2400 mile road trip in an eBay 560SEC – Part 1

I lived in Michigan between 2007-2011. When I first moved there, I bought a cheap but somewhat rusty 1989 560SEC to be my daily driver. It was already rusty so I was not worried about driving it in the notorious Michigan snow and salt. After about 18 months the original 560SEC had been hit a few times in the snow. It also had a very minor head gasket problem where it would burn coolant only if idling for more than about 10 minutes. I figured the car was on its last legs.

My plan was to buy a nicer car […]

W126 A/C no longer cooling

There is an old saying that deaths come in threes. I’ve not had any deaths in the family, but I had the A/C dead in three cars at the same time. The easiest was the A/C in my 450SLC that just needed a re-gas. The W126 A/C has been more problematic. Just as I got the system in my 560SEC mostly finished, the A/C stopped working on my 300SE.

I took the car in for the gas pressures to be checked and the gas was not below minimum spec. A tiny bit was added but my mechanic told me he […]

More and more parts for Mercedes modern classics are NLA

Mercedes-Benz have justifiably maintained an excellent reputation for making parts available for their older vehicles. They still do a great job for their ‘halo’ classics like the 300SL gullwing or Pagoda SL. At the same time, I have noticed a big increase in the number of parts No Longer Available (NLA) for the modern classics. I define the modern classics as those made from the early 70s to the early 90s. This includes cars such as the R/C107, W114/115, W116, W123, W124, W126. There are probably others.

I’m really not sure how that extends to the late 60s models such […]

Auto Brunch St. Ives March 2020

The 2020 March Auto Brunch event at St Ives Showground was the biggest I have attended. I was only able to stay for about forty minutes and cars were already leaving when I arrived, but the total numbers were up on last time’s already large attendance.

This month I went in my 450SLC. I perhaps should have taken the 560SEC as there were three other 560SECs in attendance, including another one in Nautical Blue. The other Nautical Blue car had much thinner headlight wipers than my car or the white one. I didn’t get a chance to look at the […]