Dev's Thoughts on Experiences, Projects and Lessons

So my wife calls me fussy because I am not willing to let go of the vibrations that I have on Rhino. My argument is that since we have spent quite a bit of money on it, it should not be there and if it is still there, we should know why. That was my reply to her and she isn't amused. Vibrations have been a journey that I have been battling on Rhino and I hope I am near to get it all resolved. When I took it in again, the issue was that firstly, I felt that there was massive feedback on the harshness of the road on the steering. Subsequent to that, I am noticing a particular vibration that takes place between 60 - 100 kph before it subsides. I took it in for an assessment. After a quick look, the mechanic reported that the idler arm bush is busted. They further said that the tie rods need replacement as well. They insisted that the replacement parts will need to be from Lemforder as they are not getting success with other brands. I went to look for the parts and got what was needed ...

This is a non-Rhino-related post, but for the love of Merc, here is a quick entry on a W126 300SE. So Tarwin is a relative who has had the pleasure of driving Mercedes for a few years and he is very fond of the W126. He calls his present W126 The Aeroplane. Tarwin needed some help to get his car check, it was making lots of noise on bumps and even straight roads, he also wanted an assessment of the car to be done. For that reason, I get to sample his W126 for a bit. I took it to City Cycle to have the car checked. There were a few issues with it but they were all minor. The observations were wheel alignment was off castor ball joint on both sides was busted the upper arm was loose a leak was seen at the oil level sender which leads to the under-engine cover being stained with oil And a day finale was the driver power window mechanism was faulty We were only able to address the upper arm by tightening it and that made some difference. The drive back has improved and while the knocking n...

For whatever reason, someone accidentally (or deliberately, maybe, because it was working before) broke a connector/attachment that links the speedo cable to the speedo bearing housing on the gearbox. This attachment is needed to allow the speed from the gearbox to spin the speedo cable that will in turn spin the speedometer mechanism that shows the speed on the instrument cluster. The speedo was working in the past where a new speedo cable was fitted and all was well for a while. Shortly later, the speedo stopped working, and there seem to be 2 issues to it, the first was a broken speedo cable where it was attached to the cluster and the other was on the gearbox where the cable is connected. This cable was replaced but the speedo still didn't work. The car was taken to the mechanic sometime back where there was a sign that the speedo bearing housing has some weld on it. It must have damaged that required welding to be done. While inspecting, the problem became prominent where the ...

While getting the brake rotors and pads replace earlier (click here to read), the mechanic advised that it would be good to have the brakes serviced, the work would include replacing the brake fluid, new brake hoses, and the caliper rebuild kit to remove worn-out seals on the calipers and at the same time regreasing all moving parts properly. I did not have this done earlier as we did not have the brake hoses available for replacement and the job would take half a day. I took this opportunity to also have the brake hoses upgraded to stainless steel made by Probrakes Germany (exact part purchased here ). An order was placed on 1st Mar 2021 and I received the shipment 5 weeks later. The delay was contributed by the COVID-19 situation where most delivery hubs are busy. Why stainless steel braided hose you may ask? I have no real reason, but from the little that I have checked, this specific one comes with TUV and DOT approval, and apart from that, it claims to provide improved feedback, ...

From one of the previous posts,  Rhino is a 3.2 and not 2.8 , the engine replacement has completed and an inspection is mandatory to allow the new engine number to be endorsed in the registration card. This will also allow the road rax to be charged based on a 2.8 engine and not the 3.2 that it is currently registered as. The process is rather straightforward where an appointment with Puspakom needs to be made, online or via their app, select inspection reason and make the payment accordingly. The appointment went fairly smoothly but the inspectors seem to be paying attention to the bottom of the car and were looking for signs if the car was chopped and joint. Once all was done, I was waiting for the results which are now sent via email in a paperless effort. Shortly later, when I received the report, it passed but something was amiss, they did not correct the engine capacity to 2799cc, it reflected 3199cc. A brief moment later upon approaching the operations officer, the issue was...

Among the many issues that I have on Rhino, one is on the jerks and slips on the gearbox. I have got this checked in a number of places and the diagnosis has been a faulty gearbox that either needs to be rebuild or swapped for a newer one. What happens is that when I drive the car from a stop, from shifting of 1 to 2, the gearbox will jerk, the jerk is softened when the engine is driven aggressively, but there will be a jerk. From 2 to 3 and 3 to 4, the gear starts slipping in between. This on the other hand becomes more prominent under aggressive driving, on regular driving, the slip is not as drastic. Among the work that has been done were: Replacing the automatic transmission fluid to Mercedes original fluid - it took in 7 litres if I remember correctly The valve body was serviced The transmission filter was replaced Rear-axle bushes were replaced Gearbox mount replaced Long shaft flex disc on both ends replaced Long shaft mounting was replaced However, the symptoms were reduced but...