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Failing at changing the W124 centre vent

One of the items on my todo list for the 300TE was to replace the W124 centre vent. A couple of the slats were broken, so I could not direct the air, and the open/close control was not working either. The open/close control is especially important in winter, as heat doesn’t come out of the centre.

I was told that the RHD part is different to the LHD part, so when I saw a reasonable deal on the RHD part, I purchased it. The part number (at least for my car) for the W124 centre vent is A124 830 08 […]

November 13th, 2023 | Tags: , | Category: Mercedes | One comment

300TE speaker upgrade – Part 1 – rears

I wasn’t very happy with the sound from my 300TE. The front passengers speaker rattled badly and the sound wasn’t the best. As I’m taking the car on a road trip in January, I wanted better sound. I’ve already put the Becker 1402 back in, so all I needed was some decent speakers.

In researching what was possible, options were not extensive for the S124. The front speakers are both an unusual size (12cm) and an unusual mounting system. The rears are are a more common 10cm size, but mounted in the door handles. I personally don’t think much of […]

November 11th, 2023 | Tags: , , , | Category: Audio, Mercedes | 2 comments

W124 Ignition tumbler

When I purchased my 300TE, I noticed two things that slightly concerned me. The first was that I only had one key for the car. The second was that the ignition barrel was slightly sticky. There are key blanks available for Mercedes of this era at locksmiths, but the only key I had for the car was a copy. I didn’t feel like a copy of a copy was all that great an idea, so I contacted the classic centre to see if new ignition tumblers were still available.

Turns out, for this era of W124, with the transmission interlock, […]

July 11th, 2023 | Tags: , , | Category: Mercedes | Leave a comment

Classic Mercedes in Surat Thani, Thailand

Surat Thani is a mid sized city in southern Thailand. It is home to about 120,000 people and is a regional centre for agriculture. The main business is trade in crops such as Rubber, Coconuts, Palm oil etc. It is not a tourist destination, but it does function as a connection point for those traveling to islands like Koh Samui via ferry.

I’ve been surprised how many classic Mercedes are still on the road and in daily service. I see a lot more of them than I do in Sydney. On most days I’ll see a couple of W123s and […]

December 28th, 2022 | Tags: , , , | Category: Mercedes | Leave a comment

Mercedes-Benz Australia price list – July 1991

In 2020 it is easy to forget just how expensive Mercedes-Benz vehicles were in Australia before the increased competition from brands such as Lexus, Audi and the like. Additionally, Luxury car taxes were much higher in those days. In real terms, the cars were significantly more expensive.

Below is a Mercedes-Benz Australia price list from July 1991. There are a couple of interesting things that can be seen from this list. Firstly, the 190E 1.8 which is still quite expensive. It was replaced by the Australia only 180E that slotted in below a luxury car tax threshold making it an […]

April 24th, 2020 | Tags: , , , , | Category: Articles, Mercedes | 2 comments

More and more parts for Mercedes modern classics are NLA

Mercedes-Benz have justifiably maintained an excellent reputation for making parts available for their older vehicles. They still do a great job for their ‘halo’ classics like the 300SL gullwing or Pagoda SL. At the same time, I have noticed a big increase in the number of parts No Longer Available (NLA) for the modern classics. I define the modern classics as those made from the early 70s to the early 90s. This includes cars such as the R/C107, W114/115, W116, W123, W124, W126. There are probably others.

I’m really not sure how that extends to the late 60s models such […]

March 5th, 2020 | Tags: , , , | Category: Articles, Mercedes | 3 comments