Considering purchase of '89 300te: what to look for?
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Joined: Dec 2012
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300 TE
Considering purchase of '89 300te: what to look for?
Hi, I'm new to this forum and to Mercedes in general.
I'm considering the purchase of an '89 300te with 150K on it. I know nothing about these cars other than that I like the look of these wagons, and this one that I'm looking at looks to be in pristine condition.
What I need for myself and for my business, is a big heavy car with a fair amount of cargo space.
I'm purchasing this as an AZ car, and driving it back to New England to spend the rest of its useful life.
What do I need to look for in these cars? Quirks? Known issues? Could-be issues?
I would of course have a mechanic check it out for me prior to purchase if my own inspection of the car is OK.
Thank you for your help.
I'm considering the purchase of an '89 300te with 150K on it. I know nothing about these cars other than that I like the look of these wagons, and this one that I'm looking at looks to be in pristine condition.
What I need for myself and for my business, is a big heavy car with a fair amount of cargo space.
I'm purchasing this as an AZ car, and driving it back to New England to spend the rest of its useful life.
What do I need to look for in these cars? Quirks? Known issues? Could-be issues?
I would of course have a mechanic check it out for me prior to purchase if my own inspection of the car is OK.
Thank you for your help.
Junior Member
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 64
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From: Northern Virginia
85 300SD, 80 280SL, 90 300TE 4Matic, 90 300D 2.5 Turbo, 91 300E 4Matic, 92 300D 2.5 Turbo, 87 300TD
What to look for is largely dependent on your abilities as a mechanic. Certain things are known to fail, but are (for the right person) easy to fix. For example, window regulators, HVAC blower, door locking system. If you plan on taking your car to a dealer for service, any one of these will bleed you dry and should be a show stopper. If you can follow pictorial guides and have some basic tools then these should present no problems. There is very supportive community of W124 owners on this and a couple of other forums (benzworld and peachparts) where the advice is actually worth listening to. This is a lot of knowledgeable and experienced help ready, willing, and able to assist you.
Aside from rust, just about anything on the W124 cars can be fixed with new, used, or aftermarket parts (just stay away from URO parts despite their low prices - they're crap quality). Feel free to look through my pictures at http://s284.photobucket.com/albums/ll4/pwogaman/ I've got 5 or 6 albums of 124 cars in various states of repair.
Problems with a wagon that even the bravest among us fear include rear self-leveling suspension hydraulic failure. Those parts are expensive!
Make sure the odometer is actually working. Take the car for a test drive and make sure the numbers move. The odometers fail, but can be fixed after about ~150K. A working speedometer does not mean a working odometer.
My advice is to get someone to go with you to check out the car who know these cars, and if you can't swing that, take loads of pictures and post them here and on the other forums where you'll get loads of comments. Most are actually helpful.
Aside from rust, just about anything on the W124 cars can be fixed with new, used, or aftermarket parts (just stay away from URO parts despite their low prices - they're crap quality). Feel free to look through my pictures at http://s284.photobucket.com/albums/ll4/pwogaman/ I've got 5 or 6 albums of 124 cars in various states of repair.
Problems with a wagon that even the bravest among us fear include rear self-leveling suspension hydraulic failure. Those parts are expensive!
Make sure the odometer is actually working. Take the car for a test drive and make sure the numbers move. The odometers fail, but can be fixed after about ~150K. A working speedometer does not mean a working odometer.
My advice is to get someone to go with you to check out the car who know these cars, and if you can't swing that, take loads of pictures and post them here and on the other forums where you'll get loads of comments. Most are actually helpful.
Junior Member
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 21
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1990 300 te
Having had my 90 300te for a couple fo years and worked my way through most of the issues mentioned above and a few more I still find the car delightful and worth the effort. The SLS, self leveling system, is a pain to work on and pricey. Before buying test this system. Start it up, open the back hatch and have a couple of beefy people sit on the back. It should sag down as you would expect then raise back up. Or, if you have it up on ramps you can unhook the link to the valve in the rear suspension and manually move it. This should raise and lower the rear of the car when the engine is running. If this works but it rides like it has iron bars for shocks then the accumulators are shot, not bad to fix.
Taking it to a Mercedes specialist shop, not the dealer, and spending a couple hundred bucks for them to check the car out would be money well invested.
Taking it to a Mercedes specialist shop, not the dealer, and spending a couple hundred bucks for them to check the car out would be money well invested.
