For the first time since I have owned the car, my 300SE has a working outside temperature display. Not only is it a useful feature of the car, but these small fixes can make the difference between the car seeming nice or a bit of a jalopy. The W126 Outside temperature LCD repair is really easy. It should be on the radar of any...
Earlier this week I took my 250SE on an extended drive. I had wanted to try a route going north via the Putty road, across towards Mudgee and the back. The roads were really good but ultimately this is really a two day drive and would be more enjoyable with some more stops. You could make a really nice weekend road trip...
I’ve owned my 250SE almost ten years and always had a mind to replace the cheap rubber mats with Cocomats. Today I fitted the Cocomats I bought as part of a group buy with a few friends. I also purchased a set for my 560SEC and went into a bit more about the purchase there. For the 250SE, I went with #53...
A couple of months ago some of friends of suggested a group order for Cocomats. This coincided with a 15% off sale and shared shipping. Cocomats are a floor mat made from coconut fibre and were a period accessory during the 1950s and 60s. They were quite popular with Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and other manufacturers. I have wanted to replace the generic rubber...
Another long standing to-do list item on my 300SE was the passengers side window. Over time, the window would slip down so there was half a centimeter gap at the top. It would also make a clunking sound at the top of the window travel. I had purchased a good used W126 window regulator a couple of years back. Yesterday I decided to try...
Last year, while I was fitting the monovalve elimination kit to my 560SEC, I cleaned the drains under the cowl covers. I also fitted a new upper seal and new shaft seals for the windscreen wipers. The condition of those seals was even worse on the 300SE, so today I finally got around to doing the same job on that car. I was...
A couple of months ago I tried a modification on my 560SEL to trigger the auxiliary cooling fan earlier. The primary reason for this was to provide adequate air flow over the A/C condenser in stop/go traffic. The W126 A/C was designed for R12 refrigerant and is marginal at best with R134A. I used a resistor to trick the fan into running at...
My wife’s E350 Wagon recently started throwing up error messages about burned out tail light bulbs in the dash. Turns out, this is not nearly as easy a fix as you would expect. First, I consulted the owners manual. The manual tells you that these bulbs are not user serviceable and do take the car to your Mercedes-Benz dealership. I wasn’t really interested...
The W126 outside temperature display was standard in all Australian delivered series 2 models. The little LCD screen is not really compatible with the Australian sun as most of them start to bleed and become unreadable. My 300SE and 560SEC both have unreadable LCD screens. The 560SEL, which was garaged all its life still has a good screen. Buying a used one is not...
Today was the monthly MBCNSW night drive. Over the last week, Sydney has experienced the worst storms in sixty years. The original route that we picked for the drive was not going to be possible. It went down into the national park and close to flooded areas. There was also the risk of unknown potholes in the road that we wouldn’t see at night....
Regular readers will remember I have been stopping by to check out the Rover P5 coupe restoration. The updates show just how time consuming a proper restoration is. Those TV shows that try to do one in a weekend really are quite silly. There is a big difference in just slapping things together and doing the job properly. To recap there are three Rover...
I’ve had a problem with wet feet in my 450SLC for years. Generally this manifests itself with water dripping onto both the drivers and passengers feet when the A/C is running. This is particularly prevalent when going around a corner. I had always assumed that this was caused by blocked A/C drains. I tried to clean them a couple of years back but the...
When I bought my 300SE about four years ago, it came with an early 2000s era Kenwood CD player. At the time, I assumed I would need to replace it, as it wasn’t working. Turned out the plug had come out of the back and it actually worked fine. It wasn’t a bad unit, as it could play MP3 CDs, display track information...
I really dislike the check engine light. To me its an altogether silly concept given the digital dashboards cars are equipped with. It can mean anything from a loose fuel cap to a destroyed engine, so consequently people just ignore it. Modern cars know a whole lot more about what is wrong with them. Instead of posting a reasonable error message...
I had recently noticed that the battery on the 250SE was not in good health. The battery disconnect switch I built a few years ago has a battery health indicator included. Even when connected to the trickle charger it was showing orange. I also noticed that the trickle charger would sometimes go into error mode. My battery tester showed that it was well...
I visited the St Ives Auto Brunch event again this month. Like last time, the event was huge – probably slightly bigger this time. Due to other commitments i didn’t even get to see all the cars yet I was there for over two hours. I got there about 7;30AM and there were already queues to get in. While there is a bit...
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