Ownership Verified: Trust Me It's Not a Taxi: My 1995 Mercedes W124

M111 is pretty bulletproof engine. Only common issue is the wiring harness which could need replacing at some point. Not wallet-breaking fix that either with your prices I believe.
 
M111 is pretty bulletproof engine. Only common issue is the wiring harness which could need replacing at some point. Not wallet-breaking fix that either with your prices I believe.

Ah yes. The famous recyclable wiring harness. It will cost a bit, but certainly not wallet breaking. Unlike the Siemens PMS that's unique to the smaller 1.8 or 2.0 M111. But hopefully mine will keep idling happily and smoothly as it is now for a long time, and even if it does go a bit wonky it'll just be the plastic intake pipe and not either of those things. :p
 
This car is filthy.

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Immediately after I came back from Hong Kong. I decided to celebrate this car's birthday (as per registration date) by taking the thing with 4 passengers on a 1600km trip to the north of Thailand. To visit places such as Doi Suthep and Doi Inthanon. And many more besides.

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With a lot of mountain roads around, and the challenge of being a 1,600km trip itself. It would be a test of the car's power, handling, road holding, brakes, comfort, and reliability. And I'm glad to say it passed all the tests with flying colour.

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The car handles the road with ease. The temperature stays at 87c. Not even the near goddamn vertical hill can make this car wince. The air-conditioning even remains on when it's too hot.

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Armed with a lot of Super Eurobeats (not really :p). The car attack roads that can be considered one of the greatest ever with poise and elegance.

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And yet. On the way there and back. The car is able to sustain more than 140km/h for hour after hour and still averaging 23.7 miles per US gallon. I also manage to hit the magic 200km/h on a straight and empty road while carrying 300kg of load.

I love this car even more now. :D
 
Don't you have any speed limits in your country? :D
 
We do. But it's not like anyone would enforce it at 1am in the morning. :p

Be careful out there ;)

I'm glad you joined the W124 fanboi club though, they tend to make you appreciate proper engineering :heart:
 
Weird to see a 20 year old E class with only 200,000km and change. All our W124's are 500,000km+ diesels.
 
Be careful out there ;)

I'm glad you joined the W124 fanboi club though, they tend to make you appreciate proper engineering :heart:

Yeah. I probably won't be going that fast for a while (and certainly NOT in this car). It's not like going that fast on public road is a wise thing to do. It's good to know what this car can do though. :)

Hey! I already was a fanboi! :p

Weird to see a 20 year old E class with only 200,000km and change. All our W124's are 500,000km+ diesels.

Most of the diesels here are 500,000km+. It's just that they're so rare now because of that. 20 years ago they were flying up and down the motorway at 160km/h constantly and no one bothered to keep them nice. The benzine got that status car image and so people tends to keep them nice for longer, indeed most W124 here are in 200,000km range, because they're mostly petrol car own by respectable wealthy or wants to be wealthy, retired or almost retired dudes.
 
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The car is now Inspected, Taxed, Insured.

Yearly inspection was done last year :)P), 2 weeks ago in fact, right after I came back from the road trip. And as you can probably guess from the picture, our inspection is quite lax and rudimentary. The guy put it on the rolling machine, testing that both front and rear brakes would hold, and we're on our way. That is literally the ONLY thing they did. 200thb (5.6usd, 5.3eur) later and inspection "passed" for another year. Just goes to show how fucked up this country is.

Yearly tax cost 1,446thb (40.5usd, 38.4eur) It was done today. The tax is calculate by the engine displacement. For the first 5 years it would cost the full amount. And 10% less for each 5 years after that. After the car is 10 year old it's a fixed rate for the rest of the car's life. Quite an incentive for having cars such as this actually. I wonder why people keep buying new cars.

Insurance is also another incentive for having old cars. I do not remember the exact amount but it was something like 4,400thb and a bit (about 123usd, 117eur). This is for an insurance that would not only cover collision, but also theft and fire damage. Not quite comprehensive coverage, but still a massive bargain. The main culprit for this is, for some reason, I get to keep the no claim bonuses for this CAR, not for me as a particular driver (I had multiple claims on my long gone Honda). And with that insurance is pretty much halved of what it should be. And it's not just that this particular model is not very accident prone either (because it is indeed not very accident prone). Cars that are popular with yobbos don't have ridiculous insurance rate either. Not 4-5 times as much as a normal car, certainly. Maybe only twice the cost. I guess the only drawback is that it doesn't matter if you're 18 or 55. The insurance rate never go down. Take that UK people! :p
 
The guy put it on the rolling machine, testing that both front and rear brakes would hold, and we're on our way. That is literally the ONLY thing they did. 200thb (5.6usd, 5.3eur) later and inspection "passed" for another year.

So what about emissions? Brake lines? Steering and suspension linkages?

Wow.
 
5-6 years ago they used to test emission. But that went away for some reason. Brake line, suspension and steering? If driving a lap around the test centre counts... :rolleyes:

Told ya its fucked up.
 
Blimey. It's been nearly 6 months without a single new mechanical issue developed. Finally it got one.

After lending the thing to my parents, they decided that it would be a great idea to fill the car up with RON91 instead of the required RON95, 3 whole fucking tanks of it. That sounds like something that would lead to catastrophic failure of the engine, I was suitably pissed. But the engine seems to runs just as good as it was before. No knocks. Perhaps the knock sensor saved it from detonation.

Or maybe something else did. From the past few tanks I've been noticing that the fuel economy has taken a tad worse. Maybe not a tad, maybe like 2l/100km worse. And also the idle is a bit odd. So, yesterday I look at the easiest to find culprit and remove the water temperature sensor plug that leads to the ECU. The car should be on rich running mode. But there was no noticeable difference in both fuel economy or idle. I reckon the car's been running rich the whole time due to the plug being defective. That would also explains why the engine temperature's been a bit cooler than ideal. (And it stays cool even with 91, showing no sign of detonation or overheating).

So with the plug stay removed. I'll burn through the 91, fill the car up with proper 95. And get a mechanic to replace the plug and harness. Hopefully it runs a bit better then.

Oh and I've re-balanced and rotated the tyres today. As a good omen, mostly.
 
You should have a switch like this under the bonnet:
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Because these cars were made to run on RON 91 fuel, but the system could be set for RON95 fuel for a bit of extra power using a switch like this. (N is for Normal, RON91, S is for Super, RON95)
 
Huh. I didn't know that. I always assume it's 95 required because of the high for the time compression ratio. Now I have to find where exactly is this switch. Thanks. :D

Edit: Found the switch. On the E200 with it's Siemens PMS it's on the computer itself. Pull the switch out. And the car appears to run the same at idle. :lol: I will have to find out if there's any effect but at least WOT won't feel so precarious now.
 
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It's been 7 months without mechanical issue?! Now that's Mercedes before they went cheap! :D

Yesterday I went to a shop for some fixes. Not that a situation had developed or anything, most of them have been there since I bought the car.

The core plug was rusted and leaking, losing coolant ever so slightly. It's not that the car is overheating or I cannot top up the coolant (which I didn't need to yet) but for the peace of mind, it should have been replace long ago. Replacing them required the removal of the exhaust manifold. Now that it's been done, the car is water tight again. With this issue sorted the car should still be very reliable for many more kms.

The other issue was that the headlights switch decided to break. The headlamps still turn on it you persuade it a bit. But it's working as it should now. Also, the dimmer bulbs decided to go out along with the fuse. That too have been replaced.

The air-conditioning have also been recharged, so it now blows out cold air like a breeze in the fucking north pole instead of a winter day in Russia or something. Still, if it needs a recharge, it's leaking somewhere. Don't know where.

Bits and bobs. But the car felt proper good again. :)
 
According to the serial no. This car would have been assembled in around April 1995. So I guess it's fitting that I give it a 22nd birthday present.

The licence plate is original, and as it would have been on a car for more than 21 years it got a bit of wear and tear. So I spent 400thb (11.5usd) fixing it up. Along with attacking the plate holder with a bit of paint and metal polish. I think the result is quite good.

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I have another fix coming up however... And then this car will be really nice again. :D
 
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Terrible photography by me. But it'll do for now.

Changed the oil and filters. Usual stuff. The car progressively get better oil with every oil change. When I bought the car I use Valvoline 10w-40 Semi-Synthetic oil. That lasted only 6000km before I changed it with Shell HX8 5w-40, then I drove the car on that for 7500km. Now I put PTT (Petroleum Thai) Racing 5w-50 Synthetic oil in it. PTT is considered to be the cheapest, crappiest oil available. But the Racing 5w-50 certainly is punching above it's price range. And because M111 motor is so low strung I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work. Driving this car somehow make me keep changing the oil early. I could have extended it to 10,000km easily with both previous changes. But I guess doing it a bit early won't hurt. Especially when this car idles a lot in traffic.

Oh and the air filter's change as well. FRESH!
 
A Facebook post reminded me that on this exact day a year ago I went and look at the car. To be honest I didn't even expected to end up with it. I threw a low ball offer and yet here we are. It was an okay car then, if a bit mechanically neglected. It's still an okay car now, slightly less mechanically neglected. Definitely a lot more cosmetically neglected.

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This was on the day I picked the car up. It definitely looked a lot better in picture than it actually was. But for a car 21 years of age, it definitely was quite nice. But then in my ownership I put dents and scratches left and right. Mostly on the left since I'm on the right side of the car. That's the trouble with living in a big city in a big(-ish) car. To make up for it I kept throwing money at the thing to make sure it won't let me down, which it never did, thankfully.

Last week I decided that it was finally the time. The car was in dire need for cosmetic improvements. So I gave the car to a paintshop that's offering a very reasonable quote. I got the car back yesterday and couldn't be happier.

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It's potato quality, alright. It's raining season so I couldn't get proper pictures yet. But the big dents are all gone now. Also I commissioned for the side moulding to be painted the same colour as the bumpers, which was also in need of repairs due to me crashing into a wall. But then again it was already in need of repair since there was a crack since I bought the car. Some imperfections remain, of course. I have to admit this car will never be completely perfect again anyway, so a few ding and scratches here and there simply not going to matter. They only adds to the character. :p

If you ask me, would I be happier with nicer example of the W124 chassis? I probably would've been. But this is mine now, I wouldn't give it for anything else. So I should definitely fix the exhaust leak and also the grumbling wheel bearings. The wallet will not stop hurting yet. :cry:
 
Love that color.
 
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It's been a pretty hectic month.

The exhaust leak is fixed with a new gasket. I've also replaced the front brake pads and machined the discs, then the mechanic noticed that some brake lines were cracked and on it's way out, so that's been replaced, stopping is much improved. One sharp turn doing many km/h reveal the noise to be wheel bearings so grumbily grumbling wheel bearings is being replace as I'm typing.

Ahh the joy of 21 year old car.
 
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