87 560SEL

From Henrik in Stockholm 2/14/00

Hallo Jon

I have recently bought my self a boy-toy, a 1987 MB560SEL. This was not
expensive due to some faults
that was found and due to that 23500 km has passed by below the star.

Below I have some questions for you:

A simple one first:

1    How do I fix the clock ? It tends to work randomly always when I'm
out cruising. Never in the garage.
2    How does a MB original car-alarm work. Some times it starts when I
open a door or the trunk or the hood.
     I can hear the relay ticking. The horn I had to disconnect.
     Sometimes I is as if it had ceased to exist. I test all circuits from
sensors to the white box under the feet of
     the passenger and everything is OK. But I don't understand the logic
behind activate and disengage the system.
3    Rear suspension. There is a hydraulic rear level suspension aid
integrated in the shock absorbers at the back
     of my car. In the beginning it was a lot of air in the system that made
the oil look like coffee with cream.
     Now this is all right. But the suspension seems very "sporty" and
hard. I have located two
     gas-bulbs close to the spring system. Are these "kaput" ? I have a
friend with a Citroen CX that
     has this system but without the ordinary spring coils. When his
nitrogen gas disappears the suspension
     gets har he says. Is this my problem also ?   Can I also top the
system with new gas ?
4    Idle running speed: When you start the ACC system it always rises the
idle speed to 900-1000 rpm
     even if it is cold outside and the compressor is disengaged. Is this
normal ?
5    When I move the level from P to Neutral the same rise in idle occurs.
Is this normal ?
6    How do I get documentation over the electric wiring system ? Now
every wire disappears
     in a black "plastic tube" and I have to look everywhere for the other
end. ...which I mostly can't find !

I would be very happy if you could help me with these questions.

Henrik

Henrik,

I will do my best to answer you questions. The questions you have I think are asked by every new Mercedes owner. Lets start with the clock. The clock is what I call a tic-toc-tac. The clock is included in with the tachometer. When the clock starts to go back it will work intermittently and then quit. There are two things you can do. The first is to look for a used clock and replace the one you have. The second, and the option I like the most is to send it in for repair. We send our clocks and speedometers to a place in N.Hollywood California. The average price to repair a clock is about 75 dollars. Remember you must add for freight and insurance. Even though you are out of the country if you pack the clock well enough it will make the trip. The clock is easy to remove. If you are going to try it yourself I will tell you how later to remove it and package it.

The alarm system on this car has a few problems. The biggest is the motion detector located in the trunk on the left side. The ticking you hear is from the control box. Sometimes the alarm will go off all by itself and then may not shut off when you unlock the door. The alarm is activated when you lock the door handle on the outside. Some keys are alarm keys and some are not. If you lock it with an alarm key and then try to unlock it without the same key the alarm will not turn off. You can turn it on and off from either front door or the trunk. The control box is located under the passenger side floor mat and is what is making the ticking sound. What I do in most cases is just disconnect it altogether, here is how you do it. Remove the passenger front floor mat. Then up by where your feet would rest is a plastic panel. This panel is held down with 10mm plastic nut on the bottom. Remove the nut and lift up and pull out on the panel. On the underside of the panel or mounted on the floor is the control unit for the alarm. It is black plastic and has two plugs on it. Unplug both plugs, tape up the ends and reinstall the panel and mats. Just leave it unplugged.

The rear suspension isn't the easiest to work on but if your car is not rusty it should be ok. It sounds to me like the hydraulic compensators in the rear are bad. ( I call them coconuts! ) When these go bad your car will ride like tires have 1000psi in them. Very hard. Very very hard. Your hydraulic reservoir is located on the LF fenderwell in the engine compartment. This should be kept between the lines on the dip stick. Please use only Mercedes Benz Hydraulic fluid for this. Most of the time the fluid is dark. It should be clear but most people do not change this fluid regularly. If your fluid is full and the rear shocks are not leaking then the coconuts are bad. These you can change yourself but it is a messy job. Make sure that you have a least three liters of the fluid on hand when you start the job. After you have changed these the system will pretty much bleed itself but there is a bleeder located on the leveling valve. I would recommend buying some manuals. I would but them from www.ebay.com It is free to sign up. Use " Mercedes " as your searchword.

Your idle seems a little high. European Mercedes can be very different from U.S. Versions. The idle is usually set electronically. This may take some more info before I can help you with this one. I hope this has helped. Let me know JON p.s. my grandparents were from Trondheim I am 100% Norsk