'88 W124 Ex- Berlin Taxi - suddenly a millionaire

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Hi!

Much to my shame - I must admit I drove the Taxi into a ditch....



Two lanes - drive in front of me stomped the brakes, so did I - jumped on the other (right) lane - which just happened to be occupied by the end of a traffic jam. So nothing left but the ditch... Happened extremely fast, I didn't come to a stop in time so I went for the mud. No damage to any other car, just me in the ditch.

Had to call Mr Tow to get me out... After extraction I was very relieved. I had allready pictured smashed boywork, ripped off bits and bent wheels. But - nothing. Just mud and pieces of road side vegetation. Quick look underneath - no fluids leaking, engine runing, gearbox working. So I continued my way home under it's own power. Slowly though, since I had a VERY bad vibration in the steering wheel.



Turns out it was just the big amount of dirt inside the wheel covers... Easy fix. No more shaky wheels.

Next day I put it on the lift at work. And - nothing! Just some dirt and mud. Couple of scratches in the exhaust - and that is it. No damage anywhere.

Guess I got lucky!!





And whilst I had it on the lift anyway, I converted the front brakes to ventilated discs. New discs, obviously, new calipers and new caliper carriers.



Heater is working better than ever, and now there's actually air coming through it

And that is all for now...

Cheers,
Jan

[melle]

Bummer! Glad all involved are OK.

[jollyroger]

Lucky escape, although quick thinking saved your car and someone else's, good work. Glad to see all is OK.

[brc76]

Also, quick thinking saved the day!

[motardman]

The car is telling you "keep the faith, I'll serve you well."

Relieved that you, and the car are both unscathed. Do you need to replace the drivers seat base now? :-)

[pwogaman]

Oct 10, 2019 19:26:33 GMT TurboDieselWeasel said:

If you know your W124s - you may notice that something's missing.

Yepp - no slots in the wing! I'm keeping it a stealth turbo. And for this reason, I once bought a very rare part - the under-fender-air-intake. As far as I know, these were only used on the very first Turbo cars on the US market.



I like it! Saves me painting a wing and keeps it low profile...

Perhaps you're not getting all the air you should be getting 

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Oh, that's VERY interesting!! This is new to me! Thanks for posting!!

----

No news on the car, it just keeps going...

Cheers,
Jan

[TurboDieselWeasel]

This should do:



In other news; I had to replace the heater brain box... Lately the heater was in digital mode;all or nothering. During the cold season this was less of a problem, but now that it's getting warmer it's become a bit troublesome. Luckily with a new control unit it's working again.

That's all.

Cheers,
Jan

[Deleted]

Hi Jan. I enjoy following the ups and downs of your taxi. You inspired me to get one (not easy in the U.K.) 200D 4 speed with only 515.000km

[TurboDieselWeasel]

I approve of that!

[pwogaman]

Apr 9, 2020 5:37:07 GMT TurboDieselWeasel said:

[pwogaman]

[w124tony]

Any update on the million km Taxi? is it still alive?

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Hi!

YES!! It is indeed! Still my only mode of transportation, still my allyear everyday car. And still going strong. But I've lost touch with internet communities in the last two years. But - yeah, it's alive! And actually - nothing exiting has happened with it or to it. Someone backed into it mid-2020. That's about all. A new grille, new headlight, some hammer & dolly work on the slam panel and she was back on track. Total investment; 1h of time, a lick of paint and a bit of welding wire. Outcome: almost 3k€ from insurance.





^those are the most recent pics, I sort of don't take any anymore.

It's never missed a beat since the last update here. Never let me down, if ever something broke down - it was the driver ;-D


^coffee break somewhere on the autobahn after a long drive and even longer day...

However, there are some bigger welding repairs to need to be done, I can't ignore them much longer.

That's all. :-)

Milage: somewhere north of 1.300.000km (went through a couple of odometers lately)

Cheers,
Jan

[westbay]

Good to see an update !

[motardman]

IT@S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!

Thanks for the update, I forgot how much I missed this old bus..

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Thanks! Maybe I feel motivated to share a bit more come the big rust repairs!

One more thing did not to mention; on my daily commute I'm now at about 6.2l/100km - 45.5 MPG (UK)! I drive like a granny, though. But it helps my wallet, fuel prices are insane as of late. I didn't think I'd ever get such good mileage with an old Turbo war horse like this!

Cheers,
Jan

[mercedeslimos]

Yessssssssss! Been waiting for an update, my favourite thread on RR - in general TDW's threads are great!

[Morris63]

Great to see an update - long may she roll!

[varelse]

That's a big coffee mug!
I like how you got one that you can balance precariously on a gas burner precariously on a box in the boot of your only mode of transport.

Glad to see an update on the wagon.