| I’m currently in Las Vegas, USA for a work event. The event starts tomorrow so I had some time to get acclimatized to the time zone, and a buffer in case of any flight delays. While most things in America have become very expensive in the last couple of years, self service junkyards are still very affordable. This is far preferable to the overpriced tourist traps I could have gone to. I did some searching online a day or so before I left Australia to see if there were enough cars to make it worth my while. Its not an […] The sunroof on my 280SE has not worked properly since I bought the car. It would sometimes move a bit, if I played with the switch, but not often. Since I didn’t want the roof stuck open, I didn’t use it. Based on that, I figured my issue was the W116 sunroof switch. The car is booked in for the Shannons auction in May, so I wanted to get the Sunroof working. I don’t use sunroofs a great deal, but they are not common on the W126 280, so its a valuable feature on my car to be working. I […] Ever since I owned my 560SEC, it has always ridden too low in the rear. I have attempted to adjust it a couple of times, but was never able to get the correct height. Using the factory procedure to set the neutral height did not work. At this point a lot of workshops would suggest to rip out the system. This is a really bad idea. The self-leveling rear suspension is a simple system that works really well. Most problems can be simply fixed and are generally cheaper than ripping out the system. Factory SLS cars never ride properly once […] I’m currently in the USA for work. I arrived the day before the event I am attending, so had a couple of hours to spare before work started. I’m in Las Vegas, so most people would have hit the casinos or shopped at the outlet malls. Instead, I headed to a self service junkyard to grab Mercedes Parts. I’ve been to Las Vegas many times before for work, so I’ve seen all the main tourist stuff, and I have no interest in gambling. Driving old cars exclusively is a gamble enough. Online, I had spotted a junkyard in northern Las […] On a recent drive with a few friends I noticed my 560SEC was sitting a bit low at the rear. I had it parked next to a 380SEC, which I am pretty confident is at the correct height, and my car was lower. Based on that, I started reading through the section on W126 self-leveling suspension adjustment to work out why. The length of the control rod that links the height corrector to the sway bar impacts the ride height. However, the manual is quite clear that this adjustment is not there to compensate for the standard ride height (without […] The previous owner of my 560SEL had the self-leveling rear suspension removed. He told me that he was having problems with it, and the suspension shop he took that car to (Pedders) advised him to remove it. This was pretty bad advice, but he wasn’t to know that. A 560SEL should have a supple ride, but my car rode like an old pickup truck. The Pedders springs and shocks were overly firm and caused the rear to bounce around. It may have been better with three heavy adults in the back but my children are six, four and four, so […] My 560SEC has been leaking from the power steering and self leveling suspension. In both cases, it is obvious that (at least some) of the leakage is coming from the low pressure hydraulic hoses. It is possible there are additional leaks in the steering, but fixing this obvious one is a good place to start. I had looked at doing this job a couple of months ago. I quickly saw it was quite fiddly and as I was planning to use the car the next day, I decided to put it off. Once I realized I would be removing the […] Before I begin regular usage of the 560SEL there is further maintenance required. Per a receipt I have, a new timing chain and tensioner was fitted around 20,000km ago. This is obviously a good thing, but it was a shame that while this was done, the M117 timing chain guides were not replaced. The guides (and ideally the sprockets) should always be replaced at the same time as the chain. It is actually the guides that are the cause of most of the problems in the M116 and M117 engines. A stretched chain just exacerbates the problem. In the picture […] After driving the 560SEL more I have decided to reinstate the W126 self-leveling suspension. I am probably one of a very small group of people who is putting this system back after it is removed. A 560SEL should drive really nicely, but the current springs and shocks make the ride like an unladen ute over rough surfaces. As a contrast my 560SEC has an excellent ride. The current system was put in by Pedders, a local suspension chain. On speaking to a few people, I have discovered that the spring/shocks they put in are not really suited to the car […] After owning the 560SEL for a couple of weeks I’ve had a chance to spent a bit more time looking over the car. I’ve also had a few more opportunities to drive the car – covering about 150 km over the time. This is a lot less than I would normally want to do, but with COVID19 lockdowns, I can only drive the car for specific purposes such as driving to the shops to buy food. First thing to do was to put the car up on the hoist and have a look underneath. The car was ordered with a […] | |
