I am gonna look at a japanese import left hand drive w124 300E-24V with low mileage as a daily driver. Advice please?

I am gonna look at a japanese import left hand drive w124 300E-24V with low mileage as a daily driver. Advice please?
I know to check for rust at the jacking points, behind the water container in the engine bay and your average spots like under the door panels and such but it seems to be rust free. I also am aware of the risky head gasket and to check for oil leaks. What else should i look for, what can i expect?

>300E

Ruined by k-jetronic

Is it actually that bad? I know it's a complex manual system, but it does seem to be durable enough.

I have never seen anyone complain about that yet and it seems like a negligible concern

>unfortunately 4 speed autotragic but ill deal with it

If you don't buy it I'll kill you to death OP. Think about that one.

Literally its fine just expensive to fix if it breaks, FPR is like 250 bucks. It's been reliable for me but repeat after me: DO NOT TRY TO ADJUST YOUR MIXTURE OR TUNE IT.
NO
STOP
HANDS OFF
If you're gonna fuck with it then get an aftermarket like megasquirt or something.

I have an M104 powered 300CE that has 322K miles on it. Rusty and burns a bit of oil but it runs like a top and drives like a dream.
I want an M104 powered TE at some point so I'm either gonna buy a mid 90s with ecojunk that was fixed or a pre facelift and swap my M104 into it.

Check for rust in:
jack points
behind headlights inside engine bay
under battery tray
trunk underside, hood underside etc
near windows or sunroof trims
and mine rusted in the rear fender wells and shock towers
check the fuck out of those
theres a bunch of little plugs made of rubber in the rear fender well, push on them hard, even if they look fine. if they crinkle or fall through, run, there's more where that came from.
Pic related is my fender well . Those big holes you see LOOKED like those plugs that look totally fine. It's entirely invisible unless you push and feel and listen.

Honestly theyre solid as fuck cars, the 124 platform and 129 which is based on it, is my favorite chassis of any car. Headgasket problems are common on the I6 engines but its typically an outside oil leak not one that allows coolant and oil to mix.

Check the fluids make sure they're good and clear, there is pretty much a filter for every fluid.

Diff gets greasy, rear main seal commonish
Voltage regulators can go out but are like 40 bucks and easy a f to replace.

With an M104 in the lightest bodystyle on the 124 platform I imagine you will move pretty good. It is definitely a cruiser, that is what it is best at. Good for highway pulls, 60 to 80 without downshifting is fun as fuck

Lemme know if any other specific questions, theyre solid comfortable and somewhat quick with the DOHC just not a lightning bolt.

this is it fixed btw,

other side was just as bad.

the auto trans in these cars is good, holds a gear well and doesnt slip much, shifts OK

Cars start in 2nd gear unless you, while stopped, put it in 1 and then back or leave it and shift manually as it revs. Max speed for a gear is marked on the speedo with little tick marks too fyi.

Engines love to rev. want more powe? dont turbo just ring it out further.

>tfw 228kmh in my 220E

honestly ive never had as much fun in a commuter car when it comes to just flooring it

I'm jelly. I'm a burger so all we got were the I6 some V8 and diesel benzes. I would be totally fine with a 230TE as a daily commuter, I wish I had one, but I also want an E320 wagon with the M104.

Ugh why did the US not get small displacement 124s. I would be dailying one right now if I could. So cool and decent empeegees.

Just get a w201. The interior is very nice and feels much bigger on the inside.

Appreciate it. Its gonna be a stock commuter, no messing with it besides rims and audio maybe. The insurance is fine and the maintenance seems fair. Im a sucker for the styling and its pretty comfortable from what i experienced so far.
Ive read up much but its nice to hear any opinion and tip i can get

Yeah, if rust and asphalt dust weren't things, I'd daily drive a 124 wagon till the day I die. It's all the car I need.

No rust and no leaking gasket makes for a very recommendable vehicle

Nice rust repair. Fiberglass/ POR15?

The 722.3 transmissions in gas cars do indeed start in 2nd gear except under high load, if I read the FSM correctly. At that point, governor pressure will determine either a 2nd gear start or a 1st gear start - light pressure, flat road = 2nd gear start...heavy pressure, hill start = 1st gear start.

MB did this to keep the car from creeping when stopped when a more powerful engine was installed, and to smooth the takeoff so the 1/2 shift wouldn't jerk because the governed pressure is too high...

I suspect that one could adjust the governor pressure to always start in 1st gear by adjusting or removing the spring for the governor pressure boost in the valve body...BUT...this would also move all your shift points and require careful adjustment of the pressure cable.

The same transmission in a diesel never starts in 2nd, so my guess is the governor pressure boost is where the factory makes the change...

Really though, a properly adjusted and maintained 722.X transmission in its stock form is wonderful. The one in my 240D is about as smooth as any transmission you'll find.

And yes - DO NOT put a turbo on a non-turbo MB engine, in general. The NA MB engines are not designed to handle the heat.

The meme goes that now mile jap cars idle in traffic their whole life.

Asphalt dust?

There is a city in my country where they used weird material mix to cheap out on asphalt and the road dust breaks timing belts on even new cars.
The national technical research centre was hired to find out the reason when dealerships started to get weirded out.

Miracle paint from bill hirsch auto. But yeah basically POR15. I hope it lasts. I don't really drive it in the rain and definitely not in the snow or salt so hmm
And yes I should have mentioned that it's normal except under high load, and presumably if you hit the kickdown switch or floor it from a stop. I've been too scared to try it on my 322K mile dinosaur.
I wouldn't try to adjust any vacuum shit either, it is far too easy to fuck up and have a car that goes from first to fourth in like 3 seconds. I'm perfectly fine with the way it operates now.
And what if you want 500 horsepower? Have you seen the turbobandit kits? They're claiming 900+ hp on stock internals. Yeeah. I mean I'm sure its possible but I agree these engines are hot as fuck already, you would definitely want to run an oil cooler, intercooler, and rig your electric aux fans to pretty much always be on, I would think.
No, not quite like that. I work for an asphalt and aggregate manufacturing company in IT, and during busy season they will crush RAP (reclaimed asphalt pavement - did you know 99% of all asphalt is recycled? it's the most recycled material on earth more than paper even - a good percentage of "new" asphalt is old stuff reheated) but it needs to be crushed to be used so they crush it and it creates tiny particles of rock covered in asphalt cement which, on a hot summer day or really any time, sticks right to your paint.

They hand out mikes car wash auto wash coupons to get free washes in the summer but I havent used them because it'd just make it worse.

That's why I bought an 05 Focus hatch to commute there in, because beyond the asphalt there's also regular rock dust too because lol asphalt plant.

Seriously it's super hard to get off the only way that works is claying the car and it'll just get covered again in a day, so I've given up ever cleaning the focus outside of salt rinse off in the winter. My paint feels like sandpaper and it was last coated in late fall

I've never had a problem with my injected 200E

you remove one of the springs in the valve body to make it start in first, i think i saw in the transmission rebuild manual

It's the last great MB and japanese imports are known for their great maintenance. I'd say watch for the casket(i.d. oil in water vice versa) or if all cylinders have enough compression, but german taxis/cabs drove this car for more than 1mio km without any breakdowns.

So i looked at it and besides some slight surface rust on the exhaust and rims there was nothing to be found anywhere. Beneath or behind the headlights, jackpoints, fender wells (checked the rubber plugs), battery, wiper fluid container, antenna. There was not the slightest bit of rust. Got the chance to jack it up and look at and touch the diff, dry as a rock. Same goes for the engine and cylinder head. Since the car was somewhat dirty and covered in a fair amount of leaves it probably hasnt been prepared beforehand.
But i ultimately walked away because the price is my absolute limit right now and there were some major and minor issues.

>the roof cover (do you call that headlining?) was hanging left, right in the back and front
>the cover of the electric sunroof also hung blocking it from opening and even if pushed upwards it wouldnt open
So i took a guess that theres probably something broken in the sunroof motor as well
>while ac was on there was a noticeable sound coming from presumably the ac compressor
Anyone experienced this before? Is it actually a bad thing? Ive heard from e90 bmws with this issue
>the paint was fucked, not chipped but probably covered in bird shit for a long time, leaving scratches and stains in the clear coat and paint
>plastic sliders in the ac vent were missing, not moving and such
Does the whole center console have to be taken out to access those and change em out?

There were some more things wrong with it and I was so bummed that it added up to this much. The engine and trans were buttery smooth, the ride was excellent but i cant afford to shell out like 3 grand i expect i would need to fix those issues

You can pull out the roof plate and refurbish it yourself, look it up
The chips in the paint are a rust starter. Is there a way to seal these until you can afford a paintjob?

>I am gonna look at a japanese import left hand drive w12
My I ask why you're importing one from Japan? Just happened to find a deal or something that happened to be on one of those Japanese sites or what?

Its already here, dude brought it with him. Apparently old and well maintained cars find their way here for cheap and the sunnier parts down south keep the rust low. There wont be finding any rust free ones domestically

>japanese import
>left hand drive
if its left hand drive then presumably it came from somewhere else originally?

Hope you enjoy the smell of stale cigarettes, op.
Nah, it's a posh thing to do in Japan.