2013 has been a year of change. I got my Bachelor's degree and was fortunate enough to find employment even before I was out of school.
Unfortunately the office is 7km away from my home and this is right through the city center, with many traffic lights and dual lane avenues. Doing this commute there and back every day in the 560 SEC just doesn't make sense. For 8am, having just got out of bed, and 16pm, after a hard day at work, it's too loud, too low, too uncomfortable and too powerful (I'm in constant fear of being ticketed after a brisk acceleration). Also I have fallen in love with it too much to ask it to ferry me around short distances at least twice a day.
So long story short I needed a commuter box, in a nutshell, something more boring. Something with 4 doors, smaller engine, quieter, normal suspension and ride height, fewer systems to go wrong, etc.
In 2012 I got the vision of having a V126 for getting around in addition to the C126 for sunday drives. It would have to be the latest and greatest six-cylinder for the fuel economy and simplicity, and the langversion because if I'm getting a sedan, it's going to be a sedan all the way.
Making this vision happen turned out to be more involved than you might think. It appears 300 SEL models are extremely few and far between in this country. Despite it being the quintessential Finnish-spec limousine (large body and small engine with few amenities), there aren't many around, and I guess there never were. Most examples I could find were rotted, neglected cars. Some were promising but had deal-breaker niggles (retrofitted power windows, lots of bodywork done, suspiciously bad photographs, and so on).
I even exhausted the bush radio of the Finnish M-B club. Apparently no one even knows anyone has a car like this, let alone owns one and is willing to sell.
After all that, about 2 weeks ago I finally stumbled on one. I didn't have to think twice. It had been on nettiauto.com for a couple days. It had a couple of rubbish photos that showed the car from the rear, a pretty high price tag, and a mention that haggling would be futile. So the advert had few views. But I knew I had to go look at it from the short description: ex-corporate limousine, 2 owners, professionally maintained, rust-free.
I also recognized the license plate. Turns out I'd seen the car live in our club event in 2012. It had rolled into the parking lot and I'd thought "that's a nice condition 2nd generation sedan, appears to have far less than 200k on it". Turned out it had 370k on it and I was amazed. It was one of the very cars that started my sedan fever. I called up the club and learned the ex-district chief of our club's Kymi district had chauffered the car for the Enso pulp & paper corporation from 1989 up until the mid-90s until his retirement. After that, the car was mothballed in corporate storage for 15 years and only taken out for special occasions. Each year it would be serviced and MOT'd. From the current, sitting Kymi district chief we heard a story from the old chauffer: the 300 SEL was never stored before receiving a careful hand wash...
In 2011, after 22 years of corporate ownership the car was sold to a club member, also from Kymi. He owned a fleet of Mercedes and other cars, and only drove a couple hundred km's in summers 2011, 2012 and 2013. In the end he was tiring of his large fleet and during a moment of desperation posted the car on nettiauto.com. Thus I became aware of it. Me and the local club district chief -buddy of mine went to look at and test drive it.
It was an uneventful test drive; everything just worked and there were few surprises. I got to view the car from underneath and there were no surprises there either. I knew very quickly that if there ever was a car to buy, this was it. The only surprise that day was the personality of the seller which truly belonged to days gone by... he told me he would only take cash (far more than you could ever withdraw with plastic) and doing the paperwork with him was a total pain. Well, skipping that long story, we eventually got the deal over with and at a late hour on the 25th of July I had my shiny but definitely not new 300 SEL dream car.
I wanted to hold off making a thread until I had some lasting photos. Today I was able to shoot some pics so here, enjoy.
DSC_0126 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0128 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0127 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0120 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0124 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0132 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0137 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0136 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0135 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0130 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0140 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0141 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0142 by jkohvak, on Flickr
As you can see from the service leaflet the history of this car is particularly interesting to me. Not only was it owned by a pulp & paper corporation for 22 years but for a large portion of that time it was stationed in Imatra, right near where I live now. It has service stamps from the 90s, stamped by the very M-B dealership that I have been buying my M-B parts from for years now. So in a way, the car has come full circle.
Vehicle data:
Manufacturer: MERCEDES-BENZ
Model: 4D SEDAN 300 SEL AUTOMATIC-126524319
Engine displacement: 2960 cm3
MY: 1989
Paint: 441 - Impala Metallic
Interior: 073A - Cloth, Brazil Brown
Options:
211 AUTOMATIC LIMITED SLIP DIFFERENTIAL (ASD)
260 ELIMINATION OF MODEL DESIGNATION ON REAR LID
341 ADDITIONAL LAMP [center brake light]
420 AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION, FLOOR SHIFT [4-speed]
440 TEMPOMAT (CRUISE CONTROL)
485 SELF-LEVELLING SUSPENSIONS WITH HARDER SPRING SUSPENSION
592 GREEN HEAT-INSULATING GLASS ALL ROUND, HEATED REAR WINDOW, LAMINATED SAFETY GLASS - TINTED STRIP
606 HEADLAMP WIPER UNIT, OIL FOR REAR AXLE WITH LIMITED-SLIP DIFFERENTIAL IN CANISTERS AND CONTAINERS AND MOUNTING FOR CUSTOMS LICENSE PLATE
630 E.C.E. WARNING TRIANGLE
673 HIGH-CAPACITY BATTERY
873 SEAT HEATER FOR LEFT AND RIGHT FRONT SEATS
877 READING LAMP IN THE REAR
Note that it has ASD, which is the automatic LSD that I had in the red car previously. Also it has load-sensitive ride height control in the rear which is an interesting option and definitely useful. But the most useful of them all is the cruise control.
The condition is A- outside and A- inside. The rear center bumper chrome is bubbling and the left bottom corner of the rear window frame is bubbling also. Those are the only rust spots on the body. Otherwise the paint is in very nice condition, as is the chrome. The anonized metal trim is slightly faded and the hood appears to be repainted. There are a few rock chips. Inside, the cloth interior is basically flawless, as is the wood. In the center console there was a mobile phone stand which I removed immediately, this left the screw holes in the side of the console. There was a period temperature gauge between the top row switches, which was double-side-taped on. The tape residue lifted off very nicely with veggie oil and there is now only a very slight circular sun fade difference.
In the pictures you see there I have already switched in orange corners and wing blinkers. For some reason this car too had clear corners. No W126 ever left the factory with those, and these ones were aftermarket brand too, obviously. I was able to source flawless but very slightly faded Bosch corners for 10 EUR + postage. The wing blinkers are brand new TYC but fit pretty nicely. Cost about 7 EUR each at a local parts store.
Also there was a Pioneer christmas tree radio which I immediately swapped with the Becker Mexico Diversity I had bought for the 560 SEC.
The engine is the most tired part of the car. I have a jiggly idle but still do idle on all cylinders this time around... It could be a bad distributor cap and/or rotor, spark plugs or wires, EHA (electro-hydraulic fuel delivery actuator), OVP (overvoltage protect relay) or numerous other common faults, but I'll have to check it out systematically. I also have clacking that comes and goes during the first 5km of a cold start and then goes away completely after the engine is toasty, which I'm attributing to too thick oil.
Transmission is extremely smooth and logical. It tends to stick to gears a little too long so I'll have to adjust the Bowden cable on this car too. The differential is tight and silent. The exhaust is great condition Ebersp?cher OEM, totally silent. The steering has much less play than the SEC. There are no clunks from the suspension. In hard turns I have squeeks from the lower ball joints which is a typical fault that has to be addressed. Lemf?rder (OEM) lower ball joints are $20 each from Autohaus AZ.
Power windows work great in all 4 corners, outside temperature gauge works, cruise works, all gauges work, no warning lights.
So what's in the future?
I will just drive it to work and to the shops, probably in the winter too.
-> oil change and filter soon
-> diagnose the choppy idle
-> do some rust prevention tasks in the door bottoms and inside the rear arches
-> straight up rustproof the rest
-> add block heater and interior heater
-> source a BE753, or BE830, (Mexicos) or BE1319, or BE1320 (Grand Prix') as a final radio installation
-> what to do as regards winter tires... hmm, don't know yet. I'm thinking about getting a second set of OEM 15x7 ET25 kanaldeckels but might also opt for a set of 16x8 R129 kanaldeckels for summer wheels which would leave me with the current set of OEM wheels for winter.
And the SEC? Well it remains a loved "family member" and I will take it for a drive and of course to work/shops/etc too when I feel like it. I already know a place where I can store it for the winter for 20 eurobucks a month. It soon needs a service too but more on that in the proper thread...
Oh and proof pic:
Unfortunately the office is 7km away from my home and this is right through the city center, with many traffic lights and dual lane avenues. Doing this commute there and back every day in the 560 SEC just doesn't make sense. For 8am, having just got out of bed, and 16pm, after a hard day at work, it's too loud, too low, too uncomfortable and too powerful (I'm in constant fear of being ticketed after a brisk acceleration). Also I have fallen in love with it too much to ask it to ferry me around short distances at least twice a day.
So long story short I needed a commuter box, in a nutshell, something more boring. Something with 4 doors, smaller engine, quieter, normal suspension and ride height, fewer systems to go wrong, etc.
In 2012 I got the vision of having a V126 for getting around in addition to the C126 for sunday drives. It would have to be the latest and greatest six-cylinder for the fuel economy and simplicity, and the langversion because if I'm getting a sedan, it's going to be a sedan all the way.
Making this vision happen turned out to be more involved than you might think. It appears 300 SEL models are extremely few and far between in this country. Despite it being the quintessential Finnish-spec limousine (large body and small engine with few amenities), there aren't many around, and I guess there never were. Most examples I could find were rotted, neglected cars. Some were promising but had deal-breaker niggles (retrofitted power windows, lots of bodywork done, suspiciously bad photographs, and so on).
I even exhausted the bush radio of the Finnish M-B club. Apparently no one even knows anyone has a car like this, let alone owns one and is willing to sell.
After all that, about 2 weeks ago I finally stumbled on one. I didn't have to think twice. It had been on nettiauto.com for a couple days. It had a couple of rubbish photos that showed the car from the rear, a pretty high price tag, and a mention that haggling would be futile. So the advert had few views. But I knew I had to go look at it from the short description: ex-corporate limousine, 2 owners, professionally maintained, rust-free.
I also recognized the license plate. Turns out I'd seen the car live in our club event in 2012. It had rolled into the parking lot and I'd thought "that's a nice condition 2nd generation sedan, appears to have far less than 200k on it". Turned out it had 370k on it and I was amazed. It was one of the very cars that started my sedan fever. I called up the club and learned the ex-district chief of our club's Kymi district had chauffered the car for the Enso pulp & paper corporation from 1989 up until the mid-90s until his retirement. After that, the car was mothballed in corporate storage for 15 years and only taken out for special occasions. Each year it would be serviced and MOT'd. From the current, sitting Kymi district chief we heard a story from the old chauffer: the 300 SEL was never stored before receiving a careful hand wash...
In 2011, after 22 years of corporate ownership the car was sold to a club member, also from Kymi. He owned a fleet of Mercedes and other cars, and only drove a couple hundred km's in summers 2011, 2012 and 2013. In the end he was tiring of his large fleet and during a moment of desperation posted the car on nettiauto.com. Thus I became aware of it. Me and the local club district chief -buddy of mine went to look at and test drive it.
It was an uneventful test drive; everything just worked and there were few surprises. I got to view the car from underneath and there were no surprises there either. I knew very quickly that if there ever was a car to buy, this was it. The only surprise that day was the personality of the seller which truly belonged to days gone by... he told me he would only take cash (far more than you could ever withdraw with plastic) and doing the paperwork with him was a total pain. Well, skipping that long story, we eventually got the deal over with and at a late hour on the 25th of July I had my shiny but definitely not new 300 SEL dream car.
I wanted to hold off making a thread until I had some lasting photos. Today I was able to shoot some pics so here, enjoy.
DSC_0126 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0128 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0127 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0120 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0124 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0132 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0137 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0136 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0135 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0130 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0140 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0141 by jkohvak, on Flickr
DSC_0142 by jkohvak, on Flickr
As you can see from the service leaflet the history of this car is particularly interesting to me. Not only was it owned by a pulp & paper corporation for 22 years but for a large portion of that time it was stationed in Imatra, right near where I live now. It has service stamps from the 90s, stamped by the very M-B dealership that I have been buying my M-B parts from for years now. So in a way, the car has come full circle.
Vehicle data:
Manufacturer: MERCEDES-BENZ
Model: 4D SEDAN 300 SEL AUTOMATIC-126524319
Engine displacement: 2960 cm3
MY: 1989
Paint: 441 - Impala Metallic
Interior: 073A - Cloth, Brazil Brown
Options:
211 AUTOMATIC LIMITED SLIP DIFFERENTIAL (ASD)
260 ELIMINATION OF MODEL DESIGNATION ON REAR LID
341 ADDITIONAL LAMP [center brake light]
420 AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION, FLOOR SHIFT [4-speed]
440 TEMPOMAT (CRUISE CONTROL)
485 SELF-LEVELLING SUSPENSIONS WITH HARDER SPRING SUSPENSION
592 GREEN HEAT-INSULATING GLASS ALL ROUND, HEATED REAR WINDOW, LAMINATED SAFETY GLASS - TINTED STRIP
606 HEADLAMP WIPER UNIT, OIL FOR REAR AXLE WITH LIMITED-SLIP DIFFERENTIAL IN CANISTERS AND CONTAINERS AND MOUNTING FOR CUSTOMS LICENSE PLATE
630 E.C.E. WARNING TRIANGLE
673 HIGH-CAPACITY BATTERY
873 SEAT HEATER FOR LEFT AND RIGHT FRONT SEATS
877 READING LAMP IN THE REAR
Note that it has ASD, which is the automatic LSD that I had in the red car previously. Also it has load-sensitive ride height control in the rear which is an interesting option and definitely useful. But the most useful of them all is the cruise control.
The condition is A- outside and A- inside. The rear center bumper chrome is bubbling and the left bottom corner of the rear window frame is bubbling also. Those are the only rust spots on the body. Otherwise the paint is in very nice condition, as is the chrome. The anonized metal trim is slightly faded and the hood appears to be repainted. There are a few rock chips. Inside, the cloth interior is basically flawless, as is the wood. In the center console there was a mobile phone stand which I removed immediately, this left the screw holes in the side of the console. There was a period temperature gauge between the top row switches, which was double-side-taped on. The tape residue lifted off very nicely with veggie oil and there is now only a very slight circular sun fade difference.
In the pictures you see there I have already switched in orange corners and wing blinkers. For some reason this car too had clear corners. No W126 ever left the factory with those, and these ones were aftermarket brand too, obviously. I was able to source flawless but very slightly faded Bosch corners for 10 EUR + postage. The wing blinkers are brand new TYC but fit pretty nicely. Cost about 7 EUR each at a local parts store.
Also there was a Pioneer christmas tree radio which I immediately swapped with the Becker Mexico Diversity I had bought for the 560 SEC.
The engine is the most tired part of the car. I have a jiggly idle but still do idle on all cylinders this time around... It could be a bad distributor cap and/or rotor, spark plugs or wires, EHA (electro-hydraulic fuel delivery actuator), OVP (overvoltage protect relay) or numerous other common faults, but I'll have to check it out systematically. I also have clacking that comes and goes during the first 5km of a cold start and then goes away completely after the engine is toasty, which I'm attributing to too thick oil.
Transmission is extremely smooth and logical. It tends to stick to gears a little too long so I'll have to adjust the Bowden cable on this car too. The differential is tight and silent. The exhaust is great condition Ebersp?cher OEM, totally silent. The steering has much less play than the SEC. There are no clunks from the suspension. In hard turns I have squeeks from the lower ball joints which is a typical fault that has to be addressed. Lemf?rder (OEM) lower ball joints are $20 each from Autohaus AZ.
Power windows work great in all 4 corners, outside temperature gauge works, cruise works, all gauges work, no warning lights.
So what's in the future?
I will just drive it to work and to the shops, probably in the winter too.
-> oil change and filter soon
-> diagnose the choppy idle
-> do some rust prevention tasks in the door bottoms and inside the rear arches
-> straight up rustproof the rest
-> add block heater and interior heater
-> source a BE753, or BE830, (Mexicos) or BE1319, or BE1320 (Grand Prix') as a final radio installation
-> what to do as regards winter tires... hmm, don't know yet. I'm thinking about getting a second set of OEM 15x7 ET25 kanaldeckels but might also opt for a set of 16x8 R129 kanaldeckels for summer wheels which would leave me with the current set of OEM wheels for winter.
And the SEC? Well it remains a loved "family member" and I will take it for a drive and of course to work/shops/etc too when I feel like it. I already know a place where I can store it for the winter for 20 eurobucks a month. It soon needs a service too but more on that in the proper thread...
Oh and proof pic: