Will this W140 diff fit my 400e

[Quick4door]

wdbga32g1va348204

This is the vin- I haven’t gone and looked at the car to see if it has ASR, or ASD, or what the actual rear diff ratio is. From everything I can tell, this diff will fit if it does not have ASR. My car does not have ASR. My car is a 92 fwiw.

 

[gsxr]

That is a 1997 S320. I don't believe it will work in a 1992 400E.

Mercedes VIN Decoder | Decode Your Mercedes-Benz VIN

Datacard for 1997 Mercedes-Benz S 320 (140.032) - WDBGA32G1VA348204

www.lastvin.com

 

[Quick4door]

That is a 1997 S320. I don't believe it will work in a 1992 400E.

Mercedes VIN Decoder | Decode Your Mercedes-Benz VIN

Datacard for 1997 Mercedes-Benz S 320 (140.032) - WDBGA32G1VA348204

www.lastvin.com

But w140 rear differential do fit in w124 chassis, is it because it’s a 6 cylinder and not a v8?

 

[gsxr]

Not all 140 diffs fit the 124. More info is in this document, but in this case you would need to compare the part numbers in the EPC from the 1997 donor.

The 1997 S320 uses a different housing with no speed sensor. And it has 3.45 gears, and it has smaller diameter ring gears, not designed for the torque levels of the V8. The 3.45 gears would be miserable on the freeway. ~4000rpm at 80mph, top speed 120. The S320 had a five-speed trans with overdrive to make the gearing work at higher speeds.

It would help if you posted what you are trying to accomplish.

 

[Quick4door]

Not all 140 diffs fit the 124. More info is in this document, but in this case you would need to compare the part numbers in the EPC from the 1997 donor.

The 1997 S320 uses a different housing with no speed sensor. And it has 3.45 gears, and it has smaller diameter ring gears, not designed for the torque levels of the V8. The 3.45 gears would be miserable on the freeway. ~4000rpm at 80mph, top speed 120. The S320 had a five-speed trans with overdrive to make the gearing work at higher speeds.

It would help if you posted what you are trying to accomplish.

That all makes sense. I’m trying to put a 2.82 diff in, the 2.24 is just too vanilla. I’ve read that w140 diffs can be used, this car showed up in the local pick a part.

 

[gsxr]

Only the early 4.2L cars are donors, as you can see on that spreadsheet linked above. And it has to be one without ASR, for your non-ASR 400E.

 

[bicylindrico]

I have a 3.69 rear gear diff in a 400E out of an early R129 300SL. The diff has the small 6 cylinder stub axles so I had to switch to regular 6 cylinder axles. There are large case and small case diffs so you are correct that a large case diff will fit if you swap the rear cover, go with a non ASR diff from a V8 car that has a single pinion speed sensor. I chose the 6 cylinder diff just because the V8's didn't offer that high of a ratio.

 

[Quick4door]

94-99 Mercedes W140 S420 Rear Diff Differential Axle Carrier 1293510605 OEM | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 94-99 Mercedes W140 S420 Rear Diff Differential Axle Carrier 1293510605 OEM at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Waking up a thread- looking at the chart, it appears this diff will work. Part number in listing shows it to be from an s350 2.82 w/o ASR. However the casting number in the pictures shows it to be from a 4.2 L, 2.82 non ASR. Either way it looks like this would work, anyone care to weigh in?

 

[gsxr]

Still won't work. This is from a late 1995 S420. It has no speed sensor at the pinion. Look at the photos.

As noted in the document linked in post #4, you need donor chassis up to A212244, but you still need to verify it has the sensor required for your car.

I don't think you can trust casting numbers, as it looks like the one below is #04, but has no hole machined for the sensor (and therefore no ring on the pinion to trigger the sensor).

 

[Quick4door]

I didn’t see that speed sensor either, thanks for clarifying.

 

[Quick4door]

I can find diffs all day long for 94-up units without the speed sensor, but so far nothing exists for 92-93 w140. Are they that hard to find? Are there any others that fit? Every s350 diff I find is the same situation.

 

[Quick4door]

90-95 Mercedes W124 300CE 300E Rear Differential Diff Axle Carrier 2.65 OEM | eBay

Up for sale is a rear differential assembly. ANY ISSUE WITH OUR USED PRODUCT FOR WARRANTY PURPOSES MUST BE STATED ON A VAILD RECIPT FROM CERTIFIED REPAIR FACILITY.

www.ebay.com

This is the next best thing- same housing, different rear cover per the document gsxr posted. I can swap that easy enough AND it has the sensor. Thoughts?

 

[kegmankipp]

Mercedes put a 2.65 in the 400E420 for the ROW. It’s damn near perfect for overall driving and unless you are just looking to race from stoplight to stoplight with zero freeway miles than just find a donor from a 90, 91, or 92 500SL with no asr. It’s a straight swap, and direct bolt in unit with only the speedometer needing to be calibrated,

They are not hard to find in Nor Cal and priced from $100-150 at the wreckers. I had my pick of 11 units

I’m willing to bet it’s the best bang for the buck upgrade anyone can do performance wise to a 400E420.

 

[gsxr]

90-95 Mercedes W124 300CE 300E Rear Differential Diff Axle Carrier 2.65 OEM | eBay

Up for sale is a rear differential assembly. ANY ISSUE WITH OUR USED PRODUCT FOR WARRANTY PURPOSES MUST BE STATED ON A VAILD RECIPT FROM CERTIFIED REPAIR FACILITY.

www.ebay.com

This is the next best thing- same housing, different rear cover per the document gsxr posted. I can swap that easy enough AND it has the sensor. Thoughts?

If you read the document more carefully, you'll find the input flange is different on 6-cyl cars. You don't want to touch the input flange unless absolutely necessary, and it's not necessary if you want 2.65 gears. The rear cover is easy to swap, the input flange is easy to screw up. Oh, and the seller has the years wrong, that diff is from 1993-95 6-cyl cars, not 90-95. *sigh*

on kegman's post.

The diff with 2.65 gears is 100% bolt-in from a 1990-92 500SL, 129.066, without ASR. The model years are critical. 93 500SL will not work at all. When buying parts, get the VIN of the donor at a minimum, and if possible also get photos to confirm that it has the single ABS sensor at the pinion required for your non-ASR .034 chassis.

 

[Quick4door]

Very much appreciated.

 

[Quick4door]

Sooooo, i Purchased this. Came out of a 91 500 SL, no traction control. Has the sensor on the pinion. 265 gear . Part number is 129 350 10701 on the housing which does not show up on the list but everything appears to be correct.

gsxr, care to verify??

 

[Quick4door]

Edit: 129 351 07 01

 

[gsxr]

Pretty sure you got the correct one. What did it end up costing?

 

[Quick4door]

Pretty sure you got the correct one. What did it end up costing?

$275 shipped

 

[gsxr]

$275 shipped

Not bad. I'd replace the side seals before installing (easy job), and re-seal the rear cover with Right Stuff or Loctite 5900. Don't touch the pinion seal if it's dry. Otherwise it's plug+play. Use an impact wench to remove the CV joint bolts if possible.

 

[Quick4door]

Not bad. I'd replace the side seals before installing (easy job), and re-seal the rear cover with Right Stuff or Loctite 5900. Don't touch the pinion seal if it's dry. Otherwise it's plug+play. Use an impact wench to remove the CV joint bolts if possible.

Already on it.

 

[Beater400E]

Ok, I'm going to resurrect and hijack this thread. Yeah. I'm that guy. So, my $400 400e needs a bit more go, so I'm on the hunt for a diff upgrade. I'm looking at either a 2.82 from a 400SE or maybe a 3.06 from a 300CE. I think 3.06 is my preference. The spreadsheet states that a 91-92 300CE is the donor for that. There is a break in the 92 model year though. According to Hollander, 91 and 92 through VIN A503879 are interchangeable, and then 92 from VIN A503880-up are different. Apparently 93-95 are different again. Does anyone know what is different in the early vs late 92 300CE differentials? I have found a couple late ones, and I'm not sure if they will work or not.

 

[gsxr]

Ok, I'm going to resurrect and hijack this thread. Yeah. I'm that guy. So, my $400 400e needs a bit more go, so I'm on the hunt for a diff upgrade. I'm looking at either a 2.82 from a 400SE or maybe a 3.06 from a 300CE. I think 3.06 is my preference.

3.06 will be a huge difference.

The spreadsheet states that a 91-92 300CE is the donor for that. There is a break in the 92 model year though. According to Hollander, 91 and 92 through VIN A503879 are interchangeable, and then 92 from VIN A503880-up are different.

Hollander is wrong. Don't trust anything from them. The EPC is the bible for Mercedes.

Apparently 93-95 are different again. Does anyone know what is different in the early vs late 92 300CE differentials? I have found a couple late ones, and I'm not sure if they will work or not.

Check the VIN and confirm the donor is definitely a 1991-1992 coupé. If the yard won't give you the VIN, keep looking. Also make sure the donor does not have ASR (code 471) in the datacard, use Lastvin.com for info. If you happen to find a 3.06 for ASR, shoot me a PM, I could use one...

1993-up has 2.65 gears. Note the break is by USA model year, not by production date.

 

[Beater400E]

Well, I made the deal. The VIN checks out as a 92 without ASR, and the seller also confirmed it is a 3.06 without ASR. $350 shipped from Massachusetts to Idaho. Seems reasonable to me. I guess we'll find out.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Alphasud40]

I will eventually get the 2.65 final drive for my 92 with ASR. That 3.06 sounds tempting but 16mpg does not.

 

[Beater400E]

The way I figure if MPG is my goal, I'll drive my wife's Prius. The 30 year old V8 Mercedes is allowed to chug fuel.

 

[gsxr]

The way I figure if MPG is my goal, I'll drive my wife's Prius. The 30 year old V8 Mercedes is allowed to chug fuel.

I try not to worry too much about fuel economy... assuming the difference is reasonable, say 10% or so. I've never seen any good data on MPG after a big change in axle ratio. I've got a 2.65 LSD collecting dust that I plan to install in my wife's E420 daily driver. I've got years of MPG data on that car, so it will be a good test bed to see what the MPG is with 2.65's.

My only concern with going to 3.06's is that the RPM's will be annoyingly high with 80mph freeway speed limits (and cruise set at 87mph, to avoid accidental time travel). In case you were wondering, at 87mph with stock tire circumference, RPM's should be:

87mph
Axle = RPM
========
2.24 = 2700 <-- stock ..034, USA spec
2.65 = 3200
2.82 = 3400
3.06 = 3700
3.27 = 3950

 

[Beater400E]

That's great info. The way I figure if the 500 cruised at 3400 with 2.82s, 3700 won't be much worse than that. I plan on mostly using the car as an around town toy, not really a long distance highway cruiser, so the additional RPMs shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Alphasud40]

With a 3.06 you will definitely narrow the performance gap between the 400E and 500E and it will be definitely more enjoyable in the city commute. 80% of my driving is highway and I like the 19-20mpg at 70-75. Much better than my W126 At 13-14mpg and premium ethanol free juice. The 400 has been a great driver so far.

 

[gsxr]

With a 3.06 you will definitely narrow the performance gap between the 400E and 500E and it will be definitely more enjoyable in the city commute. 80% of my driving is highway and I like the 19-20mpg at 70-75. Much better than my W126 At 13-14mpg and premium ethanol free juice. The 400 has been a great driver so far.

Not to derail this too far into a MPG discussion, but a USA-spec .034 should generally be in the 20-22mpg range. With mostly freeway driving it should be on the higher end of that range. I've seen as high as 24-25mpg on long trips. Our two current 034's have averaged better than 21mpg over a combined ~150kmi in the past 10-15 years. Both had peaks of >25mpg (nearly 400 miles!) on a single tank. It is rare to get under 20mpg even with in-town driving. I track every fillup in a spreadsheet.

If you rarely see above 20mpg, first verify your odometer isn't intermittent... this can be difficult to catch though.

 

[Alphasud40]

I track my mileage as well and the odometer seems to be accurate and fuel mileage consistent. I would like to purchase the scan tool and software because I don’t like flying blind. I spent 5K for my other scan tool which is used on modern stuff I work on. Right now resources are spent on other projects as much as I would like to buy 16“ wheels and perform other mods. i Have noticed a drop in economy since I started manually shifting. Part of my daily drive cycle is a large hill on highway 95 which requires (gives me the excuse) full throttle when turning off of the county road.

 

[gsxr]

You need the SDS with HHT-Win support for the .034/.036, total cost should be in the $500-$750 range. This will show you live data, however you also need a hand-held blink code reader as well. Don't expect many (or any) useful fault codes though, if the engine is otherwise running normally. Wouldn't hurt to check for stuff like slightly dragging brake calipers. My numbers include a fair amount of WOT, I don't drive with an egg taped to the pedal, lol! The peaks of 25mpg+ were generally at high speed freeway trips, 70-85mph for hours with minimal stops.

 

[Alphasud40]

The revival of this thread led me to search again for a 2.65 differential. Looks like I will be in the 2.64 camp after securing one from a 91 SL with ASR for $250 to my door. Life will get more funner

 

[gerryvz]

I try not to worry too much about fuel economy... assuming the difference is reasonable, say 10% or so. I've never seen any good data on MPG after a big change in axle ratio. I've got a 2.65 LSD collecting dust that I plan to install in my wife's E420 daily driver. I've got years of MPG data on that car, so it will be a good test bed to see what the MPG is with 2.65's.

I changed my 560SEC's stock US-spec 2.47 rear end to a 3.07 gearset, sourced from a W116, transplanted into a spare 2.47 housing. This was almost 20 years ago. RPMs at 80 MPH are around 800 higher than with the 2.47. My reason for knowing this is a direct comparison by owning also over the years a 560SL and a 560SEL, both of which had the stock US-spec 2.47s in them. The SEL and the SEC with the shorter ratio pretty much got the same MPG - probably because the SEL was a bit heavier and such.

I would say that overall, MPG is around 1-1.5 MPG LESS with the 3.07 than the 2.47. Typical MPG over the years with the SEC has been around 13.5 since I started tracking mileage in 2006.

560SEC (Mercedes-Benz 560SEC) | Fuelly

E500 mileage is here (since September 2003 when I picked up the car):

E500 (Mercedes-Benz E500) | Fuelly

 

[Quick4door]

I am most definitely not getting better than 20mpg in my .034. I should probably look into that.

 

[Beater400E]

My diff shipped out today. I plan on replacing the axle seals before I install it. Is it accurate that I'll also need to swap the input yoke to install the 300ce diff? I wasn't 100% sure on that. Just want to order the pinion seal if so.

 

[gsxr]

My diff shipped out today. I plan on replacing the axle seals before I install it. Is it accurate that I'll also need to swap the input yoke to install the 300ce diff? I wasn't 100% sure on that. Just want to order the pinion seal if so.

YES. The V8's have a 4-bolt yoke, 6-cyl has 3-bolt. You'll need to swap. Be really careful not to over-tighten the nut...

 

[Beater400E]

Fortunately I've set up quite a few differentials over the years, so I am familiar with the process. I assume it uses a crush sleeve, is that correct?

 

[gsxr]

yup. Crush sleeve inside, if you over-torque, you know what happens next.

 

[Alphasud40]

Yup, bearings first whine saying I don’t wannaaaaa. Followed by growling it’s gonna cost ya!