altamash

Hi, i just purchased a 92 300ce coupe and since this is the first time i bought a car, i am a total noob regarding maintenance. I was wondering a few things:

why my ac control knobs get very hot, its as if the hot air from the engine is blowing right into it. Is this normal ?

The car came with xenon lights installed. The owner had them in the secondary inner lights or fog lights. The main light is still stock but then he told me to pull the light switch even further to turn on the main xenon lights aswell. It was working fine but then it stopped and now the turn signal lights dont come on as they usually should as well as the main xenon dont turn on as i pull the light switch to its 2nd position. Although the signal lights work when i use the indicator. Could this mean that a fuse burnt out ?

I live in jeddah, saudi arabia and we have mad traffic here. Usually im driving slow and stopping a lot so should i set my transmission swtich to E or S for this ?

These are what i can think of for now. Thanks

Shoomakan

I always left it in S when it was an automatic. It shifts with lesser gas input, on E it would stay as long as possible in a high gear before down shifting.

There aren't any mountains in Jeddah, though, like here. So I don't think it'll be as much of a problem.

ألف مبروك عالسيارة!

Those are fantastic cars. If you live in Jeddah, make sure your fan clutch has been replaced and always pay attention to the coolant. Those cars don't like heat much.

There are special types of coolant for high heat applications, see online what you can get. I live in Lebanon, which isn't nearly as hot but I do know Jeddah well.

Oh, and I'd remove the Xenon lights since they look ugly without the lens anyway; unless you get an aftermarket headlight set it'll always look out of place.

Oh, and my ac control knobs get very hot too. I think it's normal, but I'll wait for someone else with more experience to comment here.

altamash

Thanks, im not arab btw, but i understood what you wrote in arabic . So S is better for faster acceleration and E is good for short trips and frequent stops ?

I'll find out what types of coolants are available here. Im not sure what you meant about the xenon, they are inside the lens. I'll take a picture later to show how they look. But i guess they look a little out of place. Are they bad for the battery or anything and do they blow out if i use them frequently ?

Shoomakan

If installed correctly, no they shouldn't damage anything.

No, S is better (in my opinion) because it will drop a gear whenever you press the throttle enough. On E, it will only drop a gear if you kick it all the way down or the car has to downshift ie you're going too slow for 4th so it drops to 3rd.

I found that if you put it on S it shifts like a normal car, so that is what I always used. But there's no difference in actual performance or anything like that.

rayhennig

I would suggest:

S = Sport - for more spirited driving. The box changes up later and down more readily.

E = Economy. It changes up to higher gears sooner, keeping the revs low and reducing fuel consumption. It holds higher gears too when depressing the accelerator. This would suit more sedate driving.

RayH

stormtigers

Hi there and congrats on the new vehicle. I just got mine which is an 88 CE300 and had the same issue with the knobs getting hot as it appears do many. The heat is actually coming through the shaft and as the knobs appear to be moulded plastic they are conducting the heat right through to you. Mine got so hot one day it was hard to even grasp them to turn them.
So I suspect there is not much you can do with it really in this sense.
There is a small bulb inside the fan and direction of flow selectors which I suspected as being at issue and replaced them with slightly less wattage. The knobs are not as bright now but that has helped though not eliminated the whole heat issue.
Cheers

altamash

Thanks for the info guys. I think its better to keep it on S as i noticed that it doesnt shift until i hit about 40 km/hr and 20 km/hr if its on E. If E is visible, its on Economy and is S is visible its on Sport right ? or is it the other way round ?

Also the transmission jerks when it shifts gear 1st and 2nd. So keeping it on S is better for a transmission for now i guess.

The transmission doesnt grind or anything, i just feel like it knocks me a back a little as it switches. What can i do to protect it for now as im sure rebuilding it will cost a lot.

Shoomakan

It's a 20 year old car with an appropriately old transmission/motor and bushings/mounts. The tranny is probably fine, but I'd check the diff/tranny mounts and replace the bushings. Especially in that heat, I doubt the bushings are still in decent shape. It's cooler here and mine are cracked.