THE GRANDFATHER′S W210 E300 TURBODIESEL

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THE MB W210 E300 TURBODIESEL OF THE GRANDFATHER. A VERY SPECIAL PRESENT

It is finally mine! I am talking about the wonderful Mercedes w210 E300 Turbodiesel! Since my grandfather bought it - I was around 8 years old at that time - I have always loved it. My grandfather has always gotten by, nevertheless, he is over 80 years old and let′s say he started to fight with the building columns of the parking place, keeping also in mind that we′re talking about a monster of almost 5 meters car. And this is where I am getting somehow involved, since given his favorite grandson loves cars and has always been a great supporter of his w210, then... I became the chosen one to get this great Mercedes-Benz! 

Truth be said that nowadays the w210 might look like a bit old-timer or classic, which might fit better a more senior driving profile, however, I just can tell you that I really like this car! We′re talking about the first twin-headlamp Mercedes-Benz produced between 1995 and 2002, which at that time replaced the great w124 and many units can still be seen around - from both generations. I have always seen the w210 as a very exclusive executive car, like a "heavy tank", with great stability and very advanced for its time. Nowadays, 20 years after, I can still see cars - much more efficient from the consumption point of view and less polluting - with a lower level of engines, equipment, specifications, and comfort.

Some additional information about my German tank and its Avantgarde equipment:

• 6-cylinders engine, 3liters displacement, 24v and 177hp
• Automatic transmission of 5 forward speeds. Winter/Standard option
• Xenon headlights with washers
• Black leather interior
• Alloy wheels 16”, Avantgarde equipment.
• Lowered suspension Avantgarde
• Special metallic paint Mercedes
• Speed control from 30 km/h
• GPS 
• Dual zone climate control with AC
• Wood-grain-style interior trim
• Front/Rear fog lights
• Traction control
• Extra large fuel tank (80L)
• Driver, passenger and side airbags
• Speed-sensitive automatic door locking from 8km/h
• Front & Rear electric windows
• Front & Rear armrests
• BAS: “Brake assist system”, intelligence system created by Mercedes-Benz which aims at increasing the braking pressure, this is, it would supposedly be able to brake better than a scared driver in an extreme situation.

Price as new.: 50,775. -€.

I got this wonderful present with a total mileage of only 150,000 km, so it is almost like new! It is true that my grandfather does not have a fast driving profile, nevertheless, there were some other neglected aspects, besides the panel and paintwork topic. Basically, my grandfather was just doing the oil and air filters change.

Hence, I would like to show you the status of my w210 when I received it and how it looks like now with the improvements and repairs which my father and I have made on it. I am convinced it now looks like a great machine!

ENGINE MAINTENANCE AND PERIPHERALS

From my point of view, the first thing I had to do is to think about the heart of the car, so:

• Oil change from previous semi-synthetic Repsol 15w40 to Xenum GPX 5w40, higher quality synthetic oil with German technology, which contains colloidal microparticles of graphite (energetic efficiency, wear protection, fuel saving, cold start aids, clean engine and reduce the oil consumption up to 80%).

• Air, oil and fuel filters change: 

• Antipollen filters: cambio de los 4 filtros de polen/habitáculo y asegurar un aire limpio dentro del coche, evitando disgustos para los alérgicos.

• Limpieza del circuito de refrigeración con aditivo Xenum R-FLUSH y tras haber circulado con el coche por unos 100kms, cambio de anticongelante

• Xenum additive with diesel technology to clean all the parts related to the fuel system (injection pump, fuel tank, injectors...), applying an additive within the fuel tank.

• Oil, filter and seal change of the automatic gearbox: frankly speaking, I was not sure about the last time when it was changed - since the official service manual was lost. In view of the doubt, I decided to change it. Let me tell you that it is a complex process and it is actually recommended to be changed at an official Mercedes-Benz dealer. Since this was an exorbitant price - around 500.€, I opted for a garage specialized in Mercedes-Benz cars.

IDENTIFIED AND FIXED BREAKDOWNS

• Glow plugs change: this is a common problem of many Mercedes-Benz vehicles (especially the w124 and w210 ones, among others). After a certain number of years, the glow plugs start to not heat up the combustion chambers of the cylinders and it turns difficult to start up the engine, making it even more difficult when temperatures go down. This is why you might see cars blowing out a lot of white smoke when starting up in the cold mornings in Winter time. In any case, it is very advisable to change them every 120,000 km or 5 years - depending also where your car sleeps every day, this is, in the street or in an interior space.

I would recommend you to proceed very carefully and using a special product since the fact that these parts have been attached in the same position for so many years makes the process very difficult to take them out. Having said that, it is very possible that it could be broken, in which case you should open the engine if you still wanted to change them. In our case, we could just change 5 out of 6, since one of them was absolutely impossible to take out, so I believe that prevention is better than cure. Now, the cold start is great.

• Multimedia system: even though the w210 E300 comes standard with a radio without CD option, but with a 12-disc in-dash CD autochanger in the trunk of the car, we preferred to include a more modern radio, so we installed a Kenwood with a CD/USB reader.

• Dark tinted glasses: an executive and elegant car like the E300 will be much more executive and elegant if the right dark tinted glasses are installed, so here you go! Then, taking advantage of the fact that the back windscreen needed to be changed due to breakage of glass, we asked to go ahead and install the dark tinted glasses on the rear side (15% of light). The first thought was to use 5% of light, but no regrets since it would haven′t looked that elegant. I would really recommend you to install a 5% light on a car with such executive and color characteristics. 

• New tires: the vehicle used to have Michelin Pilot Sport 3 215/55-16, so considering that it was almost the right time to change them, I opted to use an equivalent but bigger size of the well-known Korean brand HANKOOK 225/55-16. Basically, a bit larger tires for higher stability.

• Remote control key: one of the keys did have problems with the central locking, so we decided to buy a new one. Further, aesthetically speaking it was not very good.

• Brake system: safety is the most important thing, so the front and rear discs/pads were changed.

• Suspensión: due to the time lapsed, the suspension shock-absorbers did not work 100% anymore, so they were changed at once. The chosen brand was SACHS since they were basically the same to the original Avantgarde ones (and not that expensive!).

• Intercooler: very soon I started to hear an abnormal sound during the acceleration, which meant a loss of turbo boost pressure. Apparently, the intercooler did have a small hole and a loss of power could be experienced. Having said that, we, of course, fixed it and the car now works perfectly.

• The hydraulic power-assisted rack: it used to have a very bad noise level when turning the steering wheel. My personal feeling is that my grandfather drove for some time without power steering fluid, which partially destroyed the rack.

BODYWORK: PANEL, PAINTWORK, AND AESTHETICS

• Rear bumper and rear lights: if you look at the original rear bumper and rear lights of this unit, you could realize that they are specific to the model before the restyling, produced in 1999. Frankly speaking, I have never liked these two parts since they make the car looks older. But that has an easy and quick solution since we can adapt the parts of the re-styling model without any problem. And this is how we did!

BEFORE - Rear lights and rear bumper (both pre-styling)

AFTER - Rear lights (re-styling model) and rear bumper (pre-restyling).

The change of the rear bumper will be done El cambio del paragolpes trasero lo dejaremos para una vez que hayamos pintado el coche completo. Como ves debajo, compré un paragolpes en color blanco y vendí el mío.

Initially, the idea was to use the front bumper of the AMG model, nevertheless, the sides and the hood of the car needed to be changed as well, which meant a lot of changes. On second thought, the current front bumper is not that bad, but still, do not fully like the shape of the front fog lamps, which again make the car even older.

I am convinced that the change of the rear lights is very obvious and it took 10 years off its appearance! What do you think about how such a small change can be so decisive?

• Mercedes-Benz logo: the alloy wheels do have a Mercedes-Benz logo in grey color, without any bright on it. Since this car does have a lot of shining chrome features, both in the bumpers and car sides, we actually thought that changing the logo would be a good idea.

• Parking sensors: a car of 5 meters long is a car of 5 meters long, so I am convinced that we will all agree with having a bit of electronic support to park, so we decided to buy and install a non-original parking sensors kit. 

The installation was conducted after having painted the car entirely, painting the sensors on the chassis color. So, you will see the results at the end of this article, I am sure you will like it!

• Painting process: this is a very interesting part of the article, the complete painting of the E300! As mentioned before, the building columns of the garage started to move – by the way, this car has always slept inside - therefore, it had considerable damages: scratches and coups, so it needed a good face washing.

I thought you would like to see pictures of the complete panel and paintwork process, conducted by our habitual workshop in Arganda, Madrid. Further, this is the moment when the rear bumper (restyling model) will be installed. At the end of the article, you will see the final results of my German tank. By the way, the headlamps were also polished.

THE FINAL RESULTS

This is a moment we have been waiting for since the beginning of the article: the final results of the w210 E300 Turbodiesel! Please, enjoy the pictures ^^

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(Please, be patient! Scroll a bit more down! :P)

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My two great machines. By the way, the beautiful girl who is cleaning the Mercedes is my sister.

I hope you liked the final results! The new metallic color of the E300 is wonderful and, depending on the light the color of the vehicle will be either blue or purple! It is true that it has taken some time and certain "investment", nevertheless, we are very satisfied with the results - also my grandfather is so happy! Let me tell you one more thing about this car: this is the most comfortable car and stable I have ever driven in the highway, over 100 cars I have tested. It looks like you are on the sofa at home! Particularly, I would like to stand out one more thing about this great car and we′re talking about its easiness for overtaking manoeuvres.

As a funny fact, I will tell you that my Mercedes has a lot of functions, like it is even able to warm up the food with its 3 liters of heating power. See the example above!

PRóXIMOS PROYECTOS EN MENTE

Truth be said that I like the current 16" alloy wheels of my car, nevertheless I am confident that this car might need something bigger given its big size and shape. Having said that, a potential future project might be to get the following crazy wheels:

• Lorinser E55 AMG 18”.

This is all for today, I hope you have enjoyed today′s article. Please, as always, it would be a great pleasure to hear from your comments, opinions, questions and/or any other suggestion you would like to make.

Please, feel free to share whatever you want with us! I am sure you do have something curious or funny to share with us! Looking forward to hearing from you soon! ??