Thank You

[s4rpf]

Hi All,
As we start a new year even though this is a bit late I just wanted to say thank you for everyone's help to all my questions over the last year. I bought a 500E in February last year having never had anything but a new car in my life and certainly not done anything mechanical myself.

I use the 500E as my only car to plod around London in and I've been slowly working through the issues over the year. Thanks to all of your help I have

• Replaced Caps & Rotors
• Replaced Plugs and Leads
• Replaced all PCV Hoses
• Taken Front Seats out Fixed all Motors
• Fixed my squeaking rear brakes,
• Replaced Serpentine Belt
• Flushed Coolant, PowerSteering, SLS Fluids
• Replaced Transmission Pan & Gasket
• Replaced Blower Motor
• Replaced Throttle Cable.
• Replaced Under Tray

Not only has it saved me money but I've also actually enjoyed it and found it very satisfying. while I'm along way from what you guys accomplish I've enjoyed the journey so far and I couldn't I've even thought about doing the above without the amazing forum and all of your patience so thank you.

Jobs for this year:

• new exhaust (Fox one is on order )
• refresh top mounts
• lowering springs
• Coolant Tank
• Speaker
• Door Seals

Photo from this mornings run to the supermarket always make me smile seeing it in the car park surrounded by all the bland modern boxes.

 

[Kyiv]

I bought a 500E in February last year having never had anything but a new car in my life and certainly not done anything mechanical myself.

I use the 500E as my only car

Exactly my situation, except I got a 400E (6 years ago). This forum has been my enabler

 

[s4rpf]

Yes definitely has made me feel comfortable to give things a go. Also kept me pretty occupied during lockdowns in the UK so it’s been a helpful distract.

 

[r44raven]

I'd be interested to get details of the Fox exhaust you've ordered. I'm shortly going to have to replace the cats on my 500E and am contemplating replacing the whole pipework from the manifolds back. I wondered if the Fox is a complete system incl cats - and if so, what make/spec the cats are?

Thanks in advance.

 

[nocfn]

It is nice to see how others value this extraordinary resource, and take the time to document their efforts and give thanks. This is truly a class community as far as my experience goes, and thankful for all of the wisdom and experiences shared here. The OP embodies most all who have been associated here. I noticed you have the end spot to park your ride and the position is safely out of the way of swinging doors.

 

[outrbnks]

A belated welcome to you and congrats on your low mileage 500E. I don't know how I missed the previous posts on this car and your purchase of it, but I did. I went back to all the historical posts on this car, now I'm caught up.

Ironically, I had a similar experience in purchasing my 2nd 500E, which is virtually identical to yours with a couple of exceptions. Mine is also a 92 Bornite/Black, but without the aux heater and a lot more miles than yours. Mine is also a Japan build and in very good condition, and last summer I swapped on the EVO II wheels, so our two cars look identical, with the exception that mine is still two-tone.

I've been playing with the idea of respraying the bottom of Ms. Bornite, wondering how the appearance would change, and seeing your pictures is exactly what I wanted to see. I did the same on "Ol Tex" my Pearl Black 500E last year.

If your interested, take a look through my owners thread, starting at post #22 is the first reference to "Ms. Bornite";

OWNER - outrbnks | Owners and Their Cars

I guess I should have started here a few weeks back, it doesn't seem like much has happened since I bought the 92 500E, other than making the purchase. So far I've: Purchased the car in April Made final arrangements for shipping Ordered Euro headlights Purchased Mirror Rubber Caps Purchased...

www.500eboard.co

Also I noticed that your 500E has a Model designation Delete option from the factory. If your interested in putting a 500E badge on your trunk, there is a group buy going on right now to get custom built 500E badges look like original.

FOR SALE - GROUP BUY: Mercedes 500E Badge | Parts for Sale

So the last Group Buy went really well and I wanted to try something a bit more ambitious by recreating a part which Mercedes will most likely never manufacture (especially since the part number has been superseded in Paragon) - the 500E badge. This is an order of magnitude more difficult...

www.500eboard.co

If it were me, I'd buy one and install it, there is a post here on this forum with the correct measurements to place it correctly, (everyone notices if it isn't precisely placed in the correct location).

One last comment, which others may not agree on. if I had your Bornite 500E with that low mileage, I would be very hesitant about making it a daily driver. Mine has about 156K miles, (converted to USA speedo/odo and matched the import kilometers reading not long after import), and I drive it week-ends, with it garaged 100% and kept inside all winter, has never been driven on a salty road, and won't as long as I own it. It has zero rust, actually both my 500E's have zero rust. When "Ol Tex" was repainted last May, the owner of the paint shop remarked that he had never seen a 25 year old car with no rust at all, and Ms. Bornite is the same way.

Having a low mileage 500E is pretty rare, and London daily driving may not be the best way to preserve this car for the future. If it were me, I'd be driving a cheaper and different car as a daily driver.. just a thought....

Anyway, again a belated welcome and all the best with your 500E... O

Here are a couple of pic's of Ms. Bornite

 

[gsxr]

Bornite is Beautiful! Love those pics of yours and outrbnks... soooo tempting to respray my Smoke Silver car in Bornite.

Jobs for this year:

• new exhaust (Fox one is on order )
• refresh top mounts
• lowering springs
• Coolant Tank
• Speaker
• Door Seals

I would think very carefully, and do a lot of research on this forum, before installing lowering springs. More than one forum member has had lowering springs on their 036 and eventually removed them, re-installing stock springs. I did this on my '92 which had H&R springs and have been much happier with stock springs. IME, the front is already plenty low with stock springs, and only the rear needs to drop slightly. If that is your concern, there are other ways to accomplish this without putting the whole car in the weeds. Keep in mind the AMG E60 only dropped ~10mm, IIRC...

 

[outrbnks]

I was going to ask you what you were intending to do about the incorrect headlight lens, (thought Latvia at first, hence RHT), but after seeing it's an original Japan build, it still may have the original LHT lens. But then again it's been converted to facelift, with facelift lens. I guess it depends where the facelift was done, Japan or Latvia. Do you know if the lens are LHT or RHT? If you can't tell, post some closeup pics of the headlights, if you know what to look for, it's easy to tell,,, If you have RHT facelift lens, and assuming you can source LHT E500 facelift lens, there is an eager market for RHT lens, as they are NLA, at least right now anyway. One last comment for your consideration, with the low mileage I would try to keep it on the lower side. I do like the facelift look a lot, but it isn't original. I'd source preface parts and have them in your back pocket, should you ever decide to sell.

 

[JC220]

Congrats on your purchase!

Suggest changing this to an owners thread and you can post updates on your car! Keep a diary of sorts.

If you look at my owners thread, which is long granted but it documents pretty much any work that needs taken care of on a 500E. I am from NI so left traffic too

 

[s4rpf]

Hey All, thanks for all the responses.

• @outrbnks With it being a daily driver. I do live in central London so daily is relative ie I do more miles on a bicycle than the car max around 3000 a year. Also being a japan import it has no history so I'm not sure how much I trust the low mileage on my todo list of trying to find import documentation and auction history)
• @r44raven The Fox Exhaust is the same one JC220 bought its just a cat-back but if it's good enough with his attention to detail I'm sure it will be fine for me. If you want a full exhaust I think you may end up talking to someone like John Haynes see what they have done in the past as I saw a lovely SL60 they put a full exhaust on.
• @gsxr Lowering Springs yes it was mainly the rear I was concerned about. was going to do it the same time as the mounts anyway but looked at the threads and was thinking having 3 bump stops at the front and single at the rear to make sure the front doesn't turn into a snow plough.
• @outrbnks Headlights were swapped from a pedestrian W124 RHD lights. it's on the to list but so expensive and plenty of other jobs to do I feel like its finishing touch.
• @JC220 Will do an owners thread I just wanted to show my appreciation for the amazing community. As I feel at times there is very little I can give back when a spark plug change was a daunting task at first, and you guys are happy rebuilding an engine.

 

[gsxr]

[*]@gsxr Lowering Springs yes it was mainly the rear I was concerned about. was going to do it the same time as the mounts anyway but looked at the threads and was thinking having 3 bump stops at the front and single at the rear to make sure the front doesn't turn into a snow plough.

If you use H&R springs (not sure what other options are available?), you'll need 4-pt pads up front and it still won't be high enough. I'd recommend cutting 1/4 coil off the stock rear springs to start. If it needs more, trim a little at a time, and drive it for a week in between. Don't forget to adjust SLS or the rear end will never drop. Read the old threads on the forum about lowering before you make any changes.

[*]@outrbnks Headlights were swapped from a pedestrian W124 RHD lights. it's on the to list but so expensive and plenty of other jobs to do I feel like its finishing touch.

It only matters if you driving at night, but with pedestrian lights, you'll end up with 2 high beams and fogs turning on automatically with high beams... instead of 4 high beams as the 036 has with correct lighting. If you don't use high beams, it won't matter other than aesthetics.