Like most W111, my 250SE has a column shift. This means that there is a fairly complex set of linkages to connect the column shifter to the auto transmission. After I had used the 250SE as a wedding car, one of the bushings for the linkages broke, so today my job was to fit the new ones I had ordered. This isn’t...
by admin · Published February 5, 2014 · Last modified September 17, 2024
It is hard to find somebody who prefers four door cars on aesthetic grounds. Sure, four door cars may be more practical, often cheaper to insure and easier to live with, but when buying a classic car, those considerations are not nearly as important. Mercedes Benz have always provided a range of handsome coupes in their range, which are still even years...
I had wanted to buy this book for a while, as the author, Bernd S. Koehling had written some interesting blog articles on his website, so I figured I would try a couple of his books too (I also purchased Volume 2 which will be the subject of a later review). Added to that, he obviously has great taste in cars, and I would...
The 450SLC had been idling rather roughly and stumbling when taking off from stop. This got a bit better when I changed the coil, cap and rotor – and at that time I noticed that the leads were not in great shape, especially the one to the coil. There are a lot of leads for sale, many of them inferior quality. The Beru HT...
Lets face it, R134A is rubbish when it comes to cooling older cars. It is significantly less efficient than R12. Systems that are not designed for it struggle to keep the car tepid in the Australian summer. Added to that, the air conditioning on the 107 models from Mercedes was never their strong point either, so when you couple a marginal system, that...
This post is a flashback to 2009 when I upgraded the lights on my 1988 560SEC I owned while living in Michigan. When I moved to Michigan in 2007, I bought a 560SEC. The car was a bit rough, but Detroit is not a city you can really live in without a car, and it wasn’t expensive. Being a midwest car, it...
As outlined in a previous post, the 450SLC broke down a week and a half ago and the NRMA helped me diagnose it down to a bad coil. Yesterday, my new coil, cap and rotor arrived so I got down to getting fitting them t the car. A quick test of the new coil had the car roaring back to life, so I...
I recently had a question on my previous post around RHD/LHD 111 Coupe/Cabriolet about the numbers of Automatics vs Manuals. This is an interesting question and not one that I have the answer to. However from my own observations of RHD models for sale and at shows, manuals are fairly common in the 220SE, rare in the 250SE and 300SE and then extremely...
During the 10 years and around 40,000 kms I’ve owned the 450SLC, it’s proven to be extremely reliable. Sure i’ve had a flat battery once a couple of times, and a fuel pump that would cause the engine to occasionally stall until it was replaced, but it has never left me stranded, until this weekend. About 100 meters from my driveway, the engine...
I’ve had issues with the blower on the 450SLC for a few years now. I would get all sorts of noise and irregular operation from it. Unlike in some models, the blower is actually pretty easy to get to in the 450SLC, but the problem was new blowers were very expensive (I was seeing them for over $1,200) and used units...
I was in Canberra this weekend, so I went along to see the annual German car show (organized by the various ACT clubs including the Mercedes Benz Club ACT), which was held in the carpark near the treasury building. it is normally held on the lawn in front of the lake but poor weather forced the change. Poor weather was also most...
The plastic trims around the heater controls in the SLC have been broken since I got the car. I noticed when buying another part that new trims were available and they were a reasonable price. So I purchased them – although it turns out the right hand one was out of stock so I got a refund on it. Still, replacing only...
Mercedes W111 220SE/250SE Coupe/Cabriolet For reasons of their own, Mercedes gave the 220SE and 250SE models the same designator (111.021 for coupe and 111.023 for cabriolet). In addition, the chassis number was shared with the 220SE sedan. This was not continued for the later W111 coupe and cabriolet that have their own model designator and sequence. From what I know there were:...
I got the W123 280CE out again today and gave it a quick wash down. It was covered in bird poo from it’s time for sale and I doubt I’ll have much time to work on it until later this year so I wanted to get that off. Drove it around the industrial complex where the garage is and the more I look...
Yesterday I put the 280CE up on the hoist to see where the water leaks were coming from. I had bought the car knowing it was leaking, presumably from the radiator. From looking underneath, it looks like the leaks are actually coming from the water pump, not the radiator. That should make the job more time consuming, but cheaper overall. In addition, I...
I had to go to Canberra for work today, so I decided to take the 250SE on a road trip. I hadn’t taken it for a long drive for a while, and I thought a road trip would do it good. It was too cold to open the roof, but It was nice to get the car out on the open road....
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