Not all Mercedes service Techs are reliable.

[wayne R]

Hope this is the correct place to post this, as a lot of you will have read,I have only had my 1965 230SL
just over 2 months, shipped from California,and some of the items I have had to rectify or repair is unbelievable.
This my reason for the email, and I am not complaining about the PO owner , most times they don't even know
what's going on.
The PO owner used to just send the Pagoda to the local Mercedes  Service  Dept, and Ï won't name them, but they
obviously had no experience with old cars.

Receipts that came with car---Oct ---2017  $915.
                                        ---July---2015  $690
                                        ---March 2014  $1080
                                        ---May  -2014  $420
I am very happy that PO they had taken care of all these items, suspension,fuel pump, transmission failed,
oil changes,etc,tie rods, drag link, car stopped would not go, had to be towed in,  etc.
When the shipping agent took delivery at this end, he said car would not idle, would start but stall after a few seconds,
so they just delivered  , and I pushed into my garage no problem.-----next page and a few photos.

[wayne R]

Continue from first page.
First job, removed Distributor cap, look what i found ignition points that looked like they had in there for years.
Were vented points, that is they have a hole right through the base plate,used to be around about  12 -20 years ago,
and terrible, unreliable. Then checked all fluids, transmission was 2 pints low, engine was 2 pints high, getting both these
bolts of engine and transmission,had to be so careful, so tight i had to use my large torque wrench.Then after fitting new points
the ignition  timing , dwell, etc, was way out.I forgot see photo of points, the contact opening side actually had worn  a hole inside
the base plate side.  I could go on and on, like they had fitted a new rubber boot on diff,but the pinion seal leaked about a cup every week.
So be careful where you take your great old Pagoda,get feed back from other members that use our forum etc.

[Shvegel]

I used to be an Instructor for BMW in their S.T.E.P. program.  We used to take "The best" of the technical school graduating classes and teach them to fix our cars.  One of the things we did for fun was turn them loose in an icy parking lot in both a modern car and my 1978 E21 3 series.  The purpose was to let them see the impact that traction control and dynamic stability had on modern vehicles.  One of the students in my car sounded like he was trying to blow the car up.  I stopped him and asked him what he though he was doing(I may have used different words) and he said,"I am putting the car on the rev limiter."  I replied, "This car has a points ignition.  It doesn't have a rev limiter!"  He the said, "what are points?"  The last I heard he is fixing ovens for the Subway sandwhich chain.

[Jonny B]

Oh my! Thanks for a good laugh to start-up Sunday morning!

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

The last I heard he is fixing ovens for the Subway sandwhich chain.

LOL

[TheEngineer]

I sometimes take my car to the local Mercedes shop. My complaint has always been that when they sold the car to me, the salesman said: "It is a sure chick magnet". This particular feature has never worked and that is my complaint.

[JamesL]

"Chick" is a well known euphemism in old car circles for "mechanic"
It's why old Astons and Ferrari are held in such high esteem as chick-magnets.

[Shvegel]

I am stealing that James.

[Cees Klumper]

I don't know. Once when I drove my 280 SL to work (PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants in The Hague) I asked a young female colleague whether girls actually looked differently at men with this type of car, and she replied "oh, definitely".
Perhaps though the original owner did not get this option? Have you checked the data card?