[W126 Coupe] Broken Power Seats/ Seatbelt

[Richard & Nancy Diefenbach]

Josh - First, let me commend you for you ambitious project and your desire to restore your 500 SEC.  As an owner of many older Mercedes over the years I must throw a few caveats your way.  Transportation during my last two years in college consisted of a spartan VW beetle which was economical and not costly to run.  Parts for your SEC are going to be a lot more than a "plain Jane" Japanese or American car.  As you state, gas is going to be a large part of your budget @ 12  or 15 mpg, and at premium prices.  I used to pay .25 per gallon  to run the beetle (that's how old I am).  A new, or even used, tranny will be expensive and so will the installation unless you know a good M-B mechanic.  

My advice for the present is to put the car in storage until funds become available to start putting $ into it.  The rust issue kinda'  scares me because once it starts it's difficult to contain.  The association of "cancer" with rust is an apt  comparison.

If you decide to go forward with your project there are a lot of very knowledgeable people on this list that can help you but at this point of your life you may find it stressful when it competes with your studies and your pocketbook.

I hope I haven't sounded too much like a father and wish you the best of success in your endeavors.

Dick
Danville, VT


  Hello,
  My name is Joshua Holley, and I am a twenty year old college student, and proud owner of a silver/grey 1985 MBZ 500 SEC. I paid $750 for the car, which I though was a steal for such an amazingly high-class vehicle. Unfortunately, the car has more than its share of problems, as its previous owner failed to provide the proper upkeep for a car with almost 183,000 miles. However, since I am a fairly intelligent and mechanically talented individual, and since I am so enthralled by the sleek shape of the car and the smoothness of its engine I have decided to work with it, rather than try and make some profit off my purchase by parting it out. I have had the car for a few months now, and have already replaced the ancient and crumbling distributor rotor, put new plastic tubing on the vac system, fixed a minor oil leak, and repaired a leaky fuel injector, to name a few projects. I am poor and in college, and so lack the proper budget and amount of time to fix many of the more expensive problems, (i.e. massive amounts of rust removal, new fender, paintjob, new transmission). The fact that she averages about 12 MPG also tends to keep my restoration attempts in check, especially since premium is approaching $3.50 now days. 

  Yet, I am determined to restore this car to its former state of luxury, and ideally to fine tune its operation to the point that it will be viewed by all as the luxury sports car that it is. To accomplish this I will need to call upon the knowledge and past experience of this community on a regular basis, but for starters in need help with these issues:

  1. One night I moved my seat all the way back and the passenger seat all the forward, and since then both seats have stopped moving at all. As the fuses are all intact, something tells me that something has come un-plugged. I assume the best way to fix this is to take out the seats and search for the motor and its connections to the seats. Basically, how do I take out the seats, and where will I find the motor?

  2. The driver's seatbelt has never worked, the unit in which the metal clip plugs in is cracked and doesn't look repairable. Since i rarely have anyone riding in my backseat, I plan to take one of the backseat buckles and switch it with the driver's. Will this work and what is the best way to do this?

  3. I know that these cars were built in the economically bountiful days of the 1980's, but gas isn't 85 cents a gallon any more and the 5 liter V-8's need to guzzle gas is seriously limiting my ability enjoy the car. Does anyone know of any minor tweaks or cheap modifications that I can attempt to get better mileage?

  I am confident that in the near future I will have the kind of cash to give the car the overhaul it needs, but for now I just want to be able to keep the car in good shape, make some minor improvements, and hopefully not have to sell it because driving it is too expensive. I hope someone out there knows how to help.
  Sincerely,
  Joshua J. Holley


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