elolson

WoW! That is a lot of info! That pretty much describes the car. You may be impressed, by I will be even more impressed if I can get them to work. Right now they are just a couple of funny black and white chunks of plastic with letters, numbers, plastic, and a few sliding levers that don't do much of anything. They appear to be fully intact and all the tubing looks good, but notice zero seat difference regardless of the setting. I can only suspect that there is a pump somewhere in the car that is not functional.


Thanks for looking that up and taking what looked like quite a bit of time to type in all that info. I am going to print it off and stick in my MB380 file for future reference.

When I get the car back Monday, I'll try and take some pictures and add to the post what all the parts are, maybe that will help someone else.

elolson

I got my car back today. The steering gear box was replaced, along with all 4 shocks, the AC compressor, the tires were balanced and the front end aligned. It now drives very nice with tight steering.

I have taken this car to two mechanics. The first shall remain un-named. The second is my old reliable Midway automotive who I have been going to for years. The first knows MB very well but their work is kind of sloppy. They replaced the control arm bushings and did not tighten up one of the control arm nuts, it was not even tight enough to keep the washer from clanging around and was causing the clunk I mentioned earlier. I had taken the car to my old reliable mechanic to get the shocks done as I had been given an estimate of 700-800 for this which was clearly BS. The shocks cost me a couple of hundred and Midway charged me 80 labor to install, a very good deal and was less than 300$ compared to the 7-8. This is when they found the loose control arm nut and that the alignment that had been done was garbage.

The alignment could have been exacerbated by the control arm not being properly fastened. You just hate paying for work that is not done right. I drove 300 miles on this thing at highway speeds, talk about lucky to be alive. Also, AC belts could be moved around the pully with your fingers. Clearly some sloppy work.

I am going to talk to the first shop owner and give him the benefit of the doubt that his guys are just not paying attention to detail and that this can be corrected as their shop has gotten good reviews on this site and they are in fact very knowledgeable.

So, still waiting for the seat and battery tray to come in but the car is getting very close and I need to post some pics.

elolson

So you are going to have your car completely restored by MB? I saw that online and was very impressed. I am sure you will be enjoying that car for years. I would very much like to see some before and after photos, especially of the under carriage and engine compartment.

elolson

Ok, the classic crappy idle that I have been reading about everywhere. Yep this car has it.

Symptoms: Only when hot and when there is no load on the engine such as when in park or neutral. When driving and stopped in drive, idle is pretty smooth. It feels like a miss, shakes the car, you can hear the gurgling through the exhaust. But smooth acceleration, no problems running down the road and when warming up when the fuel ckt is good and rich.

Diagnosis: Lean miss condition. Much reading of posts pointed me to looking at vacuum leaks and the infamous idle control valve. I started with the ICV. Pulled that dude off, blew out the guts with brake parts cleaner followed by WD40. Used some electrical contact cleaner on the two prongs and slapped it all back together. Sure enough, this has solved about 85% of the problem. There is still a "miss" but way better than it was. Clearly there are other air leaks that are messing up the controllers ability to get the mixture right at this sensitive condition but it's a start.

The bosch air intake meeter with the fuel distributor on top is connected to a rubber plenum that directs the air into the intake manifold. When wiggled around I can see fluid oozing in and out around the bottom, so definitely more leaks to go but that sucker looks real expensive and even probably even more expensive spread out all over my driveway in a bunch of parts. I will wait on tackling that one and live with what I have for the moment.

elolson

OK guys. Major electrical problem. First symptoms were the erratic tach. Now we have full on disaster. Seemed to be exacerbated by engaging the cruise control. Then when in cruise the car would surge as the cruise would kick in and out. Also, when at a dead stop running, the tach will go completely dead and the speedometer will bounce up now and then. Also, turn signals will stop working. Then entire gauge functions will bounce around, speed, tach, oil, all will bounce around. Is there some kind of master ground or power to the dash cluster? With everything acting this way, the only thing I can think of is a bad wiring harness or a bad ground. I am leaning toward the ground as I had mentioned earlier a connection to this problem when I changed my plug wires. A weak ground would cause sensitivity to RF interference.

Anyway, for the 380se, what is the story on electrical issues for the dash functionality>

elolson

I cleaned the terminal block on the passenger side fender well that takes a wire straight from battery positive and then feeds a lot of electrical from here on. It was badly oxidized and had a lot of what looked like wet sand. I loosened up all screws, sprayed liberally with electrical contact cleaner and reseated all screws being careful to bite into new metal without stripping.

Also, I rotated back and forth every fuse in the fuse box under the hood right by the master brake cylinder. I made sure to break the oxide and re-seat them. Pulled all relays and wiggled them back in.

This has cleared up my electrical problems. I have claimed victory in the past, but I have given it a full week and tach is rock solid, all gauges work, turn signals are perfect. Maybe earlier on when I mentioned that replacing plug wires helped should have been a sign of a bad/floating connection somewhere. In any case, victory!

elolson

The latest battle is the rough idle that worsens in park or neutral when hot, but is ever, ever so slightly present when in drive and no accessories running. Not present at all when AC on or when driving.

I read a lot of stuff on the forums and am now doing some work. I tested and adjusted ignition timing. I pulled the vacuum line on the distributor and adjusted to 0 deg TDC at idle. It was about 6 deg advanced of this before adjustment. This has alleviated the severity of the rough idle but not the problem.

Further reading and it seems like I am going to have to dig into the FI system, since being closed loop, it should take care of a lean condition. The FI test kit is anywhere from 200 to 250 and I ordered a service manual CD set.

I do have a bosch FI book by Ben Watson who basically says that this system comes down to pressure. Right now I only feel the pressure on my bank account

I did pull two plugs and they were bone white. A good sign that things are not right with the AF ratio, regardless of cause.

harkgar

Please share your pride and joy with us. Does it have the original paint? I did when I traded the car in. The spare was original.

harkgar

Your car is not a Camry. You have to keep feeding her with Dollars. When it is running well it is so sweet. The Camry is more a kitchen appliance and just as enjoyable.

Untertürkheim

I am hoping to have this car forever, without exaggeration. I am out of town and will be until January, but I will be sure to take some pictures before I drop the car off, in addition to a few "in progress" shots from when I go visit.

Untertürkheim

My paint and spare are original, but I fear that the car will have to be repainted (632 Light Ivory), in addition to a bit of upholstery work (Palamino).

elolson

Tracking down the rough idle:

Pulled every spark plug and checked for something obvious, they all looked good and the same.

Pulled the rubber Y hose off at the vacuum check valve by the master brake cylinder. One branch connected directly to the back of the engine at the manifold, I pulled the other two lines and capped the ends. The occasional miss did not go away. I also checked the hard line where it connected into the manifold to make sure I did not miss a leak there.

My service manual has not shown up yet but I think that is the main source of vacuum for the car. I'll wait until it does, confirm that vacuum is or is not the cause and proceed. I do not want to buy the FI gauge kit if it is a vacuum problem.

MATT300SD

I also have a 380SE. You absolutely have to stay on top of maintenance With these things.

Some things that are in need of attention on mine...

1) transmission is clunky. sometimes shifts hard when cold. vibrates, grinds on freeway. may need an overhaul. need to inspect all drive shaft and differential parts.

2) need to fix oil leak. also burns a lot of oil. some blow by when hot but not bad. oil pressure issue too. everytime i rev the engine up to 2000 RPM the oil gauge goes up to 3 and when i let off it goes back down to 1.

3) ongoing vaccuum issues. just replaced a few vac hoses. not so bad now.

4) strange idle. sometimes really high, sometimes very low and stalls. low when hot.

5) sometimes starts with barely cranking the starter. sometimes have to crank starter twice before engine fires up.

6) A/C doesn't work. blower motor is out of ballance or something. rattles a lot.

7) needs new antenna.

8) big smoke cloud on startup. smells like unburnt fuel. generally a smoky car because of oil being burnt.

9) suspension and steering needs tightening up.

10) basic cosmetic issues. needs paint or compound waxing. some dents. front has lots of rock chips. mom parked it under a tree and now the hood is covered in sap. can't get it off. she also scraped the right side along the garage wall and broke off the rearmost body molding panel thing. haven't been able to find the gromet that holds it in place. the fender is now dented. wheels need blasting and refinishing. interior needs new carpets, passenger front seat has a tear in the leather. wood is cracked on the console. needs new windshield and rear window because of the white stuff in the lower corners.

Overall the car looks pretty good and is a very reliable, strong runner. just needs a lot of work to make it perfect. I'm looking for a nice 300SD or SDL because they're not so prone to mechanical issues and get better MPG. my 380SE is a piece of work but a great car for everything pretty much. i love the huge trunk. lots of interior space. never lets me down. doesn't have all the electrical problems that modern cars have that disables their being able to be driven.

Like I said, stay on top of maintenance. Don't flake even if it's just one thing. I recommend taking it to someone who knows these cars very well to have it worked on. The dealership can be a rip off and often doesn't even know what the problem is. (the driver's side window wouldn't roll down so i took it in and they said it was the motor when it was actually just a little fuse.

-MATT300SD

elolson

Matt300SD,

Thanks for the advice. Sounds like your car also had suspension issues. I think I have mine all fixed. The car is now very tight and responsive with no slop in the wheel, when the wheel turns, the tires turn. There is the sound of rattling dishes when I go over bumps or the road is rough around a turn, but I have not figured that one out yet.

The bane of the 80's was the love of vacuum controlled devices. Once the little hoses start cracking and leaking it almost destroys the driveability of the car for maybe 10$ worth of plastic.

I think I am coming down the home stretch, worst case it needs a fuel control pressure regulator for another 1K to fix up the rough idle. Best case it is vacuum connection leaks fixed one at a time.

Good luck with you car search and I'll keep posting with what I find, hopefully it helps somebody else.

elolson

I ordered a new seat frame some time back. It came in and I had the time over xmas. Pulled out the front seat and disassembled. Pulled off the upholstrey and replaced the frame. The hardest part was to get the seat off the power rails. The access holes for the middle screws needed to be lined up. When aligned, this provided access to 4 of the 6. Pulled the seat out, pulled these 4, put the seat back in the car, hooked up the power, adjusted to get access to final two and removed seat. Pulled the final two screws and it came right off.

Paying attention to the routing of all the vacuum hoses and wires was important. I also bought a new horse hair pad and installed that at the same time. The shop I had taken it to had been in there, what a hack job, glued down foam rubber was their solution as well as stuffing foam in between the soft springs. The new frame is great, even firm support across the seat. When putting the seat back together, I got sloppy and tightened down two screws, installed seat, moved, pulled seat and then when I wen to put in the final 4 the screws did not line up good. Three went in and then I cross threaded the last. Forced it in, what the hell. I figured the only reason to pull it again is another seat frame, so I'll just replace a screw if it ever comes to that.

Got it all back together. Took about 4 hours for the whole job. Lesson learned is to pull the bar that lets the seat belt insert slide first. If you leave it on the seat, then when you pull the seat out it can get caught under the plastic trim on the center console and rip into it. Yep, small tear in mine now. Nothing a little glue won't fix, but that is how nice cars start to get hacked up, one small tear at a time.

I ordered a C.I.S. fuel injection test kit as well as a handheld vacuum pump. That should be here next week and I am going to tear into the rough idle problem. Best case is I'll be able to diagnose the problem, worst case, I still have to take it in to a shop and the cost of the kit plus pump was < 150$. Just a little over an hour of labor at the local dealer.

More to come....

cruiser

I have had my 1985 380 SE for just over a year It had 77,000 miles on it when purchased. It is a pleasure to drive but I too have had to make an investment in the form of time and money in an effort to restore this car.
It is the somewhat rare color scheme of desert sand (maroon) with palamino (tan) interior. I would post a photo if I knew how. The records in the car showed regular dealership maintenance when new and the first 38000 miles in 3 years. The next 40000 miles took another 18 years.

Done so far:

- all fluids and filters
- flex disc
- restore original rims ($100 each and they look great)
- repair back dirvers side window
- windsheild washer reservoir
- ball joints
- tires
- headlights
- battery
- valve cover gaskets
- cam shaft oilers
- cruise control
- air pump
- all belts and hoses

Still to do:

- new antenna
- stereo does not always work
- air conditioning stopped working (have not had it checked)
- carb adjustment to be done
- heater blower stopped working (has happened once before and jiggling the connection fixed it for 6 months)
- a little body work needed
- window tinting
- hood pad
- rust proofing
- brake lines eventually
- small oil leak but my mechanic says this is normal and not worth repairing (he also says not to use synthetic oil)

I have found an excellent mechanic (30 years experience on classic MB vehicles) who loves this car. He says the engine looked brand new when he was installing the oiling kit. It reaches 100MPH quickly for a car of this weight and age with no detectable vibration anywhere. Cruising speed of 75MPH is very comfortable. So in spite of the little things that keep happening I can foresee keeping this car forever. The ride is great, the car is fun to drive and you feel extremely safe in it as well. All this for about $10,000. Where else can you get a car that is likely going to keep running for 40 years or 300000 to 400000 miles for that price? One caveat here is that you have to gamble a little on what may or may not need attention next.

elolson

Cruiser,

Your car reads like it is very nice. Where did you get your rims done. I too need to restore my rims. I was thinking about going with a powder coating shop and original MB gray rather than the chrome coating that you can find.

I was curious about your mention of a carb adjustment as these cars are fuel injection. What exactly is the problem?

All of my test equipment came in and here is what I did.

Took off all the intake air cleaner stuff. Attached the pressure gauge to the control line on the fuel distributer and the valve side of the line to the control line on the warm up compensator. Closed the valve and jumpered 7 and 8 on fuel pump relay. Got a good system pressure. Then did the initial cold start control pressure test, Pressure was high to start with for ambient temp of 68 deg. and then climbed to normal. I measured voltage on warm up regulator plug and got 13.77. Turned off the engine after a thorough warm up. Energized pump again. Pulled lower chamber vacuum line on warm-up compensator and energized with about 20 in-hg (500mbar) vacuum. Darn, no change in control pressure, it was supposed to drop.

So two problems. High control pressure at cold start and no enrichment at normal temp with vacuum applied to compensator. All indicators are to a bad warm-up compensator. Time to dust off the check book and drop a grand on a new one. Arrgghhhh!

elolson

I was able to find a rebuilt warm-up compensator (WUC) from Specialtauto.com It was 240.00 way less than the 1250 that some places want. Don't bother getting express shipment in hopes of getting it sooner. He ships when he ships. So I got the express shipment and he got around to shipping it days later, might as well just have gotten ground. But the prices are good and the unit was in mint condition when it came in.

Installed the new WUC and the fuel pressure test kit. Hurray, got a nice low cold pressure reading and enrichment when cold with vacuum applied. All other pressures normal. It was a bugger getting the hard line to reseal at the fuel distributer. Tore it up fairly good before I just took a deep breath, took the whole thing off and teflon tapped the coupler end out of the distributor being careful to leave a few layers of tape hanging over the lip to line against the hard line molded end. This time it sealed just fine. No leaks.

AARRRGGGHHHHHH! Exact same rough idle after warm-up. But at least now it does run better cold and it passes all the pressure tests, before the old one clearly failed two tests. OK, keep trouble shooting.


Had to go buy an analog meter as my scope would just not lock onto a signal and my Fluke 177 was up and down even though it is supposed to be true RMS. Picked up an made in China POS for 20.00 with a nice big window. I calibrated the scale at home with my powersupply and my Fluke, it was dead nuts on. OK maybe every now and then something from China is not total junk. The signal I was talking about is from #3 pin of diagnostic plug and Battery + 12v.

Hooked up the analog meter as noted in the manual. BTW, I had replaced the O2 sensor as the old one looked pretty crusty. Note that the fitting on the new bosch does not go with the factory plug. So I cut the wire off the old one and spliced it onto the new one, now it fits the factory connection. Under the car by the oil pan on PAX side of car.

You may have no idea, but the car ran the same whether the O2 was plugged in or not or whether I pulled the connector off the KE control unit. Signal is hunting up and down, not too much but you can see it drop down, engine misses, then it surges back up, and so on.

I figured I'd try the on-off ratio adjustment as I had just replaced the WUC. Went down to Ace and bought a Fiskar hand crank drill, a looonnngggg 15/64 bit, some very nice made in USA extractors, and a sharp center punch. I punched out the sheared tops of the screws at the base of the adjustment funnel and then hand drilled in about a 1/16 of an inch. I then put an extractor in the drill and hand cranked out the screws, they came right out with no trouble. The plug on the top however was another story. I guess it helps to know that it is a plug and not another shear screw. No matter, I drilled down until I hit the first of a steel protection disk a few MM down from the top of the soft metal plug. Then used an extractor to tear into the soft metal. After fussing with it for 20 minutes I realized it was a plug and pried it out.

I figured I'd jump right in and start the car and give an adjustment the try. The car cranked and cranked and cranked. WTF??? Make note that the car will not start with that funned removed, it is a clear hole into unmetered air. I mask taped over the hole and it fired right up. Ok, back to ace, picked up a couple of hex head bolts and some lock washers and 5 minutes after I got home the funned was reinstalled and idling back up to temp.

Hooked up the Multimeter again and the instructions say to first unhook and plug the purge line connection. It is near the radiator on the RHS. I pulled both lines going into the T-connector and capped them both with soft rubber caps. Next the instructions say to check the ratio at idle, then rev up to 2500 RPMS and check there. The ideal adjustment is to turn the mixture screw down in the funnel (3mm long allen key) until the two measurements do not differ by more than 10. I don't have the factory tester so I took 10 to mean to get them as close as possible. Turns out that an ever so slight enrichment (CW) brought the idle reading down. A few trials and it is clear that the 2500 reading is the baseline as it barely moves, it is the idle setting that is most impacted by the ratio adjustment. So, a small turn CW and they were pretty darn close. At least a lot closer than they were before I started and I left them hovering around 3.6 to 4.0 volts at the two readings: idle and 2500 RPM.

But still hunting around and still missing at idle. Turn the AC, or give it a little load like in drive and it completely clears up.

My list of stuff to check is:
1) WUC
2) O2 sensor
3) KE Control unit
4) Frequency valve
5) Fuel distributor
6) Injectors

The manual says that the on-off ratio should be variable but not hunting... so... the order is in for a rebuilt KE control unit.

More to come....

elolson

So when I say hunting, here is what was happening:

Let's take yesterday morning. Ambient air temp: about 40. I measured the oil temp sensor resistance and it is coming out about 1.2 ohms or so. Car starts right up and idles smoothly. Temp climbs, about x minutes later (x since I did not time it, but not instantly and not 20), I measured the resistance again and it has essentially open circuited. Just like it is supposed to.

Now, I take my analog meter, set the scale to 2.5 volts and put the red on battery +12 and the black in #3 on the diagnostic socket. It is hovering almost exactly at 1.25 volts. I revved the engine a few times, turned on the AC, revved it again, let it bake a bit, then turn off all accessories.

Now what the needle is doing is as follows in a continuous process:
1) 1.25 volts engine is smooth
2)needle is fairly rapidly falling towards about 0.8 to 0.9 volts
3)you can hear the engine idle slow ever so slightly as it does this and by the time it gets to 0.8 - 0.9 it misfires a few times.
4) Magically the needly springs back to 1.25, the engine revs a smidge and it is smooth for a 0.5 second or so and then restarts the cycle.

For those folks just starting out, the signal on #3 is actually a modulated pulse train. The "on-off" ratio is just the duty cycle of this pulse train. A digital meter like my Fluke 177 does a terrible job of telling you what is going when looking at this signal. My crummy $20 anilog meter, however, does a fantastic job. Since it will visually do a better job of averaging that voltage, as the duty cycle increases, so will the measured voltage, and vice versa.

So there it is, a needle hunting back and forth between 1.25 and 0.8 volts. Misfiring at the bottom, surging back to 1.25, running good, and then steadily roughening back down to 0.8.

I yanked the lambda control unit and plugged in the rebuilt one from programa. Cleared up the hunting business and the car idles much smoother and without misfiring. But.... it is still not smooth like my 2003 VW jetta. I guess I just expected it to be smoother. Maybe someone on the forum with a pristine 380 can qualitatively describe their engine idle.

OK, then not leaving well enough alone. I had it running good, but on another forum folks had mentioned that on later years MB has hooked up a shunt around the idle control valve. The rubber hoses have flat spots in them both into and out of the ICV like there was early design intent so the capability had been built into the parts. Well, I got out my 3/16 drill bit, added a hole to each, and installed a cut to size aluminum tube shunt. This did, wait for it, ......., exactly nothing but add two more potential leaks into a system that appears to be already touchy to vacuum leaks.

Maybe the air flow offset is taken advantage of by the later car year electronics with a finer trim control, but I did not see the point in my 85.

Today, the plan is to take another shot at the on-off ratio tuning now that the car has a new brain. More to come...

elolson

Also, I had my voltages off in the post before this last one. Just divide by 4. I wish I could go back and edit. Another screw up, call it nube fever. When I thought I was pulling the connector off the lamdba control unit, what I was really doing was pulling the connector off the idle control unit. The ICU is in the middle of the fire wall and the lambda control unit is behind a kick panel on the front passenger side in the car. That one stung a little, but I normally hate reading manuals and the ICU did look real official and all. Hopefully folks keep going so they do not get confused.

cruiser

You are more technically advanced than I am. The adjustment to be made is performed while the car is hooked up to an emissions tester and will decrease emissions and improve fuel economy. The rims were done at an autobody shop. They sand blasted, painted, and finished with a clear coat. I was investigating other options but I am glad I kept the stock rims.

elolson

Hi cruiser,

That was true for the older units, but assuming a functioning system, the factory service manual has you adjust the ratio until is it the same at idle and at 2500 rpms. Thanks for the info on the rims. I think stock is the way to go. Nothing like the classic look and style. Bling and pimped out just looks stupid to me. I would rather have a car that is mechanically 100% squared away before adding a single thing for show. But that is just me.


Here is what I did this morning:

I warmed up the car good with a short drive to the store, got it back home. I am going to declare victory on the rough idle. I did one last fine tune of the on-off ratio. It still oscillates just a small bit, but the value is in the exact same range as at 2500 rpms. I can also trim it out anywhere by turning the screw, it is neat to see the control system adjust the ratio to compensate for the richer or leaner mixture. So now I know it is doing what it is supposed to.

Many causes for a rough idle. I replaced:
1) O2 sensor (just because)
2) Warm-up compensator (failed cold pressure test, not by a little bit either, it was clearly off), new one was right in the middle of the acceptable band for temp I took the reading at.
3) Replaced the lambda control unit. The old one was malfunctioning with a wide swing hunting for a value.
4) Added the shunt line around the ICV, I don't think this was necessary and I noticed no difference in idle.

Interestingly, the car seems a touch more sluggish now. I guess without that rich charge getting blasted into the engine with no compensation, it is just not as peppy.

Summary VICTORY over the rough idle.

elolson

A day or so later and that baby is nice and smooth. Interestingly on Saturday morning I rolled down all the windows and I heard a clunk in the back pax rear.

What now? The glass somehow came detached from the mechanism that pushes it up and down. I tried up and I could here it grinding into the glass. I ran it all the way down heard it clunk, and then tried going back up. The window was pushed up and now I have a nice scratch in the glass. I was too stunned to speak. The very day I fixed my rough idle the damn rear window mechanism breaks.

Also, when the economy button is on and the temp wheel is turned up, sometimes there is no heat when the car is warmed up. Sigghhhhhh. Looks like I'll be pulling a door and a dash apart.

The only good news I got is that Harman auto glass can source and install both a windshield AND a rear window for about 550$ installed. MB was quoting me 1900 just for the back glass. As soon as new rubber moldings come in I am going to have the windows replaced. The front one has scrapes from dry wipers and some pits and half the back defroster lines do not work. Replacement should fix both up.

I have noticed that fixing the FI problems has really changed the character of the car. It is smoother now and does not have the instant more jerky punch that it did. I definitely notice the effect of the closed loop system functioning. The sudden pressure change switch is fully functional, but there is just not that uncorrected and persistent surge of fuel that gave it a little more pep before. I like the change, more controlled and functioning correctly.

elolson

Does anyone have experience with rear window moldings?

Do the aftermarket ones work OK or is dealer only the way to go?

elolson

It has been a while so I thought I would give you all an update. The glass came in (front and rear windshields) and I had an appointment set up to replace all 4 speakers when the glass was out since it is easier that way. This is because there are no after market speakers that I could find that would fit underneath the plastic grill covers. The day I showed up to have them done it was pouring outside. The glass guys said the weather was all wrong and to wait for a better day.

I had oil leaks on the driver side coming out of the head gasket. I hate oil leaks. There was no way I was going back to my first MB mechanic, he was sloppy and charged a fortune. I tried another shop in town, it was the most bizarre conversation I have ever had with a mechanic, he did not want to do anything. So the locals are flakes. I called my parts dealership, Hoy-Fox MB in El Paso, TX and talked to the service manager. You may recall this dealership will price match as best they can and is where I get all my parts when I need them, local MB of Tucson has a standard mark-up of 3000% on everything ( a slight exaggeration). The service manager understood the issue. He said we could work something out.

I drove the car to El Paso and dropped it off. A small dealership compared to most I have seen. The service manager hooked me up with a service rep and said he'd keep an eye on the progress. I gave them 3 pages of stuff to fix. I have been checking in once a month and they work on it when all the other work has been done for the day. They have a guy who has been there 30 years doing the work and he has taken it home a few times to diagnose issues. They fixed the rear window off the track, and did the other side as well since it was probably close to failure also. They replaced both head gaskets. Replaced all my cracked wood trim. Replaced the mono-valve (cause of lack of heat and erratic temp control). There was a jumper wire coming out of the fuse box going into the firewall that was clearly not factory. They figured out what that was, removed it, and fixed the problem that whoever put that wire there to begin with was trying to patch.

They have also worked on a driveability problem that surfaced after I had fixed the FI issues. When cold and with gas applied, it would bog before going. Clearly still something wrong with components of the FI system (too many causes to list).

As I said, it has been months and I do not recall what all was on the list, but they have burned it down a little at a time.

My new molding and chrome trim is in the trunk waiting to get back to Tucson for glass installation.

End of July I am going to go pick it up. They have had it since March. So I'll let you know in a few weeks how all of this works out. One other thing, the first MB mechanic here in Tucson had soldered the antenna coax back together when some PO had cut it to install a chinese antenna. For you HAM guys or others who know anything about RF, this is the wrong fix. I intend to do a real repair when I get the car back.