In May of 2018, I had one summer left in Sacramento before I moved south to Cal Poly Pomona. I was between cars, in need of reliable transportation across LA and my stepdad Mike surprised me. As with all car guys Mike enjoys an evening Craigslist hunt, this time he found this Mercedes for sale in Stockton, California for $5,500.
While I was busy detailing Fords at work, Mike drove out to Stockton, saw what a gem this car was, and left a deposit. When I got home from work I apparently had a car! Three days later we were off to pick it up, and I could not have been happier. I spent the rest of that summer paying Mike back for the car and experiencing the reality of a low mileage classic car.
This may not be readily apparent from the sensational ads about low mileage original owner cars, but low mileage cars tend to be neglected. Since coming under my care, this car has needed new motor mounts, a new radiator, three oxygen sensors, a driveshaft bushing, plenty of new hoses, and lots more besides all of that. This car was by no means abused, but it did sit a lot. As is common with cars that aren’t used enough, this old Mercedes needed some work to be at its best.
Despite costing over $60,000 new in 1990, this particular S-class is actually the entry-level model, with a short wheelbase and a straight-six engine under the hood. Provided everything is in order, the engine generates enough power to haul this two-ton brick up any hill.
However, with only 170 horsepower on tap from 3 liters, my understanding is that these gas Mercedes sixes are busy engines with a tendency to blow head gaskets. With this in mind, the first big job I did was to replace the fan clutch and radiator. With the new cooling system, this car has never given me cause to worry, especially in LA’s notorious traffic. Amazingly, despite Mercedes’ reputation for complexity, the radiator was surprisingly intuitive to change.
In typical German fashion, the fuel injection system this car is equipped with is complicated. This system is an electronic-mechanical hybrid similar in function to the injection system used in Mercedes diesel engines.
Like all diesel engines, this gas-powered Mercedes needs a constant supply of high-pressure fuel, especially for smooth cold starts. However, after 28 years the fuel system was no longer capable of maintaining fuel pressure after shutting the car off, making this old car difficult to start from cold.
Unlike the radiator, the one little valve responsible for maintaining fuel pressure was a gigantic pain to change. Working on a fuel system inevitably involves getting wet, and more than a little high. Only 20 dead brain cells later, and the entire fuel pump filter and pressure valve assembly were out of the car. After a long search for copper gaskets, and a tedious reassembly process, the fuel leak was fixed, and the car started beautifully.
Unfortunately, this didn’t last, I have since fixed another fuel pump leak, and the car still doesn’t start very well in the mornings. However, small irritations like a fuel system that does not hold pressure are commonplace in classic car motoring.
Over the years I have found that making an old engine run at high speed is easy, reaching the red line is a cinch. Getting an old car to idle smoothly is an altogether more frustrating and elusive achievement.
By far the most frustrating issue I have fought in this car is code 17. Code 17 is the OBD1 code for the oxygen sensor, by far the most irritating piece of the injection system in this car. I have replaced three oxygen sensors in this car in a year.
The first sensor used a cheap wire splice system that kept vibrating loose until I ditched the splices for solder. The second oxygen sensor was salvaged from a junkyard E-class that worked well for an admirably long time. But at last, I finally installed a factory original plug-in oxygen sensor that is working perfectly.
As annoying as the oxygen sensor fiasco has been it could have been much worse. Unlike modern cars, the computer system and all of the warning lights on this car can be read and reset with one button under the hood.
Original owner classic cars attract lots of attention on internet auction sites in addition to breaking sales records. However, original owner classics are not trouble-free cars. The less mileage that is on a car, and the older a car is, the more seemingly unnecessary work it will need. This Mercedes needed a lot of work, however now it is an amazing machine, comfortable, with effortless style, one of the best daily drivers ever built.
Great write up and what a great looking car. I hope you continue to enjoy your Mercedes Benz.
Amen – that Benz is a beauty! Congratulations, I’m jealous! 😎😎👍👍
A really nice looking Benz you have there. I don’t recall that metallic red as being a really common color.
I (re)learned the lesson of old, low mile cars when my son bought an 89 Grand Marquis with low miles. Not only are there age-related failures, but the failures that were common on American cars of the day were never reached with the car’s limited use. Factory-installed water pumps on a Ford 5.0 are not fun to replace after 20+ years.
This was possibly the best “S” Class – the W140 that arrived in 1991 was very complex and had a lot more things to go wrong…….
Agreed… it is frequently said that the W140 and W143 were the last Benzes engineered without cost as an object. Their successor cars demonstrate that, sadly. These cars will always be beloved classics. 😉
Welcome to CC David! Excellent article and a stunning S-Class in such a beautiful color! I do really miss when Mercedes offered a variety of bold and even some pastel colors in the late-1980s/early-1990s.
As you accurately state, the thing with low-mileage cars that many people overlook is the fact that they usually have spent a lot of their life just sitting, which in many cases is far worse for a car than to be driven regularly and accumulate greater mileage.
I find about 3,000 miles a year is enough that the car sees regular use and that things will generally be taken care of by an owner who stays on top of things. For this car, if you divide the miles by its age, it comes out about right.
The thing about a lot of cars like this is it probably didn’t get a consistent 3,000 miles a year for the past 28 years. My guess is the bulk of the miles was probably put on it when it was less than 10 years old, and has only been driven intermittently since then.
If you have the records it would be interesting to see what the mileage was at different times in its life.
It’s nice to see that it’s never failed an emissions test. Since in CA plates stay with the car you can look up anyone’s emissions check history. If it failed and had to be retested it would show. It doesn’t go all the way back, just to 1997. I use it sometimes to see if some of my old cars are still on the road in CA.
https://www.bar.ca.gov/pubwebquery/Vehicle/PubTstQry.aspx
I totally agree with you Brendan. Unlike now, Mercedes has been really brave in the past with its range of colors. Notable for a more conervative brand they were back then.
Not just cars benefit from regular use. An Air Force pilot once told me “the worst thing you can do to a B-52 is not fly it”.
If I had a B-52 I would fly it all the time.
Hahaha B52 of the roads
I love these W126 S-Classes. They hold every bit as much allure to me now as they did when they were new. And I still see a fair bit of them around too… I think I see more of them than the 1990s W140s. Just yesterday, in fact, I saw a 300SD, driven by someone who appeared like he was a long-time owner.
Regarding low-mileage older cars, I echo your sentiments. We have a ’95 Thunderbird that only gets driven about 1,500 mi. per year. I always have to keep on top of wear and dry-rot items, and then just about everything else fails on account of time rather than mileage. It’s also tough to set up a scheduled maintenance regimen for a low-mileage older car, so I end up doing a lot more preventive maintenance than the car’s per-year mileage alone would dictate.
But you’ve got a great car here. I’ve always been somewhat intrigued by the 300SE’s… always thought it was interesting that some folks would spend so much money ($60,000+!) on a new S-class, and then not spring for the V-8 or the longer wheelbase, which added only nominal extra cost.
It was great to read about this car — hope you keep us posted with updates, too!
What a great colour on that car. Low mileage from long periods of sitting can certainly be a mixed blessing especially on a complex car. The soft, squishy bits take the brunt of the hit. Something like the rubber components need replacement with age rather mileage.
The styling of these particular Mercs has aged very well, and the colour really stands out – not flashy, but distinctive and tasteful. With the mechanical issues sorted you have yourself an awesome daily driver…and these cars were built to be driven, not sit around. I think you’ll be enjoying this fine old Mercedes for a long time to come.
Great looking car and great story. Love that photo of the straight six under the hood! There is another side of the low mile equation. If the car has been garaged and babied, the paint, body and interior can be in excellent shape. This is really gratifying. It is very difficult, not impossible, but expensive, to restore the interior/exterior of a worn or thrashed car. Much better to start with a pristine example. Usually the cost is not that much higher and if you find a less popular variant like your 300, you can find a real gem.
It is good you can be your own mechanic. Most of these are bought cheap with multiple expensive problems. When the cost of repair is found out, they are sold cheap to the next “mark”. So it goes until they end up it a “u-pull” parts yard.
Very wise to start with the cooling system. They tend to malfunction, the less used. I once had a few (very) low mileage Audi’s from the early nineties. All three had problems with sensors and flow in that area, although otherwise carefree, luckily.
The timingchains of these MB’s are underdimensioned; keep an eye on that.
Enjoy your gorgeous MB!
Great write-up! Good news- the car actually has 177 HP vs 170 HP 🙂
There are certain cars I just love- the way the look, the way the are designed and built, and the fact that they even exist, and this body style s-class is one of them (along with cars like the E39 and E46 BMW, R29 mercedes SL, the end of the line 1994-1995 E320 (especially wagon), air cooled 911s and the 928S4). Today’s mercedes are nice cars (especially the AMG versions), but these cars back in the day were something really speacial to me- very expensive, but built to last and be passed to multiple generations- it was something very special to buy and own (vs today’s run of the mill BMW and Benzes that are leased for 3 years, sold as CPO cars, then sent to the scrap heap after 7-8 years and 120K miles).
I see this generation Mercedes on the roads all the time in NJ- people still commonly use them as daily drivers. When I see a diesel parked, I force my wife to guess the miles and I do too, and then I walk over and look. There are 300SDs that look like this car- glossy paint, no rust looks like they are 2 years old and they have 250,000, 300,000 and more miles!! It’s not easy to guess the mileage on these cars because they last so long.
My friend’s parents had an ’82 300SD as their Sunday/extra car. I was able to drive that car one direction of a 200 mile round trip- the car was slow, lumbering (turbo diesels aren’t quick) but I was so impressed with the bank vault build quality and quality of the materials. I also test drove an e320 wagon I was considering but at the end of the day I need the driver feedback of BMWs (I’ve had 3 E39s and 3 E46s). Again I’m just glad these Mercedes were thought up and produced- I’d have one if I had a large enough car fleet, but I’m limited to a few cars so have to choose carefully.
I aree with Eric703- it seems odd that at this price point someone wouldn’t stretch by a few % of dollars spent to get the 420SEL if they didn’t want to go all the way to the big dog (by $’s) 560SEL, but it could also be that they wanted the shorter wheelbase. I actually prefer the shorter wheelbase of the 300SE [and for that matter the E38 7-series- I have always liked the BMW 740i (especially with sport package) much more than the long-wheelbase 740IL], but if I were buying this car new in the 1980’s/1990 and could swing it, I’d get the V8.
This car looks great David and great job sorting it out. You have a very special car and a special driving experience for a very reasonable dollar cost. I love the color!
And though it may be tempting to change, please keep the stock radio/head unit in there! I hate when the interiors of great condition cars are mucked up with a cheap plastic multi-colored aftermarket radio – I like my cars to be as close as possible to the way they left the factory 🙂
My thoughts exactly!
I am not going to mess with the head unit. Unfortunately, a bunch of the backlights have gone out, and I haven’t gotten around to taking the radio apart…
Continental makes a modern head unit with a decent retro design. Then again maybe I am just spoiled by bluetooth/streaming and usb inputs
Welcome here! That’s a lovely car, and you’ve done a fine job describing the very real pitfalls and tarpits of having an oldie as a daily driver. Old cars are old cars; high miles vs. low miles really just amounts to a rough choice of which tribulations you’ll face. That, and we tend to forget how much more fiddlefutzing was generally required on the cars of three decades ago even when they were newish. That’s what stopped me doing more than fantasising about this low-miles ol’ creampuff.
Welcome!
I noticed the reference to copper washers. I had a vintage vehicle that required a few and found some nice ones at an electrical supply house. Also found that they can be reused –if they aren’t deformed– after being annealed with a torch.
Yes solid copper seals can be annealed its the crushable ones that must be replaced, the fuel system on my Xsara had many they were all reused and no leaks, sensors are causing issues with my current daily I replaced the boost controller and the EGR now has a blanking plate but the regular code and lack of power reared its ugly head again so off to ebay and a new MAF has entered the postal system from the UK gawd knows how long it will take to reach the other side of the planet but that should solve the intermitent code that shows up every so often. PSA does not service that part and at their prices I’m kinda glad.
These late W126’s with the body color bumpers and cladding are beautiful. I had a 1986 420SEL and 1988 300SEL, which I am pretty sure I wrote them both up as COALs here. Both had the grey cladding and bumpers; the 420 was dark metallic grey so that worked fine. The 300 was champagne so it always looked funny to me. They were not pampered like this one, but they were great cars. I hope you enjoy it.
Another common and cheap/easy problem on these is a little water control valve on the firewall. If you have functioning heat but it never gets hot enough, the valve has failed. May not be noticeable in CA, depending on where in CA you are.
Lovely W126 – Bruno Sacco and his team did a wonderful job on this car. Very modern when introduced, but elegant and enduring. My favorite S Class.
Shame that Mercedes design went downhill after Sacco retired – the marque that I once admired and respected now produces vehicles I can no longer even bear to look at….
+1 on Sacco’s work.
+2
Not only was the design exquisite, but so was the body engineering. These were among the last Benzes to have a body structure that seemed as though it was carved out of a solid block of steel.
This post revived some traumatic memories of my first attempt at classic car ownership, a 1989 300SE. Similar problems… lots of them. That’s why I switched to old American cars. They’re nowhere nearly as refined as the w126, but they’re usually easy to fix, and they tend to stay fixed, too! Nowadays, I only break that rule for my “bucket list” cars, specifically my Citroen CX. No matter what kind of Gaulic insanity it hurls at me, I still love it.
Wow a Citroen CX, now there’s a car that needs a review written by an owner. I have always admired these and had a chance to ride in a CX Pallas back in the ’80s when a local dealer sold grey market CX’s after losing his Alfa Romeo franchise and it was an amazing experience. Nothing else even comes close to a big Citroen for ride comfort.
You’re so right about low mileage cars often having more problems than ones that are regularly used.
I had the experience twice: First with a Porsche 944 babied by a co-worker, and later with a Mustang that I bought from my mother when she retired (driven only to her office two miles from her home, the supermarket and the beauty shop). Rubber seals dry rot, fluids tend to break down, and things just get arthritic when they’re not used. Hopefully I’ve learned my lesson, but for the right vehicle I might just be tempted…
I completely agree with you, “low mileage” is not the same thing as new. A car which is driven every day long distances and depended upon gets more frequent maintenance and repairs and when something starts making a funny noise or stops working it’s more likely to get fixed than the occasional use car which gets the “I’ll get around to it” treatment. Additionally we tend to think of older people as meticulous about maintenance but that’s not always the case and short trips are hard on a car. As you pointed out a lot wears out due to age and disuse more than useage or mileage.
I had to do that experience as well. My Chrysler Saratoga (AA body) had also “low mileage” when I bought it, but that did not spare me some repairs. Worst of all was the need for a new ECU, which was hard to find here in Germany.
Wow, I had to look that one up, since the Saratogas i remember in the US were built long before cars had ECUs. I’d forgotten that the Dodge Spirit was marketed elsewhere under that name.
Great car and write up! Good to start writing with the car you know. I admire that you confronted the car’s problems and stuck with it. Hopefully now that it is getting sorted it will be a reliable long term car.
I am not too familiar with these M-B’s, so it was a little surprising in the engine shots that the engine sits so far forward. Looks like the center of the engine is well ahead of the axle line. I had no idea. Most rear wheel drive cars, at least American ones, the center of the engine is well behind the axle line. I wonder what the front/rear weight distribution is?
Beautiful car and a nice write-up. I own a 2013 MB E350 BluTec (53k miles after 6years) that I take meticulous care of. Once up to speed, it feels like a locomotive running down the highway, it’s a great road car. I plan on owning it for quite a while, so fingers crossed on the manufacturer’s reputation of engineering and build quality!
Given what all my Father spent on his ’71 250C in the late 1980’s you’ve done well/gotten off cheaply to maintain a car that you obviously have a great deal of automotive affection for.
From reading about the things you have had to do on the car, I see nothing that indicates that it suffered from low-mile-itis. Yes if it had been driven more those items would have likely already been replaced, but then other things will have likely popped up.
The issue you say was the most frustrating seems rather self inflicted with trying a universal sensor, followed by a used one before getting the correct one that finally put the problem to rest.