[W126 Coupe] Broken Power Seats/ Seatbelt

[Axel Wulff]

Joshua,

 

I admire you choice in vehicle and your courage, but I too think you're better off passing on this vehicle. Rust and 183,000 miles are not factors you should ignore. The rust will be expensive to fix properly and an engine with that many miles on it will soon require lots of expensive work (these engines have a habit of blowing the head gasket at cylinder #8 around that mileage.....).

 

The SEC was a top-of-the-line luxury car in its days and despite the fact that you can pick one up for virtually nothing today, spare parts are priced according to the new car value.

 

To answer you specific questions:

1. Remove the seats. You're not going to like this, but the easiest way to remove the seats involve sliding it all the forward to loosen the two rear 10 mm bolts, then slide it all the way back to remove the two front 10 mm bolts. To access the rear bolts with the seats all the way back will require I don't have in my tool kit.

2. The front and rear seatbelt anchors are not the same. You'll have an easier time picking a front one from the wreckers rather than try to make one from the rear fit.

3. These cars are gas guzzlers, with the tax payment to prove it. Just another reason for you to find another car to use as your daily driver.

Regards,
Axel J. Wulff
610-731-5453 Cellular
610-572-4611 Home



 


Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2010 06:21:34 -0600
From: holl2157 at gmail.com
To: mbcoupes at mbcoupes.com
Subject: [W126 Coupe] Broken Power Seats/ Seatbelt


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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