deeper dish

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Na, not realy... But I'm thinking about fitting thinner spring pads; they'r no 18€ for all 4 and will bring it down about 2cm without losing any comfort

[TurboDieselWeasel]

I've been busy today!

First thing: up with it's in the air once again...



And then off with the diff. Lower exhaust, disconect prop shaft and lower it down as much as possible and push forward as much as possible.

As I was going to replace the two bushes holding the diff to the subframe.



Good for me: we have the original KLANN (manufacturer) tool for that job at work, which I borrowed. Makes life very easy!

And that's why the diff has to be lowered; the bell of the tool needs some space: and out with the old bushes...



I could tear apart one bush with the force of my thumb. lol ;D Very good idea to replace these!



Next step: turn tool around, change pressure late and pull in new bushes:



Then put everything together, punch yourself in the face whilst fastening the bolts for the propshaft, go mad trying to fasten the bolt holding the prop shaft center bearing, right above the cat converter...

With the car back on the ground and some daylight left, I chnaged the coolant sensor. Of course I had to partially remove the valve cover to have room for a socket (I thought these cars are so well engineered!? ;D)...



You may have read the bit about my soldering skills, or lack thereof. I found a solution; self-soldering shrink-wraps! Awesome! Stick cable in, heat with heat gun - and have a soldered, wrapped & water tight joint. The red rings are glue which takes the strain of the solder joint. Perfect! And fast. But not realy cheap (0,90€ per piece!):



Wrapped the new loom twice with electrical tape, some cable ties - hum - where is it?



I can honestly say I've never before done such a proper job with electrics ever before ;D ;D

And now she's ready to burn more gasoline and continue to make me poor ;D I love that car!! It get's almost as much positive and cheerfull feedback as the Mini!

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Just returned from a 1700km trip to Brandenburg resp. Berlin. The car behaved and proofed to be a very, very comfy and able long-distance cruiser. Apart from the one or other stop for a quick pee I drove each way without a notable break. And much to my surprise; one fuel tank took me almost 700km! That's an average of 9l/100km or 31MPG!!! Not bad at all for a heavy, 3.0l six cylinder with slush box!



One thing was bugging me, though; the heater ECU(!) was broken which meant the heater was working on full song... But, the McGyver in me found a solution: manual heater controll ;D



And so I continued my journey north...



And arrived at an ancient industrial site...



Where this cart was waiting for me:



After some persuation with various tools, wire cutters and wrenches; this was liberated from that car:



A LPG kit. As payment, I started a roof-conversion on a Panda; from non-sunrood to sunroof. Which involved half a day of drilling spotwelds... But at the end of the day, I had scalped the black Panda - only need to scalp the white one now and transplant the roof skin. But this will be next year. I'm back now and I ways too knackered to take any more pictures. But it was an awesome weekened in a part of my country which seems barely populated... Very sad to see this state being abandoned. Ruins everywhere, left houses, detoriation everywhere... And it's actually such a beautifull part of Germany! If it would make any sense, I'd settle there. But; no jobs, no work, no future to be had there... Realy sad! And if you go one state to the north-east, to Mecklenburg.Vorpommern - it's even worse.......

[TurboDieselWeasel]

So I broke down ;D

Wednesday early in the morning... The semi-awake half of my brain notices that only half of the controll lamps in the cockpit light up when I turn the ignition on.

After a few kilometers my still sleepy brain can't figure out why the seat heater doesn't stay on and the controll lights in the switches start to flash...

40km later, my brain finaly starts to realise that something must be wrong, as the lights get dim, the ABS, RS and ASD warning lights light up and slowly go darker. The rev counter starts to play up. The radio fails and turns off and the engine runs rough...

Awake now, I decide to take the next exit. It's freezing cold & damp, I turn off the ignition, try to start the engine again (old Windows-user affectation ;D) - but that starter doesn turn, all I get is a dry *clac*.

Mhmmm. Ah. 1,5h wait for the ADAC (RAC) and I arrive at work, 2h late.

The culprit:



On the positive side: I guess this clearly speaks for the battery ;D

And some snaps I took today, after I gave her a quick wash.

[s123]

Fantastic car!!

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Oct 26, 2012 18:38:24 GMT s123 said:

Fantastic car!!

Thanks!

It's a bit dirty now, as that stupid tree decided to loose all it's leafes in a single night...



And again I had troubles with the heating. Resp. lack of. Precisely; there was no air coming to the screen demisters. Which is a bit impractical this time of the year... I tore it all apart again:



First suspect, the lever for the air flap was tight & OK and the flap moved. But I noticed that I could manually open the flap, and the heater knob would close it, but not open it again.



So I dug deeper into the dashboard and found this:



The cable slipped of the back of the knob. It's only a push-fit, but a very tight one. Pushed it back on - all works again.


And I found a major air leak on the knob that controlls the blower speed; a hose slipped of (it has two vacuume connections - what for I don't know...).

Ready for moisty mornings!

Cheers,
Jan

[merc190uk]

nice looking car and the wheels really suit it
glad you sorted your heater, mine did it on just the passenger side, turned out to be the temperature dial potentiometer had a dry joint.
will keep watching reading.

[TurboDieselWeasel]

So - winter time is coming, long nights, much thinking... Too much looking through car advertising sites... I noticed that a 300 Turbodiesel donor car can be had for surprisingly low amounts of money. The 3.0l OM603 engine is a realy lovely engine, smooth and pulls like tractor. With added turbo there's also a lot of "torqs" present.

I like six cylinders and I love diesels. But I'm not sure if I realy should convert the coupé to a 300CDT? Wouldn't be that much work with a complete donor car... Though taxes would double, but fuel costs would go down at least 1/3.

Hmmmhmmhmm. Added a poll.

Cheers,
Jan

[dbdb]

I love this car. Highline Mercs of this era have a wonderfully caddish feel; you just know the first owner did something enormously lucrative and slightly dubious.
They're so different to the everyday Mercedes then - they were well made, but oh so earnest and sensible.

The colour makes it; gold with brown leather is perfect. The new wheels look fabulous - just right. Ambassador you're spoiling us!

David