W124 - Bringing it home (Part 2)

The following day after picking up the car (Saturday, 5th Sep 2020), I got a call for a body and rust assessment appointment. After a quick cup of coffee, I was at the body shop where they hoisted the car up to check. There was rust, but the good news is, it is not bad. Now that is a relief as I was prepared for worse.

The next appointment was to look for a mechanic who can diagnose what was wrong with the air cond fan. I visited a Mercedes mechanic who is located near the Klang Connaught Bridge for a check. After a quick check, he referred me to a wireman who is located nearby.

At the wireman's place, I met a senior gentleman who was excited to see me pulling in a W124 and has a lot to speak about it. He was in to fix a faulty wiper washer pump of a w210 that he bought a month ago. After a quick chat, it was my turn. I clearly remember the scene, the wireman took his testing tool, poked in 3 places in the engine bay, cranked the engine on, walked away to get a clip, with a cigarette in his hand, attached the clip, and grounded it to a bolt. That's it, a 5 mins job and the air cond fan is back running again, the only issue is, it's running all the time. Now that's sorted, I can at least drive with the air cond on.

From there, the next stop was to get the engine and mechanical side of things checked. I was off to Kajang to a workshop specializing in Mercedes and BMW. The initial inspection was the engine seems okay, but we will need to pop the engine head out before we know for sure. The car was left there for further inspection. I have a hunch that the engine may need to be replaced.

Two days later on Monday, there was an update from the workshop, the engine is not in a good shape, the cylinder walls are scoured and there are some wear and tear to be replaced as the car has clocked over 450,000 km and wasn't properly maintained. It was also found that the gearbox is low on oil. It has 2 liters where it was supposed to have 4 instead. The steering box was leaking, the seal between the gearbox and the long shaft was leaking, front absorbers were busted and a few other bushings as well.

It was recommended that we source for a low mileage used engine to reduce the repair bills and also a fresh maintenance schedule. At this point, a number of things have been done which include two near-front shocks, steering dampers, steering box leak fixed and sourcing for an engine is ongoing. It will be replaced with the exact M104 2.8-liter engine.

The car was 'admitted' for 2 weeks and after finding a replacement engine, it was not idling too well. It was suspected that the ECU was not in good shape. The engine had a rough cold start and everything else looked fine.

There was also some wiring work to be done on the air cond that has been butchered.

We hit a snag when the mechanic took it for a drive. When he returned after a test drive and had the car hoisted, the car was leaking oil in two places, one was from the engine and the other was from the gearbox.

The gearbox leak fix was more or less known but for the engine to be properly checked, the head needs to come out. It was then diagnosed to be caused by a bad head gasket. To be sure, the head was mildly machined to ensure that the head and gasket will sit well. 

When I first took it for a drive once it was done, I wasn't impressed. I thought it would be a lot nicer but it wasn't.

The final bill was a 5 figure bill and it has a list of 85 line items! Apparently, the car has never been properly maintained for the most part of its life (25 years old) until I bought it.

As the tires were bad, I drove it with lots of vibration due to unbalanced tires, however, I have scouted a set of 16-inch rims to be slapped on. I also had the Michelin XM2 plus tires fitted and the drive further improved.

While the ride has improved, I still think there is more that can be done to make it nicer. At this point, these are the complaints:
  1. The engine is not idling properly
  2. Alignment is not straight
  3. Steering noticeable free play
  4. Air cond, only speed 1 and 2 is working
  5. Exhaust knocking
  6. Heavy fuel consumption
  7. Poor braking
With this, I sought the help of a friend, Mr. Tarwin, who loves the W126 and has got three W124 in his family to assist.

End of part 2...

Tools and a bunch of redundant wires were removed from the engine bay

Properly running wires from the fusebox

The ECU was suspected to be faulty but was cured with the CO tuning

Axel oil drained making way for fresh oil

Rear disc not wearing in properly because the pads were not replaced

The car sits after getting a fresh set of tires on new 16-inch rims

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