Last year, I went on a 4,000km road trip with some friends from the Mercedes-Benz club to the National Rally in Adelaide. We all took classics, and we took the scenic route there and back. In may ways, the trip there and back was better than the event. For 2023, while there was no National Rally, we were keen to do another. We...
Last night I finished the installation of the refurbished W124 instrument cluster. I’m really happy with it, and its really lifted the car. I ended up installing it as part of my failed attempt to change the centre vent. Even after changing the bulb, the vent illumination was not working. I realized that it must require the instrument cluster to be plugged in. ...
One of the items on my todo list for the 300TE was to replace the W124 centre vent. A couple of the slats were broken, so I could not direct the air, and the open/close control was not working either. The open/close control is especially important in winter, as heat doesn’t come out of the centre. I was told that the RHD part is...
In a previous article I had been undertaking a 300TE speaker upgrade. I started with the rears which were very simple. Next was the fronts. As I outlined in the first part, the W124 uses an odd size and mounting system for the front speakers. They are 12cm and use these clips on the side rather than the normal mounting ears. I guess...
Today was the third annual Youngtimer Sacco day. This is an event run by the Mercedes-Benz club to celebrate the cars of the legendary designer, Bruno Sacco. As with the last two, the event was held at HARS. HARS is an aviation museum located at Shellharbour Airport in Albion Park NSW. The event is focused on the cars designed by Bruno Sacco, but...
I wasn’t very happy with the sound from my 300TE. The front passengers speaker rattled badly and the sound wasn’t the best. As I’m taking the car on a road trip in January, I wanted better sound. I’ve already put the Becker 1402 back in, so all I needed was some decent speakers. In researching what was possible, options were not extensive...
I had previously replaced the front speakers in my 1987 560SEC. Now it was time to look at the rears. As I outlined in the article about the front speakers, I am replacing the W126 rear speakers with Crunch 16.5cm speakers. These speakers should fit into the factory brackets and underneath the factory grilles. Changing the rears in the second generation W126...
I’m planning to drive my 560SEC down to Melbourne in a few weeks. I’m going see the Mercedes Benz Club of Victoria concours and attend a tech day on electrical troubleshooting. A drive like this meant attending to a few things I had on my to do list for the car. One of them was to replace the W126 drag link. It was supposed...
I’m taking my 560SEC on a long road trip in a couple of weeks. I’ve never really been especially happy with the sound from the speakers, particularly from midrange tones. Before I took the car on a long trip, I wanted to upgrade the speakers. I am also doing a similar project on my 300TE. On that car, one of the front speakers is...
In this series I am refurbishing my W124 instrument cluster. In the first part, I removed the cluster and lubricated the speedo cable. For the second part, I repaired the W124 outside temperature display. Now I am focused on my instrument cluster which is afflicted with the dreaded white spot disease. While I was in the UK for work in January, I purchased a...
In this series I am refurbishing my W124 instrument cluster. In the last part, I removed the cluster and lubricated the speedo cable. For this part, I am repairing the W124 outside temperature display. The main problem with these displays is that when exposed to too much hot sun, the LCD panel ‘bleeds’. Over time, this makes it increasingly illegible, not to be mention...
Ever since I bought my W124, there have been a couple of things about my instrument cluster I was not very happy with. It had the dreaded ‘white spot’ disease. Not just on the instrument cluster surround, but the inside of the glass too. The outside temperature LCD was all cloudy and difficult to read. The speedometer needle jumped around at low speed. I...
I’m about to take my 560SEC on a road trip. I’ve been making sure I had appropriate spares for this road trip, especially things that would he hard to get by the side of the road. One thing on my list was some spare ZH-M. ZH-M is the hydraulic fluid used in the self-levelling rear suspension. Since I was ordering ZH-M I...
Today was the annual Sydney German car show. Due to work travel and the pandemic, the last one of these I attended was back in 2018. It seems quite a while ago now. This is always a really good event and as usual it was very well organized. The show is held in Gough Whitlam park in Earlwood, which is good central location. ...
After weeks of warm sunny weather, a cold and wet change rolled into Sydney to perfectly align with our October night drive. This cut numbers drastically, and we ended up with three cars. The weather was better for the actual drive, and we just had occasional light showers. The genesis for this route came from a motorcycle app designed to find good roads...
by Nick Gruzevskis · Published October 27, 2023 · Last modified September 15, 2024
Fitting aftermarket head units to most vehicles made from 2000 onwards can often be problematic due to manufacturers integrating audio and HVAC controls into the one assembly. Many of us choose the path of least resistance, with the primary means of connecting a smartphone is via Aux and a $15 FM transmitter purchased from K-Mart. I must admit the ICC unit (Ford speak for...
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