Over the last few months, I’ve had an itch to get behind a w126 coupe aka a c126 as a daily driver. I’ve been keeping a close eye on the cars for sale around the country, but hadn’t ever pulled the trigger on one (or even inspected one) as I already have 2 cars and a motorcycle.
Well, that was until I came up with a plan. I decided instead of holding out for a 500SEC or trying to grab a bargain in a 560SEC (the price on these has gone astronomical in the last 18 months), I’d keep an eye out for a moderately priced 380SEC. This way, I could sell my Audi S3, have a nice comfortable car as a daily and enough cash left over to tidy up the 450SLC.
And so when the opportunity came up to purchase one from auction on GraysOnline – I figured why not? Now looking at the photos, I could see it was going to need a bit of work …
But what I wasn’t expecting, was how much work. Body wise, there’s a small ding in the bonnet and there’s peeling paint on both doors. It’s this peeling paint that I’m particularly annoyed with as I feel the photos on the grays listing we’re taken to downplay the extent of this. Now I know that when buying from auction it’s up to the buyer to perform their own due diligence, but when there’s an obvious defect in the body work and they take photos in a way that minimises the defect – that’s deceitful in my opinion.
Moving along the body there was also another shock – all of the external locks had been damaged by theft or vandalism and were inoperable.
The engine – 276,000km and still on the original timing chain. This needs to be done ASAP. The engine was also idling very high (1500rpm when warm and in drive) and extremely rough when shifting into drive or reverse. Although driving along the shifts were nice and smooth.
Then there was the air conditioning. The fuse for the blower motor keeps burning out and the ac compressor was disconnected. This will need to be addressed before it can take on daily driver duties.
Finally, there was the ABS warning light that came up. I don’t believe in taking chances on safety so this is high up in the list of priorities.
Now, although I was disappointed when I finally got it home there was at least some good news. The car drove very smooth. In fact it’s one of the smoothest and most well insulated cars I have been in. Not bad considering it’s almost 40 years old (and obviously been neglected for a while).
So with these things in mind I mad a call to Bruno and asked him the pass his critical eye over it. Here’s what he came back with:
Yep! 6 whole pages of items that need addressing. We decided to tick off the critical items first and would come back to the others over time. I’ve specifically asked Bruno to take his time with this as it could take a while to get the money together to cover it all.
The car has now been with him for over a month and I’m expecting it back this weekend. Jobs completed include:
- Replacement of timing chain and guides
- Replacement of fuel pump and filter
- Injector seals
- New lead and spark olugs
- Replacement of distributor cap and rotor
- Adjusted the lifters
- Replace upper and lower radiator hoses
- New battery tray
- Replace the SLS bracket and reservoir
- Replace rear sway bar links
- Drained fuel tank and inspected for rust
- Replaced ABS sensors
- Investigate why the blower fuse keeps burning out.
I think it’s going to drive like a new car after all of that. I can’t wait to get it back.
Speaking of ABS sensors – believe it or not they are exclusively used on the 380sec and no other car – not on the 500SEC or the 560SEC or even on the 380SE. All those other models use a different sensor. So as you can imagine finding them is not cheap or easy. A quick call to MB Parramatta and I was give a price of .. you better sit for this .. $1100 each! Ouch! Fortunately a quick search online and I was able to find them for $195USD at ECSTuning.com – and they offer 2 day shipping. I’ve been waiting 2 weeks now for a pair of shoes from a Melbourne retailer. You can see why many Aussies are open to online purchases from overseas.
I’ve also bought a pair of replacement doors, replacement locks (full set – boot, doors, ignition and glovebox) and a new aperture panel to address some rust under the rear windscreen (surprisingly inexpensive from MB Parramatta). I’ll be getting the body looked at straight after I sell the Audi.
Unfortunately it means the 107 won’t get quite as much attention as I was hoping to give it. Still, I now own 2 pretty amazing classic Mercedes-Benz coupes and I’m pretty happy with that!
