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SF Bay area 500E mechanic

Bzliteyear

Active member
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Hi all,
Not sure if this is the correct forum, but if anyone's in my area(esp East Bay), can you share your favorite repair shop/mechanic?
Seems like working on 500E is pretty specialized and I don't want to generic mechanic to work on the car that I'm looking at.
Thanks in advance.
Patrick
 
Hi all,
Not sure if this is the correct forum, but if anyone's in my area(esp East Bay), can you share your favorite repair shop/mechanic?
Seems like working on 500E is pretty specialized and I don't want to generic mechanic to work on the car that I'm looking at.
Thanks in advance.
Patrick

How far East are we talking? What do you want done?
 
Robert’s shop can handle anything you throw at them. I do not believe there is a shop that has bought, sold or repaired more 500Es in all of Northern California, perhaps all of California.

Robert brokered the sale of my own E500 to me back in the fall of 2003.
 
Gerry can answer that question, but just curious, which seal - front or rear?

:apl:

Looks like both are leaking. Here's what I got back from the PPI.

Notes from Phil's review...

VEHICLE IS IN A+ CONDITION WITH SMALL ISSUES AS FOLLOWS.
1. TIRES HAVE GREAT 9/32 TREAD BUT DATE CODE IS FROM 4417. ALL TIRES MATCH
2. COMMON OIL LEAK IS PRESENT AT FRONT AND REAR OF CYLINDER HEAD GASKET.
3. CUSTOM SEAT COVERS INSTALLED AND VISUAL INSPECTION NOT POSSIBLE, BUT WE WERE ABLE TO SQUEEZE OUR HAND BETWEEN THE SEAT COVER AND SEAT LEATHER AND FEEL FOR ANY DEFECTS. NO DEFECTS NOTED.
4. FRONT BRAKE PADS ARE 1/2 WORN AND ROTORS WILL BE NEEDED AT NEXT BRAKE SERVICE.
5. NOTES:
- ALL FILTERS ARE OF GERMAN QUALITY.
- BATTERY IS NEWER AND OF ORIGINAL MB QUALITY.
- BRAKE FLUID HAS BEEN CHANGED AND IS IN GREAT CONDITION AS ARE THE REMAINDER OF THE FLUIDS.
- FIRST AIDE KIT AND TOOL KIT ARE PRESENT AND NOT MISSING COMPONENTS
- LEFT REAR TIRE HAS DOUBLE WEIGHTS FOR BALANCING

View attachment 71783 View attachment 71782 View attachment 71781
 
They are saying head gasket, not main seals. Different animals.

This is an M104 you had inspected, not an M119?

It would be highly unusual for an M119 to have leaking head gaskets. It’s very very common for M104 engines to spring a leak at the passenger side rear of the head gasket, as well as at the front timing cover’s “Bermuda Triangle” area.
 
Generally the M104 head gasket leaks are pretty slight from the rear. The timing covers leak more, and if not taken care of get pretty gnarly.

The good thing is that the timing cover leaks are fairly easy to fix; the bad thing is that they must be done every 50-60K miles.

You can go for quite a while with a leaking head gasket on a 104, as long as there isn’t significant oil in the coolant and Vice versa. The HG leaks are more nasty with the M103 motors...meaning that you more commonly see oil in the coolant with those HG failures. The 104s just tend to leak externally, but modestly.

Aloha from Hawaii,
Gerry
 
sort of SF Bay area, more south bay, Santa Cruz

Max & Nick @ Circle Start Motors
2750 Soquel Ave # D, Santa Cruz, CA 95062
(831) 476-7774

He had the engine out of my 1994 E500 for a timing chain guide change and other cleanup and my car has been running great ever since. Takes his time and does the job right.

 
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They are saying head gasket, not main seals. Different animals.

This is an M104 you had inspected, not an M119?

It would be highly unusual for an M119 to have leaking head gaskets. It’s very very common for M104 engines to spring a leak at the passenger side rear of the head gasket, as well as at the front timing cover’s “Bermuda Triangle” area.
I'll visit Robert next time I drive into SF. See what he says. Thanks very much :)

I'll also have to have a closer inspection over the wkend, as I really couldn't see any evidence of oil anywhere around the head. But I do have the pics from the PPI which shows oil on the engine under body tray. After 20yrs on the 103, guess I now need to learn my way around the 104.
 

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