The prominent grille is one of the most obvious design features of the W123. A scruffy grille can really let down the car. On my 240D, the grille was in pretty good shape, but the plastic insert was starting to go chalky. In addition, one of the clips that holds on the metal strips had broken and a previous owner had used hot glue...
I recently noticed that the A/C on my 1981 240D wasn’t cooling so well in heavy traffic. On closer inspection, the W123 auxiliary fan was not kicking in at all. This is supposed to kick in when refrigerant temperatures are high to blow air over the condenser. I had a quick look at the wiring diagram to start troubleshooting. On the W123 diesel is...
Today the Mercedes-Benz, Rolls Royce and Maserati clubs had a joint cars and coffee event. It was held in the parking lot of St George Sailing club which turned out to be a good venue. There was enough room for all three clubs to park their cars together. I think these events are a good idea, as it brings a combination of cars together...
I’m currently in Europe for work. This weekend I found myself in Belgium, in a two about 35km from Brussels. it was a cold and wet weekend, which seemed perfect to go and see a car museum. Last time I was here, back in September 2013, I visited Autoworld Brussels. At the time I had enjoyed the museum. Since car museum collections turn over,...
W123 instrument clusters are notorious for jumpy temperature and fuel gauges and mine was no different. This problem seems to impact other Benzes of the era, but is particularly pronounced in the W123. I don’t really like not being able to trust my gauges to be generally correct, so I wanted to see what I could do about this. The issue seems to be...
I’ve had the 420SEL parts car for a few years now, and I have been rather slow and stripping it and getting rid of the carcass. I had done a deal to sell it about two years ago, but the buyer messed me around for about a year before he finally decided he didn’t want it after all. Based on that, I decided to...
Thursday was the first MBCNSW night drive for 2025. For scheduling reasons, we held it a week earlier than normal. Our meeting place was Heathcote McDonalds. McDonalds is always a good meeting place, as it is well lit, easy to find and has clean toilets. It had been very rainy earlier in the week, so I wasn’t sure what attendance would be like. January...
This weekend I took a road trip to Brisbane in my 240D. It was my first ever road trip in the car and I wasn’t sure what to expect. While I think the 240D is at its best in the city, it did very well on the road trip and I really enjoyed the experience. The trip to Brisbane was fairly last minute. There...
The Brisbane Car Museum is quite a new Museum, only opening last year. I’m currently in Brisbane for the weekend, so went to check it out with some friends from the Mercedes Club. It is located on the north side of Brisbane, not far from the airport, and is quite a good setup. There is plenty of under cover parking on the site, plus...
My 1981 240D was sold new with a Becker Europa 596 Cassette. The Becker was still in the car when I purchased it, but it would not stay tuned. It would randomly drift out of tune and need constant adjustment. I found that rather annoying, I removed it to be serviced and put in a Europa II temporarily. A friend in the Mercedes club...
I am currently in Thailand on holiday, and have been driving a 2020 Suzuki Swift as my rental car. During the last week, I’ve been doing a mix of inner city and cross country driving in the car, so have a pretty good sense of what it is like to own. The 2020 Suzuki Swift is quite refreshing as it is a very simple,...
Back in September, when I started to deal with the algae problem in my 240D, I noticed the car was quite hard to push. At that time I tested to see if the brakes were grabbing and it was clearly the fronts that were to blame. The rear wheels spun freely ever after a hard push on the brake pedal. Since I had the...
Another year has passed, so time for an update on what is going on with each of the cars I own. Like last year, I will cover the highlights and lowlights for each car, major work performed, how much I drove them and any plans for the future. As with 2023, I drove my fleet of classics around 18,000km and suffered no breakdowns. Classics...
In the last update, I ruined my W123 fuel tank. Luckily, a friend in the Mercedes Club was able to find me a very good tank as a replacement. The new tank is much better than what I had, and probably far better than a home resealed tank. It was from a 280E, which means it is an 80 litre tank. I will have...
One of the cars I have always admired is the Series 1 Jaguar XJ. It was an amazing piece of design, and well ahead of its time. I think the series 1 XJ was culmination of Jaguar in their heyday before they were absorbed into the mess that was British Leyland. In particular, the car I have always admired the most was the Series...
Today was the monthly Auto Brunch event in St Ives. I’ve always regarded it as the best cars and coffee event in Sydney, and when a friend contacted me the day before saying he would have his D Special on display, I decided to go along. I last went in September. The car has been a project for the last year or so and...
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