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Re: Tough W140 question - Help !

Why are you surprised at the $600 cost of a wiring harness for a 600SEL?

That's exactly why these cars depreciate so badly - their repair and service costs are very high and remain so long after their high status is long gone. Car's have no senior discount.

If the electric fans operate, the wiring harness, which you will need to replace, has nothing to do with the engine's overheating. That's assuming it really is overheating - that the temperature gauge is correct.

You don't say when the engine overheats. If in slow traffic, the radiator and fans are suspect but if it runs hot at speed the radiator is the culprit.

To ensure the radiator is shedding all the heat you should be sure its core is clean so the air can pass through it. If the radiator is doubtful you cal have it rebuilt. see:

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If the radiator is OK, the fans run, there are no air locks in the cooling system and the gauge is reporting the engine's temperature correctly then you must consider the possibility of a busted head gasket. If that's the case, $600 will be the down payment for the repair job.

Reply to
T.G. Lambach
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One note of caution on

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I used them sometime back for a rebuild of my Porsche 928 radiator, and they screwed me. Paid for both plastic tanks replaced, and they only did one. And, they didn't pack the radiator correctly resulting in the waterneck on the new side being cracked during shipment back. Anyway, as a result, my core was trashed, and they told me I was out of luck. Good thing I paid on credit card and could get the charges removed. With the UPS $100 standard insurance coverage, I was able to by another good core and get it rebuilt locally. Anyway, the morale of the story is that if you want to risk having your car laid up for months, use Reseda.

Reply to
Tom

First bad word that I've heard about Reseda.

Thanks for the info.

Tom

Reply to
T.G. Lambach

Thanks Tom for this valuable information, I will do some further investigation today based on that info. Thanks also for the Reseda pointer, although I most certainly won't use it, since I don't live in the US (I am in France). By the way, if any member of the group knows a good mechanic in the Paris area, I would be grateful.

Regarding the maintenance costs, I was mentally prepared to it, so it was not that much of a surprise. However, I don't want to pay for extra $$$/time if the local MB dealer does not FIND the problem. I had this experience with my instrument cluster (which I now know is a common fault on these models). The dealer simply offered to replace it, without being able to certify some small electrical quirks came from it. So I naturally asked "what if" it was not the cluster, the guy then mentioned 3 or 4 other parts, amounting to several thousand $$$ - still without warranty it would fix things. Coming from what I regarded as a trusted and reputable company producing some of the finest cars around, this try and guess approach seems utterly nonprofessional to me...

However, I found some MB mechanics pretty friendly, so I took the DIY approach, since they are willing to answer (most) of my questions, at the same time I bought parts :)

Joscelyn

"T.G. Lambach" a écrit dans le message de news: snipped-for-privacy@NoHamOrSpamcomcast.net...

Reply to
JF

Hi Joscelyn

I am also considering to buy old W140 with 4.2L engine from Germany. Otherwise are you satisfied with the car? Especially the Mercedes quality is it what they advertice? In same category is also BMW 700 series!

Thanks Jukka from Finland

de

Reply to
Jukka

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