[Pune Doc]

Hi all,

Am from Pune and new to BHP. Made the same mistake twice, of buying W124 and yet Love It!!

Would like to know others like me, who go looking out for pain and pleasure of owning 1996 W124 Mercs.

Best wishes.
Pune Doc

[avishar]

The W124 is a wonderful car.Last of the "over-engineered" tanks that mercedes was once famous for. Pune Doc can you post pics of your car please and the ownership experience?

[Raja]

Hi Pune Doc, I also own a w124 here in Pune. I am quite regular at Pune meets, try to make it to the next one and bring your car along as well?

[V-16]

Originally Posted by Pune Doc

Hi all,

Am from Pune and new to BHP. Made the same mistake twice, of buying W124 and yet Love It!!

Would like to know others like me, who go looking out for pain and pleasure of owning 1996 W124 Mercs.

Best wishes.
Pune Doc

Since you have made the same mistake twice, you tell us about any pain you may be familiar with. There is obviously pleasure as else you would not buy it again.
As for me, there is nothing you can term as a pain in owning the car.

[Mpower]

Why 1996 only? I suppose all W126s including the pre 95 imports could be discussed

[Pune Doc]

My experience so far...

A friendly dealer (I am sure he thinks I'm his good friend; whereas I don't think the sameway about him) sold both these a little over a year ago in a span of 3 months.

E220 is doing fine the 250 D is a bit attention seeking.


They have served me well considering my minimal usage. Just recently, the aircon stopped working in the 250D. The service center guys wanted me to get the ac wiring harness replaced (am not sure if that indeed that was the problem). The car longback was repaired by some mechanic who has had all these extra wires running which got the service center guys confused.

Havn't had the time to leave the car for getting the repair done at the workshop. Somehow am not comfortable leaving the car at the workshop for several days just to get this fixed.


Avishar - Indeed, its an overengineering tank and worth every penny

Raja - good to know u're from Pune, would certainly like to part of the next meet

V-16 - Well said pleasure far exceeds any pain...In my case the pain is in my ignorance...

Mpower - Surely not restricting it to 1996...as the saying goes..."the eyes don't see...what the mind doesn't know" My eyes were not able to see anyhting before or after 1996 from the time I got these two babies

I am better equipped to deal with problems in the human body, someday I will know more about cars as well

Best wishes

[GTO]

You must love the 124 to buy one each of the E220 & the E250. I think your E250 must have high mileage, being a diesel, and hence must require higher maintenance. Good thing is, a replaced genuine part goes on for a long time before requiring attention again.

I suggest you get the entire wiring harness replaced with an OEM kit at the earliest. The bio-degradable stuff that Merc switched to in the early nineties is known to wear out in 8 - 10 years, plus that "some mechanic" seems to have performed a half-hearted job.

[Pune Doc]

Can anyone suggest where in Pune/Mum can I procure an AC relay and wiring harness for a W124 E250 D? and how much would it cost?

Best wishes

[Ravindra M]

I am now caught up with W124 ( E220 only ) fever. I have seen a couple of cars, but the condition is not up-to-date.

What price should I expect for a well-maintained car ? I think around 4L should be OK.

[PhantomLord]

Yes owning W124 E220 has been really pain(more) and pleasure for me.

I can say W124 is very well supported, dedicated international forums with lot of information, very experienced MB Tech's who go out of the way to help member's. This is the only experience that has been pleasure for me.

Some of the forums I regularly visit are

1) Tech Help - PeachParts Mercedes ShopForum
2) E-Class (W124) - MBWorld.org Forums
3) W124 E,CE,D,TD Class - Benzworld.org - Mercedes Benz Discussion Forum

I bought a W124 that had everything wrong with it, You can imagine a problem and I have already had it . I keep thinking about writing my experience, which should really bring out small and big things involved in maintaining high end cars in India, where demand exceeds supply( I mean one authorized garage for a city like Bangalore, it’s literally a stampede out there every day ). Even though I owned it for 1.5 years, I feel I have spent 15 years with it.

You can search my posts on Tech Help - PeachParts Mercedes ShopForum with same ID as team-bhp, where I have asked for help with some of my problems.

One of the my greatest experiences was this HFM Scanner (For 111 and 104?) by Misha... - PeachParts Mercedes ShopForum , I was desperately searching for ECU coder, since my ECU was coded wrongly and asking dealer didn’t help (err actually at that time I fought with the service manager for a poor job done on my car).

I posted for help in one of the Russian forums and someone with ID Misha became GOD for me @ that time. He suggested he had a software that could read ECU info and mailed it to me. It needed particular interface which I didn’t have, instead I ran the software with Chinese Carsoft interface which was similar but didn’t work. Since I knew how these things work I captured debug info and sent it him. He modified his code and sent me a new copy, voila it worked with Chinese interface. Again back to the problem, I could only read the live info from ECU, but could not re-code it. I just had to ask him can please make this software to re-code, well he was on it. We exchanged may new version of software and debug logs, Misha figured out that there were few security in place to prevent un-authorized ECU re-coding. One was valid workshop ID was required to recode, next was some security key/password was to entered/sent by interface to for ECU to register the new code. I think workshop ID will help MB to track which workshop re-coded the ECU, we decided to pick the workshop ID which was already there on the ECU.

Next thing was to get the key, which Misha figured out was some combination that had to be brute forced, well my remote testing help was of no use here and he didn’t have a W124 E220. But this ECU was common between many MB four cylinders at that time. I think he sourced one of the ECU from scrap yard rigged up a minimal interface to power the ECU and connect diagnostic interface and ran crack again it. In two days I had a test software to try, this had re-code menu, but new code I wanted was hard coded in the software. On clicking recode menu this would brute force set of security key/passwords to make ECU accept the code, it worked on the first try. It was a great feeling finally, great in the sense

1) I was being helped someone whom I didn’t know, I wouldn’t pay either.
2) Misha can barely understand English.
3) Whatever I wrote in English, he translated it to Russian using Google and replied back.
4) His replies where actually written in Russian but translated to English before mailing me.

The software was in Russian, I convinced him to translate it to English since it would help many W124 MB owners, and that is HFM Scanner (For 111 and 104?) by Misha... - PeachParts Mercedes ShopForum

Well this is one of my experiences out of say 100, each one of them had some adventure or the other with lot of money spent. Well do I love driving this train, YES, I would love drive it 24/7 and most probably my next car will be W124.

What I can say from my experience is in India a good MB tech is rare, availability of parts and other resources make it worse. Knowing your car and DIY will go long way in helping a trouble free ownership. I was always a DIY person and had basic tools for wrenching already. I even have DAS @ home. So anyone in Bangalore need to use DAS/EPC/WIS or above interface you know whom to P.M

P.S: Hey Ravindra want my Car, its W124 E220, wait let me replace the differential and CV axles and get back to you

[PhantomLord]

Pune Doc,
A/C is not working is very generic, what is the actual problem? It does not blow cold? does not blow hot? No air form center vent? Only blower works or nothing works. I won’t buy that some could add additional wires to A/C wire harness, May be a replacement cable was rigged leaving the old one as is.

In these cars rarely A/C relay is the culprit, I have read system compares engine speed and compressor speed if difference is beyond spec relay switch’s off A/C assuming compressor is sized to prevent damage to other components, you need to check belt and pulley in this case. This also happens if current drawn by A/C components exceeds specs, but it should reset after switching ignition off/on.

You can find A/C relay on ebay, but wiring harness it is better to buy from authorized source and make sure it is recently manufactured. If wiring harness is NOS your problem will be back after sometime. I have not read about someone replacing A/C wiring till now, but I have read about owners claiming to have re-soldered A/C PCB’s. You should probably try re-soldering ?

[hariratan]

I have just purchased a e220 and having had it only for a few days I must say that I am impressed. The car has done 40000 KM, I am the third owner, and second user. The car was owned by a Company which sold it to a Director who was using it anyway. The car is silver colour and the RC book says model 200P, why?

The E220 runs well and I am not able to figure ot any untoward noise, rattle, sound while idling, running or on rogh roads as yet.

I just read the bit about the wiring harness being degradable and needs to be replaced after 10 years. Where can I get one and how much does it cost?

In case I do get a service manual I will share it in this forum.

[Psycho]

I found a few more failure points:

The resistor to the ac aux fan tends to rust leading to a non performing AC, fix replace the resistor. It is placed behind the left headlight on the body (white color) but not easy to spot.

Excessive pinging on the engine has also been traced to a broken oil breather pipe. Note: The only fuel other than speed 97 where a e220 does not ping is Shell super unleaded.

Alignment issues on the front wheels, The top mount rubber bushes tend to fail.

Oil pressure shows low even when the engine is running fine, check the wire connecting to the oil pressure sender. It could be coated in oil / rust.

Mechanical sound on decelerration from the engine: most probably a worn out cam clutch

Rough sound on acceleration, sounds like tiny hammers being beaten on metal, traced to the front of the engine and goes away after 500 rpm is a worn out thermostat.

A cracked coolant reservoir or a damaged radiator cap can lead you to a wild goose chase for failed water pump, blocked radiator, bad thermostat, aux fan not working etc. (Note Aux fans come on only at 95deg centigrade)

shall keep updating this as I run into them

[deutscheafrikar]

I came across a E 250 D today. Ddin't like it too much because the body wasn't so neat, the ABS light was glowing as was windshield washer (it looked like that) Clutch was funny since release seemed too hard, AC blower speed was too slow. But drove like a battletank even though it showed 135k on the odometer.

[Machdar]

Good to read about our very own group on TBHP. I am a part of benzworld and peachparts too. I just picked up a E220 (124) 96 model