PaulX608

Going tomorrow to look at a W140 sedan in beautiful condition. Black on black, 43000 miles. We've had 3 benzes so far, and I'd be very proud to own this one. This would also mean handing down the keys to my 1993 W124 400E to my 17 yr old son. Other than the obvious things, i.e. door and trunk closers, SLS, window regulators, and climate control, are there any specific things I should look for? I've done all my own work on our 2001 W163 ML430, 1999 W202 C230, and 1993 W124 400E. I feel pretty confident in my ability to look over the car, I just want the expertise of the W140 crowd here as to specific areas of concern with this car. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Peter Guenther

Well Paul. the 140 is a great car, but it is also a maintenance mightmare. You have identified many of the issues, but here goes. To replace the AC evaporator the whole dash comes out, the radio is unique, the regulators for the windows distruct, the self leveling does need replacements around 60K, timing chain does not become an issure untill 150K or so, the trans does about 100k. The close assist pump goes about 40k, you know about the wiring harness.
I have a 92 500 under 100K and speak to all those problems, my wife wont let me sell it. It has outlasted our SL, the SEC, and definately the ML which only lasted one year.
It is not the easiest to work on since it was the first MB to use a lot of computers and they really did not make it user friendly to pull codes.

PaulX608

I'm quite familiar with the evaporator issue, as I had it in my 400E as well. I went and drove the S500 last week, and it was indeed a marvelous automobile. It only had two problems. A small, easy to fix power steering leak. And the dreaded evaporator leak. I know that I could do the evap job in a weekend with a friend, and I could certainly get the car for a song as I know the owner of the dealership and he's aware of the amount of work involved with the A/C job. But, in the end, I decided that I really didn't want the headache of doing another job like this. It is very very nice otherwise. Just not for me right now. Thanks for the reply though, this area of the forum is not that active. I was wondering if anyone would ever reply.

mercmadness

Hello,
I noticed that you all seem concerned about diagnostics for the W140 (and probably other models) I have a W140 S500 1993 and was also worried about not being able to do anything apart from changing the windscreen washer fluid. Following a major problem with the car that cost me around £1500 not to repair I started looking for diagnostics so at least I could be better informed. I tried several things that were supposed to work, but none of them seemed to do anything. Just recently, I came accross what is called the ECART, it is a Colour PDA style diagnostic computer that claimed to do all sorts of things. As it was only £325 I gave it a try. To cut a long story short I plugged it in, and selected the S500 W140 and it did more than I would ever use. Comes with CAN Adapter, and 38 Pin MB Connectors and BMW connectors. It connects to and reads all the ECU's and provides ECU information etc. Does loads of actuator tests, loads of diagnostics, controls a/c. etc. etc. and even has something like a trouble shooter. I am now trying it on my W124 300E as I have a driveability problem, it does pretty well every MB (& BMW) car made in the last 20 or so years.
You can find more information on http://www.cooltechniques.com