Despite it being 3 months away the team started getting excited about July's Barcelona rally and started to look for a suitable car. On Thursday we had our hearts set on a Toyota Carina like this but not as good.
Ours looked like this –
But we were happy enough. Bloke told John he'd take £250 and we arranged to see on Friday but he rang and said someone had already taken a deposit. I think maybe he just wanted the EBay auction to end as I notice it's still there.
So then we decided to have a look at this Mercedes on gum tree.
93 mercedes 300 diesel for parts motd taxed still driving (£250)
Date posted: Friday 19th March | Ad viewed: 140 times
Location: maghera
93 mercedes 300 diesel auto breaking for parts 5 near new tyres tow bar good engine and gear box parts from £10 or will sell complete car for £250 car is still motd to oct 2010 and taxed end march is being driven every day tel ****** no witheld nos answered
John and I drove out to middle of nowhere and met seller.
Guy selling it was pretty honest in saying he was going to scrap it and that the glow heaters were inoperative. It drove well and braked well. Lights etc all working but all superfluous electrics such as radio and windows are inoperative. The fact that there are several fuses missing could explain some of this.
The engine seemed to purr nicely – only 197K on clock - they are reputed to do at least 500K. A straight 6 cylinder diesel is huge.
Automatic gearbox seems not too bad. Stank of chip oil as seller said he's running on homemade biodiesel. I believe these run fine on this so this did not particularly concern me. Interior is dirty but cloth is surprisingly not badly worn. Boot held shut with wire.
So, after a bit of hard bargaining we purchased at £220 - £30 below limit.
Drove home fine. Very smooth comfy ride even at 70mph on motorway.
Stopped for some diesel and I could see the admiring looks of the other motorists. The cashier fancied me without me even showing my iphone so I could see the car was already having a positive effect.
Tried to start this morning and it just turned over. Sounded like it was firing on just one cylinder. After flattening battery (didn't take long) tried my old jump leads which did nothing. Not surprised at this as they did nothing when the battery went in my Land Rover and I tried to jump from Fiona's car. So she sat on the road.
So went up to Stormont to see F1 car and met co driver Martin
Would have been nice to take this but I don't think we'd get the tent in.
Picked up a set of decent jump leads from Halfords, together with a Haynes manual and after a lot of cranking finally got her fired up.
Once started she ran fine and would start fine.
So I'm going to get out my meter and follow the diagnostics I found here. I suspect all but one of the heater plugs has gone. They are cheap enough but look a bit awkward to get in and out as they are under the inlet pipes.
Probably won't need them in the summer anyway.
Will change filters and oil, patch up electrics (knew that degree in Electrical Engineering would come in handy sometime) and she should be good to go!
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