NEWKID190E

I was helping my son buy his first car Thursday and noticed the dealer had a 1988 190E for sale, I looked it over, drove it, wanted it. I went home that night did alot of research and found negitive feed back to be at a minimum which intriged me even more. I had a lenghty discussion with my uncle who is a Jag mechanic 35 years + he said its a great car. So I went to the dealer 2 days later and bought it ( still a little skepitical ). It has a 115k on it, and needs a radio other than that I can find nothing wrong with it mechanically nor cosmetically. Hope I made a sound choice. Not only is it my first Benz its the first import I ever owned in my life!

C280 Sport

The 190E is a hell of a car. Did you buy it at an actuall dealer like a MB dealer? Congrats

AMGC

be careful 190s are addictive

RDM3

When was the oil, trans fluid, brake fluid and coolant flushed or changed?

Check the exhaust manifold for cracks, mine looked like that one in the pic and it was starting to crack, the part alone online is $420, labor around $150.

Look at the ignition wires, see if they are new looking, maybe check a spark plug and see if it is dirty or old.

Pull the floor mats up and check for rust

Check the shocks, struts, shock mounts if you can.

Try to look at the battery tray, they tend to rust badly, mine did, about $70 to replace.

Take it for a drive, look for trans slipping, run it for awhile, let it sit and looks for oil leaks or any leaks.

If the trans slips going from park to drive, park to reverse, etc, I would get the trans fluid flushed, I had a slipping issue and the trans flush solved it

I am pretty sure the A/C is R134, but if not thats about a $1000 conversion, but check to see if it is blowing cold

AMGC

cracked exhaust manifolds can be tig welded for 2 dollars. and especially not worth new ones if its a 2.6. PLus they are easy as **** to take out so you got screwed on labor and dont question me because i would know. As for checking the shocks and struts its as easy as looking for oil on them. the strut mounts all you gotta look for is if they are broken in the fronts popping out. these cars are easy as **** to work on and pretty cheap too

RDM3

You drive a MB and you $2 twig weld things, kind of cheap huh? If you can't afford to fix it properly than maybe you should go buy something you can fix properly.

PhilfromPA

Congrats on the purchase, post up some pics! Hopefully it came with some service records so you have an idea of what's been already addressed. Either way, with most of the issues as long as you are a little handy and willing to work on it, you can get off relatively cheap with most things.

That's pretty harsh, especially since you didn't fix it yourself either. One could also bring up your car being 4x4 status...if you wanted to do things "properly"

RDM3

No it was not harsh, as AMGC was harsh in another thread with about the same topic, I posted the same answer as what to look for and he went off at me for posting the same info.

You are right i did not fix it myself as I am not educated in that area, so I rather a mechanic fix it the right way, I just got the part for them.

Here is the other thread where he mouthed off https://mbworld.org/forums/190e-w201...190e-sale.html

What is with the 4x4 status, I don't understand what you are getting at.

PhilfromPA

4x4 status = you went & upsized your rims but didn't put the effort/money into actually lowering the car, so now it has fender gap like it's a 4x4 truck.

I'm not one to call people out, but saying someone shouldn't have a mb because they rewelded a manifold?

RDM3

Hey I didn't start this whole thing, I merely gave the OP some things to look for and you decided to make some comments.

The fender gap looks more than it really is, and if I lowered it the the tires would rub against the fender.

Gullwing

Mommy Daddy stop fighting your ruining my party

AMGC

yeah your right Im wicked cheap because Ive owned 4 cosworths and have 1 I am supercharging for a daily and another that will be pushing 12PSI to begin with.

I was just stating these cars arent hard to work on and are cheap to maintain if you look on these sites for whats wrong. I have never tig welded my own headers because they are Mosselman

RDM3

I am not even going to go into what I have owned and do own.

AMGC

I do not care.Expensive cars and a 4X4 status 190(haha had to after Phils post) to a mechanic<2 custom fully built boosted Cosworths. ever drop the subframe on one of these?. Also ever removed multiple 16V engines? Your opinions on maintenance are not backed up by personal experience. I was stating what I know, while you were stating what your mechanic told you<3

RDM3

I want to apologize to the OP NEWKID10E, this thread was about him and his new 190 and any advice and it went way off topic.

I hope you enjoy your 190, just keep up with maintenance, and check it out well before you buy it, they are nice little cars.

I am done bickering back and forth as it is a waste of time.

Wolfe190

These cars are known for electrical gremlins. If you start having any weirdness with engine lights, bad idle, etc, consider the OVP relay. It took me monthes to figure that one out lol


As a side note, I've always wanted a 190 to rally. They were originally made for it anyway