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Robert
Robert
dt77
But MB is much bigger than me, they have a much bi$$er chance of not only getting reimbursed for the damage this diesel cost my car but of making changes in this industry so this doesn't happen again, not only with this Chevron gas station but any gas station in the world. There are quality controls that must be followed every time these pumps are filled, IMO. I have no guarantee that this won't happen again. Now, I'm very suspicious...should I stick to my usual BP station?, should I mix Texaco and BP in the same tank? Are they any home kits to dipstick gasoline to know if it's good? (like pregnancy tests). I might be overeacting but I have heard of water contamination (diluting the gas) to make more $$$. How can this affect the longevity of my car? the performance?
I am sorry but I can get real deep on this issue now. Yes my heart was broken, this IS my dream car, I admit it I LOVE IT!!! I waited a long time to buy a car like this, I worked my @ss off to afford this truck. I take good care of it but I feel like I have no control of the quality of the gas I feed it.
I rest my case...
I'd suggest using stations you're used to. Also observe what tankers come fill it up. There is a Mobil station near me that often gets fillups from non-Mobil tankers. The others get fillups from Mobil tankers. The one that doesn't use them always seems to be cheaper in price...
http://lighting.mbz.org/faq/
Robert
The city light kit was from an E46 BMW. I had to do a bit of modification to it to stick it in the hole.
When you use your ML next, take a look at the heigh beam compartment and you will see a hole in there that is what this hole is for... the city lamps!, not even the MB dealer knew about them and their function. uugh!
On the Xenon units, these hole are plugged, but in the Halogen units they are not plugged. So I had to *gasp* Drill into this plugged section. I believe that Birger has the same setup as I do now except for mine being Xenons.
I like the night look better than the xenons with the orange corner lamps. These lamps mind you are only 5W but in the night time it looks a lot brighter than 5W. I think it is because of the reflectors inside the unit that make it lok brighter.
Robert
silver visions are sweet. it will give your ML a cleaner look. when not flashing, it will appear clear or the same color as your reflector. when signalling, it acutally will flash amber.
you mentioned you have no more corner lamps. that is standard ? so does this mean you have no side markers ? the halogen housings use the side turn bulbs as a side marker too. But if yours doesn't turn on .. ?
i think you can get pretty sweet 5W bulbs or 'higher wattage' for your city lights that are 'white' in color. so you can match your xenons. so when you turn on your xenons, the city lights remain on ya ?
dt77
dt77
To cut to the chase, he got his luxury tax money back. The dealer would have been facing some 5 digit federal fines if he had dropped a dime on them. Basically, the dealer was discounting the vehicles, but makeng up the discount with the luxury tax scam. As to the sales tax, most states are net, sales price less trade-in. Try going to your state's web site and then to the registry site or call a registry office.
I dont understand why Maristella wants MB to pay for the repairs, it is going to be a dead end, the only culprit in this case is the gas station and or oil company.
On another subject, did anyone noticed the SUV that rolled over in the snow storm, it was in CNN headlines news, the roof opened up completely, like a sardin can, the SUV was lying on it's side and the complete roof lying on the ground held by one side, could not figure what brand it was, definitely not an MB, if the occupants were not wearing a safety belt, bad things had to happen.
Call your Local BMW dealership and request the city lamps... IF they don’t know what you are talking about ask them to look further, it is in the database...
When you get them, assemble the socket, bulb, contacts, and bulb holder ... shave the two plastic tabs off the sides of each bulb holder and place them in to the hole in your high beam compartment. They will just sit in the compartment don’t worry about securing them because the shaft of the bulb holder and the confined space in the headlamp housing will prevent it from coming out. You will know what I'm talking about when you do it.
Take the Turn signal bulb holder and rip out the center contact.... NOT the wiring on the harness connected to the ML! THE BULB HOLDER~!!
Take the City light wires and use a "Slide Tap Set" to connect the wires to the wiring harness of the Corner lamp harness. This will enable quick connect/disconnect should you decide to remove the lamp. Attach one of the city lamps leads to the center wire of the harness, attach the other one to the brown ground wire.
”silver visions are sweet. it will give your ML a cleaner look. when not flashing, it will appear clear or the same color as your reflector. when signaling, it actually will flash amber.”
I don’t think that I will get them I think that it will look too bland on the front of my ML. The orange acts sort of an accent.
”you mentioned you have no more corner lamps. that is standard ? so does this mean you have no side markers ? the halogen housings use the side turn bulbs as a side marker too. But if yours doesn't turn on.. ?”
I have no corner lamps. Let me explain...
When you turn on the first click on the switch the corner lamps turn on in the front. On my ML instead of the corner lamps coming on, picture a 5W bulb in the high beam compartment instead. Yes the Turn signals and the corner lamps are the same bulb. The Front Turn signals are fully functional as are the side markers near the side mirrors. They simply replace the corner lamps, giving the lamp a cleaner look.
”I think you can get pretty sweet 5W bulbs or 'higher wattage' for your city lights that are 'white' in color. so you can match your xenons. so when you turn on your xenons, the city lights remain on ya ?”
I don’t think that I will change the bulb. I doubt that it will be possible or necessary to use a higher wattage. If I did that would be considered Low beams
Also a lot of my C-Class topics that I bookmarked were erased!!!!!
AHH THE HORRORS!!
Robert
amg@exconde.com
Also, Linguatronic is an option but perhaps not for the US in that there is no mention of it in the dealer option pricing that I have seen... hopefully I missed it... But I am sure there will not be steering wheel controls...
Robert
Thank you.
Now, I have a problem and thought some of you might have some insights. The car will be visiting the dealer next week, so this is to ease my mind.
Problem: We are at 150 miles; it had 4 when I took delivery. At very low speeds I hear a grinding sound and the (!) lights up. When this first happened I was puttering along on gravel and assumed the ESP system was helping me along. This seemed aggressive, but I am obviously still learning. I drive on, this doesn't re-occur for a while.
Last night it happens again and is quite persistent until I get to about 20 miles an hour. I head for home. About a quarter of a mile from my house it does it again, but it seems more violent. The left three lights come on. I turn the car off, turn it on: the lights remain. I limp home and park it.
FAQ:
No, I have never used the low-power option.
No, I never pushed the car (>2500 RPMs); no tow
No, I didn't use the roadside assistance.
Has anyone had any problems like this. I'd love to hear that its something minor.
As I picked up the car with so few miles, I expect some teething problems.
Drew
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What other post of mine was deleted … this is the ML topic?
I posted something about eurodelivery in the C-class or in the BMW board about a month or two ago. Now my marks state that they have been deleted as well as the responses to my question. Here the items that were deleted in my message center that I marked and what I believe were relevant. I have sent a question to TH.
Item Deleted (.ee92132/1911)
Item Deleted (.ee92132/1909)
Item Deleted (.ee92132/1908)
Robert
I never got a note stating why my posts were removed.
Robert
You may want to contact Pat or L8_Apex (the links to their profiles/e-mail addresses are at the top of the Sedans message board) regarding your missing posts in the C-class topic. I'm not sure what happened, nor do I know the details, and perhaps they could shed some light on that. Our server did unexpectedly go down for about 5-10 minutes on one of the days, and very possibly around that time, and your messages could've been lost while the server was resetting itself. The problem has since been dealt with, IIRC.
None of your messages in here have been deleted, AFAIK. If any of them were in violation of the terms of use, you would have received an e-mail from Steve, my co-host, or myself shortly after their removal.
Hope this helps!
Drew
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Vans, SUVs, and Aftermarket & Accessories message boards
To recall, when Spike is driving with me (most of the time) he's got a tendency to lower the windows when he moves across the console.
(He's a Norwich Terrier, like the winner in the movie BEST OF SHOW.)
Some other owners had the same complaint, but none of us were able to figure out how to lock the windows. Suddenly, I had a flash how to do it:
Remove the switches and reverse them in the console. That is, instead of pressing the switch DOWN to lower the window, you would have to pull the switch UP to lower the window.
While this would be counter-intuitive, so what?
Everyone tells me it's counter-intuitive for safety to ride around with a dog on my lap who's sticking his head out the window and sometimes steering with his paws on top of the wheel.
And the procedure would be easily reversible, assuming it could be done in the first place.
So..... can it be done?
Answer: How about a low tech answer like taping or glueing a switch protector over the switch? I think you can find them under 2 varieties. 1) Like you see in James Bond movies where you have to flick it open before pressing the switch to release nuclear bombs or 2) Child safety switches. You should therefore try either Radio Shack or BabiesRUS.
Comment: I have a similar problem when my 2 year old sits up front (species [non-permissible content removed] sapiens). My other car has the seat switches on the door and it is highly distracting to see your 2 year old move up and down and back and forth when driving. Want to trade?
Robert
If you're interested later, both Philips and Osram market 5W "blue" bulbs to go with their blue headlight bulbs. They're a bit more expensive than their white/yellowish counterparts.
I have a set on one of the smart microcars (came in a set with Philips BlueVision H4 bulbs that have since been replaced by a set of Philips VisionPlus H4's). They look all right, but it's still not the same color as Xenons.
This whole thread makes me smile - primarily because it's funny what we all will do to be different, and secondarily because of this "city light" denomination. In several European states, driving (i.e. not parking) with only these lights on is strictly illegal. You MUST have either foglights or headlights lit if the vehicle is moving (and lights are required).
It also makes me remember the fuss back when I had "real" US vehicles. My Explorer had "city lights" crudely fitted to the headlight reflectors, and both my wife's Probes had additional small white light units fitted to the front fascia. On the last vehicle before the ML's, a '96 ChryCo minivan, the dual-filament amber bulb had to be replaced with a clear one, resulting in even more confusion.
If the weather stays OK, I'll do a few shots of my ML with the original "city lights" setup.
Birger
Just my 2ç
Birger
What is this?
The horn is actually better sounding that the original. They improved it w/ the 2000 model so it's deeper.
Detailed (and accurate) information is availble from each states Department of Revenue. They are happy to help out and will answer any questions about taxes on new and used vehicles.
Randy
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/dunlop/du_s5000.jsp
Looks like Dunlop is trying to compete with the X5's Michelin MXV4 plus tires, and the MDX's Michelin Cross Terrain tires. The UTQG for the Dunlops is 340 AA A. The light truck version, due to the fact that it will probably have deeper tread blocks, may have a higher tread wear rating than 340.
If I read the link correctly, one asymmetrical 17' tire is 179 USD.
David
Hope this helps!
Drew
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Vans, SUVs, and Aftermarket & Accessories message boards
At one point, I tried replacing them with aftermarket horns that supposedly were to procduce 'big rig' sound at 120db.
No where close. Sounded like an ice cream truck. I immeadiately took them out and put my stock horns back in.
dt77
dt77
I think the buses have LEDs more for longevity reasons. Our newer buses around here have it too...LED turn signals as well. The LED clusters are apparently expensive though. Up to a few hundred dollars a piece!
I've decided that I would like to invest in a parktronic type system for my M-Class. Since you have one installed could you shed some light on these questions:
1. What brand it is?
2. Where did you buy it and how much did it cost?
3. Can you get it in any color?
4. Will it fit any model (i.e. other makes of cars and SUV’s)?
5. How hard was it to install?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Since I have decided that this is the only feature drawing me towards a 2002 model it would be cheaper just to put one on myself.
Thanks
Jamie
Dave Loines
Maryland
00ML320
"How about a low tech answer like taping or glueing a switch protector over the switch? I think you can find them under 2 varieties. 1) Like you see in James Bond movies where you have to flick it open before pressing the switch to release nuclear bombs or 2) Child safety switches. You should therefore try either Radio Shack or BabiesRUS."
Robert, this is an excellent idea, I think, even though there's four switches. Why not?
I think the ideal switch protector would be installed on the lower side of the window switches and would be spring loaded, so that you could disengage the lock-out and lower the window with one hand, then the lock-out would re-engage by itself under the spring-power. Thanks!
Ctic: "Comment: I have a similar problem when my 2 year old sits up front (species [non-permissible content removed] sapiens). My other car has the seat switches on the door and it is highly distracting to see your 2 year old move up and down and back and forth when driving. Want to trade?"
Although I'm sure your nipper is a beautiful child, I'll stick with Spike, thanks.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
rexconde1:
"Have you considered installing a kill switch for all four of the switches? Then install the kill switch in the ashtray. ... That is of course unless spike smokes. . ."
Robert,
I caught him once and took away his driving privileges........
This is another interesting approach, since I only have to worry about Spike hitting the switches when I'm alone, and therefore a passenger wouldn't have to worry about all the lock-outs. Thanks to you, too.
------------------------
Newcomers may think this is a trivial or silly problem, but it's not. I've gotten my interior soaked three times in five months from Spike inadvertantly lowering my windows.
The first time I had left him in the car with the
engine running (to keep him cool) while I washed the car in a self-service wash. As I passed the soap brush over a rear window he lowered the window at just that moment. Only a inch, but an inch admits a LOT of soap.
The second time - same wash -- only this time with the high pressure hose. His timing wasn't as perfect, but when I rushed around the side with the wash-timer ticking he had lowered the window about 1/4 inch. STILL a lot of water comes in.
The third time occured just before a huge Nor'easter. I parked outside, not noticing that a rear window was open a crack and the rain blew right in like a high pressure hose.
Thinking back, I seem to recall that my previous M-B sedans (190E and 450SEL) had lock-outs for the rear windows, didn't they? How come not the ML, since it certainly finds back seats full of kids?
Steve
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