B&K

Hi,

We are new owners of a 1985 500 SEL, so I am not even sure if I am in the right forum or not. It is a little confussing since there are things that we are still trying to figure out about the car. It needs a little bit of work (which is expected with a car that is 20 years old).

How do you get the wipers on the headlights to work?

The manual shows a button to activate the antena, but ours doesn't have the button.

Also is it normal for everything to be in German, or is that an indication that the car came straight from there?

Where is the best place to get parts as we would like to restore it back to it's glory!

Any help would be appreciated

B & K

schwarzwagen

Congrats Brain and Kris!

If all of your controls are in German, then you have a greymarket car. That means the car was designed for sale on the German market and was purchased there and shipped back here to the states. This was something of a cottage industry in the early thru mid 80's before the gov't clamped down on the private importation of vehicles.

The headlamp cleaning system only works when the headlights are on. When you press in the stalk to clean the windshield, the headlamp cleaners will activate if the headlights are on. There is no separate switch for this operation.

European models don't offer the antenna switch, that was only available for the US market. (not 100% sure on that)

thebenzbin.com is a great source for parts. I use them pretty much exclusively unless I need something post haste, then I go to the dealer.

Welcome to the MB community!

B&K

Thank you so much for the info!

A couple more questions
Are the parts the same on a grey market, or are they different?

What is a good repair maunal? I want to make sure that we get the right thing.

zac380SL

another very good place for parts is Jonathan at BuyMBparts, Inc.
www.buyMBparts.com no affiliation they just give great service.

vdubpower

im sellin brand new headlights, they came with my benz when we had it shipped over, never installed, just be stored since, original equipments, email me for pics, frahman@westernu.edu orsee my ad somwhere on thiis thread

schwarzwagen

Bryan and Kris,

I use the MB repair CD manual. It can be purchased from many outlets; however it's not 100% comprehensive. The CD includes abridged PDF versions of the Chassis, Body, Engine, Electrical, and Troubleshooting printed manuals offered by MB to dealerships and customers. The only problem is that the original printed manuals are not being printed any longer by MB. The best way to get them is by way of Ebay. They show up there once and a while. I couldn't wait, so I bought the CD. The CD is fine for most any DIY stuff I've found. It's a great way to start and get acquainted with the systems of the W126.

As to your question about parts, most all non-safety/non-emissions related equipment is the same between US and European market cars are in fact the same. Some obvious differences are: bumpers, headlights/tail lights, engine emissions equipment (ambiguous I know), instrument cluster, headlight switch (no rear fog on US market cars), third brake light on US cars. Those are just some things off the top my head, there are more subtle differences as well though, so check with the MB dealership about specific parts if you are unsure, or check back here

Hope this helps!

Stiggs

post pics!!!

ewebster

Congrats!

I also have a 1985 500SEL. I bought it last year with 126,000 miles on it, and have put on another 20,000 relatively trouble-free miles. I was able to fix almost all of the problems myself, and I'm no gearhead!

I always wondered if my Benz was a greymarket import b/c the outside temp. display on the dash is in Celsius, but I do have the antennae up/down toggle so maybe it's not.

My No. 1 suggestion would be to find a local mechanic who knows how to work on older Mercedes. Getting the car fixed at the dealership will cost you a fortune.

How many miles are on your car, and how did you come to own it?

B&K

We bought ours from a guy that had it a year but only put 1000 miles on it. He knew NOTHING about it, and only bought it as a project car, and didn't really do anything with it. This was good for us since we got a pretty good deal on it. We bought it with 177,000 miles.

We are still looking for a good mechanic, however in our area it is hard to find one. We would like to find a decent repair manual, but most of what we have found is on CD.

We kinda figured that ours was a euro model when we went to put it on our insurance and they didn't have the vin number in their system. Plus all of the controls are in German. We do not have a outside temp, it has a sign for unleaded gas that covers that up, so I am not sure if there is one there or not.

It is a fun car to drive and once we get it back to original it is going to turn heads.

rickyfanmdr

I had a California 1985 380SE (I was the original owner and bought it from a MB dealer, so it was definitely NOT grey market) and the temperature was in Celcius, not fahrenheit. I can't think of anything that was in English. So I don't think that is an necessarily an indication that it is a grey market car. But grey market cars were common at that time.

Congratulations on your new car! And this is definitely the right forum.