Mercedes 450SE W116 – The car I almost bought

I have always admired the W116 model. However, since the introduction of the W126 in 1980 the W116 has lived in its shadow. My 450SLC has been my primary car for most of the time I have owned it, but with three children, this is no longer possible. As I needed something that could fit three child seats in a row, a W116 would fit the bill nicely. I found a car – this 450SE W116 and agreed to buy it. Unfortunately, the sale fell through after a major mechanical problem was discovered by the seller before I was going […]

The 300SE strikes back

My ownership of the 300SE had been off to a good start until 3 issues reared their ugly head in the last couple of days.

As outlined in the last post, the first issue was the A/C stopped blowing cold. I already knew I had to do a few things for the climate control – I could hear the little aspirator motor rattling away behind the glove box. The aspirator motor is basically a small fan that blows air from near the dome light down to a temperature sensor. That sensor is used for the climate control. I’m a little […]

The 280CE runs again

The 280CE finally has a new water pump and no longer leaves an embarrassing puddle where it sleeps.

After fighting with the bolts on the visco fan, it was finally able to be removed with a combination of drilling and vice grips. After that, the rest of the disassembly was not nearly as bad. In total, to get to the water pump on the M110 engine you need to:

Remove radiator – remove top and bottom hoses, transmission oil cooler hoses and securing clips Remove fan shroud – Clipped to radiator Remove fan from viscous fan assembly – four […]

20 hours later, the rounded bolt still clings on

In order to get to the water pump on the 280CE, the fan assembly had to be removed, which is held on by four rather inaccessible bolts.

Two of he bolts came out ok, but two were stuck firmly and became even more rounded in trying to remove them. Mercedes must have used high quality bolts, as 20 hours and 5 drill bits later, the bolts are still in.

This is the frustrating side of classic ownership, an otherwise simple task becoming bigger than ben-hur due to a single recalcitrant bolt.

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Finally, a cool running DS

Even on winter days, the DS had been getting a bit hot under the collar. Granted, D’s have never been the coolest running cars, and the heat of the Australian summer can tax them and their passengers, but they should easily cope with most days, especially outside the summer months. I had a few problems – the water pump was leaking and getting worse and worse, the heater didn’t work and the radiator couldn’t keep up outside stop and go traffic. Not only that, the coolant, despite multiple flushes looked like ditch water.

I wanted to be able to use […]

280CE Water Pump replacement – part 1

The 280CE was leaking quite badly, and it looked like it was coming from the water pump. I ordered a pump and not have finally started on the replacement.

First job was to drain the coolant – which wasn’t in bad condition, disconnect the radiator, and remove it. The radiator is easy to remove with four metal clips that can be prized out, and the water and transmission oil cooler hoses.

Next is to remove the fan assembly. This is where I had problems as two of the bolts were quite rounded and I was unable to remove them, […]

Leaky coupe

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 was pleasantly surprised with how good underneath the car looks.