OWNER LWB250 (E420)

[LWB250]

Sounds good, Dan. It would be interesting to try just the insulators first, since your car is currently in "persistent failure" mode. Usually, the misfire problem is intermittent and only after being parked for 2+ weeks, making it very difficult to see if changing part "X" cures the misfire. And my one E420 which had been doing this, is now refusing to act up at all, despite having all old parts, and being parked for months. Grrrr. It was consistent in winter (parked 2+ weeks) but not anymore, and I can't troubleshoot the damn thing when it's running fine.

FWIW, I've had cars run flawlessly despite very high resistances on the spark plug boots... like, 10k-20k ohms instead of the ~2k spec. I can't explain that either. I've had more failures (high resistance) of the orange-plastic type, than the 90° metal boot style. While you have the plugs out, wouldn't hurt to check for grins.

The car has been parked for several weeks without being run. It will start just fine, but within a matter of a minute or two, start getting a "lumpy" idle (misfire). If I put a load on it, such as turning on the AC, it gets worse.

My plan is to just bring it into the garage and swap insulators, rotors, caps and plugs. It clearly needs the distributor parts, so I'm not going to burn a lot of calories putting stuff on and taking it off.

I haven't looked, but I"m hoping I've got metal boots. The wires are Beru, so that's a good thing.

Dan

 

[northNH]

If it were me, I’d just replace the insulators if nothing genuinely appears or tests amiss with the caps and rotors...
In fact, when it was me, that’s what I did and the starting issues remain resolved, with the “old” cap and rotors still in place.

 

[LWB250]

If it were me, I’d just replace the insulators if nothing genuinely appears or tests amiss with the caps and rotors...
In fact, when it was me, that’s what I did and the starting issues remain resolved, with the “old” cap and rotors still in place.

The caps and rotors that are on the car are clearly worn, and I have nothing to determine their age. With that in mind, I'm comfortable replacing them so I have a baseline to work from. If, upon closer inspection, they look decent, I'l put them on the shelf as spares.

Dan

 

[Kyiv]

But Dan, but we insist you only change the insulators. On a voluntary-compulsory basis.

Like Dave's friend, I too had year old and not more than 2-3k mi caps/rotors that just failed (Bosch or Beru). Car barely drove. Cleaning helped for a day. Visually nothing was apparently wrong and insulators were already replaced, so they weren't the culprit. New caps&rotors resolved the problem. Bewildering...

 

[a777fan]

It’s amazing to me that the ignition system on these cars can stump so many of us! V. frustrating. Looking forward to your results Dan.

 

[LWB250]

So today I finally got to the distributors...

Background for my lack of activity of late:

I was recently promoted to a director level position. That's corporate and government speak for "Your days will be vacuumed up by endless meetings, many of which are totally irrelevant to your position but since you're a director people think you need to be there just in case someone has a question for you". In other words, while I still have some time to myself at the end of the day, my brain is so worn out I don't feel like doing anything.

I've been wanting to get the E420 running, as I hate looking at it sitting there covered and not running. So I figured this morning I would brave the heat and humidity of the early day and have at it. Understand that the grunge on the insulators has gotten so bad I can't get the car started and moved from a position in the driveway into the garage, so I had to do the work outside. Ugh.

I already had these apart and posted some pictures of the right side. I was going to take care of everything at that time but I ran into a stripped rotor bolt, so I backed off and put everything back together. I was able to tap a 1/8" Allen wench into the stripped socket head cap screw on the rotor and break it loose, thankfully, so removal of the rotor wasn't as bad as I had expected it would be. As an aside, I had a Bosch rotor on the right side, and a Bremi rotor on the left side. Weird. Both caps were Bosch.

Here's the left side insulator:



Yuck. I don't know what this is, but it's wet and obviously conductive. Look at the inside of the distributor area on the head:



Equally yucky. I had to take a brass brush and some brake cleaner to get this crud out of the area. Once done, I installed the nice new Bosch insulator:



And then the rotor mount along with the Beru rotor on top. And yes, I used blue LocTite.



I put the cap on and replaced the spark plug wires, which are Beru and appear to be relatively new. And on to the right side...here's the right side insulator. More yuck:



And behind the insulator:



I cleaned this out as I did with the left side, and installed all the new parts. Got behind the wheel, turned the key, and voila! The car fired right up and idled as smooth as glass as it had previously. Now I can drive it, thank goodness, and I certainly expect to do so today.

I'm planning on getting some estimates for paint this coming week now that I can drive the car. This should be interesting, as I'm wondering how busy these folks are with the drop in driving (fewer accidents) and economic issues that might prevent a lot of people from investing in something like a paint job.

Dan

 

[nocfn]

Dan here in Houston, I will occasionally get this if I am going for a few short drives a week. If it happens, I get the car in 3rd gear and drive for 10 miles out and then back to the house and the engine heat takes care of it. So occasionally when I am in that cycle of use, I will need to do this like preparing for emissions testing.

 

[gerryvz]

the grunge on the insulators

Would you characterize it as Mudhoney, Malfunkshun, The Fluid, Blood Circus, or Moist?

Looks like you may have seepage/a small leak from the right-side cam seas at the armature.

 

[LWB250]

Dan here in Houston, I will occasionally get this if I am going for a few short drives a week. If it happens, I get the car in 3rd gear and drive for 10 miles out and then back to the house and the engine heat takes care of it. So occasionally when I am in that cycle of use, I will need to do this like preparing for emissions testing.

I've encountered this before. I had a W140 (1995 S500 coupe) that my son drove to college. He parked the car in a parking structure not 100 feet from Tampa Bay and it typically sat from Sunday night until Thursday afternoon/evening before he came home for the weekend. It would run like crap for the first 10-15 miles on the highway after which the heat from the engine would drive the condensate out.

I could clean the insulators, but the humidity from the bay would pretty much negate any efforts on my part, so I gave up. He knew the drill, so it was just a matter of hoping it would run well enough to go about 4-6 blocks to get on the interstate and then be able to open it up.

Dan

 

[LWB250]

Would you characterize it as Mudhoney, Malfunkshun, The Fluid, Blood Circus, or Moist?

Looks like you may have seepage/a small leak from the right-side cam seas at the armature.

Blood Circus, for sure. Anything with Tracy "T-man" Simmons.

Dan

 

[LWB250]

I drove the car a fair amount this week, putting a couple hundred miles and lots of smiles on it. A real pleasure to drive with everything sorted for the most part. It ran beautifully and for it's first fill up got over 17 mpg, which I thought was pretty good considering it seemed to be using fuel faster than I expected.

This "reacquaintance" with the car got me a bit more motivated to address other issues on it, such as the headliner.

I removed the headliner this afternoon, which took me all of maybe 45 minutes, tops. The fabric was almost completely loose from the headliner backing, as I expected. I'll be taking it over to my upholstery guy on Monday to have him work his magic on it along with the piece for the sunroof as well. It really doesn't need replacement, but if there's an issue with matching the material I figure he'll have it and can replace the material on it as well, if necessary. At the same time I'll take some pictures of my driver's seat lower cushion and the damage on it and see what he recommends. I just happened to do a "car-part.com" search a little while ago and found a local dismantler that has a 1994 E320 with a gray interior, so I'll reach out to them on Monday and see what they have. I figure I can probably get a passenger seat that's got minimal wear on it to replace my driver's cushion. I hope.

Following Gerry's lead, I dug out an old point and shoot Kodak camera I had in a drawer to do my garage pictures today. They turned out OK, but could have been better. I'll continue to work with it a little more before I decide to keep using it or going back to my Nikon D3300. So here we go...

Removing headliner:

First, turn down the sun visors and remove the two phillips head screws holding the pivots on. Unsnap the visors from the pivots in the center of the roof. Using a thin slotted screwdriver or similar tool, pry the "door" or flap open on the clips. Once open, you can access the phillips head screw that holds the clip in place.



With the visors and clips removed and set aside, turn to the grab handles on the roof above the door openings. Using a "cats paw", trim tool or other eans, pry up at the outer edge of the trim surround on each side of the handle. Once this has been pried out of the way and pushed back on the handle slightly, peel back the cover material to expose an 8mm sheet metal screw. Remove the screw on each side of the handle. Once the screws are removed, pull on the handle to remove it from the roof. It may seem tight, but that's because there are rubber pins on the handle that are pressed into holes in the roof that help to locate the handle.



Open the sunroof and run the sunroof about 2/3 of the way open. Grasp the leading edge of the headliner on the sunroof and pull down. There are 3-4 "Christmas tree" nylon pins on the leading edge of the sunroof headliner that hold in place. With the headliner disconnected from the sunroof move the sunroof all the way to the rear. Now you can slide the sunroof headliner up and out of the sunroof opening.

Now the fun begins! With your pry tool, head towards the cabin/reading light/sunroof switch panel in the front of the cabin roof. On the left side (this is important!!) carefully pry down at the top and bottom of the left side. This will release a pair of metal clips and allow the whole assembly to drop down as shown.



Carefully disconnect the connectors from the assembly as well as the rubber tube that is attached. Set it aside in a safe place, we'll be coming back to it later.

At the front of the sunroof opening is a metal strip that runs the width of the sunroof opening. It is secured by five phillips head screws. Remove the screws and carefully remove the metal strip.



Next, remove the rear view mirror. This is a slightly frightening (if you haven't done it before) brute force "yank" on the stalk of the mirror to remove it from the retaining plate where it's held in place with a strong spring. Once removed, you'll see a metal plate with three phillips head screws. remove these screws and the plate.



Now comes the tricky part, one of a couple in this job. First, grab and pull the windlace trim away from the top of the door opening. If that doesn't mean anything to you, think "fuzzy trim that goes around the door opening". It's called "windlace" and is molded rubber with fabric glued to it. It's held in place by a part of the trim that's molded to grip the weldment around the door openings. To remove the front trim panel, you'll have to push it forward slightly to disengage the clips that run across the front and top of the windshield opening. You can pull the panel down far enough to see them if you like to get an idea of where they are located. Once these are disengaged, you can pull the panel to the rear to disengage the clips in the top of the "A" pillars, shown in the picture below. Once this is done, the whole panel can be easily removed from the car.



Now move both front seats as far forward as possible and move to the rear seat.

Take off the grab handles in the rear as you did in the front.

Go to the bottom of the "B" pillars and locate the two holes for the screws that hold the plastic trim panel in place at the bottom of the pillar. Unscrew the phillips head screws and after pulling the windlace away from the B pillar trim remove the panels by pulling them down and out.



Next, look carefully at the B pillar cover about halfway up and you'll see a metal clip that holds the cover to the weldment on the door opening. Carefully pull the cover out of this clip. There is one on both sides, so be sure to get both. Next, pull up and out slightly on the panel to release the top spring clip to disconnect the cover from the B pillar. The seat belt will keep things in place for the most part, there's no need to remove it unless you're looking to take advantage of having the cover loose to reglue or recover the cover itself.



You're almost done....

And now to the rear interior light. Pry it out of the retaining clip with a trim tool. Disconnect the wires (the ground push on clip has a release you have to press down to remove it) and set aside. Look in the opening and you'll see a metal frame held to the roof with a phillips head screw. Remove it and the frame, which might take some wriggling to get loose from the headliner panel.



And now the last of the tricky parts....the C pillar covers or "sails" as they're sometimes referred to.

Make sure you've removed the windlace from the door opening where the C pillar panels are located. Carefully pull forward on the leading edge of the panel to release the three clips that are on the leading edge of the panel. You'll know they're loose as the front edge of the panel will come loose from the body. Next, with the front edge of the panel away from the body, carefully wiggle and pull the whole panel forward. If you're living right, the metal clip in the center of the panel will come loose from the hole in the body it's clipped to. More likely than not, this has been damaged from a previous removal and may not even be intact. I was 1 for 2 on mine, as one of my clips broke and the other came loose. Once free, the whole panel comes loose only to be held on with the seat belt. Pull the seat belt out a bit and with the slack in it move the panel to the parcel shelf to get it out of the way.



Almost there!

You've now got a headliner that's sagging all over the interior of the car, no doubt. This is the last step.

Go outside of the car and look down into the sunroof opening. On each side of the sunroof are some chrome strips with philips head screws in them. One side at a time, remove the screws. Note that the front one is a machine screw and the remaining four are sheet metal screws. With the screws removed, the metal strip will come out. Below that are two more metal strips, both of which should be removed. The last one is long and will take a little moving around to remove. Set these aside. You'll be able to see the edges of the headliner material. Carefully lift it up to release it from the panel. You'll probably have a fair amount of old powdered glue left, which needs to be cleaned off before the new headliner is installed. Do the other side. DO be aware you'll need to reinstall these if you need to close the sunroof while you're waiting for your headliner to be done.



Get back inside the rear of the car. It will be a bit crowded, but you can do it. Very carefully hold both sides of the headliner panel and move the whole thing forward. There is a metal strip that is glued to the headliner panel that hooks over the back edge of the sunroof opening. Moving the panel forward should disengage that strip. Often the glue will have failed and the strip just falls off - that's OK, as your headliner person will reattach it for you.

Now move to the front of the car and lower the front seat backs as far back as they will go - almost flat. From one of the rear doors, carefully rotate the headliner panel so that one of the forward "legs" sticks out one of the front doors. Then you can carefully rotate the whole panel around and out the rear door opening without bending it. If you're bending it, STOP! Move it back and try again. It's a bit of a puzzle to do, but it can be done. If you bend the headliner panel you risk cracking or breaking it, which will prevent the headliner from being installed properly.

And now you're done!! Almost -



Get a vacuum cleaner and vacuum up all the old yellow colored dust that's all over the interior of your car. That's old headliner glue, and you don't want it getting on anything and then getting wet, as it will stick and be near impossible to remove.

Now carefully load up your headliners and take them to your favorite upholstery shop to be recovered!

While that's being done, one maintenance item to address:

Take the courtesy light assembly and put it on your bench. Get a small flat bladed screwdriver or similar tool. Locate the air circulation fitting on the assembly, and carefully press the release hooks to remove the fitting.



See inside of the fitting? That's a thermistor that measures the cabin air temperature for the ACC. It's often filthy from the years of air that's passed over it. The accumulated dirt will affect the accuracy of the thermistor, so get some contact or electronic cleaner and spray it off and wipe it down carefully with a cotton swab. You can see the crud that was in mine. Not bad, but dirty, none the less.



And now cleaned.



And now I wait for my headliner to be replaced.

Dan

 

[gsxr]

Another great HOW-TO! One question... did you really get the headliner out the rear door? I thought the opening was too small. The FSM shows it coming out the front door:

 

[LWB250]

Another great HOW-TO! One question... did you really get the headliner out the rear door? I thought the opening was too small. The FSM shows it coming out the front door:

View attachment 108270

I thought I did. Let me give it some thought and see if I can remember. Maybe I did...I was so caught up with making sure the backing part didn't get cracked or damaged I can't say that I recall exactly. Maybe I'll have to wait until I reinstall it to figure it out?

Dan

 

[gerryvz]

Pics or it didn’t happen — ?

 

[LWB250]

Took the headliner pieces to my upholstery guy today. He'll recover them (main piece and the two pieces for the sunroof portion) in the original MB fabric for $250 if I'm "not in a hurry". I'm not. He said he's slammed because everyone is staying home, giving them time to get long deferred upholstery and convertible top work done that they didn't have time to get done when they were driving the car daily. Good for him.

I forgot to ask him about repair for the perforated leather in the center of my driver's seat, so I emailed him pictures. I'm interested as to whether or not he can repair the cover. I'll report back when I hear from him.

Dan

 

[ace10]

Be sure to set your DVR...

Mark Your Calendars: ‘Martha Knows Best’ Premieres July 31

Trusted lifestyle expert Martha Stewart will bring her iconic home and garden talents to HGTV in the net’s newest series, Martha Knows Best.

www.hgtv.com

 

[LWB250]

Be sure to set your DVR...

Mark Your Calendars: ‘Martha Knows Best’ Premieres July 31

Trusted lifestyle expert Martha Stewart will bring her iconic home and garden talents to HGTV in the net’s newest series, Martha Knows Best.

www.hgtv.com

Yea, I saw that. Can you imagine how dangerous that woman would be on a piece of farm equipment? Bad enough she runs over people with a Volvo.

I do like her paired up with Snoop Dogg. That's pretty entertaining. Almost as entertaining as her jello shot recipe:

Martha's Jello Shot Recipe

Dan

 

[LWB250]

So today I did triple duty.

Went by the dealership to pick up some parts. New rear courtesy light, trunk lid stops, and a tube of koala claw sealant for the cam magnets.

I was looking for a place to refinish my Special Edition wheels. There was a place that looked OK up the street from the dealer. Ironically, while I was at the parts counter at the dealer the parts lady was working on some invoices, and the one on top of the pile was for the wheel place I was going to check out. Asked her about them and she said the dealership has been sending their wheel refinishing and repair to this guy for several decades. Good enough for me!

Go by the wheel place, Amazing. Never seen so many different wheels in my life, a whole storage yard of them stacked 4-6 high, a big four bay shop with cars in it getting their wheels done (a Bentley!) Met the owner, told him that the parts lady at Mercedes said there was no one better. He looked at my wheels, said they would strip, fill/fix any dings and repaint with the factory color for $150/each. Done in three days. He unloaded them and I moved on...

Next stop a couple blocks away is my upholstery guy. I had forgotten to ask him about the repair of my bottom seat cover when I dropped my headliner off last week. I had sent him pictures but not gotten a reply, which meant his wife probably hadn't shown him the email. He was laying on his back hanging out of the driver's door of a bug-eyed Sprite. I walked up to the fence and hollered at him and we discussed the seat cover. He still has original material for the seat, but dang, even with me bringing him the cover he said it would be about $300-$350 to do the repair. For that I could probably find a decent set of covers. I'm in no hurry on the seat, as I want to get the headliner done first, so I'll hold off and continue to watch other places for a possible replacement. I might also check with some other shops in less, uh, affluent areas, if you know what I mean.

All in all, a good set of errands on my lunch hour. And I even had time to get tested for COVID-19 in our drive through testing site nearby. Government employees are considered first responders and get to go to the front of the line, so I did. 3-5 days to find out if I have the beer virus. Still want to get an antibody test, too, but I'll probably have to give blood for that.

Dan

 

[LWB250]

Kind of slow around here with the car, as I'm not driving it while the headliner is out of it, and I'm not sure when I'm getting it back...

Last week I loaded up the "Special Edition" wheels that came with the car but no tires mounted. They weren't in bad shape but did need refinishing. While this wasn't high on my list I didn't have anything else going on and wanted to try and maintain some progress with the work on the car.

Got a text from the wheel guys on Monday saying the wheels were done. Not bad, less than three full business days to do them. I had to go into the office on Tuesday, so I told them I would swing by midday and get them. Popped in, chatted a bit with the folks and then they loaded the wheels up. I'm very pleased.



Now I just have to find a safe place to store them until I'm ready to get a new set of tires mounted...and my test results came back negative, too!

Dan

 

[gsxr]

Good work, Dan! Now dial-gauge those suckers and see if the wheel shop did their job properly. (Or do they not check for straightness beyond a "visual" spin check?)

Good to hear your test results came back negative for Special Edition.

 

[LWB250]

They showed me all the specs. Runout was pretty much 0. I had to ask them to explain some of it. They even measure things like parallelism of the rim to the flange, as well as the dimensions of the bolt holes and their variance from the pattern, distance from the centering ring to the edge of the rim, etc. Everything well within spec. So much maths it made my brain hurt.

Dan

 

[744Brillantsilber]

Hey Dan,
your wheels did come out great! I look foreward to see them on your 420
And even better your Covid test had a good result!

Can you educate me about the US special edition cars?
What was the difference to a "normal" W124 (other than wheels and door sill panels)?

 

[LWB250]

Hey Dan,
your wheels did come out great! I look foreward to see them on your 420
And even better your Covid test had a good result!

Can you educate me about the US special edition cars?
What was the difference to a "normal" W124 (other than wheels and door sill panels)?

@gsxr may step in and correct me, but I believe the only things that made them "special edition" were:

Burl wood trim
Stainless steel sill plates
Six hole wheels

The only "different" option code on my car from other E420s of similar vintage:

649	LIGHT ALLOY WHEELS 6-HOLE

There may have been other things, but those I know for sure. There is no option code for the special edition, just a code for the wheels. The stainless sill plates are just clamped over the the existing plastic sill plates like they were an afterthought. I don't know if this was something unique to the U.S. market, but Mercedes had a tendency to "tart up" the last model year cars here in an effort to get them sold to make way for the new models, in this case, the W210 chassis.

I saw them doing the same thing with the SLK320 in their last production year (2004?) as well.

Dan

 

[gsxr]

Special Editions were mostly an E300/E320 thing in USA. This mostly consisted of an upgrade from standard Zebrano to Burled Walnut, plus stainless still plates glued over the plastic sills, unique 6-hole wheels, possibly driver memory seat & telescopic wheel (optional equipment on late non-V8 124's). Maybe another item or two. Oh, and a couple of unique paint colors were available too, like 009 Sapphire Black - not sure if you could get 009 without SE. There's very little documentation about these SE's. It was a way for MB to clear out excess inventory of parts during the end of the 124 production run.

For the E420, it was as Dan said... stainless sill plates and 6-hole wheels, and possibly a couple different paint colors. All M119's already had burled walnut as standard equipment, along with memory driver seat & telescopic wheel.

 

[744Brillantsilber]

Thanks Dan and Dave, very interesting to know!

Dan:
Some MB cars got the same or a similar treatment in Europe. For example various "final edition" cars, and lately "Edition 1" cars of about every new MB....

The A124 was available as "final edition" over here from 1996 to 1997 with similar specs:
Very dark tinted burlwood, 7,5x17" AMG monoblocks (without the body changes AMG called a must to mount the 7,5x17 wheels), sportline suspension, some special colors, "Final Edition" badges and a wood-leather steering wheel
Only 1390 of them were made.

The S124 was available as "aktiv" for a short time in 1995. But that was only a normal wagon with some extras with a cheaper price compared to the usual price list for extras.

I have never seen these wheels on a W124 here on a car or in the EPC. Can you please tell me the parts number?
Edit: Looks like they have a number starting with B6547xxx in your picture

Dave:
I am always a little bit envy seeing what you guys got as standard equipment

 

[gsxr]

Dan can probably post a close-up of the wheel part number & size/offset, cast into the back side.

Speaking of which, I need to add those to W124performance for future reference!

 

[LWB250]

Thanks Dan and Dave, very interesting to know!

You're most welcome.

Dave:
I am always a little bit envy seeing what you guys got as standard equipment

I always get a kick out of this, as I can't count the number of people I've heard over the years complain about not being able to get things like manual climate controls and crank (manual) windows here in the U.S. Having traveled all over the world and seen Mercedes as they were marketed everywhere else, it's easy to understand that they were a commodity like any other car everywhere else.

Dave, ask and you shall receive:



Dan

 

[LWB250]

And guess who calls me just after I came in from taking pictures of the wheels that are still in my S210's trunk?

Yup, my upholstery guy. Headliner is done. I've got inspections tomorrow for my standby generator, so I probably won't be able to get over there until next week to get it. Dang. If I could get it tomorrow I could have the car put back together this weekend...

Dan

 

[gsxr]

Photos archived at link below - thanks again, Dan! Nice to have pics of shiny new/refinished wheels.

Index of /images/W124_wheels/MB/W124_SE_15x6.5_ET44_(124-401-21-02)

 

[LWB250]

Photos archived at link below - thanks again, Dan! Nice to have pics of shiny new/refinished wheels.

Index of /images/W124_wheels/MB/W124_SE_15x6.5_ET44_(124-401-21-02)

You're welcome. I'll be on pins and needles when I get tires mounted....

Dan

 

[LWB250]

Today's Fun - Headliner Reinstall

Just a lead up to today's fun. Here's pictures of the recovered headliner and sunroof section, waiting to go into the car. I realized I forgot to glue up a broken clip on the C pillar panel on the right rear, so I'll be leaving that off for a few days while the glue sets up, but otherwise everything is ready to go. Just giving the AC a little while to cool off the garage and drop the humidity to comfortable levels and I'll get started.



Dan

 

[LWB250]

OK, so here we go with the headliner install...

The newly recovered headliner. nice. Make sure your hands are clean and stay clean. You don't want to get any dirt on the fabric.



New courtesy light for the rear. Old one was yellowed and brittle. New one even came with a new bulb!



First things first. I had a broken mount for the retaining clip on the right rear "C" pillar panel that needed to be glued up, so I did that right off. I should have done this a week ago while Iw as waiting on the headliner to be done. While I was reassembling things I found the other piece that was missing, too, so I'll be gluing that back in, too. Hooray for JB Weld!



Before I start putting everything together, I need to tape down the wires going to the rear courtesy light. The original tape was torn or removed on a previous repair, so I'll tape the wires back up with new tape. You might not think this is important, but the wires need to run in a channel in the roof or they'll get trapped between the headliner and a roof gusset and make the headliner bulge.



Now comes the fun! Lower the front seat backs al the way and put the headliner back into the car carefully without cracking or breaking the panel. And yes, Dave, I got it in and out through the rear door.



Next job is to carefully lift the headliner into place just ahead of the sunroof opening. There is a metal channel that's glued to the headliner panel that hooks into a similarly shaped channel at the rear of the sunroof opening. This will pretty well hold the headliner up in place without issue, just be careful not to put any weight or stress on the panel.



With the headliner in place, I start from the rear and move my way forward. First thing is the courtesy light frame that is screwed into place with a "U" shaped bracket. Note that the light frame will often come out when the old headliner comes off because the fabric has shrunk and as a result the metal wings on the frame no longer hold tight to the headliner. While I didn't photograph this, if your frame did come out and your headliner person didn't reinstall it, you'll need to straighten out the "wings" around the edges of it, insert it into the opening, and bend them down to clamp the frame in place. I did this on mine before installing the headliner in the car.



Next come the grab handles. I cleaned mine up with some 303 Protectant before installing them. If your headliner person did a good job, they will have slit the fabric in the openings for the grab handles. Run down the screws and snap the trim pieces back in place.



Next, the "B" pillar covers. These can be tricky, so take your time and be patient. The clip or hook on the top has to go into the opening and then up to secure it. The tough part is being able to coordinate this with the seat belt adjustment mechanism. When you look at the adjusting handle and the sliding panel below it, you'll notice the handle has an open slot in the bottom part. Just below that you'll see a plastic cylinder projecting out from the sliding panel. Both of these have to fit over corresponding parts on the adjuster. The adjuster fits over a metal tab that looks like a lollypop and the cylinder fits over a metal pin below it. It's trial and error, but can be done. I like to take a piece of masking tape and tape the adjuster handle so it's all the way "up", as otherwise it drops down and makes it even harder to get everything indexed. Get the top clip in place, keep the trim panel leaning out fro the bottom so you can see behind it to line everything up, then carefully move the panel into place and get everything connected. Again, it will take several tries, but you'll know it's there when the adjuster handle has spring resistance and you can move the adjuster up and down.



About 2/3 of the way down the "B" pillar there should be a metal clip on both sides of the pillar. The edge of the panel will clip into this. If these are missing, order new ones. They're the only thing holding the panel in place between the top and bottom.



Slip the bottom trim panel in place and insert the philips head screws into the holes. I guarantee you'll struggle with getting these lined up. Use the outline in the carpet to get close and you'll eventually get one started.

Gotta put that new light assembly in. Old one was not bad, but a new one is cheap and looks so much nicer.



Move up to the front seats and install the grab handles there.



If your headliner person did things right, they left a lot of margin on the fabric around the sunroof opening. Take the stainless pieces out like we did for the removal.



Have a sharp razor blade or carpet knife handy. Fold the fabric over tightly and cut it along the inside edge of the sunroof slide, which will leave you about 1/2"-3/4" to wrap around. Once you've cut the areas you can see from above, move to the inside of the car and complete the cuts on the inside.



Take your stainless steel pieces and put them back into place, checking on the inside that everything is located correctly and the fabric is snug. Screw the stainless pieces back down.

Now back to the front of the interior.

Take the front trim panel and get it positioned to go into place. There are metal tabs at each front corner that connect to the tops of the "A" pillar trim. You can get one in place on one side, then get the other one. You'll "lever up" the panel from the front to the back.



Next, you'll want to get the trailing edge of the panel's material wrapped around the front of the sunroof opening. You'll probably have to hold the panel up to get the material in place so the screw holes line up. Once you get everything lined up, the aluminum channel that goes into this can be screwed down with the small philips head screws that hold it down.



Next, install the sun virus clips. Be sure not to over tighten as you can pull the screw head through the plastic and damage the clip.



Now install the rear view mirror mounting plate.



And now for a free trick that will help you install rear view mirrors without stress:

Here's the spring loaded pins that hold the mirror in place. These are what makes it difficult to install a mirror without seriously beating on the base.



Get a binder clip and disassemble it. Bend the metal clip parts like this:



Take a pair of slip joint pliers and compress the pins.



Wit the pins compressed, push the end of each wire under the shoulder of each pin. This will hold the pins back.



Hold the mirror base in place, pressing on one side at a time, and carefully pull the pin out. Do the same on the other side and now the mirror is in place.

Next you can install the sun visors. Pretty straightforward.



And now for the sunroof panel. Make sure the sunroof is all the way open. Place the panel into the sunroof tracks and carefully slide it back as far as it will go.



Move the sunroof forward about halfway closed. Slide the panel back to match the leading edge and then press the trim pins into the sunroof. Tough to describe, but you can see these on the leading edge of the headliner panel. They line up with sockets in the sunroof panel. With the sunroof partially open you can look into the area between the headliner and sunroof panel and see where they are located.



And done. Not bad looking, if I do say so.



Dan

 

[LWB250]

Why don't my (front) headrests work?

A common complaint by many W124 owners, no doubt. Mine don't work, either. A pretty simple fix and not terribly expensive, either. If you hear your headrest motor(s) running when you press the button but get no action, the mechanism is broken. Sounds simplistic because it is. Here's the deal:

Move the front seat as far forward as it will go and move the seat back forward as well. Get in the back seat.

Take a flat but strong tool, such as a putty knife or body trim tool and push it into the joint between the seat back and seat side near the bottom. You're trying to pry the edge of the reinforced fabric out of a groove in the seat back panel. Once you've done this you can start working up the side of the panel to release the whole side panel strip.



With the side panel strip released, carefully pull down from the lower corner of the seat back panel where you released it from the side panel until you see the top edge clear the bottom of the seat back top cushion. Continue this until the whole top edge of the panel is free. This will allow it to sort of swing like a door out of the way so you can get to the innards.



My situation was an easy one to troubleshot, as the teleflex cable from the drive motor to the gear rack was hanging loose. Why? Because the gear rack was laying in the bottom of the seat back as it had broken into pieces. Yours may not be this obvious. See those two plastic pins in the middle of the metal bar? Those are held in place with a flat spring that fits over the pins and then pushes down to lock the pins in place.



This is the other half of that piece:



The teleflex cable goes into the socket on the side of the gear, which is how the headrest rod is moved up and down. Pretty obvious in my case why things aren't working because the gear was in the bottom of the seat back.

A new piece isn't expensive, under $30 from the dealer. Verify, but mine is a 124 970 02 26. I ordered two, one for each seat, as neither of mine are working. Even if one of yours is working you might want to consider replacing both.

I'll pick up where I've left off when the parts arrive.

Dan

 

[gsxr]

Related pic:

 

[TimL]

OK, so here we go with the headliner install...

The newly recovered headliner. nice. Make sure your hands are clean and stay clean. You don't want to get any dirt on the fabric.

View attachment 109954

New courtesy light for the rear. Old one was yellowed and brittle. New one even came with a new bulb!

View attachment 109955

First things first. I had a broken mount for the retaining clip on the right rear "C" pillar panel that needed to be glued up, so I did that right off. I should have done this a week ago while Iw as waiting on the headliner to be done. While I was reassembling things I found the other piece that was missing, too, so I'll be gluing that back in, too. Hooray for JB Weld!

View attachment 109956 View attachment 109957

Before I start putting everything together, I need to tape down the wires going to the rear courtesy light. The original tape was torn or removed on a previous repair, so I'll tape the wires back up with new tape. You might not think this is important, but the wires need to run in a channel in the roof or they'll get trapped between the headliner and a roof gusset and make the headliner bulge.

View attachment 109958

Now comes the fun! Lower the front seat backs al the way and put the headliner back into the car carefully without cracking or breaking the panel. And yes, Dave, I got it in and out through the rear door.

View attachment 109959 View attachment 109960

Next job is to carefully lift the headliner into place just ahead of the sunroof opening. There is a metal channel that's glued to the headliner panel that hooks into a similarly shaped channel at the rear of the sunroof opening. This will pretty well hold the headliner up in place without issue, just be careful not to put any weight or stress on the panel.

View attachment 109961 View attachment 109962

With the headliner in place, I start from the rear and move my way forward. First thing is the courtesy light frame that is screwed into place with a "U" shaped bracket. Note that the light frame will often come out when the old headliner comes off because the fabric has shrunk and as a result the metal wings on the frame no longer hold tight to the headliner. While I didn't photograph this, if your frame did come out and your headliner person didn't reinstall it, you'll need to straighten out the "wings" around the edges of it, insert it into the opening, and bend them down to clamp the frame in place. I did this on mine before installing the headliner in the car.

View attachment 109963

Next come the grab handles. I cleaned mine up with some 303 Protectant before installing them. If your headliner person did a good job, they will have slit the fabric in the openings for the grab handles. Run down the screws and snap the trim pieces back in place.

View attachment 109964 View attachment 109965 View attachment 109966

Next, the "B" pillar covers. These can be tricky, so take your time and be patient. The clip or hook on the top has to go into the opening and then up to secure it. The tough part is being able to coordinate this with the seat belt adjustment mechanism. When you look at the adjusting handle and the sliding panel below it, you'll notice the handle has an open slot in the bottom part. Just below that you'll see a plastic cylinder projecting out from the sliding panel. Both of these have to fit over corresponding parts on the adjuster. The adjuster fits over a metal tab that looks like a lollypop and the cylinder fits over a metal pin below it. It's trial and error, but can be done. I like to take a piece of masking tape and tape the adjuster handle so it's all the way "up", as otherwise it drops down and makes it even harder to get everything indexed. Get the top clip in place, keep the trim panel leaning out fro the bottom so you can see behind it to line everything up, then carefully move the panel into place and get everything connected. Again, it will take several tries, but you'll know it's there when the adjuster handle has spring resistance and you can move the adjuster up and down.

View attachment 109967 View attachment 109969

About 2/3 of the way down the "B" pillar there should be a metal clip on both sides of the pillar. The edge of the panel will clip into this. If these are missing, order new ones. They're the only thing holding the panel in place between the top and bottom.

View attachment 109970

Slip the bottom trim panel in place and insert the philips head screws into the holes. I guarantee you'll struggle with getting these lined up. Use the outline in the carpet to get close and you'll eventually get one started.

Gotta put that new light assembly in. Old one was not bad, but a new one is cheap and looks so much nicer.

View attachment 109971 View attachment 109972 View attachment 109973

Move up to the front seats and install the grab handles there.

View attachment 109974

If your headliner person did things right, they left a lot of margin on the fabric around the sunroof opening. Take the stainless pieces out like we did for the removal.

View attachment 109977

Have a sharp razor blade or carpet knife handy. Fold the fabric over tightly and cut it along the inside edge of the sunroof slide, which will leave you about 1/2"-3/4" to wrap around. Once you've cut the areas you can see from above, move to the inside of the car and complete the cuts on the inside.

View attachment 109978 View attachment 109979 View attachment 109980

Take your stainless steel pieces and put them back into place, checking on the inside that everything is located correctly and the fabric is snug. Screw the stainless pieces back down.

Now back to the front of the interior.

Take the front trim panel and get it positioned to go into place. There are metal tabs at each front corner that connect to the tops of the "A" pillar trim. You can get one in place on one side, then get the other one. You'll "lever up" the panel from the front to the back.

View attachment 109981

Next, you'll want to get the trailing edge of the panel's material wrapped around the front of the sunroof opening. You'll probably have to hold the panel up to get the material in place so the screw holes line up. Once you get everything lined up, the aluminum channel that goes into this can be screwed down with the small philips head screws that hold it down.

View attachment 109982 View attachment 109983

Next, install the sun virus clips. Be sure not to over tighten as you can pull the screw head through the plastic and damage the clip.

View attachment 109985

Now install the rear view mirror mounting plate.

View attachment 109989 View attachment 109991

And now for a free trick that will help you install rear view mirrors without stress:

Here's the spring loaded pins that hold the mirror in place. These are what makes it difficult to install a mirror without seriously beating on the base.

View attachment 109992

Get a binder clip and disassemble it. Bend the metal clip parts like this:

View attachment 109993

Take a pair of slip joint pliers and compress the pins.

View attachment 109994

Wit the pins compressed, push the end of each wire under the shoulder of each pin. This will hold the pins back.

View attachment 109995 View attachment 109996

Hold the mirror base in place, pressing on one side at a time, and carefully pull the pin out. Do the same on the other side and now the mirror is in place.

Next you can install the sun visors. Pretty straightforward.

View attachment 109997 View attachment 109998

And now for the sunroof panel. Make sure the sunroof is all the way open. Place the panel into the sunroof tracks and carefully slide it back as far as it will go.

View attachment 110000 View attachment 110001 View attachment 110002

Move the sunroof forward about halfway closed. Slide the panel back to match the leading edge and then press the trim pins into the sunroof. Tough to describe, but you can see these on the leading edge of the headliner panel. They line up with sockets in the sunroof panel. With the sunroof partially open you can look into the area between the headliner and sunroof panel and see where they are located.

View attachment 110004

And done. Not bad looking, if I do say so.

View attachment 110005 View attachment 110006

Dan

That looks really nice, Dan!

 

[LWB250]

That looks really nice, Dan!

Thank you!

 

[gsxr]

Now comes the fun! Lower the front seat backs al the way and put the headliner back into the car carefully without cracking or breaking the panel. And yes, Dave, I got it in and out through the rear door.

Dan, 2 photos = 4000 words! Amazing that the FSM got it wrong... it shows the piece coming out the *front* door, where it must be bent. Next time I try this, I'm going with the Martha Method. Thanks for solving this mystery - I bet a lot of people around the world (myself included) have been doin' it wrong for years, thanks to the FSM.

 

[744Brillantsilber]

That is great work Dan!

 

[LWB250]

Drove the car to work and to our data center yesterday to get it out and stretch its legs. As always, it drove well and the AC was ICE COLD (really, so much so that it frosts up the lower windshield with the bleed air from the defroster vents - in 95F weather!) If I let the Mrs. drive this car I'll never get it back, as it's colder than her R129.

Part of the travels yesterday were to the dealership to pick up my weekly parts order. With the parts I got and things I already have on hand, I plan to do the following today:

Transmission fluid & filter change
Transmission cooler line replacement
Spark plug replacement
Headrest rack & gear replacement
Trunk lid bumpers replacement
Hazard triangle installation

Pretty optimistic, but I'm going to give it my best. We'll see, as it's going to be a heat index of well over 100F today, so it will be a sweaty undertaking. Lots and lots of water.

I started around 10:30 and have got the transmission and torque converter drained and the pan already cleaned up. Taking a break right now to lower my body temperature before I head back out to do the filter and put the pan back on.

Dan

 

[gsxr]

Dan, you might want to test both ports of the defroster pod... IIRC there should be zero "bleed air" at the defrost vents with AC on in normal mode? Easy to test with a MityVac after pulling the passenger airbag, easy to fix as well if the pod is bad.

 

[LWB250]

Dan, you might want to test both ports of the defroster pod... IIRC there should be zero "bleed air" at the defrost vents with AC on in normal mode? Easy to test with a MityVac after pulling the passenger airbag, easy to fix as well if the pod is bad.

I don't know that it's bleeding that much. I might have a 1/2" strip of condensate on the windshield, if that. Probably more like leaking around the flap edges.

I'll add that to my list for when I drop the airbag to check out the aspirator fan for the ACC.

Thanks!

Dan

 

[LWB250]

Transmission fluid and filter are done. I was able to replace the left side cooler hose but the right side was tight to the point I was afraid of damaging the hard pipe. More Kroil and I'll take another stab at it later. These aren't too bad to replace while the system is full. I didn't have a new set of sealing rings for the banjo fitting, either, so it's just as well.

No DIY pictures as I think there are plenty of DIYs on transmission fluid/filter R&R. I have a couple I'll post for reference purposes later. I was a little concerned about the E500 filter, as that little shuttle thing in it doesn't look like it lets a lot of fluid through when it's not blocking off one of the ports. Put 8 quarts in it and will drive it later after replacing the spark plugs so I can check the level.

Cooling off and hydrating, then back out to do the spark plugs.

Dan

 

[LWB250]

Spark plugs done. Discovered that the #8 cylinder spark plug wire wasn't connected to the plug, that is, it was more or less "laying" in the bore. It might have been making a connection, but a poor one for sure.

All of the plugs looked pretty good, so that's a good thing. New MB plugs went in with the prescribed 1.0mm gap, no anti seize.

That Hazet plug socket is a wonderful tool, like all Hazet tools.

More hydrating, then back out for a short drive and then the headrest gear replacement.

Dan

 

[LWB250]

Headrest gear replaced on driver's seat. Driver's door handle replaced, not a planned repair but something that's been on the radar. Trunk lid bumpers swapped out. Probably won't make the trunk triangle, but that's OK. I might do it tomorrow or leave it for the future. Today was car, tomorrow is house.

Pictures and write up to follow after dinner, clean up and a well deserved shower.

Dan

 

[LWB250]

An ambitious day, but everything for the most part fully executed.

First thing on the list, drain and refill transmission, replace filter and pan seal and cooler hoses.

Pan off and it looks pretty good.

.

A light film of clutch material is normal and expected. If it's black or really thick, you may have some problems.



A nice clean and dry pan, completely degreased and ready for a new seal. I always replace the drain plug and copper sealing ring as well. Same for the torque converter plug, which is not shown here.



I'm never sure where I should put the magnet in older transmissions. Since the tray is angled to one side, I've often wondered if I should put it on the deep side. Here is will be near the intake on the filter, so that's probably as good a place as any. I keep these on the shelf and they go in every transmission I open up.



Here's the 500E/R129 filter that has the multiple openings and "shutters" to prevent starvation if the car is driven under hard acceleration or track situations. The black shutters on each end are connected by a flat piece of metal, so only one can close at a time. Simple but a cool idea.



Buttoned everything up, torqued the pan gasket and filled the transmission with 8 quarts of the MB approved Febi 08971 fluid. You can use synthetic in these, too, but the Febi is on the BEVO list and works just as well as far as I'm concerned. It's a bit cheaper than synthetic, too.

I did not photograph it but I attempted to replace both transmission cooler hoses. They're not bad, but it was more of a preventive maintenance thing since I was going to have everything drained. I had prepped the fittings with Kroil, but I couldn't get the fitting to the hard pipe on the right side hose loose, so I left it in place. The left side got replaced, however.

And now on to spark plugs.

Nothing new here. PO had used NGKs with some sort of weird split center electrode. I found the #8 cylinder boot just flopping around in the bore and not connected to the plug. Strange. I had a box of brand new MB factory plugs to go in. Got to use my Hazet (factory) M119 spark plug socket for the first time. Their tools never cease to amaze me, they work so well and make the job go so much easier.



Nice clean covers back in place, too bad the rest of the top end is messy. Ugh.



Note that when you do the right side cylinders it's best to remove the two socket head cap screws that hold the engine wiring harness in place to the valve cover. You don't really have to move things around much, but it makes a significant difference when getting to that back plug.



Old plugs didn't look too bad.



Fired it up, ran great. Took it on a test drive and all appeared to be well. Checked the ATF since it was warmed up now, right on the 80C notch. Perfect!

And now to the trunk lid bumpers. I had changed the bumpers located on the body side, but forgot to order the bumpers for the trunk lid at the time. Had these around for a few weeks and been meaning to install them. Took the opportunity to put some 303 on the gasket, as it stuck so tightly a few weeks ago I thought it couldn't be opened.

You can see the old bumpers, or the remains of them as the rubber part is long gone. Old one next to a new one - big difference!



A couple of 4mm socket had cap screws later, new bumpers! Note that the ribbed portion goes down. If yours are as bad as mine were, there's really no way to tell which way they go - but if you look at the old and new side by side you can see that the ribbed side is the side of the old one that's cut down.



On to the headrest gears. I left the seat back off from when I had opened it up previously, so it was ready to go when I climbed in the back seat. Here's the new gear assembly from the factory.



With the seat back out of the way, use a screwdriver and your hand on the bottom edge of the metal clip and drive it up to release it from the gear assembly.



Reach in behind the metal channel ad remove the remains of the gear drive and track. There will be a piece of felt in front of the channel to keep it from touching the seat cushion. It's just hanging there, so push it out of the way for now. That big nylon button is what keeps the headrest from coming out of the seat. It presses against the seat back fabric so you can locate it in case you have to push it in to remove the head rest.



Installation is pretty straightforward. You merely place the gear track in the channel with the gear assembly's two pins sticking through the holes in the channel. The square part on the end of the track with the white nylon "fork" is what grabs the end of the headrest and holds it to the track. If you look at it closely you can see how the "fork" is spring loaded and will move forward and back to allow the cutout in the headrest rod to pass through.



With the track in place get your metal tab handy. Note that there is a dimple on it - this is important! The dimple must be pointing towards the seat channel so that it can index in the hole just above the nylon pins. That's what keeps it from moving once it's in place. Put the metal tab over the pins and press down, locking it in place. You might have to use a flat bladed screwdriver to press it down, as there will be some resistance.



Put your seat back in place and use your trim panel tools to pull the upholstery back, bend it over, and press it into the retention groove in the seat back. To make this really easy, have someone sit in the seat and put some pressure on the seat back cushion, as this will give you a lot more slack in the fabric to work with.

Next, door handle replacement!

When I got the car I noticed that the door handle on the driver's door looked odd.



No chrome strip!



Lucky for me, the PO had a replacement that he had sent with the car. Used, but functional. So now to put it on. Open the door and carefully pry the rubber plug out of the door immediately behind the door handle. This will reveal a small 4mm hex set screw. It will be tight, so be prepared.



With the setscrew removed, insert your key into the lock. The lock portion of the handle will be loose but probably won't come out much. Turn the key 90 degrees (horizontal) and wiggle the whole assembly. That will get it out.



With the key portion out, hanging by the alarm wires, grasp the main part of the handle and pull towards the rear of the car. This will release the front portion of the handle.



You'll have to wiggle and turn the rear part of the handle to get it free. There really wasn't a good way to photograph this, so just take your time and work it out. There are metal pins that stick out of it that will require you to turn the whole handle somewhat to clear the opening.

When installing the replacement handle, get your Mercedes instrument cluster hooks out. If you look in the opening where the lock goes, you'll see a cadmium plated tab of sorts near the front of the opening. The hook on the rear of the door handle has to get behind this. Using your instrument cluster hook, pull the tab towards the outside of the door while inserting the rear of the handle so you can get it behind the tab. Once this is done you can press the handle in place, get the front portion lined up with the hole in the door, and press the whole assembly forward to hook it in place.

Turn the key horizontal in the lock and carefully insert it into the opening. This is critical in getting the door lock indexed with the door latch mechanism. Before you install the setscrew, check the door lock for proper operation. Tighten the setscrew down and you're done!



I'm not going to go into the details of installing a trunk triangle. Suffice to say you must pull the trunk lid liner and cut the requisite holes for the feet and the top latch. Not a difficult job to do. Just be sure you have plenty of spare panel pins to replace the ones that will break from age when you pull the liner out.



Not bad for a day's work.

Dan

 

[luckymike]

Dan, I've probably said this before and will again: It's a pleasure to watch you work.

 

[gerryvz]

Looks like you have a left-over photo at the end that needs to be embedded, Dan.

 

[LWB250]

Looks like you have a left-over photo at the end that needs to be embedded, Dan.

That's what happens when you do this after a long day....I found a place for it.

Thanks!

Dan

 

[nocfn]

MARTHA MARTHA MARTHA

 

[TerryA]

ANOTHER BUNCH of JOBS "BITE the DUST"