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My first W116 here at last

Started by gavin116, 10 April 2011, 01:54 PM

WGB

#15
Hi Gavin,

Your original data card does not contain the production date.

Here is a copy of the data card of my 450SEL that was supplied to me by D-B three years ago when they were still supplying them by e-mail - my 450 is a UK delivered 1979 model.



You will note that AFAIK although yours is a 450SE and starts with 116032 the production numbers for 450 SE and SEL models continued in a sequential run irrespective of chassis size.

My car is chassis no 93288 and the build date is on the card as 29-05-79.

Your car is 1523 later hence I would suggest that it was built approx July 1979.

You can get some further guesstimate by removing trim like the knee rolls or the horn pad and if original they will have a date either stamped or on a sticker on the reverse side. My car has lots of stickers marked May 1979.

Bill

adamb


Hi Gavin,

I've posted pictures since the original where the car is missing it's panels and the panels are stripped of paint. You should see the pics in the gallery. I am still keen to go for a new colour but that's because I've had my white 6.9 for 10 years now and feel it's time for a change. If the paint condition is good then white looks pretty good too. I like the trim combo on yours. Mine is black leather so looks pretty similar.

The 450SEL parts car is dark blue with cream velour interior. The inside is in a bad state and the outside is not that hot either. However, the doors are pretty good and can certainly be reused. The same goes for the bonnet and and boot. I believe the car has rear seat belts but will confirm. The bumpers are rotten, sadly. The dash is in good condition and then there is the engine and gear box which will go on forever.

Despite all, it is possible to run 116s relatively cheaply so long as you are not too fussy. In the last ten years the only item which required rebuilding was the rear limited slip diff. On a standard 450 you don't have one so it's not a problem. Apart from regular servicing and some new break disks, pads, new suspension spheres and windscreen wipers, nothing else was required. I suggest you take it easy rather than pore in all the money at once.

Cheers,
Adam

calvin streeting

Quote from: adamb on 14 April 2011, 05:18 PM

The 450SEL parts car is dark blue with cream velour interior. The inside is in a bad state

mmm.. How good is the back seat and carperts.. and i realy need to find the colour code for my interior...

adamb

There was a water leak into the car and the rear seats are damaged. The front are actually in a better condition. Not that clean but as far as I recall have no tears. I'll try and get pictures some time as I need to sell some bits and recoup the costs of getting it in the first place.

gavin116

#19
Hello Adam (and fellow 116 owners)

I went to look at the car again today.  Had her in the light of day, and discovered several imperfections that I hadn't noticed before.  Nevertheless, I am still in love, and considering that she is 32 years old, that's not bad.  I have taken heed of what you are saying about pouring huge amounts of money into the car, as one can easily get carried away with one's first 116 (end up like Charlie with a beautiful car, but probably dead broke!).  I had a look at the gallery again, and perused your during photos.  Got any more pictures from the paint shop? Who and where are they? And what about your colour, have you finalised it yet?  I am liking the classic white "737" more and more, although I do think that some of the metallic greens and browns work well on a 116.  I also like smoked silver, but it was never an option on the 116 as far as I know. And then there's RED!

When I started her today, it was a little difficult to get her to idle, she kept on missing and running on less than all 8 cylinders, and she wanted to stall as soon as I touched the accelerator. Discouraged, I turned the ignition off and I started to look around the vehicle. I was examining my ash tray, (the previous owner was a smoker, and the car does have a somewhat unhealthy smell) which I managed to break when I emptied the full ashtray at the services on my trip down to London.  The catch mechanism was slightly bent, which I managed to force back into shape.  However, the wood cover did come off in my hands.  I will take advice on how to stick it back on, i.e. which brand of double sided tape or glue to use.  The original tape looks very thin compared to the tape I have seen in hardware stores.  [This did however reveal a date inscription, Bill ,it would appear our cars are more or less twins, the ashtray veneer was some date in May 1979.  I will take a photo before I glue it back in place.]

I also noticed that the front passenger safety belt is defective (won't retract at all) and I will need to replace it.  At the same time, I also saw that the right rear door beading is damaged, so Adam I will need this piece from you if it is still up for grabs?  There is a small amount of rust under the bonnet, do I need to attend to this, and is it serious?  Will this mean there is a leak into the interior?  The front passenger footwell?

Rust in the engine bay

What is this box (there is also some rust beneath it)?

Otherwise the sunroof tray has rust in the anterior region.  Do I need this attending to sooner rather than later?

Rust on the left hand side of the sun roof

Rust on the right hand side of the sun roof


Pulling myself together , I decided to try starting the car again.  This time she started first time, and idled much better with no miss-firing.  Having got this far, I took her for a little spin, and gave her a token £50 of petrol (sadly that only equates to 36.26 Lt), she is now just a little way over half full.  Got a few stares again from passersby.  I am not sure if it's all that chrome, or the sound of the V8 that makes the people smile.

I will need to do some other work soon.  I must get a service, to see if I can get the miss-firing issue resolved, as well as new tyres.  By the way, the fuel pump is now whisper quiet.  I can only assume that the problem was caused by an overheated fuel pump?  I will also need a rear box on my exhaust, as this is starting to blow.

Who do you guys in Greater London recommend for a service, bearing in mind that the car is garaged in Guilford?  And where should I take the car for its exhaust.  And should I go stainless steel?  What brand of tyre do you use on your 14" rims.  And what is the speed rating of the tyres for a 450?

Next visit I plan to take a new Bosch S5 830A 100Ah battery, and loads of cleaning things to tidy up the engine bay and the inside.  I shall be spraying the interior with a fair amount of Febreze to try remove the smoke smell (or any suggestions from the audience?). >:(  This will then be followed hopefully with a full service once I have read through all your suggestions.

Regards

Gavin
1979 450SE "Mrs White"
2022 Touareg-R 3.0TSi Hybrid
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calvin streeting

Hi.. and welcome..
Quote from: gavin116 on 15 April 2011, 04:45 PM
There is a small amount of rust under the bonnet, do I need to attend to this, and is it serious?  Will this mean there is a leak into the interior?  The front passenger footwell?
might do common rust spot, remove the carpets for awhile and spray it with a hose (while giving it a wash and polish)..

Quote from: gavin116 on 15 April 2011, 04:45 PM
Otherwise the sunroof tray has rust in the anterior region.  Do I need this attending to sooner rather than later?

Rust on the left hand side of the sun roof
http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/818/sunroofleft.jpg

Rust on the right hand side of the sun roof
http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/5127/sunroofright.jpg
could hover out the rust and do a leak test (but also get some strimmer wire to make sure pipes are not blocked).


Rust on the right hand side of the sun roof
Got a few stares again from passersby.  I am not sure if it's all that chrome, or the sound of the V8 that makes the people smile.
[/quote]
yep...never get tired of that.. :)

adamb

Hi Gavin,

No more pictures from the body shop yet. Those were the last I took. The car is still stripped with the most recent news being that we are waiting on a replacement near side wing, we agreed that the current one was not worth saving. They are also pulling out a rear dent which resulted from a rear shunt 2 years ago. Some b*stard drove into the back of me,  sued and won the court case! More about that another time... The body shop is near Chelmsford. They were the most professional operation that I visited when researching shops back in January/February.

Be cautious about diagnosing FI faults before confirming that it's not the electrics. Many people on this forum have had old Benzes and can confirm that the electrics are much more prone to trouble. Your description of symptoms makes me think that the problem is on the ignition side.

The seat belts can be replaced. Does yours not go back even when you feed it in? Usually it's due to weak springs rather than an outright failure.

The ashtray panelling can be just superglued back on I think.

Your rust situation is not bad. Mine had a similar amount of rust in the sunroof drain channels. When I got the car initially, rain water would drip on my thies on right turns! I used Isopon filler to repair the rusty drain pipe after removing the head panel. Now that the car is disassembled, the rusty sunroof frame will be repaired properly. Apparently W126 cars have the same frame but I have no personal experience of that.

Are you sure that you need to replace your exhaust? Mine had some pinholes in the bottom of the rear silencer which I fixed with some exhaust paste. 10 years on, the same exhaust is still doing its job. 6.9 exhaust parts are damn expensive. When I bite the bullet, I will go for a custom large bore free flowing pipes and silencers.

Go for H-rated 205/70/14 tyres. The choice is not huge and my car is wearing a mixture of Toyos and Goodyear Eagle NCT3s.

I can't recommend any service agent as I've not used any and do all the servicing myself. For bigger jobs (e.g. propeller shaft rubber doughnut replacement) I trust my ex-local VW garage in Woodford Green. On the southern side I have a friend who runs his own one man shop in Redhill and I am visiting him later today. Like me, he rides Triumphs and I would trust him completely for mechanical repairs. Those are the only mechanics I know these days. Why not try doing the service yourself - it's satisfying!

Regards,
Adam

adamb

Quote from: gavin116 on 15 April 2011, 04:45 PM


What is this box (there is also some rust beneath it)?
http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/2985/whatisthism.jpg


This is an ignition control module (amplifier) - creates a stronger spark. They can fail completely and you will be totally immobilised. Also they have been known to fail intermittently. I had a 1973 280SE where the ignition started to play up after the car ran for a while. Leaving it to stand for a night would fix the problem until the next run when it would get hot again. In the end I replaced it with an aftermarket optical ignition solution which was pretty good. BTW, pre-76 cars had points rather than induction based timing signals so that solution would not work here. I have a spare module in case mine fails.

thysonsacclaim

Gaven,

Congratulations on your purchase! The 116 is a fine car, indeed. I'm a new owner as well and very pleased. Your story was enjoyable to read.


Adam

adamb

Gavin et al,

I looked at the parts car and took some pictures. Sadly I was mistaken and there are no rear seatbelts. Plently of other stuff though  :)

Adam


gavin116

Evening Adam

I want to see if I can get my new rev counter installed, but I need to get a VDO two pronged female socket and the wires.  I hope that you will be able to spare me one.  If you can locate one on a wiring harness of sorts, send me an e-mail, and I'll put some pounds in the post.  

From this thread:   http://forum.w116.org/mechanicals/tachometer-7671/

"But below this quote is a pic of the back of my cluster.  One thing I forgot to mention was the need for a VDO two pronged female socket.  These sockets are found in a few places on our cars so grab one including the wires that go to it.  The plugs only fit one way and ensures you wont short the tacho by putting the plug on the wrong way.  Just remember, regardless of colour, top wire from the plug is the signal wire, bottom wire is the 12V supply."


I must also find out how you upload pictures to the gallery.  I did play around a little, and will try again, see if I can place some pictures in the gallery.

I bought some bits and bobs at the weekend to begin giving the car a thorough clean, and attend to some of the rust.  I will do this in a few weeks time.  Then I must look at having the car serviced.  Perhaps when you get your 6.9 back, I might come round and watch as you do a service...

By the way, I no longer need to "hide" the car, as I came clean at the weekend.  Strangely, I thought it would result in loud screaming or sulking, but things are pretty normal. ;D

Regards

Gavin
1979 450SE "Mrs White"
2022 Touareg-R 3.0TSi Hybrid
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gavin116

#26
Sorry, I forgot to mention that the advice was Oscar's response within the link, so if you scroll down to his response, you will see it in context, and also a picture of what the connector looks like. (Oscar, thanks for the instructions, when I tackle the rev counter I may still need to pick your brain, as my coil and the 'connector block' near the coil looks different to the ones in the link.)

Regards

Gavin
1979 450SE "Mrs White"
2022 Touareg-R 3.0TSi Hybrid
[url="http://forum.w116.org/test-drive/my-first-w116-here-at-last/"]http://forum.w116.org/test-drive/my-first-w116-here-at-last/[/url]
[url="http://forum.w116.org/the-org/british-near-london-meet/msg97613/#msg97613"]http://forum.w116.org/the-org/british-near-london-meet/msg97613/#msg97613[/url]

adamb

Quote from: gavin116 on 17 April 2011, 04:26 PM
Evening Adam

I want to see if I can get my new rev counter installed, but I need to get a VDO two pronged female socket and the wires.  I hope that you will be able to spare me one.  If you can locate one on a wiring harness of sorts, send me an e-mail, and I'll put some pounds in the post.  


No problem but you'll have to wait a little as I am not around much till May.

gavin116

#28
Hi All

I had a chance today to go down to the car storage facility and "play" with "Mrs White" (one of the Cluedo characters, i.e. Mrs White, in the storage garage, with the rough idle, he, he... ).  Much to my surprise the latter half of a morning and the best part of the afternoon simply melted away.

One of the 1000 reasons why I just love 116's
I really must reattach that ashtray facing.

I managed to rub all the visible rust off the anterior part of the sunroof tray and the wind deflector.  The areas were vacuumed, and then painted  with Hammerite rust converter [Kurust].

Wind deflector treated with Kurust

I took the metal trim piece off the anterior part of the sunroof opening, as well as the left hand side lateral trim piece. Unfortunately when I put the trim pieces back, I managed to half strip the most anterior screw - it had a finer thread, and was somewhat longer than the other four screws.  Guess I will need to try get a part number and source a replacement from the stealership.  I also poked some strimmer cord through the drains.  I presume they were open, as I encountered little resistance and no gunk was expelled.  I was quite surprised to find that these drain out of the "A" pillar almost level with the car's waist line.

Rounded philips screw head

On a more positive note however, I managed to start cleaning the engine bay.  I began with the fuse box, removing all the fuses, and brushing the terminals with a steel brush, followed by a brass brush and finally a nylon brush.  Halfords (UK automotive spares shop) had run out of some of the fuses, so I still need to replace a few fuses with new in the "second" row.  I must say, that those old fashioned fuses are a difficult to replace in the holders.  Next time I change them, I will take a pair of heavy tweezers...

Fusebox after some cleaning

I then started cleaning the back of the engine bay and the fire wall.  All the vacuum tubes have come up a treat.  I managed to get to grips with some of the areas where I need to do some rust treatment.  I bought a new Bosch battery S5, HSB 019 - a large beasty, perfectly up to the job of giving life to the electrical system.

Being such a lovely day, I felt it only right to take Mrs White for a spin.  Off we headed down towards Worthing, hiccup free thankfully.  Looks like my fuel starvation problem is a thing of the past.  Upon my return I decided to take a few photos of the engine bay, especially of a "blue relay" that seems to connect to the alternator, although the fuse part didn't have a fuse installed. Does anyone know what this is for?

Mystery blue relay

At the same time, I came across this single connector that was lying on the manifold on the right hand side of the engine bay.  It has one central round terminal similar to an earphone jack, the outside plastic insulation has a little step and a small catch that is connected to a heavyish gauge blue wire.  I assume that it may have something to do with the washer pump, alternator or a temperature sensor?   I shall take along a new piece of wire, some heatshrink and a soldering iron on my next trip to effect a repair, and will then try to hunt down where the connector goes.  Perhaps someone can enlighten me.

Connector at the end of the blue wire

Whilst on the subject of enlightenment, can anyone tell me if these holes in the rear of the car just behind the bumper are per factory?  And do they need to be blocked off/and how?

Do these hole need to be blocked off?


I also took a photograph of my non functional front passenger seatbelt.  A look at the buckle makes me think that these are not the original seatbelts.  I will need to replace these before my next M.O.T. (roadworthy test).

Non retracting safety belt

Next visit, I want to put 5 new tyres on the car.  I was thinking of putting on Hankook Optimo K715 205/70 R14 T.  I also want to wash the engine, and the rest of the engine bay again using a degreaser as opposed to a washing -up detergent.  I presume that I must remove the air cleaner, block off the air inlet, at the same time, wrap the coil and the fuse box in plastic to effect a waterproof seal.  I can then paint everything with engine degreaser, leave it to "cook", and pressure wash the whole lot.  Are there any other components that you would suggest I cover, and are there any components that I should not paint with engine degreaser/cleaner?

Enclosed also see the date stamp on the rear of the wood veneer for my ashtray.  It is dated 18 May 1979, which confirms the delivery date of 12 Sep 1979 as marked in the service logbook.  (It is possible that the car may have been held in stock as it is almost four months to the day.)

Date stamp on the back of the ashtray veneer

Till later

P.S. What a palava to embed the photos, there must be an easier way...

1979 450SE "Mrs White"
2022 Touareg-R 3.0TSi Hybrid
[url="http://forum.w116.org/test-drive/my-first-w116-here-at-last/"]http://forum.w116.org/test-drive/my-first-w116-here-at-last/[/url]
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Squiggle Dog

Oh my, that is a crazy awesome interior!
Stop paying for animal cruelty and slaughter. Go vegan! [url="https://challenge22.com/"]https://challenge22.com/[/url]

1967 W110 Universal Wagon, Euro, Turbo Diesel, Tail Fins, 4 Speed Manual Column Shift, A/C
1980 W116 300SD Turbo Diesel, DB479 Walnut Brown, Sunroof, Heated Seats, 350,000+