When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Good evening, I bought in sept 2020 a W124 Cabriolet and love the car. Curious if you have had any trouble with the (1) top switch, flashing red when top is up and locked. And (2), role bar/rear head rests activating during turns or heavy acceleration.
Also, am curious where you got a hold of the wind deflector? I also need headlight wiper blades and have run into roadblocks with those...hope to hear from you and look forward to chatting about our cars in the future.
D.
@darrikhelin The switch flashing might be due to a sensor or a latch not completely closing. My roll bar/headrests very rarely will activate when I hit large bumps. I found a factory windows defector for my car off my local craigslist. Headlight wiper blades are now no longer available from mercedes. I've seen people just get generic ones and cut them to fit the old blade housing.
Some updates: not a whole lot has been done to the car which is a good thing! I've been driving it probably more than I should have.
Cleaned the exhaust tips up some more with steel wool and metal polish. Much needed.
I had a calendar made with pictures of my cars. Heres some shots of the 124
Cleaned the top and applied some protection with some 303 products. I highly recommend it.
Added some mid length extended head lug bolts so they sit nice and flush with the face of the wheel
Added more LEDs to the rear. Every light on the car is now LED minus the turn signals. Heres a shot showing the difference between the w210's xenon lights.
Took a few spare grills I had and bought some new parts to piece together 1 close to new grill.
Mainly just driving and taking photos of the car. Much nicer than fixing it. I have been driving the 124 way more than my 210
Crossing 123,456!
During this time I began doing some work to the w210. One of my most favorite things that I have ever done to it was get the windows tinted. I liked this so much just for the looks aspect, but one thing that I was happy to learn about was how much heat the tint is able to keep out of the cabin, a very significant amount! So I knew I needed to do the 124 next. With the brighter interior I knew I couldn't go very dark on it. So I took inspiration from "avantgarde" spec w210s which had special blue glass which many cars of the 2000s got. The 124s windows had never been tinted before so they still had the original alarm stickers, kind of pained me to remove them but it was well worth it. I decided I had to get the windows tinted after we had a very sunny day and the interior of the 124 felt like it was being held under a magnifying glass. The blue tint is 70% which is nearly clear. Most people will not even know the windows are tinted. Night visibility is great and most importantly it keeps the interior of the car much cooler. Very OEM look with all the benefits that tint has to offer, a great result.
And this brings us up to date on the latest with my 124.
Recent updates: really glad I got the car tinted in time for summer because it did make a very noticeable difference with the heat and UV rejection
Luckily most of my time with this car is now spent driving it and attending gatherings
The biggest change has been the cooling system upgrades I did. Now this topic is very controversial among 124 groups so if you feel strongly against making the car run cooler skip over this part. First thing is to make sure everything is up to par so I replaced all the hoses and put a new coolant tank in again(this time for cosmetic purposes). Next was getting a thermostat from a 1975 450SL which starts opening at 75C instead of the factory spec at 87C. A tropical/AMG spec fan clutch which engages sooner as well. And the final piece which was a 1000ohm resistor added to the coolant temp switch which will turn the aux fans on at 95C. The reasoning behind wanting the car to run cooler is that it runs way too hot, even under the factory specification. The warm up cycle ends at 82C, the ignition timing begins to retard at 95C, the ac compressor is cut off around 107C. The factory spec thermostat beings to open at 87C and is fully open at 102C. If you live in a warmer climate like southern California your car will run warmer especially stuck in traffic. I wanted a solution in which under no circumstance the car would go above 100C and I have accomplished that. Going uphill AC on full blast on a 100F day the temps never go above 100C. The cabriolets weigh around 4000 pounds so the extra weight will hurt it compared to a sedan. The car does not run too cool, it is pretty much impossible for a m104 to given the circumstances. The car is pretty much always within the 82-100C range, the aux fans aren't always on they cycle like they're supposed to, even the fan clutch which is at full lockup at 90C disengages. There has been a lot of ignorant comments about these upgrades but those are the facts.
I also made a video going over what I did and some testing as well:
Finally got around to doing the audio. First thing was to figure out how to make the display brighter, this was much more difficult than it should have been haha. I ordered a bluetooth module from becker which replaces the aux input on the traffic pro without bluetooth, so now when I turn the car on my phone will pair automatically. Replaced the drivers door speaker which was blown out. Put some Polk Audio DB402 4" speakers to the dash. Sound quality is excellent for everything being a drop in upgrade. It is nearly comparable to my w210's bose audio.
Hit 124,066. The chassis code for cabriolet.
Finally had the headlight switch trim modified to fit the cover for telescoping wheels
Got a battery tender just for the 124:
Some pictures from meets:
Hit 126K. Been driving this car too much!
Went to DTLA and got some nice shots
I filmed a video going over everything that I've done to my car on YouTube if you are interested:
Absolutely an awesome and the best Cab build ever, and I don't think I've seen a better picture thread anywhere, you have a great eye for composition.
BTW, I haven't seen this thread until just now, so I'm catching up. Way back in post #2, among all the pictures, I did notice what appears to be a Bornite Metallic 500E in one of your gathering pictures. That is indeed a very rare 500E, only 8 of that color were sold in the USA out of the 1500 or so E500E's sold in the USA, I have the 9th which I imported from Japan three years ago. Your lucky to be close to some many great Merc examples, where I live in upstate NY it's a rare thing to even see another 124 anywhere, and when you do it's someones DD and looks it. Big thumbs up for your build and this thread...
Last edited by ohollenbeck; 09-10-2021 at 07:46 AM.
I have an original wind deflector from my (sadly) deceased '94 E320 Cab that I'd be willing to let go. I'm in SC. If you're interested, make me an offer. You can see the small square of tape over a cigar ash hole. Other than that...it's fine. eefox49@gmail.com
The roll bars are activated by limit switches on the rear suspension arms. If not adjusted properly or broken then violent movement of the suspension will activate the rollover protection and the headrests will pop up
01-18-2021, 09:43 PM
