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Drove it to work for the first time and it went well except for pulsing brakes, slightly out of balance tires, and I think both lower bushings on the front sides need replaced.
I have a 20 ton press and can press these out and put in new ones. I'll do both front and rear bushings on the front of the car. Best place to get just the bushings?
I placed an order through pelican parts for a pair of front upper inner and a pair of lower inner bushings. Should be here by next Friday in time to put them in over the weekend, weather permitting.
C230 Sport Coup + 2006 W164 ML350 + 99 Ford Escort (What the heck, it gets 38 mpg!)
Pulsing brakes?
Brakes are easy....just get a dead blow hammer if you don't already have one.
I hilariously used to knock them off with a carpenter hammer, banging for
a 1/2 hour till they finally broke loose. Not fun.
Got a deal blow hammer in caution orange from
Harbor Fright and it took like 2 whacks on the ML.
Turkey baste some fluid out of the resoviour, wrap with a rag. Remove wheel of course.
Remove 2 bolts for the calipers swing out, Push piston(s) back into the caliper using a clamp or large pliers,
using the pad as a contact surface,making sure fluid doesn't overflow, suck out some more
fluid if needed. One torx bolt holding each rotor, be sure to get Mercedes rotors. Cheap and they don't warp,
and Akebono ceramic pads. Last brake job you'll ever do. Also perhaps, keep a new rotor bolt on hand, though you can do it without them.
Use that dead blow hammer to knock off the rotor, and replace.
Toss old pads, rebolt calipers with some locktite blue.
(Had them come loose once) put in new pads,
suck out as much old fluid as possible and replace with new.
Akebono's don't need to be bedded. And last for-ever!!!!
I've done about a zillion brake jobs. Going to get the rotors milled down and go from there. I took the fuel pump and sender unit out today, didn't see anything odd except some dirt. Cleaned it all in both sides and it it back together. Well ffil it up and see how it goes.
I need to get the tires balanced and an alignment and I think I’ll be done with the suspension. Still don’t have a working washer. Pump doesn’t turn on, even with a new one installed.
Scratch that. I'm still getting some clunks over bumps. I am going to check the rack mounting bolts, however, I do notice that whenever I lift the car on a jack and then lower it, the strut mounting bracket as seen in the engine compartment moves up and down.. So.. I ordered a pair of strut mounts and they should be here sometime next week. Looks relatively easy to replace them, probably about an hour a side or so and I'll break out the trusty spring compressor. THEN I'll get the alignment done. Other than that, the car is a blast to drive.
$300 for the car
not sure how much for tax and tags
$50 for bumper moulding
$15.22 for hood lifts(struts)
$76 for two door handles
$10 washer pump (didn't fix the problem)
$66 for 10 gallons of oil plus filter
$73.57 for 3 gallons of valvoline maxlife ATF
$79.75 for pelican parts bushings
$81.77 for strut bushings that I pressed in this weekend.
$10.95 ATF dipstick tool
$15.65 center caps for wheels
$41.62 fuel filter
$26.78 Crank position sensor (still in box)
Most used cars need something, even if they run ok without it.. I bought a lot of stuff for this car because I wanted it like the center caps, fuel filter, extra CPS, all the bushings, etc. Many people would just drive the car as it is, but I wanted it to feel right without creaks, pops, noises, etc. I still need to either repair or replace the turn signal stalk as it doesn't stay in the right turn position and my windshield washer doesn't work, get the tires balanced, and get an alignment. Below are a couple additional photos of before one of the bushings was replaced and the press I used.
Totaling all up equals $547.31 plus 300 bucks for the car. Not bad at all.
You are like me, I am very **** and like my stuff to be in perfect condition as well.
Good luck with the remainder of the items. You may want to post a few more pics of the car when it ids all said and done and it is all clean and to your satisfaction.
C230 Sport Coup + 2006 W164 ML350 + 99 Ford Escort (What the heck, it gets 38 mpg!)
I keep a CPS in the glove box and extra bolt I ordered from MB, just in case.
Knock on wood, 17+ years of driving and 245K miles, and haven't needed it yet.
The cam sensor on top needs tape to stay attached though, I guess the dealer broke the tabs
way back when, car died, but I keep OBD reader in car, and it immediately pinpointed the sensor as the problem.
Pushed in it, taped it, and good since. I now have a few extra sensors from the junk yard picknpull, so
at some point....
A $500 good running car....man when I was a teenager $500 didn't buy sheet, I paid $1500
for a '71 VW bug but now you can get a Mercedes for less than that? Ha!
Last edited by C230 Sport Coup; 02-27-2019 at 04:53 PM.
So... not putting this car on the back burner or anything, but I picked up another Mercedes today. Bought a 2004 ML500 from Copart. 60k on it, it needs a front bumper assembly and passenger fender if any of you have leads on those items. The truck is white.
C230 Sport Coup + 2006 W164 ML350 + 99 Ford Escort (What the heck, it gets 38 mpg!)
Originally Posted by slagdemon
So... not putting this car on the back burner or anything, but I picked up another Mercedes today. Bought a 2004 ML500 from Copart. 60k on it, it needs a front bumper assembly and passenger fender if any of you have leads on those items. The truck is white.
LKQ will deliver from anywhere in USA to the nearest LKQ junkyard for no charge.
Or pay to have it delivered.
I bought a complete hatch for $400 in the exact color that way.
No paint needed! Bolted right up. I drove to pick it up rather than have it delivered to me,
so no shipping cost.
There's this... car-parts.com great resource.
And then pick n pull. Tons of W163's they have.
Looks like 4 within 50 miles of you...wait for a 1/2 price day (every major holiday weekend) and go nuts.
Sign up for the club thing and set up alerts when new vehicles arrive.
Been following your thread since the start. I don’t have the time, knowledge or space to take on such a project, so I’m envious of what you have been doing. I still can’t get over how someone can let the the leather get so filthy in the first place, but you have made it new! Thanks for sharing and best of luck with the ML500.
I cant find a front bumper assembly at LKQ unfortunately. I looked but couldn't find what I needed. I have the oblong shaped fog lights with no park assist and no headlight washers. Non sport model. MBpippo for the kind words!
On a side note, the strut tower mounts came in so, time permitting, those will go on this weekend. We are supposed to get up to 6 inches of snow this weekend, so we will see. I'm going to head up to KC first thing inthe morning to check out the pick and pull there. There's a white ML that might have a good bumper structure (rebar) and possibly fender and headlight.
02-14-2019, 09:46 PM
