S124 tech day

Today I joined an informal group of S124 owners for a technical day.   There was an expert in these cars visiting from Victoria, so it was an opportunity for every to get together and get some help on various projects on S124s.

We were not off to a great start as there was torrential rain, so the original venue of somebody’s house was not going to work.   Luckily one attendee offered the use of his factory unit with undercover parking which made for a great location.

On the day, we had seven S124s.   Three 300TEs, all 1990s and all built within a few months of each other.    Two E280s and two E220s.   Later in the day, it was worked out that the total KM travelled over the six cars left was 1.8M km.   The highest was my car on 375,000 and the lowest was the white 300TE with 267,000.   Average was 300,000.   S124s were generally bought to be used, and most racked up pretty big mileages.    Even though it was a strong seller, there were no 230TEs at the event.  Nor were there any series 1 cars at all.

Everyone was either doing various jobs on their own car, or lending a hand with some others.     Both my car and the white 300TE had new tailgate struts installed.    Not only did we have a lot of help getting the job done, but the use of some special tools as well.   For something that sounds quite simple, it  is a surprisingly difficult job.   I’m really glad I got it done, and I don’t think I could have done it on my own.

The white E220 was getting SLS spheres replaced.   This again looked like a more involved job than on a W126.   The other E220 looked like it was having various things done, although my main focus was on the tailgate struts.

It was a full day – but very enjoyable.   We started at 9am, and the day was still going strong when I left at just before 5pm to go to a family event.   There is so much to learn about these cars even thought I have been driving them and working on them my entire adult life.