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Learned something new about EPC

Started by wbrian63, 01 October 2009, 07:00 AM

wbrian63

I'm not sure how many folks on this board have access to EPC. But for those that do, you know what a fantastic resource it is for MB owners.

Yesterday, I got a tip on an auction on US eBay by a German seller. The auction was for a pair of fanfare horns listed as being for the W116 chassis car. Frequently auctioneers aren't aware of what parts fit what chassis, and sometimes they're just plain dishonest, so EPC is the sure-fire way to sort the wheat from the chaff.

I was able to read one of the part #'s off a box from the auction picture. Plugged that # 003 542 65 20 into EPC and got "Nothing found". Well, it is a valid MB part #, and the part is in a MB box, so what's up?

Scanned the photo a little more closely and was able to discern that the other part was 003 542 64 20. That part struck gold and even though it pointed me to a 126 chassis car, I was sure that the parts were at least near to what I needed/wanted. Using EPC, I was also able to get the # of the wiring harness for the horns, and I used that to check with Tom Hanson at the Classic Center to see what the going rate was for the parts, and if they were even available.

The horns are still available and the price was about $70US list. ($140 for the pair, plus $10 or so to ship to me). The wiring harness (no # listed in the auction) is NLA, and the picture looks good, so that's more of a drive to complete the sale, which I did.

Anyway - the point of this posting is that when you use EPC to search for a part and come up with nothing, try adjusting the 3rd group of #'s up or down by 1. From what I've seen, that group of #'s is typically used to identify left vs right-side parts, and apparently, only one of the pair is searchable.  The original # 003 542 65 20 was listed on the same page with the 64 20 and it's the horn for the right side, where 64 20 is for the left side.


Hope this is of use to someone.

Regards
W. Brian Fogarty

'12 S550 (W221)
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #521
'02 S55 AMG (W220) - sold
'76 450SEL 6.9 Euro #1164 - parted out

"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people, and most of them seemed to come from Texas..." Casino Royale, Chapter V