One of the things that became apparent in starting to use the car regularly, was that the differential had a fairly major leak.  This is obviously bad for the longevity of the limited slip diff, but on the XJ series cars, the rear brakes are inboard so major leaks can impact the rear brakes.

The independent rear suspension used on the XJ and Daimler derivatives is the same independent rear suspension unit introduced on the E-Type in 1961.  It was still far ahead of everyone else when the X was introduced in 1968, and continued to be throughout the 70s and early 80s.  It was only when the competition introduced multi-link rear suspension systems in the mid 80s was it surpassed.  The original version was used until the end of XJ Series 3 production, and evolutions of the system were used until the mid 2000s.

The reason the independent rear suspension for the XJ is related to the differential is the design of system has the entire rear suspension, differential and brakes in a removable rear subframe.   Therefore to fix my differential leak, the rear suspension had to come out of the car.

On my car the exhaust system wasn’t in great condition and had to be cut before the rear suspension could come down. This will need to be replaced later. The good news is that the underside of the car is in good condition. With the rear suspension removed, the differential could then be serviced. A clunk in the rear suspension was traced to be due to bent trailing arm mount brackets.

While the car was in having the differential leak fixed, a few other things needed sorting out, including:

• Leak from transmission pan gasket
• A couple of small coolant leaks from coolant hoses
• The fan clutch was not engaging properly when the engine was hot

In addition to those things, when changing a fuel sender on the left hand tank, it was clear that the cleaning the tank a few months ago hadn’t worked very well.  The tank was still very dirty.  New fuel tanks are still available, so I was able to purchase one and have it sent directly to the workshop to be fitted.   I had feedback it looked like it was very good quality and had some kind of internal ceramic coating.

The front brakes were leaking and so the calipers removed to be rebuilt.  In doing so, it was clear that it was necessary as the pistons were in pretty rough shape.

I also had some new external rear view mirrors fitted, including one on the passengers side.  This wasn’t optioned when the car was new, but I park very close to a wall in my storage area and I don’t want to damage the side of the car.

It as a lot of work on the car, but none of these things are all that unusual for a car that was laid up for a while.

The post Daimler differential leaks, front brakes and fuel tank appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

• Soft brake pedal
• Dirty passengers side fuel tank and pitted chrome on fuel cap
• Dented rear bumper
• Tachometer not working after my attempted repair
• Fuel gauges not working properly

The soft brake pedal seemed to be resolved by cleaning up the calipers and getting the pistons moving a bit better, and then re-bleeding the brakes.    The passengers side fuel tank was a bigger job.  It had to be removed from the car, and it was clear it had been out before and been re-sealed in some way.  It was a bit rusty inside and some of that sealer was flaking off.   The tank was cleaned in acid and then put back in the car.

The drivers side was in much better shape.  Since the rear bumper comes off to get to the petrol tank, the dented section was replaced with a better one.   I also had a better chrome filler cap to replace the pitted one with.

It turned out I had done the tachometer wiring correctly.  However, there were some issues with the wiring at the back of the Tachometer which once fixed had it working properly.

During this service, it was also identified that I would need to bring the car back in the new year to address a major leak from the differential, and that one of my fuel pumps was not working properly.   I planned to replace that myself.

While the car was in, it also had an oil and filter change and other checks.

The post Daimler Servicing appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

This was also the first drive we using a new navigation app the club has purchased called ‘Tourboss’.   I was quite keen to try it as at night. I can really only see two cars behind me, so its not always clear if the group is still together or not.   The tourboss app shows me the locations of all the cars on the drive.

We had a pretty good turn out, probably a combination of the good weather and not having had one for a couple of months.  I took my 1978 450SE.   As well as my car was a C123 280CE, R107 280SL, C107 450SLC, C126 380SEC, W124 300E x2 & E320 and S124 300TE.

We had originally planned to meet on the eastern side of Galston Gorge and include that in the route.  The Gorge had been closed earlier in the year for roadworks. There was a lot of conflicting data about if it was open at night or not.   Since it wasn’t that clear, I decided not to include it.   I left a bit early to get to the drive, and found it was in fact open.

Our new starting location was outside Galston shops. From there we headed out to Cattai Ridge Road, before taking Wisemans Ferry Road up to the Old Northern Road and then the Old Northern Road back down to Dural Maccas.   This is a route we’ve done a few times before and I always really enjoy it.   There is generally not a lot of traffic at night and there is a nice mix of tight corners and faster sections.

Overall I thought the tourboss app worked reasonably well.   I used it to Navigate to the start point.  That experience was so-so as the route it took wasn’t the one I would have chosen. More importantly it lacks speed camera location information, and Sydney is bristling with them.   So in future I would probably use Waze to get to the location.

The experience for the users on our drive was pretty decent.  I set the route up in the admin portal which includes all the waypoints.  Tourboss the generates a six digit code.   That code was in our event booking system, along with details of how to get the app.   Everyone turned up with the app installed and with the code entered, so they were ready to go.

When the event is started, it then shows the location of all the other cars.  It also pre-downloads the maps, which is quite good if going through areas with poor mobile coverage.   As the ‘tour leader’ I had a few different views I could use. One as a normal navigation system and then one where it was more about showing me the location of the other cars.   Without reading glasses, I couldn’t see the actual names of the people, but that probably wasn’t important as I could see the spread of the icons.   For example, for a while two cars fell behind for a bit and then later caught up. Something I was able to see in real time.

One of the best things was that you don’t need to hit ‘continue’ when you get to a waypoint like with google.  For a pre-planned route it was pretty seamless.  On the downside, the lack of speed camera, roadworks and hazard warnings that waze gives you is a negative, as is the lack of dark mode at night.   We also had one member who has a phone with a square screen and the app couldn’t handle that.

There was also one situation where it went a bit haywire.  All of a sudden it thought a roundabout that was 7km away was actually 250 meters in front.  Then it got confused and started slowly increasing the distance to where it was.   I knew that section of road pretty well, so it was obviously nonsense, but it would have been confusing if I hadn’t.  It wasn’t just me that experienced that, and it happened on a bit of the drive where the route crossed over itself, which may have been the cause.

Overall my verdict is that the app is pretty useful for running a group driving event. In an ideal situation I would probably want two phones running, one for this and one for waze.   It will be a useful addition to our night drives.

The drive itself was great and all the cars performed well.

The post MBCNSW April 2026 Night Drive – Old Northern Road appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

I’m glad they didn’t cancel, as it was still a really good event.  St Ives is always about variety and this month’s smaller showing delivered.

I took my 1990 300TE along to the event.  It was the first time I have taken the 300TE to St Ives.  There was one other W124 (a coupe) and a couple of W123 coupes.   I was quite impressed with the citrus green car, which was for sale.

As well as that they were a few nice Lotus, a couple of 80s Ferraris, a Citroen XM and DS and a couple of 80’s Honda Hatchbacks.  You never see those anymore.   Even with a smaller show, it was still very much worth the visit.   As would be expected due to the weather, there were more modern cars than usual.  There were still some really nice classics though.

Cars and Coffee events are probably going to be impacted least due to high fuel prices.  Most people attend a cars and coffee event near where they live, so distances are much shorter.  This is certainly the case for me.

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Given the earlier roofs are far more reliable, I’m not sure the tilting feature is really worth the effort.   The broken arms got all jammed up in the mechanism, and since the roof lining was already out for the roof racks, it was easier to drop the whole sunroof cassette.

Unlike on the W126, the genuine lifting arms were still available for the W124.  However, to get both sides would cost over USD$600, before GST and delivery.  While I prefer to use genuine parts where I can, I couldn’t justify it.  There are quite a few aftermarket options, of varying quality.  The ones from China were much cheaper, but I’ve not heard good things about them.  In the end I went with an AIN kit, that looks like it came from Turkey.  It cost about USD$200 including delivery and GST.

When it arrived it looked quite good quality and was made from metal.  Comparing it against the old one it seemed to fit quite well.   This didn’t solve the complete problem.  Even with the new lifting arms, the sunroof was still binding. In the end, the issue turned out to be a broken rivet in the rails.  This was causing one of the rails to sit a few mm higher than it should.  Its probably why the original lifting arms broke.

The final part was the bracket that holds the sunroof cable to the sunroof had broken.  This is part 126 782 01 40 and is still available new.  It was USD$16 before shipping and GST.   I was also missing a rubber insert for the bumper on the left side – part number 124 885 05 23 which was also $16.  I was lucky to be missing that side, as the right hand side seems to be NLA, although aftermarket parts seem to be available, but more expensive.

Those were the last parts required and from there it was re-assembly.  The repairer made sure to use lots of sealant for the rear windows so water couldn’t get in under the new seals. I’ve now collected the car and it looks great, better than ever.

The post w124 crash repair – sunroof repair appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

In 2022 they had a car representing every year from 1950 to 2022.  In 2024 they did generations of the S-Class. They also did an AMG display one year, but I wasn’t able to make it.  This year the theme was 50 years of the W123.  Given the theme, I took my 1981 240D.   This is the second trip my 240D has made to Canberra this year, as I also attended the 50 years of the W123 event in January.

I’ve always enjoyed this event, there are normally a good variety of cars.  The last few times i’ve been it was held at Queanbeyan showground.  However, from what I hear, Queanbeyan council are not as friendly to car clubs as they once were, so its was moved to Canberra.   The new location is Thoroughbred Park, which is a horseracing track in Lyneham.

I had refuelled my 240D at $1.879 on the days the pointless war in the middle east started.  My goal was to get there and back on one tank and have fuel to spare since diesel is almost at $3 per litre.   I left Saturday afternoon and ending up driving through quite a big hail storm near Marulan.  There was so much hail on the grass beside the highway it looked like it had been snowing.   The W123 is made of thick steel, so I didn’t encounter any damage.

The Wheels event was held in the customer parking area and some parks nearby, not on the actual track.  Lyneham is a central location, and easier than Queanbeyan showground, but there is far less room.   In previous events the ACT club has been able to spread out and make a really good display.   This year the space allocated was quite small and the cars were all jammed in.

Nevertheless the club attempted to show off the W123s by having a ‘fan out’ display in the middle of the allocated area.  It worked reasonably well, but would have ben better with more space.  There were quite a few cars that had to park outside the main area.  The issue seemed more allocation than lack of space in general, as there was a big paddock behind the military vehicles that was mostly empty.

As with the W123 event, I was parked next to the 300D in 476 Goldbraun.  Such a great colour and a car that has been in the owners family since 1981.   There was a good selection of nine W123s including a coupe, a wagon, and all the popular models (280E, 230E, 300D etc).

In addition to the W123s the ACT club also had a nice selection of other cars, starting with a pair of nice roundies, a lovely red finnie, a beautiful W111 3.5 coupe, a W109 a couple of W116s, W126s W124s etc.  It was a pretty good selection of all the major models of Mercedes-Benz.

As for the other marques, space seemed to be a bit of a challenge for the too.  The BMW display only had a couple of classics.  The new ones are all nostrils and a bit hard on the eye.  Getting past those, there were some really nice and interesting cars on display.  This included a huge American convertible with a folding metal roof.  the rear of the car was very long to allow it to be stowed away.  There were interesting curiosities like a Stanley steamer, a couple of Bristols and a pair of landcrab utes.   The Jaguar section was quite good.  There was a lovely Series 1 XJ6 with a manual transmission and a red interior.  While white isn’t my favorite colour, a red interior and a manual transmission makes it very tempting.  The red XJC was also very nice.

They didn’t just have regular cars, there were also military vehicles and micro cars.   The Microcars were quite good.

The ACT club had a catered lunch which was a nice touch.  The food at these sort of events is normally pretty bad and overpriced.  Sandwiches and fruit from the club was a far better option.

The drive back was pretty uneventful.  I arrived back late afternoon after covering 610km with abut a quarter of a tank left.  I’m still undecided if I should refuel the 240D now, or park it for a few weeks to see what happens.  Most of my other cars are full and I don’t really fancy $3 diesel.

The post Wheels 2026 ACT appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

Once all the rust was repaired, the next step was obviously paint. Since the whole car was not being resprayed, just the rear quarters and roof the colour had to be blended in. The goal wasn’t to get my car perfect, but to fix any rust and get it looking really good without the expense of a full respray.

While most of the work is in the preparation, it’s when the colour goes on that the car is really transformed. Seeing how much better it was looking when I visited made a big difference.

The car looks really sleek without the roof racks and rubbing strips on the roof.  However, I do plan to put it back to the stock look.

The bumper was painted separately and will go on later.  One of the things that attracted me to this car at the time of purchase was the colour – 888 Beryll.  Its a great colour and looks so much better without the badly faded roof.   By 1990 it was getting rarer for a Mercedes-Benz to be sold in an interesting colour.

I was also impressed with the red XJC parked under the hoist next to my 300TE.  I’m a big fan of the XJC, and red is a great colour for one.

The post W124 crash repair – rust repair and repaint appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

While I was aware of the rust traps in the S124 rear window design, I wasn’t prepared for how bad the rust would be would be without any real external evidence.  I’m really glad I did this repair now, as while it was bad, it was still very much repairable.

Both sides were pretty bad with one slightly worse.   The challenge is that if any water gets under the seal, there is nowhere for it to go.   It sits and rusts away the metal under the seal.  The low point seems to be at the front of the aperture, although there was some rusting at the rear.

Fixing the rust was going to be more effort than I had planned, but at l was getting it repaired all at once.  It would have been quite a shame to fix one side only.

Preparing the roof for paint was more effort than I had hoped.  The strips on the roof are just attached with adhesive.  But the actual roof racks require the headlining to come down.  Seeing the strips off the roof showed how badly the paint had faded from original, the main reason why I was having the roof repainted.

The post W124 crash repair – disassembly and rear window rust appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

The most obvious part was the rear bumper.  Mine was cracked in a few places.  My repairer said worst case it could probably be repaired, but we would get a much better result with a good second hand bumper.  The wagon bumper is different to the sedan.  They are now no longer available new and not easy to find second hand.

After a few calls, I found a friend in Melbourne had one.  It was in good shape, but missing the impact strip.  This wasn’t a big deal for me, as the insert (called the rail, rear bumper in the EPC) is still available new from Mercedes-Benz (124 885 07 21) and cost USD$200.   The cover from my existing bumper was good enough to repaired.

I also needed a few more parts.  The right hand side rear quarter needed to be repainted.  Therefore, I needed the seal for the rear fixed window to the cargo area.  This was still available new (124 670 20 39) and cost USD$160.  This is a very complicated seal which also holds a metal strip in place.  The aftermarket seals don’t have the best reputation so I was very happy to be able to get it new.

Since I needed to have the rear quarter repainted as part of the repair, I also opted to pay my repairer extra to paint the roof and the left quarter.  I therefore also purchased the left window seal (124 670 19 39) out of my own pocket.  Interestingly it was no longer available new, but I managed to get a new one from one of those Benz parts sellers from Latvia.   Due to this, It cost about USD$250.

I would encourage anyone who has a 124 wagon who has never removed the rear windows to get a set of those genuine seals while they are still available.  The biggest design flaw in the 124 wagon is the rust traps behind the seals of these windows.

In addition, there was a small crack on one of my taillights.  The wagon tail lights are also no longer available,  but I managed to find a second hand unit for the right hand side.   My left hand unit wasn’t that great, so I also purchased on myself for the left so they would match.   The new old stock seal was more expensive than the actual light!

The post W124 crash repair – parts required appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

I think the club made a good choice to hold the rally outside Sydney.  Sydney is no place for a car event   Terrible traffic, expensive parking etc.   A regional centre is a much better choice.

I didn’t do the whole rally but when the club announced they would offer day passes, I decided to go up for the Saturday.   The events on that day were much more in line with my interests than some of the other days.   The programme was to a convoy lap around Mt Panorama, led by former racing driver Colin Bond.   Then a show and shine at pit lane, followed by a tour of the Bathurst racing museum.

I decided it would be a perfect day to take my 250SE Cabriolet and two of my kids wanted to join me.   We left early, departing home at twenty to six, as the start of the guided lap was 9:30.  It was absolutely perfect weather for a convertible after weeks of hot and muggy weather in Sydney.

Complicating things were the surge in petrol prices due to yet another pointless middle east war, plus the structural failure of the convict built Victoria Pass, the main road over the blue mountains from Sydney.   I would have normally taken bells line of road anyway, as I detest the great western highway.  However the media were predicting it to be a parking lot.   Turns out it was totally overblown and the traffic was even less than normal.   We used the extra 20 minutes for a pitstop at McDonalds Lithgow.

Coming out of Lithgow, all of sudden i heard something, like there was something on the road that had hit the underside of the car.   I figured perhaps a stone or something like that.  Nothing else seemed to be amiss.  However, going around the next corner i realized I no longer had power steering.  Water temperature and the charge light were both fine, so it looked like I had lost my power steering belt.

Since there wasn’t much I could do by the side of the road, I proceeded to Bathurst.  The car was perfectly drivable, but with increased steering effort.   Lower speed and tighter turns were obviously a lot more effort.

We arrived at the Rally at 9:35AM, perfect timing as the convoy was just assembling for the lap of the track.  We joined up the rear behind a 420SE.   It was quite a cool sight driving behind over 100 Mercedes-Benz around the track.  We ended up doing four laps as it took quite a while for the cars earlier in the convoy to get into pit lane and parked.   The extra laps certainly gave my arms a good workout.

I was surprised how many of the cars were moderns, I had assumed more classics would attend.   I’m not sure if it was due to the fuel prices, or that is what people planned all along.  Certainly I am sure that some people dropped out altogether and I’m sure more would have come up from Sydney from the day too.  Having said that, while the prices are very high, they are not substantially higher than they have been over the last couple of years.  I filled the 250SE up at 2.539 per liter, and looking at my fuel log, it was only 10c less than this at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

As well as all the moderns, there were some nice classics on display from interstate.  My favorite was a Horizon Blue 280SE W116 from Queensland.  Apparently it had been in long term family ownership and it’s a real credit to the family for keeping it in such nice original condition.     Not too many older cars, although a couple of roundies had come in from interstate which was awesome.

There were some new MBs on display.  Chief among them was a massive Maybach SUV.   I don’t see the appeal at all.  To my eyes, it was tacky and overdone and more of a conveyance for footballers and rappers to be seen in than anything else.  I would have the blue 280SE any day of the week.

It was also good to catch up with a few interstate members that I know at this event.

Lunch was at a food truck near the event which was overpriced and had a massive wait. The quality wasn’t worth the wait either. I would have thought the day pass should have included lunch, as it wasn’t cheap.

After lunch we went to the museum which is quite good.  I covered this more extensively for Youngtimer Sacco day 2024.  The tour back then was more comprehensive, at the Rally it was more of an introduction to the museum.   There are some very interesting cars there and its well worth a visit.

We left at roughly 3:30PM.   As with our arrival, the traffic from Lithgow to Darling Causeway was less than normal, so we made good time, finding more traffic through Dural and Pennant Hills than the area with road closures.  Taking the W111 through these roads sans power steering certainly gave my arms a good workout.   We arrived home at around 7PM after covering 472km for the day.

The post MB Clubs National Rally Bathurst 2026 – Day Trip appeared first on Classic Jalopy.