Window Alignment

Today I was at the Merc shop to finish off the door alignment project.

We fine tuned the door, aligned the window, moved the window "stopper", and did not manage to get a perfect fit. It was better than before but still not completely frictionless as the door should be.

We were stumped, and then paid close attention to the passenger side door for reference. It appeared to bulge outwards a millimeter or two, whereas the driver's door actually caved inside. I had the idea to have him move the door lock mechanism at the "B pillar" side outwards maybe 3 millimeters and voila, door now closes very well with the window up.

I went for a short test drive and concluded that the adjustments we made to the glass resulted in a loss of seal. Once we undid that bit, the door and window work better than they have ever done while I've had the car, maybe even better than in the C124.

As a side effect of this effort, there is now less wind noise inside the passenger compartment while at highway speeds.

Now that I think about it, it's perfectly logical that after 24 years of hammering the heavy door, it's the lock mechanism that minutely moves inwards and out of alignment, and not the window.

While we had the door apart, I thought to clean up the courtesy light under the door and put a new bulb in. The light turned from hazy and yellow to bright and clear.

This and the project of the last post were done at a really great level of expertise and speed. Due to their fast pace the cost was way less than I had budgeted. At a certified merc dealership, I paid a mere 180 EUR for disassembly of the aftermarket alarm and debugging the door, after a 50 EUR coupon. Thanks for a top job, Auto-Suni.

Undoing "Improvements"

Today went to the Benz shop to have the aftermarket alarm ripped out.

Without the panels, this is how the driver's footwell looked before.

This is how it looks now.

As I suspected, I now haven't experienced the problem with the central locking.

While I was there, I had the driver's side door realigned. Now it closes perfectly, with no effort necessary. Next Wednesday I'm going in to have the window realigned, too. That should quieten down the interior and make the door close as perfectly with the window up as it does with it down.

Alarm Woes

Dear diary, life with the Mercedes has been pretty uneventful.

A few weeks ago, me and a buddy took the merc to a lanparty. The C126 is surprisingly roomy for a coupe. No problem transporting 2 guys, 2 desktop computers, food, sleeping bags etc. I drove 200+ km and averaged about 12,5 l/100km. I think it's possible to get it to significantly under 12 if I stick to 80kph and measure only highway km's.

The aftermarket alarm on the car has started to act up. This is not surprising, given the rep of aftermarket alarms. This is the exact reason I immediately scheduled it for disassembly when I got the car. Unfortunately the inevitable happened before I could get it off. It's now either slipped into a weird and unbearable "special" mode, or it's just plain broken. It automatically locks the car when you do anything, despite the alarm being disarmed. Close the doors, it locks the car. Take the keys out of the ignition, it locks. Get out of the car, it locks the doors behind you. I need to carry a spare key to prevent myself from getting locked outside.

I'm trying to arrange having it taken off the car at the local Merc dealership. I believe they are the only ones in town with the expertise to work on the W126 electrical system with the aim of returning it back to stock. Unfortunately the only go-to guy they have broke his arm a couple weeks ago, so he's on sick leave till February. I asked them to find out whether any of their other shops has the knowhow, and suggested that they compensate for the fuel cost. They'll let me know on Monday what the options are.

Last week I didn't drive at all, since the weather here has been terrible, and anyway, I only needed to walk the 1500m to the uni.