nhood87

Hello,

I'm new to these forums. I've never owned a MB. I really like the w123 diesel models. I'd like to own one. Ideally, i'd want to find one thats in good enough shape that i wouldn't need to spend a lot on repairs. The only place i can find them is on craigslist. Can someone with experience in this area advise me on what to look for?

Thanks,
Nick

80 Benz

I just bought my 1980 240D and I watched all the MercedesSource videos on youtube. They werre a great help since I knew nothing about Mercedes or Diesel engines.
I would start there first

mercedes w123

In case you are still looking and haven't bought annyting yet.
As said above MercedesSource has allot of great informative video's.

As for myself I would strongly reccomend if possible not buying a cat in a bag. These cars are coverd in rubber coating which looks great on photo but easily hides rust. If you can check:

The rubbers:
Meaning all of the visible stuff like door rubbers and all others.

The inner wheel wells:
push gently on the rubber coating on the inside if you hear a cracking noise behind it there will be rust and usualy when you hear that sound there is lots of it.


Wheel well as seen.




wheel well after removing rust pockets. (the outside is bent I know but thats from a scrape of the previous owner.)



The 4 jack points and the surrounding area:
Especialy between the jack point towards the wheel are zones very prone to rusting. I mean these zones you can see here sprayed in gray:


Already fixed here but also covered in rubber coating and sometimes easy to miss.

Gutters and zone below the battery.
underneath the hood the gutters frequently clog up and tend to start rusting.
While you are there might as well check if the zone beneath the battery isn't rusted trough this happend allot because of leaky battery's and poor maintenance.


again zone coverd in gray paint already fixed but it was rusted out entirely

Lower sides of the doors:
Often hidden away behind the door rubber allot of rust.


The trunk floor:


As can be seen here. Ofcourse this is usualy hidden by a inner trunk liner and a layer of paint and rubber on the outside.

And last but not least the SUNROOF.
Incase you have a sunroof and its not glued shut or the owner say's its not leaky open it up an check for rust in the front 2 corners if there is rust there check for signs of water damage on the headliner of the car. There sunroof are prone to clogging up drains which cause them to rust easy and leak to the inside of the car very quickly.

(no picture)

Good luck buying it if you have not already.