*massively sarcastic tone*

As the title suggests I now drive the finest and most prestigious of all the marques.......yes I have a genuine Mercedes product in the lineup. Now I can glide down the boulevard and sneer at the peasantry with my hood star ever present in my gaze. Yes.....most excellent!

*sarcasm off*

Sorry I couldn't help myself with the above lol! So yeah, there is a Mercedes product in the lineup now.

I wanted something small to replace the Saturn that was around for a while but I had to have RWD and better crash performance since those were the two things I was really
looking for. The lack of the engine pointing the right way and the correct wheels being driven on the Saturn was just bothering me, plus this served as an excuse to own a mechanical fuel injection car. The capstone that pushed me over the edge was the fact it's a Mercedes from when they didn't have budgets and just made the car how they wanted.

This particular car is in very good shape chassis wise and on the interior, paint is weak and there are a few rust spots from chips that were left untreated but nothing I'm actively worried about/scared to fix. I'm also going to be trying my hand at repairing said issues myself with the mentality of "it's already messed up" so I won't be scared to paint/sand/weld etc...

First step after it arrives at my shop will be pulling the entire interior out and really cleaning the car inside and out. I may pull the engine as well to clean the bay but it's running very well and I would rather not disturb the Jetronic system yet, I bought the car stupid cheap due to a transmission issue. I just so happen to know the cause of said issue so I'll be correcting that plus preemptively addressing the K1/2 seals and spring and getting both the governor and modulator cleaned, adjusted, and all setup correctly.

Currently the trans has all gears at the correct speeds for both up/downshifts and responds to kick down and manual gear requests but engages over-harsh. This implies that the modulator is out of adjustment or that the vac accumulator has weak seal/line issue and is allowing leakage resulting too harsh of a pressure curve. The important part is the gears are all there and aren't slipping or engaging at incorrect times/flaring. It just a matter of adjusting it so feels seamless again, I'm not too worried plus it came with a spare 722.4 in the trunk so I have literally everything needed.

Almost every secondary system works, the only issues are the drivers window motor appears to have no power (might be as simple as the switch, might be as bad as needing a new motor) and the vacuum powered central locking either doesn't work or I am a dumbass and it doesn't have it. Still not sure on that but I'll know when I have the door panels off.

Here are pictures of the car at the old owners house, I'll be retrieving it Wednesday

 

Welcome. Congrats on your purchase. You will love your car. Be advised that they do need regular maintenance as all mechanical things do. Keep up with the regular maintenance and you'll have a car that will reward you for years to come. I would recommend a Dr. Colorchip paint kit for dealing with your paint chips. You'll need to know your car's paint code which you can get from the MB Classic Center by giving them your vin#. Dr. Colorchip can then perfectly match the paint kit to the paint on your car. BTW, I don't see the pictures of your car that you said you posted.

 

 

Thanks! I actually can't post them yet since I'm too new here, it's pending approval but I did submit them. If you want to see them now head over to clublexus, I have a matching thread there in car chat with all of them up.

I need to do a lot of paintwork already so I may end up having to respray most of the car.

Maintenance shouldn't be much of an issue other that replacing all the vac lines, I am somewhat dreading that but I want everything to work correctly. The rest of the car is stupid simple but it remains to be seen how I fare with analog adjustments.....

 

 

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on the purchase.
I would start with dressing the hood with the hood pad before too long.
This is an analog car (mostly) but there is really very little adjustment needed or desired for emissions/idle. Just keep that in mind.
It is best to measure things before taking any action, and generally the action is to replace malfunctioning part after proper diagnosis.
An sometimes the diagnosis can get tricky.

The exception to this is probably the modulator you mentioned for the auto transmission.

Should be a fun project

Happy motoring!

 

The dome light and sunroof switches are still there just pushed though the dash, I'll be seeing about printing sleeves for them to sit properly


Here are interior pictures, I'm very pleased it has the original radio/interior. Condition is not bad but I'm hoping once I pull everything out and clean it up it will be better.

Only things that aren't working appear to be easy fixes, the HVAC controls may be swapped over to euro type pending discovery of the source of the problem with these. I suspect the main vac line is leaking or one of control lines is dead since it doesn't switch zones.

 

The interior indeed looks in fine shape and a nice color combo. I have the same interior, it lasts well except the palomino plastics. I'll repeat 190EFan's commentary on chip marks. DR colorchip is your friend. After 30 years of usage I repaired nearly 200 chips/nicks/eggshell chips etc with that. Works great and if you give them the year and color code the match is perfect.
They even know the difference between a '89 Signal red and a '90 Signal red. Slightly different tone.

 

For a 38 year old car, I think it's in remarkably good shape. What's the mileage? I strongly advise you to heed Dolucassi's advise on making any kind of adjustment's for emissions or to the idle. MB pretty much designed these to be non-adjustable. Be sure to measure any values before you even think of doing an kind of adjustments. Adjustments of any kind might well get you into all kinds of trouble and keep the car from running properly. Keep us posted on your progress.

 

Thanks! Miles are 116k

I have a data logging scope and know how to adjust the KE system if it actually needs it, however I am going to leave it alone as long as it's working. At some point though I'm sure it will stop working and I'll have to rebuild it, I've done a few of these on Rolls cars from the same era without issue so I'm not too scared of this lol!

 

Well the car is at my shop but my tow guy lost the key....so that's gonna be fun to resolve. I'm hoping this doesn't set the trend for this car being a problematic vehicle lol!

 

You'll need to go to your local MB dealership with proof of ownership to be able to have another key made.

 

By MB standards, your car is barely broken in. You'll need more than a data logging scope. There are countless online posts about KE jetronic fuel systems having been "adjusted".

 

I've again already rebuilt a few of these.....I'm not an amateur at this. I know how to read the PWM waveform and sync it with a exhaust sniffer etc, I'm also not stupid and know very well that if the system does have an issue that you need to follow the full procedure to make sure the mechanical side is working correctly before doing anything else. That usually means a rebuild of the distributor and resealing everything, the reason those Rolls Royce cars ended up with me is because no one else local could address them....

Key issue is in progress of being resolved, local dealer is having the new ones made and sent from Texas. Still I'm annoyed since now I can't easily move the car around, once I have the new keys I'll be pulling everything apart.

 

Glad you're getting the key issue resolved. You can't say I haven't warned you on the KE jetronic fuel system. BTW, Dolucassi is an engineer and my father was an engineer and member of the Society of Automotive Engineers.

 

Okay....and I told you I have already rebuilt and properly adjusted these. What makes this car any different other than having 4 injection points vs 8? It's the same system just smaller and it's not magic if you have the factory manuals and tools

 

You might want to do a search for this topic on some of the online MB forums to read some of the horror stories about this issue. The KE-jetronic system was pretty much designed by MB to not be very adjustable in an effort to try to cut down on people making "adjustments" that foul up the system even more. I'm just trying to make sure you're aware. You can do with the information as you like.

 

Welcome and I certainly hope that you will enjoy restoring and driving your "new" 190E. If you are able to repair Rolls-Royce automobiles I am sure that the 190E would not present any worse challenges. I know from my own experience maintaining my 190E over many years that I was abale to do so without any help from a MB dealer since non exists less that 500 miles away. My grandson now owns my 1990 2.6 and so far has not had any trouble that he or grandma (me) haven't been able to sort out with the help available here and elsewhere where Dolucasi is available to assist me. I just come here occasionally to browse the comments but I feel confident you will enjoy the comeraderie of fellwo 190E enthusiasts.

 

Welcome and I certainly hope that you will enjoy restoring and driving your "new" 190E. If you are able to repair Rolls-Royce automobiles I am sure that the 190E would not present any worse challenges . I know from my own experience maintaining my 190E over many years that I was able to do so without any help from a MB dealer since none exists less that 500 miles away. My grandson now owns my 1990 2.6 and so far has not had any trouble that he or grandma (me) haven't been able to sort out with the help available here and elsewhere where Dolucasi is available to assist me. I just come here occasionally to browse the comments but I feel confident you will enjoy the cameraderie of fellow 190E enthusiasts who will be interested in how your project develops. We will likely all benefit in some way from your efforts to repair your 190E if you will let us know how you were able to with photos.

 

Hey Laura! Nice to hear your voice. Good to hear all's well with the 190E and your grandson.

Best,

 

Thank you so much for all your help over the years. The 190E has been working fine even starting at -30 without issue and my grandson is very particular about maintenance. I still get to ride in it but rarely. Kids don't have much time for grandma once they become teenagers. I probably spend too much time on the internet but it does help pass the time especial in winter. Take care.