Mercedes Benz W124 300D – Kaufberatung & Probefahrt. Unkaputtbar oder einfach nur alt?

Willkommen auf unserem Kanal – Automobile Depression!

In Folge 2 geht’s dem nächsten Mythos an den Kragen – dem Mercedes W124.

Jochen nimmt den angeblich unkaputtbaren Dauerläufer ganz genau unter die Lupe und klärt die entscheidende Frage: Hat der W124 seinen legendären Ruf wirklich verdient – oder lebt er nur noch vom Hype vergangener Tage? Wie immer gibt’s reichlich Hintergrundwissen, ehrliche Meinung und ein bisschen seelischen Abrieb.

Auf diesem Kanal geht es um echte Autos. Nicht um glänzende Supersportler, die im Showroom verstauben – sondern um treue Alltagskarren, die schon ein paar Schlachten hinter sich haben.
Autos, die klappern, ölen, nerven – und trotzdem irgendwas in uns auslösen, das wir uns selbst nicht erklären können.

Abonniert uns, wenn ihr auf rostige Realität steht – und sehen wollt, wie Jochen sich Folge für Folge in neue automobile Abgründe stürzt.
Weil irgendwer muss es ja machen.

Yes, hello. New video here from Automobile Depression. But we have another car for you: a Mercedes W124. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Yes, you can see that there are cars that are hard to save, like this Citroën XM, which has been standing here for 6, 7 years without moving. It was a car that had a lot of electronics, more modern technology. Getting it running again isn’t that easy, but we have another car for you. It’s actually a bestseller, also in the so-called youngtimer scene, or for the very young among us. It’s actually a classic car. Not a Mercedes W124. Here it is one of the very first, built in 87. A 300 diesel. You can tell by the double exhaust pipes. Only the 260E, the 300E, and the 300D had them. So, a six-cylinder engine. This car, as I said, is very original, it has the aura of being indestructible and lasting forever. And I’ll show you now that it That’s nonsense too. Mercedes also likes to break down and in many places it’s so broken that it’s almost not worth making a car like that anymore. I’ll show you an example using this vehicle [Music] Well, the 124 was basically the successor to the W123, the last chrome model from Mercedes, as it was always called. And when this car came onto the market in 1985 after the factory holidays, it was a pretty big disappointment at first because the quality had deteriorated so much. This car had so many teething problems, among other things, the 300 diesel with manual transmission, there was the so-called Brunanzer effect, which they couldn’t get rid of. There were problems with the heat exchangers and so on and so forth. And since this Mercedes mid-range car has always been the ultimate taxi and taxi drivers are used to high mileage with little cost, this was a huge disappointment. Mercedes had to work really hard to get this sorted. Then there was Mopf 1. Mopf stands for model change, Mopf 2 and then finally even Mopf 3. And in the end the car was then really well-developed Especially these early models have a few weaknesses which I will show you but they also have a few strengths Some of which are even better than the last ones I will show you in a moment So the body of the W124 was incredibly modern back then There had already been the 190 from 82 onwards, the so-called Babyb and this car was based on that It was incredibly aerodynamic and had a good CW value That was a major development goal for all manufacturers in the mid-80s Audi was the pioneer Mercedes followed suit However, this body also had problems as a result Of course, there were no more roof rails Taxi drivers had to get a completely different torch, the taxi sign Yes, it was no longer possible to put a bar on the railing Then this car had rust problems Extreme rust problems So it started here with these jack mounts which are worn out on almost all models It continued with fenders which rusted here in this front area Strangely enough, much less on the very early models than on the later ones because in the first few years Mercedes was still had a much better paint quality Um, then it went on to say that this car was protected underneath with a very special layer of concrete. That’s where the water gets in and it settles between the concrete and the sheet metal and basically rusts through from the inside without you being able to see it. That becomes very problematic at the back of the rear axle. If that has rusted away then you basically have a hopeless case. With the station wagons it was even more tragic. It rusts in this area, which is not as bad on the saloons. Rust was seen quite often on the inside of the wheel arch. Otherwise you can see with this example here, as I said, it was built in 87 and was second hand and stood for a long time in France, so it ‘s still in relatively good condition in terms of the sheet metal structure. The trunk is full of rubbish in this example but it’s still very big, which was important for Mercedes drivers in this middle class. You had to load a lot. Mercedes didn’t have rear headrests for this model at an extra cost. you could fold it down pneumatically at the front, so to speak. That was a huge gimmick. Another thing that this car inherited from the 190 was the windscreen wiper. Yes, it ‘s a so-called single-arm windscreen wiper, which was designed in such a way that it wipes almost the entire surface. It has a small gear that lets the rod stick out when it’s in the middle, and as a result, it covered a huge area. These things always broke because they weren’t serviced. It’s become more difficult to get hold of them today. 20 or 30 years ago, all of this existed. Then it had something special. This exterior mirror on the passenger side was larger than the one on the driver’s side. Mercedes had thought that you could see a lot more in this mirror, so they made it bigger. They had put a lot of Swabian engineering into this vehicle. So, at the end of the day, it was an incredibly modern vehicle and everything that was there, whether it was Ferm or Audi 100, looked very old compared to this vehicle. [Music] So about the interior fittings Well, the quality of Mercedes was really good, there’s no other way to say it but now 40 years later you can see that even the great quality of Mercedes has its problems So, especially with the first, these Mopf zero things, as they say, you always have to loosen this You can’t fix it again because the material shrinks So, with the help of tradesmen or I don’t know if you can ever fix it again A problem Second problem, the seats always suffer from the fact that, for example, these seat bolsters are worn Not with this one because it got a new seat at some point But there ‘s always the problem that this bolster comes loose because of the wear and tear You can still get parts but as I said, it’s not that easy Good interior fittings, especially for these Mopf zero stories, are very, very hard to get hold of Like the back seat Yes, here you can still see that this is also starting to come loose So that’s really hard to get hold of The back seat is generally rarely worn out because not many people sat on it This car was a self-drive car or Just a taxi but the taxis are almost all gone and if you can still get a taxi interior they had the advantage that they were reinforced and were all in this so-called MBTex, i.e. artificial leather. There is practically no electronics on this car. The only thing I can show you on this vehicle is a small monitoring computer. It’s too much, but a small monitoring device that shows the functionality of the lamps, the entire lighting system, and it sometimes goes crazy on this one too. That means when I turn on the light, this little light bulb always lights up. Is all the light bulbs working? That’s because of a small device that’s at the front of the fuse box. Otherwise, this car is really free of electronics. Sunroofs are also a problem. They don’t open anymore. It was electric all the way through the 124. There was no manual option anymore. Meaning if that breaks it’s really annoying because the motor for the sunroof is at the back in the trunk and there’s a cord that goes through it. It goes right across the whole car, basically under the roof, and you can replace it, but it’s tedious. tedious tedious So make sure that the sunroofs work or just say the roof stays closed, it doesn’t matter So most 124s had what is known as bookkeeper equipment because absolutely everything on this car cost extra As I said, this car has an automatic transmission Special equipment was the cruise control and it also has ABS but I think that was even standard on the six-cylinder Otherwise you had to order everything separately, whether it was seat heating or electric windows or heat-insulating glass, it doesn’t even have that Yes, it really was an expensive car in the 80s but there was no longer any free warming, insulating glass [Music] Another huge disadvantage of this car are the so-called suspension springs The original ones always break, the accessories ones too. You don’t see it. You only notice it at some point when it clatters and bangs, usually at the bottom a part of the spring breaks. Replacing it isn’t really that big a problem because there is no McFerson in front of the axle or anything like that. That means the shock absorber is not inside the spring but outside. You just have to find the right spring. Mercedes has marked them with different color patterns. You might not be able to get a spring at Mercedes these days and if you do, they’re twice as expensive as the accessories. So you also go to the accessories and you have to be really careful which spring you buy. You can adjust the height of this car because there is a rubber plate on the spring which has different knobs. There are ones with two knobs, three knobs, four knobs, five knobs. The more knobs, the thicker the plate and that’s how you can adjust the height. Mercedes has a specific spring for each equipment variant. That means the 300D has a completely different spring to a 200 diesel or a 200 and whether it has a trailer hitch, whether it has an automatic transmission, whether it has a lot of special equipment, and so on and so forth. All of that was taken into account in the calculation of these suspension springs. So it’s a relatively exciting field to really find the right springs. The predecessor still had a relatively simple rear axle shape with two large control arms. Here it’s called a so-called multi-link rear axle, which already shows the problem. There are an incredible number of small struts with bushings and so on. So overhauling the rear axle on the 124 is a considerable effort. So pay attention to whether it rattles or clatters at the back or so on. If not, then you’re already at an advantage. The other problem is that this car usually has very high mileage, and as a result the differentials suffer most. So if you test drive this car and look at it from the back, then you know that the differential isn’t quite right anymore. In the past, you would just get it from the scrapyard and then you would need the differential. That’s going to be more difficult these days. You can do something like that. Of course, have everything overhauled , but of course it’s all incredibly expensive. So try to find a car where the differential doesn’t whine. There are also differences between differentials with and without ABS. You have to pay attention to that. [Music] [Applause] This 3-liter diesel engine is a bit of a special feature because in the mid -80s, Volvo was the only one offering a six-cylinder diesel engine, but that came from the VW truck, the LT28, and Mercedes designed this 3- liter, 6-cylinder engine with 109 hp. It was later turbocharged and had around 147 hp, but these engines are actually considered to be very, very durable if you look after them. It was a completely new generation of engines, they ran more smoothly than the old five-cylinder 300 diesels in the 123 and they also had very, very good pulling power . I can tell you a little anecdote. My father only ever drove BMW 7s and was always annoyed by BMW 7s because they always had teething problems. And when the 85 came out, he got exactly this one. Bought a car with a 3 litre diesel and thought it was great. So I switched from a 735i to a 300 diesel and thought it was great because this car was relatively economical. Compared to today’s diesels, it uses a lot. So 8, 9, even 10, 11 litres are definitely a given. But in the mid-80s it was really low and the engine ran smoothly and was refined. You should always choose an automatic transmission, and my father didn’t do that back then, because with the five-speed or four-speed manual transmission you had this bonanza effect. This torque curve of the engine in conjunction with the manual transmission was not right. That means the car was always building up and this quickly earned it this nickname, the bonanza effect , and for Mercedes, as far as I can remember, this was a real image problem for the first time. So you can hear it I think a six-cylinder is the most beautiful thing there is, in terms of sound but also in terms of running smoothness, especially as a diesel, it’s always a bit like a ship’s diesel or it sounds completely synchronized and fades away a bit, I like that a lot [Applause] So this 3 l diesel from the W124 is a pre-chamber diesel, which means it has pre-chambers Here are the six injection nozzles, Down here is the mechanical injection pump, there’s nothing electronic or electrical, this engine would continue to run without a battery, it does n’t need any electricity, it’s really sturdy, you should service it though, so a good oil change every 7500 km, change the diesel filter, check the glow plugs to see if they’re all 50, you can tell, but it also shows you, otherwise this car, this engine is really good for over 500,000 km if you look after it, many taxis have even managed well over 700,800,000 [Music] So back in my youth there was a saying when I Mercedes want to drive, I buy one or I get a taxi. And that’s exactly the feeling I have now. Driving a 124 is always something like a taxi, right. Especially here in Berlin, up until the 2000s, the streets were full of 124-series taxis. That was justified because these things were really solid and the chassis in particular worked, it didn’t rattle, it was quite easy to repair. There were many workshops that took 124-series cars apart and dismantled them. And now we’re driving along a difficult stretch of cobblestones again and you’ll notice that there’s nothing rattling or rattling or clattering on this 40-year-old car, that it really goes over it very solidly. So that’s a certain quality. You can’t argue with that. It’s definitely there. As I said, we’re dealing with a 124-series that’s basically not looked after, it’s driven. It’s not a car that’s loved, it’s just used. And I would drive this car right now. Drive 4000 km in one go because that ‘s what’s so great about it. And the technology is manageable, it’s simple, you can repair everything yourself relatively quickly. Parts supply is good. Original spare parts from Mercedes have become more expensive these days, like everything else. But nevertheless, 124s are cars that you can drive for a long time and still be able to drive for a long time. Yes, it’s just a very unspectacular car. It’s not like you have amazing driving pleasure or anything like that, but everything works. It’s all very logically laid out. The dashboard is completely unspectacular. There are just a few buttons and a couple of rotary switches and that’s how it works. And there wasn’t a lot of design, it was all very tidy and even. You can also see this smooth surface here, it was all very calm and everything was supposed to radiate solidity and calm. It still does today. Exactly what I said before. There’s always a problem with the wiper here, it’s a bit tired. It really needs to be re-greased. The spray nozzles need to be cleaned. They’re even heated on this model, and the the nozzles are heated and the water itself is heated via the coolant So they’ve really come up with something So even in winter you can clear these nozzles relatively quickly Um exactly One problem here is the speedometer unit These speedometers tend to break The pinions say goodbye They’re plastic pinions or they slide forward and then they’re always repairable There’s also a VDAU instrument And what’s also a common problem are the fuel senders That’s a problem with this one too It doesn’t show the correct fill level at all Which is a shame because the mileage display doesn’t work So you have to keep hoping that there’s still enough diesel on board The fuel senders are at the back It’s a huge pipe to get a new one Unfortunately it costs a lot of money I think even three-digit or just the fuel sender to get it out Yes, you have to take the whole trunk apart and then it’s behind the back seat in the sedan Uh, it can be done but as I said this fuel sender costs a lot of money Well, and that’s how you can keep a 124 engine running pretty well and do a little bit of work on it now and then And as I mentioned before, you can actually drive this vehicle comfortably in everyday life Only here in Berlin with diesels is it not such a problem, I mean, it isn’t cleaned There were catalytic converters for this car I think there are even particulate filters that you can retrofit It’s not even done because it’s all very expensive and tax-wise it does n’t play a role anymore because of the license plate But they do stink out the back and that ‘s how it is in big cities these days People don’t really find it funny anymore So you do get approached sometimes and say it stinks and you had to drive in a car like that and so on So think about whether you shouldn’t get a petrol engine after all, as nice as this engine is uh or try to clean it again So you could maybe invest in an exhaust gas cleaning system and then you can carry on driving a diesel with peace of mind That’s the W124 of the upper middle class as it was called by Mercedes-Benz from the 80s which was still being built, so for a relatively long time and then replaced by the, in my opinion, awful W210 That’s the E-Class which was then called the E-Class and, uh, yes, it was already basically rusted in the catalog but it’s also achieved a bit of a collector status now I can’t really explain it but okay Perhaps we can introduce you to a W210 on our channel So that’s it for the W124 See you later Ciao [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]