OWNER michaedo

[michaedo]

Hello good people,

I thought maybe it would be a good time to reintroduce myself. Long, long, (yeah, one more) long time ago I was considering a 400E (white, blue interior) I went online to read up on the 400 and stumbled across an article by Needforspeed after he had just run his 500 in the Silver State Classic Challenge along Nevada hiway 318.

Wow, thought I. A Mercedes 500E. And then I started shopping. After not very long I found a hardluck case. A gentleman had just gotten it imported, (a grey market but with US specs option) Unfortunately he got deported back to Taiwan before taking delivery. It sat parked in a garage under the GW bridge in New York for a while. (Checking long ago with the Russian VIN registry shows that a farm implement store not far from the factory ordered it.)

SOLD! I think it was 2002. $21K. 38K miles. (It now has 80K and change.) I flew from Denver to NYC on a Saturday morning to pick it up. But not before being told I had to be at a meeting in Colorado Springs Monday morning. Yeah. What fun. Me and Q Schiff were flying. Made the meeting with time to spare.

I was a fairly regular poster on Scott's 500 Ecstacy site back in the old days. I then I got involved with Opels and Q Schiff languished in the garage. (90 miles in the last 3 years, and that was going to get it smog checked.) I know, shame on me. But I'm where I want to be and have no reason to go anywhere
any more.

So there ya go. 23 years. I shall attempt to attach a couple pictures....

Merry Christmas ya'll

Don.

 

[michaedo]

A couple more pictures. A facelifted '92.
A few Brabus options, debadged, AMG spoiler,
The purists might take offense, but I did what I
wanted, figuring I'm keeping it forever.

 

[ArauzMotoring]

Kind of love the tail light, blended spoiler and exhaust tips going on. Wheels are neat, but I’d change them up, personally.

Very nice car and nice snag!

Any plans with it for the near term?

 

[michaedo]

Brabus exhaust and Brabus wheels. Haven't seen another set like them.

 

[ArauzMotoring]

Brabus exhaust and Brabus wheels. Haven't seen another set like them.

Oh nice I guess I didn’t realize when you wrote that, I also didn’t see the exhaust from the back which would give away that it’s a Brabus one. Enjoy your 500E!

 

[michaedo]

Brabus monoblock. 9.5x18, ET26
Michelin Pilot for tires, front 245/40, rear 285/35.

 

[sheward]

Welcome back! I like the 199 monotone with the faired-in ducktail. Chances are your car was the one spotted recently by someone here.

 

[gsxr]

I'm amazed 9.5 ET18 wheels up front don't cause any rubbing at full lock!

 

[TerryA]

@michaedo,
Nice looking ride! I like everything you have done to your 500E it looks amazing.

PS: I hope you stick around and participate a little more. More pics would be nice.

Take Care

 

[michaedo]

Long ago we had an Opel get together at Evil Genius Racing in Sacramento. A dyno
session was offered for dirt cheap. This was before I had read GSXR's procedure for
prepping a 500 for a run on the dyno. Therefore the graphs were sorta...not correct.
The dyno guy said Q Schiff was misbehaving and he couldn't really get a proper run.
For what it's worth, the first pull, showed 243hp @ 5500, and torque was 346fp @ 3400.
Like I said, it wasn't properly set up to do anything on a dyno. Anyway, I was just there
for the bar-b-que.
Don.

 

[michaedo]

Hello again good people,

Ya know, I'm probably the only one this has ever happened to but.... for years and years I've had this grubby foot long piece of rubber on my work bench, not knowing where it came from or where it could possibly be needed. Finally, about a year ago a cleaning frenzy came over me and it was one of the items to hit the trash can.

Today, while reinstalling the inner fender well (after successfully getting the coolant reservoir in and happy) it all became too apparent to me where that strip of rubber went. So now I've got about a foot long half inch gap to tend to. Oh boy and hot dog! A trip to the closest Mercedes dealer and I find the needed seal being sold be the meter. Whew!

While there I got everything needed to purdy up the trunk area. Bump stops for the trunk lid ($16 ea), a new plastic piece that goes along the back ($40). I had already gotten and installed the trunk seal earlier. I figured going in deep I might as well get everything out of there and clean things up. I'm pretty sure the spare tire is the original. Michelin XMX. It's still got that gummy cover that comes on new tires. I can't remember the last time I checked it. 15 years ago
maybe? It had 15psi in it.

Oh, hey, while hooking up the reserve tank in the fender well I found another horn lurking deep in the confines of the inner fender. What do ya know about that? So yeah. Still haven't been able to get that rascally left valve cover to, uhh, slip on in there. But I've gotten really close a couple times.
That's it for now. All the trunk beautification pieces are showing up next week from Fontana.

I'll be ready....

Don.

 

[michaedo]

Hello again folks,
In my quest for the perfect trunk I came across a placard attached to the jack
titled 'Notes on wheel fitting'.
It mostly says rust is no good.
And those wheel bolt attachments are called, 'stiff spherical collar bolts',
isn't that interesting.
It mentions torque values for the collar bolts, (110 Nm). That seems kinda loose.
(about 80 ftlb).
And lastly it mentions a wheel mounting bolt. You twist it in and hang the wheel off
from it. That would be pretty handy.
Is that something included in the tool kit? I have no kit so don't know.
That's all. Have a good evening....

 

[gsxr]

110 Nm is the correct torque spec for M12 wheel bolts.

The wheel mounting stud / post should be in the tool kit, and yes it is very handy!

 

[r44raven]

Oh, hey, while hooking up the reserve tank in the fender well I found another horn lurking deep in the confines of the inner fender. What do ya know about that? So yeah. Still haven't been able to get that rascally left valve cover to, uhh, slip on in there. But I've gotten really close a couple times.
That's it for now. All the trunk beautification pieces are showing up next week from Fontana.

As far as I know, all E500Es had two horns - one more obviously situated behind the front grill, the other hidden in the depths of the passenger side fender well?

 

[gsxr]

As far as I know, all E500Es had two horns - one more obviously situated behind the front grill, the other hidden in the depths of the passenger side fender well?

Correct. Only the 036 had this horn arrangement. All other 124's had both located behind the hood grille,