[W126 Coupe] Broken Power Seats/ Seatbelt
Jay Hirsch
J.Hirsch at mac.com
Fri Apr 30 21:40:34 EDT 2010
My 1990 60 SEC consistently gets between 17-19 mpg on the highway
cruisin at 75 mph and 14 mpg locally
Most of my limited driving with the SEC is highway. I will do
400 miles tomorrow going to Dover AFB and back home
Jay H
On Apr 30, 2010, at 9:28 PM, Axel Wulff wrote:
> 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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