ofpiste

Damn, I have a very much loved pristine 1995 E320 cabriolet in a somewhat rare red with only 123k miles...in the past 3 months I have replaced the transmission and had a blown head gasket repaired..ouch! The final straw is a burnt wiring harness! A major Mercedes dealership in Seattle wants $9,874 for labor alone plus the cost of a harness (if they can find one). For now I have put the car in storage and will chase wires as I have time. In the meantime I purchased a 2014 E350 4matic (wow, E's have come a long way), but that's another story...

I've read in these forums that there is someone who sells harnesses for this car but have done a search and haven't had any luck, can anyone help? Or is there a place that you in the community can recommend that sells quality wiring and not the eco crap wiring that this car has. A lot of the current wiring is cracked and I see future problems so I will replace as much as I can and want to do it with the correct color coded wiring.

Thanks guys/gals!

S70Houston

I think you should tell the dealership you only wanted the wiring replaced, not buy a car.

I would take the car to a different dealership for another quote, almost 10K just in labor???? That's crazy!!!

ohollenbeck

Doesn't sound like you have heard about the bad wire insulation in mid 90's Mercedes until after you bought the car. They used a new easily biodegradable wire insulation in all the Mercedes in 95, good to be green, but a bad chemical design made the insulation dry up and crack when exposed to engine heat. There are 3 basic things to replace, Upper engine harness, lower engine harness and the ETA needs to rewired or replaced. Dealers will not rewire an ETA, but they will buy a new one for you, $2K plus, that's 20% of your estimate just in one part number. A more economic solution is to get an oem or used one, ( a late 90's-2000's manf date) with good wires, or a few specialty shops can take yours and rewire it.

Ironically, whoever replaced the head gasket had to of disturbed the upper harness so much it was bound to fail, maybe the same with the tranny job for the lower harness. The bad wire harnesses can't be moved at all, whoever did your head gasket should have known, and told you to replace the upper harness at that time. They let you drive off the lot with a ticking time bomb.

The two harnesses are about $1200 and the ETA is about $2100, that's $3300 in parts, charging you $6K for labor is robbery.

BTW, do you know that the A/C evaps tend to leak, if the factory unit hasn't been changed out yet, your looking at another $2500 plus to remove the entire dash just to get at the evaporator, to replace a $300 part. Dealer will charge to $4K.

Then there are the hydraulic cylinders for the top, hopefully some one did them already, if not about $600 for rebuilt units (12 of them I think), and then labor to remove-install.

So, when you buy a 124 Cab, you should look these very common fail items;(Yup there are 5 of them)

1 - All engine harnesses replaced, eta rewired of replaced?
2 - Head gasket replaced? All M104 motors need factory Head gaskets replaced
3 - Tranny rebuilt yet? They all need rebuild around 150K
4 - A/C evaporator replaced yet? the factory Evap will leak eventually
5 - Top Hydraulic cylinders replaced yet? Common problem, they will leak fluid over time, same as R129's

It sounds like you bought a 124 Cab that had none of the major items replaced.

The better car to buy is from an enthusiast who has cared very much for his/her car and done all of this already, it may cost a little more, but worth it in the long run.

I just looked up the part numbers for the two harnesses and they are available to order at any dealer. They will be good wire, any harness with a build date of 98 and up is all good. Buy two brand new ones from the dealer, you can do the upper harness as a DIY. A Saturday afternoon and a couple of beers and your good to go. The lower harness can be a PITA on some models, get a indi to do it is good option. ETA's are also available new in Dealer $2100, or aftermarket ~$800 .

Your best bet is to find a reliable and reasonable Independent mechanic (Indi) who knows older Mercedes and 124's.

I think these are your part numbers, any dealer can verify

I got prices on line at discount Mercedes Dealerships

http://www.mbpartsworld.com/productS...hTerm=throttle actuator

Upper harness - A1244405632 - $1088
Lower harness - A1245404230 - $119
ETA - A0001415725 - $2125

I has been said by experienced 124 owners, that most of these great cars have about $10K in deferred maint. to do when you buy them. many long time owners have stacks of repair receipts in the $10 to $30K range. But once your through with the major 5 items listed above, your good for a very long time, just don't defer any maintenance as most people do.

Good luck, and post some pictures for us... been thinking about a cab myself...