Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
I buy my own parts from O'Reilly or even Benz bin, but I am too old now to do my own labor. Watch your parts-you can save a lot. You will need to buy a drier with the A/C compressor and the conversion kit so it will take the new freon. As for heat, I can just let the defroster blow in the winter and the car gets plenty hot.
Good Luck!
I suspect the pump you found is the auxiliary pump that boosts the hot coolant flow to the servo during real low temperatures. For most of us it never comes on, and not having it installed probably won't make any difference.
There's all kind of reasons for the CC not to work. The blower fan could be bad (not likely since it works on defrost), the control assembly could be bad, you could have vacuum leaks, etc, etc. The most common recurring problem is the servo has failed, but usually if that happens you get some function other than just defrost, but it really depends on what position the servo is failed in, and then you may have A/C compressor problems to boot.
You have your work cut out for you, and it won't be cheap.
I have posted here many times. I had a 280SE for many years, and while it's a different body than a 300D (I assume you didn't mean a 300SD), it's very similar. The climate control and central locking systems were pretty much recurring problem areas.
A set of FACTORY manuals is invaluable, I wouldn't have been able to keep my 280 up without them.
Good luck.
So, the offer is as follows:
Buy: 2000 down and pay 570 per month for five and half years.
Lease: Zero down and pay 530 per month for four years with 15000 mile per year limit and I have to pay 559 when I return the car after four years.
Please advise. Thanks.
You might want to look over this list of Mercedes lease topics and pick one that suits you:
Mercedes Lease Topics
Using the numbers provided by car38, leasing a new 300 Sport for 4 years would cost $26,000, or $542 per month, while buying one would cost $39,620 in payments over 5 years. I'd have to do the math, but I'd think you could save a whole lot by buying a 5, 10 or 15 year old C-Class, depending on your budget, or even an E-Class, then trading it after five years for another 5, 10, or 15 year one.
It would be interesting to run comparisons. For the fun of it I used Edmunds Used Cars to get a quote on a 1999 C280 with the following features: 120,000 miles (12,000/year x 10), silver color, heated front seats, headlight cleaners, compact disc changer, traction control, sport suspension, power moonroof and metallic paint. Edmunds' price for this car in "outstanding" condition is $6,837, if purchased from a private party. Call it $6,800, to round to the nearest $100.
Now even the C-Class is a fairly high maintenance car. However, if we assume this car could be resold for $1,600 in five years (Edmunds quotes $1,619 on a similar C280, with 180,000 miles, in outstanding condition) the depreciation would be $87/month, or $1,040/year (after rounding), in depreciation.
Would someone care to make an educated guess regarding what repairs and scheduled maintenance might run (say a reasonable range) for such a car?
Routes the vacuum where needed to the various vacuum motors
Controls the blower fan speed
Regulates the hot coolant going to the heater core
The control unit my daughter sent me turned out to be from a later model car and won't do the trick for me. I'm back to searching again. Thanks for your reply.
So- make sure it is a real W123 CCU you have in there. If it is, and still does not work, you may try resoldering the contact points in it- there is a tutorial on it at mercedesshop dot com.
As others have pointed out, the CCU is not the only problem- there are other things you may have to check. GL.
Sorry- I meant W124; not W126.
The W124 unit is similar to W123....
It took me a long time to get the AC working on my 300D and at best it remained 'adequate' but never really able to cope with anything over 85 degrees or so. And it needed re-charge annually, which is costly for R12.
If i had it to do all over again, I'd probably not have bothered here in temperate northern CAL. But I used to like to shut all the windows to keep the racket down at highway speeds. I used to fantasize I was droning over enemy territory in a WWII 4-engine bomber. :P
Could the problem have something to do with the vacuum system? (I noticed the fellow in the garage
using a guage to measure the vacuum 'pressure'). He is a bit lost with regard to what to try next, and so am I!
With many thanks,
James.
but is the 'brake booster' you mention the same as the vacuum pump? I can see vacuum lines, but am not sure where the actual vacuum pump is located. (For a while, the engine kept running when the ignition key was turned off. Also, I pretty well gave up on all the locks some time ago and now operate them manually. Would it help my brake problem if I disconnected the vacuum line which serves the doors? Last question:
If this would help, which is the line I should disconnect?)
I'm sure someone here could tell you exactly where the pump is. It's been so long I forget, and I sold all my repair manuals. I think it's on the driver's side of the engine, up front.
Good Luck
2) Good suggestion on the rotor thickness that someone pointed out- definitely makes a huge difference if rotor is thin.
3) Pads- if pads are almost used up, or are "cheap organic type", or have a hard glazed surface- they may not have enough friction in them. You may want to replace with a good set.
GL.
Coincidentally, I removed that plate you mention because it is badly curved. But nothing seems to flatten it.
James.
He might have just gone out and bought a 300E gas car and been very happy for very cheap.
I know someone who installed a 300D engine and transmission into a 1953 International Harvester pickup truck, so anything's possible.
I always thought installing a Chevy engine into a Jaguar XJ6 was the height of irony, since the Jaguar engine is about the only thing on an XJ6 that was any good.
I can see why the XJS V12 would be ditched though...with its propensity for 0 oil pressure and fires.
As for a 300D, I'd certainly consider swapping a turbo diesel engine into one....THAT makes sense, since the 300D is, by modern standards, a road hazard because it's so slow. 0-60 in 20 seconds in no fun whatsoever on a California freeway.
If someone had lots of money, time, and little desire to be reasonable, maybe they could put a modern bluetec engine in a W123 or W126 - excellent performance, amazing mileage. Either that or just forget about mileage and put a big AMG V8 in one...A W123 has to be relatively light. That would be a sleeper.
But a 560SEL is a real porker at 3870.
if you could find one of the very early 220Ds, like a W 115 from the early 70s, that only weights 2950 lbs or so.
Now the 380 series cars were very malaise-y, and I could believe they didn't break 200hp, and they were also not the most economical. But still better than the old 450 cars no doubt.
MB got a lot of mileage out of that engine platform, a 20 year production run. Almost like something GM would do, but for different reasons of course.
I just think they look perfect, and they are so well built and comfortable. I have liked them since I was a little kid.
Blunt smooth timeless lines, little chrome, awesome period aerodynamics, much more efficient than what they replaced...there was nothing better being made in that class at the time.
C&D, July 1987, says a 560SEL was good for 0-60 in 7 flat, faster than an IROC Camaro of the time, and got the old beast up to 140mph. It was good for something.
The LS was a success because it was a line by line update (or copy, if you will) of the 126, and it must have been sold at a loss initially, as the price jacked up pretty quickly after 1990.
Today there are online clubs and organizations for 126 fans and owners...how about early Lexus?