Last February I bought my 250 SL. It was not just an impulse purchase. At first I did a lot of reading about these SL’s. I bought some books and browsed the internet, but the most valuable information I found in this forum and Wiki. After that I visited several classic car dealerships. I have looked at many different cars and most of them were in rather bad shape. A few months later I found this 250 SL which was in my opinion in a good shape and it was the best car I could find and was affordable with my budget.
Cosmetically the car is quite good. It is not a show car, but for me it’s fine. There was no rust that I could find in the generally known places, although I have to say that a few years ago the car was repainted. The interior is also renewed, as is the soft top. The engine bay looks clean and well taken care of.
This year I drove about 3000 miles with it. A lot of fun to drive it, but along the way I found out that there were some technical issues. One of the main problems was the play in the engine linkage. Because of that the engine doesn’t idle very well and for the last months the engine stalled when I had to brake and down shift.
Besides being a member of this group, I am also a member of the Dutch Mercedes-Benz Old-timer Club. Two months ago that club organized a so called technical day at the specialized MB classic car workshop Van Dijk. I have read that our members of the board Cees Klumper and Peter van Es are clients of Van Dijk, so Van Dijk must be an interesting company
On this technical day a small group of ten club members got a tour through their workshop and their mechanic told us enthusiastically about the ins and outs of the Pagoda. He works only on Pagoda’s for 11 years now.
Before putting my car in winter storage, I thought it would be wise to give it a service at Van Dijk’s. Together with their mechanic a I made a test drive with my car. After that he put it on the ramp and together we made a tour around and under the car. We spent at least two hours. I told him about the technical problems I had found. But besides that he found some more… a lot more… :'(
It turned out that the car had been lacking much maintenance in its past. He wrote down a list with problems and it could hardly fit on one sheet of paper. I could see with my own eyes that he wasn’t making it up. Particularly the suspension, steering and brakes needed attention. Most of the rubber parts were worn or decayed.
For me of course, it was a huge disappointment. I thought the car was in better shape. But with such old cars you will always have surprises. Well, he started the job and took care of all the issues on the list. But along the way he found even more problems, mainly in the braking system.
Here is a list of the major parts that are replaced or restored:
- Engine linkage, all ball sockets replaced and linkage adjusted
- Both clutch cylinders replaced, the old ones were both leaking
- Front suspension restored, new kingpin bushes, all rubber parts replaced, new front springs and shocks, new rubber engine mounts
- Four new brake discs and pads
- New rear brake calipers, brake booster and master brake cylinder and some brake lines
- Complete rebuild of the steering box, because there was excessive play in the steering
- Adjustment of the 123ignition I had placed earlier, there was an extended spring missing underneath the distributer.
- New red coil
- New rubber hoses for brakes, clutch, gas tank / fuel pump, vacuum hose brake booster
- New flex disc between the drive shafts. The old one was worn and torn and hanging by a few nylon threads. A miracle that I could drive with this old one.
- New timing chain. This chain was never replaced before.
- And many other minor technical issues
- 70 (!) hours of labor
You can imagine that I didn’t expect that this much work had to be done. Even the mechanic didn’t expected this, despite his experience with these cars. That was because the car is looking good and I had it serviced half a year ago by another well-known specialized MB workshop. But it turns out that they didn’t do much to it and they certainly didn’t tell me what the car needed.
The positive side of the story is that I know now the car has never been in a major accident. Everything is very good aligned. The mechanic told me that after the rebuild of the suspension the parts fitted perfectly together. If the car had been damaged this wouldn’t be the case. Another company which did the alignment of the suspension, confirms this.
Because I don’t have the paper history of the car, I can’t tell for sure if the mileage is correct. But according the mechanic there are several clues that the engine is in pretty good shape, although it has never been rebuild. After his adjusting, the engine is running smoothly and is much more quieter. That is because there no or just a little play in the fuel injection pump: every cylinder gets the same amount of fuel and this means that the engine is quieter and runs smoothly. If this pump is worn, it often means that the car has run many miles.
Even though I can’t tell you how much pain I feel in my wallet right now, I am glad I brought the car to Van Dijk’s. If I wanted an inexpensive and trouble-free convertible, I should have bought a Mazda MX-5 or something like that. But I wouldn’t think of exchanging my SL for an MX-5.
When I drove it back home, it felt like another car. No play in the steering anymore and hardly any engine noise (in comparison with the old situation). Also the suspension is a big difference. It feels more precise and comfortable. Because of the bad weather I can’t drive it for the coming months. I can’t wait for the spring.
Thinking of the current financial crisis most people keep their wallets closed, which is of course unfavorable for the economy. But at least they can’t blame me for not spending enough money
Well, it turns out to be a long post, but I wanted to share it with you. I am very curious about your maintenance experiences. Most posts in this forum are about the jobs people do on their cars themselves. But I would like to know how many of you leave it to professionals. I have a technical background, but this kind of work I couldn’t have done by myself. Perhaps if I had the tools and the workspace I would have tried. But a professional mechanic can see better if parts are mounted correctly or not at all. In my case there were several imitation parts mounted in the engine bay that the mechanic never had seen before! I would have never found that out myself.
Martijn
