Hi there

I have joined the forum to get some proper and honest advice when needed. I have owned a W638 Vito and a W124 300e and my daughter had a miserable piece of ***** W168 that she had bought on my advice.

I am fetching a 2003 W203 C240 Estate next week that I bought in Cape Town and will be driving it to Johannesburg (1 400 km / 870 miles) in a day.

I look forward to an informative stay on the forum!

Hello!

Welcome to MBworld! Thank you for intro!
Please post a photo of your '03 C240 when you time. We love to see the scenery of South Africa in the back ground!

Bob

Welcome! Please post a photo of the new MB.

Thank you very much!

I will take pics of my trip from Cape Town to Johannesburg and post those when I get back

Pics to follow

welcome to mbworld...

Thanks!

So I flew to Cape Town to fetch the C240 Estate.

The first thing I did was to take it to a tyre shop to have the tyre pressures and wheel balance checked and the wheel alignment set. Cape Town is not known for quick (or any kind of) service, so this was a frustrating exercise. But the surprising news was that the wheel alignment was spot-on and needed no adjustment. The seller couldn't remember when alignment had been adjusted last, so to me that means that suspension bushes etc must be in pretty good nick for such an old car.

The car had just clocked 268 000 km (166 257 miles) when I got in. There are a few obvious issues...

• the shock absorbers have to replaced (not a safety issue yet)
• the passenger-seat's occupant detector keeps screaming that the safety belt must be fastened even though there is no occupant
• airconditioner is out of refrigerant
• a number of nicks and scratches
• one silencer is on its way out due to rust in the coastal environment (just an excuse to have a proper stainless-steel system built and fitted by a mate)

But generally I am happy with the purchase and couldn't wait to hit the open road home.

But first, steaks on the grill and beers from the fridge for a great evening with friends. Did I mention that I bought the car from a friend?

... more

After a shower that almost managed to wake me up, I was heading out of the gate at 5.30am. Cape Town has English weather and it is winter, so, damp conditions.

At the first fill-up the Benz also needed two pints of oil. I got back on the highway and cruised at leisurely indicated 100km/h (62mph).



Only 1 339 km (832m) to go...

After a while I increased it to the national speed limit of 120km/h (75mph) and kept it there until I hit the Huguenot Tunnel.

The Karoo is a semi-arid region and it has a stark, undeniable beauty to it.

And sunrise in Africa is always special:

Around 7.30am the sun was up and warming the area. The late-winter sun makes for excellent light for photography. Even if you're just using an iPhone.

Although my dad never owned (or liked) an estate, I have always had a soft spot for the lines. And just look how this old lady's lines still look stunning:

Silver still is my favourite colour.

Once I was out of the mountains and on the escarpment, I set the speed control at 125km/h (78mph) GPS speed.

Clouds started moving in again:



But it was a false alarm, the road stayed dry.

I stopped in the tiny little town of Laingsburg. In 1981 the Buffels (Buffalo) River broke its banks in a flash flood and 104 people lost their lives. Only 21 houses survived the raging waters.

But Laingsburg is also known as a town where the people understand red meat and I bought about a half-a-pound of biltong, a South African delicacy. It is dried meat (beef in this case), similar to American beef jerky, but apparently tastier. It sustained me through the drive, with a sixpack of bottled water:

Clear skies just outside the town of Beaufort West:

Beaufort West is the largest town in the Great Karoo and the area is known for sheep farming and its incredible mutton...

I refuelled in Beaufort West and I was quite happy with the stats:

Distance: 432,9km (269m)
Moving average: 102km/h (63mph) indicated, not GPS
Fuel: 38,112 litre (10.07 US gal / 8.38 Imp gal)
Consumption: 11,358km/l or 8,8l/100km (26.7mpg US / 32.1mpg Imp)

I kept the speed control at 125km/h GPS speed.

In Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State province, I refuelled again.

Distance: 546,6km (339.6m)
Moving average: 115km/h (71mph) indicated, not GPS
Fuel: 46,300 litre (12.23 US gal / 10.18 Imp gal)
Consumption: 11,805km/l or 8,47l/100km (27.8mpg US / 33.3mpg Imp)

I am more than happy with these figures. Obviously town driving would never see this, but that's to be expected.

I stopped in the town of Welkom (Welcome) in the Free State Goldfields for a quick liquid refreshment with an old mate and got home at 7.15pm. Tired, but from not enough sleep, not from the driving effort.

The next day I decided to take the wagon to the car wash. Nothing is as dirty as roadtrip dirt and even though I planned to give her a proper wash at home on Saturday, I couldn't bear the sight of the filth.

I am also happy to say that the pets approve of the clean car.


Rice Krispy reckons it's not too bad at all.


Monty is waiting for me to leave so he can mark the new car's wheels.


Ready for her new stable.

On Friday I took my dad to a holiday resort AGM to the north of Pretoria. I forgot that it included about 3 km of dirt road... Fitting, after a car wash

I decided the airconditioner had to be regassed, because it seems like the summer is sneaking up on us unexpectedly. I got an aircon specialist that does regassing and testing at your premises. But after regassing, the compressor still did not kick in. He called his boss who said that "someone with a diagnostic tool must reset it". I haven't found any such person who has heard of this yet. I made an appointment with an auto electrician who would pop in on Saturday to have a look.

In the meantime I couldn't stand how dirty the engine bay was, so I used a water-based engine cleaner to clean it off. After 5 minutes I washed off the gunk with water from a hose - at low pressure. But I didn't notice that the lid of the fuse box (that also houses the ECU) only had one retaining clip and was gaping open. My excuse is that there is a protective dust cover over it.

Long story short: water got into the ECU and a diagnostic shows that there is a communciation error with the ECU

The auto electrician removed and opened up the ECU and there is no apparent damage, but the diagnostic probably doesn't lie.

His advice was to put the ECU in a bowl of dry rice and check on Monday if it removed more moisture and hopefully solved the problem.

So... This is the story of how I screwed up the feel-good roadtrip with a new (to me) Benz by being an absolute idiot. I am no mechanical genius, but I really know better than this. Please keep me in your thoughts when you pray about the idiocy that dumb people do to their innocent cars.

And send some positive energy to an innocent ECU lying in a bowl of rice, hoping for a miraculous revival.

Wow! Thank you so much for documenting your trip! It is great!

I'm so sorry you accidentally sprayed the inside of your ECU enclosure, hopefully it will return to normal after drying out! Also post a new thread in the forum linked below with the Subject 'Wet ECU', someone may have other suggestions. I'm sure you are not the first person to wet down a ECU, good luck!

https://mbworld.org/forums/mercedes-tech-talk-41/

Bob

Took it out of the rice, cleaned it, plugged it back in: nothing.


Thanks Bob, I will do that now.

My miserable cry for help posted here: https://mbworld.org/forums/mercedes-...ml#post7832079

Wow great first post. Thanks for taking the time with the words and pics. Can see that you adore you new wagon. It looks great. Some of those photos look like Australia, especially the one with the eucalyptus tree. All the best.

Thanks!

Yes, I reckon the only place in the world with more eucalyptus trees would be Australia. They're farmed in forestry but by now also occur "in the wild".


PS. I will be in your neck of the woods in November, guiding a motorcycle tour from Melbourne to Tasmania and then back up to Sydney.