Today’s job was EHA replacement (Electro-Hydraulic Actuator) on my 1987 560SEL. The EHA is part of the KE Jetronic fuel injection system and makes minute adjustments to the air/fuel mixture. One of the sources for these adjustment is the oxygen sensor, if present. The EHA can leak either because the o-rings between the EHA and the fuel distributor have gone hard, or because of...
The W126 battery tray serves a dual purpose. The first and most obvious is to keep the battery in place. The other is to protect the body work. Over time car batteries can leak acid and the removable tray catches all that. It is worth checking the condition of the battery tray each time the battery is replaced. If the battery tray becomes...
Today I took my 300SE on a Mercedes Club Pop up drive. The Pop up drives are short notice mid-week drives. I normally take the other cars to club events, but the 300SE had not been on a decent run for a while and the weather was terrible. The drive was down through the Royal National park to Mt Kembla, Mt Kiera and then...
The Mercedes Benz club NSW ran an event today to commemorate the cars of Bruno Sacco. Sacco was head of design at Mercedes-Benz from 1975-1999. The event was called Youngtimer Sacco day and I understand the intention is to make it an annual event. Given the success of today’s event, I can easily see why. The event started out at Tynan’s Mercedes-Benz dealership...
After all the recent work done on my 250SE, I wanted to take it for an extended test drive. Its had motor and transmission mounts, front crank seal, re-sealed power steering pump, injectors, distributor cap and rotor, points, condenser, coil, plugs, alternator, voltage regulator and more done. The spark had been quite weak and the engine was carboned up. The Mercedes-Benz club have...
On the way back from the September night drive my 250SE stopped charging properly. I was able to make it back home about an hour on the battery. Even using the headlights the 250SE does not use a lot of power. As it happened, a friend of mine had a rebuilt alternator that was correct for my car. He drives a 280SE 3.5 W108...
Over the last couple of months I’ve had issues with the M129 rough running in my 250SE. The car was hesitating, idling poorly and just not running very well. I’ve done a few things over the last few months to improve this situation. One of the first things I did was change the injectors. The stutter when accelerating and hard starting when hot felt...
An obvious issue on my 560SEL was how the rear seat was mounted. There was an obvious gap between the parcel shelf and the rear seat. The 560SEL came standard with a W126 power rear seat. This either standard or optional on other W126 LWB models. It seemed clear that when the self-leveling rear suspension was removed, the trim was not put back correctly....
The other day I was driving my 560SEL on a fairly hot (30C) day in heavy traffic. The engine temperature got quite warm when sitting in traffic. It was well over 100C in traffic, which would eventually cool down when I got moving. The car didn’t overheat, but I did hear coolant boiling in the radiator hose after I finished the drive. While the...
I have now completed the installation of the Movovalve elimination kit on my 560SEC. So far so good. Most importantly, I don’t have heat when I don’t want it, but it is available when needed. In the last installment, I completed the routing of the cooling hoses. From there I installed the radiator and ensured the cooling system didn’t have any leaks. The...
I’ve used my 450SLC on a few spirited drives lately. With the new injectors its been running really nicely. However, on the way back from the most recent night drive, the pedal became really spongey on the way home. Luckily it was late at night with few cars on the road so I was able to drive it home gently. The next...
Today’s job was installing a W126 radiator into my 1987 560SEC. I had previously sorted out the cooling hoses as part of my monovalve eliminator install. I was just waiting on a few extra parts I had ordered to begin this job. Firstly I decided to replace the coolant reservoir tank. My current one is not leaking, but the plastic was quite discoloured and...
I had previously removed the W126 cowl covers to clean the drains. Now they are clean and I have replaced the ABS module bracket, they were ready to be re-installed. Before I did so, I had some new parts to install. The first were the rubber boots that cover the windscreen wiper shafts. On most W126 cars they are almost non existent. On my...
As part of the installation of the Monovalve elimination kit, I needed to remove the ABS controller bracket. The bracket was in the way of the coolant hoses. I order to remove it, I needed to remove the W126 cowl drains cover. This is great opportunity to inspect this area and clean it. Cars that have parked outside often have debris here that causes...
I have been working on a project to eliminate the monovalve from the climate control system in my 560SEC. In the last part I had almost completed the cooling hoses required for the job. I had mostly worked out hose routing I was looking for – which was combining the dual outputs from the heater core into a single hose where I could place...
The Mercedes Club hold a mid-week drive pretty much every month. I’ve been a member for more than 10 years but never managed to attend one. I had a free day today and the drive looked really good. This months MBCNSW mid-week drive was up to the Hunter valley. The route was via the Putty road, which I’ve done a few times before. Mid-week...
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