• Hi Guest !

    Welcome to the 500Eboard forum.

    Since its founding in late 2008, 500Eboard has become the leading resource on the Internet for all things related to the Mercedes-Benz 500E and E500. In recent years, we have also expanded to include the 400E and E420 models, which are directly related to the 500E/E500.

    We invite you to browse and take advantage of the information and resources here on the site. If you find helpful information, please register for full membership, and you'll find even more resources available. Feel free to ask questions, and make liberal use of the "Search" function to find answers.

    We hope you will become an active contributor to the community!

    Sincerely,
    500Eboard Management

PWNER - gerryvz

Here are "before" and "after" photos from the new rear bumper on my car.

"Before" -- with the slightly bowed-out rear bumper:
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The rear of the car, before cleaning, with the bumper removed:
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"After" -- with the new rear bumper installed.:
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I had Exhaust Specialties in Portland do a custom cat-back exhaust for me about 10+ years ago, right after I got my car. It uses Walker DynoMax resonator and rear muffler, going into a single, welded-on oval tip that points slightly downward. It's about 20% throatier than stock and is just about right.
 
Couple of photos I found of the first day I took delivery of my car. These photos were taken in Burlingame, CA.

You can see that the rear bumper on the passenger side was bowed out, even then. Thanks to a forum member .. no longer.

Hard to believe this is pushing 11 years ago !!
 

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Those wheels look really familiar. Were the chrome wheels an option or were they S wheels?
 
Those wheels look really familiar. Were the chrome wheels an option or were they S wheels?

Typical California dealer accessory. 90% of the time when you see chromed stock wheels! they are from a car that originated in California, often SoCal.


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Here are a few photos, taken this afternoon, of the 1994 G320 that I bought in May. The truck has 93,000 miles on it and was imported into the US from Germany in 2000, with around 39K miles on the odometer. Thus, it is a true "gray market" car that was legally imported into the US by Europa International.

It is 744 "Brilliant Silver" on the exterior with black leather interior. Has a full load of options, but in true Euro form it does not have a sunroof nor motorized seats. It does have a digitally controlled Webasto pre-heater, factory MB brush guard, alloy wheels, and running boards. It has R-134a-based A/C that blows extremely cold, and has seat heaters for the winter time. The stereo is an Alpine unit, and I have purchased an upgraded current-model Alpine with Bluetooth and XM Radio capability to replace it. The speakers are MB Quart and it has an amplifier in the compartment under the driver's seat. There are dash speakers, 5 1/4" round Quarts under the dashboard; and woofers, midrange and tweeters in the rear corners of the truck. Needless to say, it sounds quite good.

The truck comes with the original Euro Gloria 1.3 kg fire extinguisher, mounted just behind and under the driver's seat.

The engine is the M104, using HFM injection, and a 722.3 transmission. The M104 as used in the G320 is slightly de-tuned from 217 HP to 210 HP, but has slightly more low-end torque than those variants of the motor found in sedans and wagons. The truck gets around 12-13 MPG in city driving, mainly due to its 5,300-pound weight, and the rolling resistance of the two differentials and the centrally mounted transfer case. There are three locking differentials (center, rear and front - same as found in G-wagens today) and also a low and high range gearing, controlled via a second gear lever between the seats.

The automatic transmission gear selector ls lighted (just like the 500E) to indicate what gear the vehicle is currently in. My 1995 E320 wagons did not have this "feature". The black leather seats are of high quality leather, and there are acres of burl-wood on the dash - probably about twice as much burl as a 500E has. The truck has an extremely high ceiling... you probably have about a foot of headroom when you are sitting down.

I'll take some further photos of the inside of the truck and in the engine compartment soon.

Cheers,
Gerry
 

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Love the pics Gerry. Interesting to see the differences with my 2005. I particularly love the orange from signal lights, side markers, and mud flaps! How about some interior shots?
 
Here are some photos of the interior of the G320 and the engine compartment. I have the driver's seat out today because I was working on the ICE system, basically tracing existing/old wiring to an amp located under the driver's seat, and checking wiring to/from the Alpine head unit and to the rear MB Quart component speakers.

I have purchased a new Alpine CDE-SXM145BT head unit for the truck, for my wife, so that she can use her iPhone with it in Bluetooth mode (it has a mountable microphone) and also utilize XM Radio capability. I decided to add another two-channel amp to power the front speakers, in addition to the existing amp that is used for the rear MB Quart units via crossovers.

As you can see, the truck is "old-skool" and utilizes a W124 instrument cluster, steering wheel, and various bits from the 1990s era. The leather on the doors and seat is almost identical to that of the E500E although the seats are not perforated. The front seat-backs use nets for holding items.

If you have any questions, let me know. I tried to highlight some of the cool features, such as one of the under-rear-seat "stash" compartments. The one on the driver's side is much larger than the one I show on the passenger side.

Cheers,
Gerry
 

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That E-brake handle is well situated for performing J-turns and other Hoonigan™ antics!!

:jono:
 
The interior sure looks familiar. If you don't mind me asking, what kind of crash rating does this vehicle have compared to others in its class? Being the same vintage as our 124's, I'm sure it is built like a tank.

I know this is comparing apples to oranges, but if you were going to put your wife and kid in either this truck or the 500E, which one would generally be safer in the event of an accident? Would this hold up to a roll like the 500E?
 
G-wagen over W124, hands down. The laws of physics say that any vehicle that is heavier (and the G is heavier than most on the road) is going to offer better crash dynamics, hands down. The G is extremely robust and (unlike Land Rover products) it is extremely difficult to cave the roof in, in a rollover type incident.
 
Thanks. I saw a fatal accident when a suburban flipped over and collapsed the roof. I was thinking that would be the most vulnerable scenario for something like this. Too bad they don't publish survivability ratings for vehicles across the whole spectrum, regardless of class. They don't even compare the same class from year to year. For instance, how would a new E-class compare to a 500E from 1993? Or how would this truck compare to the newest version of it. Because no one seems to want to put this information out there, I can only surmise that they don't want us to see it.
 
Got the driver's seat back in after letting it sit outside for 4-5 hours with some leather treatment on it.

Here are a few views of the Gloria extinguisher below/behind the driver's seat.
 

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Hi Gerry,

Very nice G Wagon! Tell us about the search and the acquisition - these things are not exactly growing on trees. Nice examples like yours must be very difficult to find.
 
G-wagen over W124, hands down. The laws of physics say that any vehicle that is heavier (and the G is heavier than most on the road) is going to offer better crash dynamics, hands down. The G is extremely robust and (unlike Land Rover products) it is extremely difficult to cave the roof in, in a rollover type incident.

Hmmmmmm.......was that comment directed at anyone in particular??

If your gonna hate on Land Rover's, I may have to go on a Clark Vader type rant.....:flamg:
 
Hmmmmmm.......was that comment directed at anyone in particular??
Absolutely not. Honestly I don't remember who on this forum owns what type of vehicle and is a fan of what. But I have seen several threads pertaining to crashworthiness comparisons between Range/Land Rovers and MB G-class models, and the general consensus has been that G-class models are considerably safer and stouter.

The main reason I mentioned Land Rover was because the Range Rover is quite often the model that is most closely compared to / associated with the G-class models.

If your gonna hate on Land Rover's, I may have to go on a Clark Vader type rant.....:flamg:

Vader-style rants are welcomed, as long as they don't get too personal. Vader actually happens to be one of my favorite forum members :agree:
 
Hmmmmmm.......was that comment directed at anyone in particular??

If your gonna hate on Land Rover's, I may have to go on a Clark Vader type rant.....:flamg:


Why hate on Land/Range rovers ???

No matter how much room you give them, they can't park.


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It's all good guys, I'd be the first to tell you my Disco is built like crap, it makes me appreciate the E500 build quality all the more.

However, for 1/10th of the cost of a G-wagon, you get most if not all of the off road capability, decent luxury (although they basically slapped lipstick on a pig), and a fairly basic design that can be worked on by a shade tree mechanic. As long as they don't overheat(which they are prone to do), they will last awhile. THe body is aluminum so no rust (except the frame).

Anyway, if your on a budget, it's a decent way to get a very capable SUV that cost $40k new, for $4k....I do however admit that it's no G-wagon, not by a long shot....

Sorry for the thread hijak. :offtopic:
 
Tell us about the search and the acquisition - these things are not exactly growing on trees. Nice examples like yours must be very difficult to find.
You know, there are actually quite a lot of nice ones out there, particularly the "MBUSA" models imported from the 2002 model year and newer. The thing about G-wagens is that there are relatively few of them in the US, so they tend to maintain high values and depreciate slowly. Even a 10-year-old G-wagen in decent shape is going to run $35-40K

My prerequisite for one was that it had to be a 1990s model, so that it was something that I was more or less familiar with in terms of the powertrain and running gear, and something I could maintain myself at a reasonable cost.

My wife had wanted a G-wagen or a Range Rover for many years -- almost as long as I can remember. Since 1998 she's been exclusively driving W124 wagons, which have served her very well. But living in Texas the past 6 years, the need for a 4x4 / SUV became more important to her so she could be "higher up" and perhaps have a larger vehicle for carrying stuff and clients related to her real estate business (my wife is a Realtor for Keller Williams). Having a 20-year old station wagon just wasn't going to cut it for hauling clients around, as well as FOR SALE signs, open house signs, and the like.

We actually went to the local Land Rover dealership last year and test drove the LR4 and the Range Rover Sport. Both were very nice, extremely luxurious and refined, but for some reason a bit uninspiring. And honestly we weren't prepared to pay the costs for a new or even recent used LR/RR model. Friends we have who currently own the RR/LR4 and Evoq models (a neighbor a couple of doors up the street, near the Bentley coupe house) reports that they still spend a fair bit of time in the shop. I just was not prepared to have to pay for that kind of downtime.

For the past 5-6 years, I've had my friend Robert Fenton in Marin County on the lookout for a G-wagen for me. I've bought a number of cars from Robert over the years (including my 560SEC, and he brokered the purchase of my E500 11 years ago. In any case, I keep Robert informed as to "must have" cars that I want to buy, and when he sees one or has the opportunity to acquire one that he knows is on my bucket list, he contacts me about it. In this case, he knew that I wanted a gas-engine, 1990s (pre-MBUSA) G-wagen but not a 1980s model or a diesel, and not an MBUSA model because I didn't want to spend that much money.

So I happened to be out in the San Francisco area for a few days on a business trip, and visited him and he showed me this G320 that he has purchased with intent to keep it for his own collection. He had decided to let it go and sell it, so I decided after a few days' deliberation to make the move and buy it. That set in motion the decision to sell my wife's 1995 E320 wagon (which I'd just refreshed the top end on, and replaced the transmission with a Sun Valley rebuild, both documented on this forum) as the G-wagen would replace the E320 wagon as my wife's daily driver. Secondly, I also decided simultaneously to sell my 1990 560SEL, which I'd owned for two-plus years. I'd always wanted to own a pristine V126, and having done so found that it was largely an "extra" car that we didn't actually drive all that much except as a Sunday church car. It was a bit redundant with having the E500 (which I'll never sell).

Bottom line is that I'm down to three cars in the garage at the current time. It feels a bit light to me; I like having four cars. Probably the next car on my "bucket list" to own (and perhaps keep as part of my permanent collection) would be a 1993-1995 E320 cabriolet with <50K miles on it, and/or a second and more pristine 500E/E500 perhaps in Brilliant Silver, Almandine Red, Spruce Green or something like that. I am in no hurry to find these cars; but I think probably the E320 cabriolet would be the next car I'd like to get. Although we didn't use our 560SL all that much, I think with a motorized top it would be more practical for my wife, and she is very familiar with the W124 chassis and thus it would be an immediately comfortable ride for her. If I could find a white E320 cab with low miles, in the next 18 months, that would be what I would get her for a 20th anniversary present.

Anyway, hope that rant answers your questions.

Cheers,
Gerry
 
Here are a couple of views of the "Troll" figure that Arnt gave me when he visited me earlier this year. I keep it on my shop work-bench next to my Cub Scout Pinewood Derby cars.

The green car is the first Pinewood Derby car that I made with my dad circa 1976. It was modeled after a Porsche. My dad did the flame job :agree:
 

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Here are a few shots of the GVZ shop.

A few shots of the long parts shelf where I store my spare maintenance items like filters, O2 sensors, brake pads and the like. Yeppers...that's a full set of "Clark Plugs" you see there as well as a box of Bosch F8DC4s !!
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My racks of most frequently used Griots products. In one shot you can see two of my four skateboards -- a 48" Dewey Weber longboard and an old-school Powell-Peralta Steve Caballero model circa 1993. The dart board was in my bedroom when I was a boy & in my skateboarding days of high school I covered it in skate stickers...
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My products & chemicals shelf -- lubricants, plenty of ATE Blue brake fluid, all my MB greases & pastes, etc. The bins up top are categorized by plumbing, tapes, small MB parts, fuses & bulbs, home electrical, air compressor stuff, swimming pool parts, etc.
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Here on my large workbench I'm finishing up the rebuild of a 29cc Zenoah two-stroke engine that powers my Go-Ped motorized scooter. I've hopped it up with a larger carb & intake, overbore/piston, rocket key for 4-degree timing advance, and soon a tuned exhaust pipe. Should bring it from ~2.5 up to 5 HP.
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Enjoy,
Cheers,
Gerry


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Sheesh, your recently burglarized high-mileage fashion horse neighbor got nothin' on you and your parts stash, Honch...
:klink:
 
Yes, there seem only to be a couple of brands of Chlorinated Brake Cleaner on the market these days - the rest seems to be non-chlor. And I can get that stuff all-day, every-day for $2.75-3.50 a can. The "good stuff" runs $4-6 a can.

There's a reason why the non-chlor is cheaper ... as with anything, you have to pay for the good stuff !! :spend:

I do not even think it is possible to buy the Jerry Brown-spec (California CARB compliant) ultra-low VOC stuff here in the Republic of Texas - I have never seen it for sale at any of my local FLAPS stores (although it may be orderable, I dunno).
 
I do not even think it is possible to buy the Jerry Brown-spec (California CARB compliant) ultra-low VOC stuff here in the Republic of Texas

I just bought 8 cans. Great deal. Thanks, Dave!

Gerry, I was thinking it would be nice to live in Texas, but I'm hearing that the progressive trendies from California are moving there and ruining it.
 
I just bought 8 cans. Great deal. Thanks, Dave!

Gerry, I was thinking it would be nice to live in Texas, but I'm hearing that the progressive trendies from California are moving there and ruining it.
Jon,

Texas is indeed seeing a major influx of people (myself and family included some 6.5 years ago) from Northern and Western states. Many are coming in search of good jobs, as there are plenty here (and more jobs coming all the time), the cost of living is extremely low, taxes are reasonable overall, and we have pretty good weather (you have your choice of weather depending in which part of Texas you want to live in).

The major cities in Texas - DFW, Houston, San Antonio and Austin) - are indeed fairly blue in their core areas, but you get immediately outside of them and things get EXTREMELY conservative. I live in Montgomery County, just about 1/2 mile north of the Harris (which Houston is in) County line, and the difference between Harris (fairly blue) and Montgomery (very red) Counties in political makeup is pretty drastic. Check this out: http://www.politico.com/2014-election/results/map/governor/texas/#.VISvs6agpKE

Also, of note .. in the recent election, and with Landrieu's defeat in Louisiana last night, ALL US states from Texas to North Carolina are now dominated by Republicans in their Governors, their US Senators and Representatives, and in their state/local legislatures. The entire Southern US is as "red" as it's EVER been.

This is because a lot of folks have been moving here to get away from the failed politics and policies in blue states like Michigan and California. People go where the jobs are, and the jobs are migrating to Southern states. I just hope the cost of living here stays low. At least here in the Houston area, real estate prices have been rising dramatically because of increased demand.

They say that the State of Texas gains more than 1,000 new residents ... PER DAY.

My acquaintance David Winans created this updated video a while back:

[youtube]KmqKic5Y8DI[/youtube]
 
:offtopic:That was a very professional video and it definitely highlights some good reasons for living there.

I was based in San Antonio in 1989 and 1990 and I really liked it.

Here's the $64,000 question: "Houston is the energy capital of the world." How long will it be before the necons' half-baked idea (to drive the oil price down in a futile attempt to bankrupt Russia) has a substantial and negative impact on the economy there? The South may be red, but until Congress starts impeachment proceedings, they are just as bad as who they replaced--probably worse because they told their constituents they would not tolerate this nonsense and obviously lied to get elected.
 
I don't think it will have a major impact. Short term, I'd see some of the energy companies (particularly the smaller, weaker ones) slowing down or stopping their efforts to extract oil from the Bakken shale in North Dakota, but the energy economy has been ramping up dramatically over the past 5-8 years and it won't stop overnight. Some say that the magic threshold of profitability for doing this is around $60-65 a barrel. Larger firms have the resources and the will to push through and continue to reduce costs. There is a lot of room left that the energy companies have to reduce extraction costs for hydraulic fracturing, and being private, for-profit enterprises you can bet they will innovate to do this.

The long-term goal is to get energy independent and possibly even to export oil. The current administration LOVES to tout that oil production is now higher than it's been in the past 30-35 years, and that is absolutely true. However, that is DESPITE resistance and stonewalling from the Federal Government. All of the increase in oil production has been from drilling and extraction done on PRIVATE lands, not federal lands. Drilling permit approvals for the Gulf of Mexico are WAY down because of the current administration foot-dragging, so the energy companies are pressing ahead with other plans that the government can't directly influence, which is why you see all the activity up in North Dakota and in West Texas, and to a lesser degree, elsewhere.

The sad thing is that it looks like the Keystone XL Pipeline is going to get veto'd by Obama, which is really really unfortunate. People don't stop to think about how the oil that is being extracted up in Canada and North Dakota is getting around the USA RIGHT NOW. It's getting transported by oil trains. Oil trains are MUCH more accident-prone and unsafe than oil pipelines are.

Like they were with the advent of hybrids and electric cars, when it comes to the TOTAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT of the materials that are extracted and created, and energy expended to manufacture those vehicles, the environmental/government/green crowd is blissfully ignorant about trains vs. pipelines. Trains carrying oil and hazardous chemicals travel through metro and highly populated areas of this country every day (including every major US city), and each of these trains is a HUGE environmental hazard (if it were to derail/spill/wreck) than a pipeline that largely runs through unpopulated areas. But you see, these tree-huggers don't even know how many pipelines are ALREADY in place and operating EVERY DAY in North America, VERY successfully I might add. They just know that they need to oppose the Keystone XL because that's what their political masters tell them they need to do.

If folks actually stopped and got the complete set of facts, they'd probably change their tune if they actually were able to reason things out. I've been a student of trains for the past 25+ years and have ridden freight trains on almost every rail line from the Mississippi River to the California coast. Including oil trains, which are not fun to ride. You would be very very surprised at the number of major train derailments that happen annually, including oil trains. I've personally seen some pretty big ones (never directly been in a derail situation, though).

Cheers,
Gerry

P.S. The attached is about 11-12 years ago, heading east from Portland through the Columbia River Gorge at sunup, at the controls of a Burlington Northern Santa Fe diesel locomotive.
 

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It's true that they need to oppose the Keystone XL because that's what their political masters tell them they need to do. But the only thing the new Congress did before going on vacation was pass the pipeline deal, knowing that it didn't matter anyway (it will be vetoed).

Oh, the other thing they did was announce they would not repeal the ACA in its entirety and that impeachment was completely off the table. Unbelievable! I think both parties have the same globalist masters; and they are hell-bent on shutting our entire energy industry down and collapsing what's left of our country. They truly want to take it down. Just look at the climate deal that was cut with China recently--we committed to doubling the rate of plant closures now and China gets to continue growing theirs. :wtf:

Nice picture of the train. Is that a steering wheel up there? For what?
 
Nice picture of the train. Is that a steering wheel up there? For what?
Trains don't really have steering wheels. Rather, they have throttles that control the diesel engine, and then by extension the electric traction motors. And then the air brakes & dynamic brakes, of course. So the controls really are more focused on power generation and then managing the mode of the traction motors. In regular forward motion, the traction motors are regular DC motors. When braking, the traction motors are transformed into generators that generate electricity and dissipate a lot of their energy as heat. It's a very complicated dance of constantly maintaining power and braking, and things like mountains make driving trains tremendously complex.

No steering is really required because there are only two directions to go - forward and backward. :D

For a fully loaded freight train (say a half-mile to three-quarters of a mile long) it generally takes about a full mile to come to a complete stop from 60 MPH.
 
I'm sure the engineer would have to be way ahead of what he wanted to make the train do or it could eat his lunch. It takes a DC-8 ten miles in level flight to slow from 300 knots to 250 and I've seen it bite guys that are behind the power curve (never happened to me or Trae though).:D
 
Well, there are a plethora of signs with speed limits and warnings everywhere along the tracks (if you know how to read them), so as long as an engineer and/or conductor are playing attention, you're good to go. There are also books and now computerized guides that tell you what to expect coming up, based on what milepost you're currently at.

The maximum legal speed of a Class I (Union Pacific, BNSF, CSX, No-f*ck Southern) freight train can travel is 79 MPH. That's pretty dang fast when you've got a few million tons behind you.....
 
I can't imagine the amount of energy those brakes would absorb on an emergency stop. I presume they have computerized train simulators too? That would be interesting.

By the way, didn't the chief fraudfeasor, Warren Buffet, buy a large train company a few years back. Is it just a coincidence that he would benefit from a pipeline veto, being an Obama supporter and all?
 
Buffett now owns BNSF as of a few years ago. It is headquartered in Fort Worth, TX.

There are plenty of train simulators out there. Microsoft used to sell a program called Microsoft Train Simulator, but stopped selling it about 10 years ago. There are many other simulators both standalone and online, though.

Train brakes are very interesting. They are ALWAYS engaged (meaning the shoes are touching the wheels of the train cars) UNLESS there is air pumped into the system from the head end (the locomotive(s) have air compressors on board that power the air brakes). This is a safety factor, so in case there is a failure in the air system, or a busted knuckle/coupler splits the train in half, etc., then the air system loses pressure and the brakes are automatically applied. This is also why cars don't roll when they are not connected to units (locomotives), for example when a string of cars is sitting on a siding next to the road.

Usually a between 30-180 seconds before a train starts to move, the engineer will "air up" the train, meaning he'll pump air into the brake system along its entire length. You'll hear the hissing as the system pressurizes, and often will feel/hear the brake pads releasing from the wheels. All train yards also have what is called "yard air" at various points in the yard -- this allows the workers to keep the train "aired up" (brakes off) for when they're switching tracks, building trains or breaking them apart.

One time, I was on a train that went into "emergency" - it's quite a scary experience. The dispatcher said over the radio that there was a truck stuck on the tracks ahead, which is why the train went into emergency braking mode.

Many many times I've also been at the back end of a mile-long train when it starts to move forward. You hear an increasingly loud "booming" noise as the units pull the slack out of the train, and there's so much slack by the time the "slack action" hits the rear of the train that 80% of the time, it will knock you off your feet if you are not ready for it (for example, if you're standing in a boxcar). You might have about 1-2 seconds audible warning to prepare, depending how long the train is.
 
It had been a while, so I decided (after re-attaching my underside cladding this afternoon, after last weekend's serpentine belt replacement & thermostat replacement) to do one of my patented 15-minute "Mr. Clean" engine cleanings....

In the photo below, you can see the three stock stickers that came on the cars: the yellow emissions sticker (black on early 500Es); the green A/C sticker in the center, and the silver sticker on the right.


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That washer fluid cap is a little tired..;)
I actually have a spare/new MB cap, rubber washer and little rectangular cap retainer. I should replace them. That's just washer juice (SommerFit) droplets hanging from the underside of the cap.

No comments on my overflow tank ?!? :stickpoke:

No Armor-All.

That´s how usually an engine looks if you get y car from a turkish dealer.....
I know, crazy, huh?
 
I actually have a spare/new MB cap, rubber washer and little rectangular cap retainer. I should replace them.

No comments on my overflow tank ?!? :stickpoke:

No Armor-All.

Well, I call that the expansion tank, not the overflow tank, and you know the difference. But with the picking of that semantic nit now behind me, I think it looks fantastic. :jono:
I still need to replace mine too, just for the appearance...
:klink:
 
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