I’m currently in Europe for work. This weekend I found myself in Belgium, in a two about 35km from Brussels. it was a cold and wet weekend, which seemed perfect to go and see a car museum. Last time I was here, back in September 2013, I visited Autoworld Brussels. At the time I had enjoyed the museum. Since car museum collections turn over,...
W123 instrument clusters are notorious for jumpy temperature and fuel gauges and mine was no different. This problem seems to impact other Benzes of the era, but is particularly pronounced in the W123. I don’t really like not being able to trust my gauges to be generally correct, so I wanted to see what I could do about this. The issue seems to be...
I’ve had the 420SEL parts car for a few years now, and I have been rather slow and stripping it and getting rid of the carcass. I had done a deal to sell it about two years ago, but the buyer messed me around for about a year before he finally decided he didn’t want it after all. Based on that, I decided to...
Thursday was the first MBCNSW night drive for 2025. For scheduling reasons, we held it a week earlier than normal. Our meeting place was Heathcote McDonalds. McDonalds is always a good meeting place, as it is well lit, easy to find and has clean toilets. It had been very rainy earlier in the week, so I wasn’t sure what attendance would be like. January...
This weekend I took a road trip to Brisbane in my 240D. It was my first ever road trip in the car and I wasn’t sure what to expect. While I think the 240D is at its best in the city, it did very well on the road trip and I really enjoyed the experience. The trip to Brisbane was fairly last minute. There...
The Brisbane Car Museum is quite a new Museum, only opening last year. I’m currently in Brisbane for the weekend, so went to check it out with some friends from the Mercedes Club. It is located on the north side of Brisbane, not far from the airport, and is quite a good setup. There is plenty of under cover parking on the site, plus...
My 1981 240D was sold new with a Becker Europa 596 Cassette. The Becker was still in the car when I purchased it, but it would not stay tuned. It would randomly drift out of tune and need constant adjustment. I found that rather annoying, I removed it to be serviced and put in a Europa II temporarily. A friend in the Mercedes club...
Editors Note: This is part four in a series by Nick Gruzevskis about owning a W210 430. The previous instalment can be found here. I’m beginning to feel a sense of satisfaction, given that I’ve fixed a lot of small but annoying issues myself. My confidence has grown over this time, even though several of the parts I’ve used have been non original, as...
I am currently in Thailand on holiday, and have been driving a 2020 Suzuki Swift as my rental car. During the last week, I’ve been doing a mix of inner city and cross country driving in the car, so have a pretty good sense of what it is like to own. The 2020 Suzuki Swift is quite refreshing as it is a very simple,...
Editors Note: This is part three in a series by Nick Gruzevskis about owning a W210 430. The first part can be found here. Finding parts for my 1998 W210 E430 has been hit and miss. Some parts have been very easy to find, like the climate sensor motor, found at Pelican Parts, while the fan regulator was found on Amazon. There have been...
Back in September, when I started to deal with the algae problem in my 240D, I noticed the car was quite hard to push. At that time I tested to see if the brakes were grabbing and it was clearly the fronts that were to blame. The rear wheels spun freely ever after a hard push on the brake pedal. Since I had the...
Another year has passed, so time for an update on what is going on with each of the cars I own. Like last year, I will cover the highlights and lowlights for each car, major work performed, how much I drove them and any plans for the future. As with 2023, I drove my fleet of classics around 18,000km and suffered no breakdowns. Classics...
In the last update, I ruined my W123 fuel tank. Luckily, a friend in the Mercedes Club was able to find me a very good tank as a replacement. The new tank is much better than what I had, and probably far better than a home resealed tank. It was from a 280E, which means it is an 80 litre tank. I will have...
Editors Note: This is part five in a series by Nick Gruzevskis about owning a Modern Mercedes convertible – in this case his R170 SLK230. The previous entries can be found here. After two years of ownership, I now feel I’ve just about sorted my SLK230. Many will know the challenges of sorting a car. Yes, the major issues are sorted quickly, but...
One of the cars I have always admired is the Series 1 Jaguar XJ. It was an amazing piece of design, and well ahead of its time. I think the series 1 XJ was culmination of Jaguar in their heyday before they were absorbed into the mess that was British Leyland. In particular, the car I have always admired the most was the Series...
Today was the monthly Auto Brunch event in St Ives. I’ve always regarded it as the best cars and coffee event in Sydney, and when a friend contacted me the day before saying he would have his D Special on display, I decided to go along. I last went in September. The car has been a project for the last year or so and...
In the last part, I used a fuel tank sealing product to seal my W123 fuel tank. This seemed to go quite well, but it turns out I had made a fatal mistake. Once I had coated the inside of the tank, I very carefully cleaned the openings for the sender unit and strainer. I made sure the threads were clear of any sealant. ...
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