With the rally now over, it was time to start our drive home to Sydney. Like our journey to Adelaide, we had planned a scenic route back. Our route takes us home via Broken Hill, Wilcannia, Cobar and the Barrier highway. Most of our group had not seen this part out Outback Australia before, so were keen to experience it as part of this...
Today was the second and final day of the actual Rally. The two official events were a scenic drive down the coast to Lady Bay, and a dinner and farewell event. Start time for the drive was 10AM, so today was the only chance to a sleep in on our entire trip. The drive was really good. Not only did we see some...
Day four was a bit of a change of pace for our group. We didn’t have many KM to cover as were are now part of the rally proper. The agenda for today was the Show and Shine and then an evening event, held at “The Cube”. Obviously, our cars were not in any state to display in a show and shine, so we...
The National Rally included a Show and Shine in the morning to display the participating cars. The show and shine was held at Wigley park, a very nice spot near the Marina in Glenelg. The cars all had to be in place for 10AM as the show was open to the public from 10-12PM. After a wash first thing in the morning, we assembled...
One of the attractions of this trip was to be able to tick off a few bucket list items. A big part of this was doing the Great Ocean Road in our own cars. Part of the design of our route was to ensure we did the Great Ocean Road in daylight – hence its position as the first item on our third day. ...
Day two dawned on our trip to the Mercedes Clubs national rally with the situation that while the 280CE now had a full battery thanks to the trickle charger, it had no way of charging it while driving. Unless we did something, the car was going to run out of electricity. There has been a recent trend to electrify classic cars, particular in Europe. ...
Today was the first day of our epic drive to the Mercedes-Benz clubs national rally in Glenelg, South Australia. I am going with a group of friends on a road trip to and from the rally which I have detailed in a previous post. Our route took us from the meeting point at McDonalds Heathcote to Orbost, Vic and covered around 620km....
My wife owns a 2007 E350 wagon. This car has been in the shop the last couple of weeks having the balancer shaft replacement done. This car was outside the known affected engine numbers, but still required a balancer shaft. We’ve had a 2005 W164 ML350 W164 as our loaner for the last few weeks. Its an interesting comparison as the ML...
This is part three of a series where I am trying to diagnose poor cold starts on my 1979 280SE. Please click here for part 1 and here for part 2. In the last part, the fuel pressure tests had pointed to high control pressure. This would most likely be cause by the Warm Up Regulator (WUR). However, after a while the pump became...
In Australia, each state (and territory) has their own Mercedes-Benz Club. Most countries have a central club with regional chapters. This isn’t really all that surprising given the states could not even agree on basic stuff like a common railway gauge. Every two years one of the clubs hold a “National Rally” event on a rotating basis. The idea is members from all the...
This year I plan to attend the Mercedes-Benz clubs of Australia national rally. The event is being held in Adelaide in April this year. I’ve done plenty of road trips while living in the USA, but not really in Australia. In addition, I am joining a group of friends from the club in an extended drive that will take us the scenic route to...
Yesterday I was in Canberra to attend Wheels 2022 with the Mercedes Club ACT. I found out that this weekend was also the Rolls Royce Club Federal Rally. Not sure if it was a coincidence, but the public display was about a 10 minute walk from Queanbeyan showground. Based on that proximity, it would have been almost criminal not to go along and see...
Today I attended the Wheels 2022 event in Queanbeyan. This is a large car show open to car clubs affiliated with the ACT Council of Motor Clubs. In some ways it is quite similar in concept to the Eastern Creek event I attend in Sydney. The Mercedes-Benz club ACT planned to put on a special display – and invited members of the NSW club...
Earlier in the week I attempted to run a fuel pressure test on my 1979 280SE. On further examination, I was pretty sure I had it connected up wrong. The instructions call for the pressure gauge to be attached to the larger fitting on the warm up regulator. The warm up regulator is hidden down to the side of the engine on the...
I’ve been trying to get to the bottom of the running issues on my 1979 280SE. The last thing I tried was draining all the fuel and replacing the fuel filter and tank strainer. Once the car warmed up, it actually ran reasonably well. I took it for a drive for about 40 kilometers and it was running better and better. ...
I recently purchased a W116 280SE. On arrival, it wasn’t running too well, and the symptoms pointed to the car not getting enough fuel. A few weeks ago, I drained all the fuel in the tank and checked the main fuel filter and strainer. After doing all this, the fuel filter and strainer were all that bad. They certainly didn’t look bad...
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