Ohjai Posted June 18, 2023 Share Posted June 18, 2023 The Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit/Spur (1981-1998) have a pair of little shocks they call sub-frame dampers. one on each side just in front of the front wheels mounted fore/aft. When they are bad, you get a vibration in the chassis. Another source of vibration came from the drive train. Instead of u-joints, they used a pair of couplers that would go bad, and when they failed you could have serious damage. It is my understanding that some of the German rear wheel drive cars use these same couplers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted June 18, 2023 Topic Author Share Posted June 18, 2023 26 minutes ago, Ohjai said: Another source of vibration came from the drive train. Instead of u-joints, they used a pair of couplers that would go bad, and when they failed you could have serious damage. I think MB uses something similar in place of u-joints. They call it a "flex coupler". I'll check those out when I check the differential. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohjai Posted June 18, 2023 Share Posted June 18, 2023 Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit/Spur (1981-1998) have a pair of little shocks they call sub-frame dampers. one on each side just in front of the front wheels mounted fore/aft. When they are bad, you get a vibration in the chassis. Another source of vibration came from the drive train. Instead of u-joints, they used a pair of couplers that would go bad, and when they failed you could have serious damage. It is my understanding that some of the German rear wheel drive cars use these same couplers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohjai Posted June 18, 2023 Share Posted June 18, 2023 Yes Ronnie, that's what they are called flex couplers, I have always had difficulty recalling the name of parts, but I have managed. We were on a Rolls tour in Florida a few years ago. A couple from Virginia had a vibration when they arrived in At. Augustine. About five miles from the hotel on the first day, he is pulled along side of the road. The flex coupling had failed, resulting in the transmission being driven up through the floorboard tunnel. Needless to say his tour ended, and his car towed back home. When you replace them, use new grade 9 bolts (the black ones). Also, the bolts go in a certain direction, there are arrows indicating the direction. But those buggers are tight. Using softer bolts will not stand up to the torque over time. Keep in mind they are made of material that degrades with age, NOS probably is not a good idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted June 18, 2023 Topic Author Share Posted June 18, 2023 Thanks for the tip! I'll check them out closely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted June 19, 2023 Topic Author Share Posted June 19, 2023 The rain moving in today reminded me that the windshield wiper on the MB was dry rotted and splitting apart. I was surprised that AutoZone had a 24" wiper blade in stock for it. This is the only car I've ever owned that has one big wiper blade that cleans the entire windshield. Although the wipers will rarely be used this is another item I can check off my list. Front brake pads arrived today from Amazon. I will be installing them soon. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted June 22, 2023 Topic Author Share Posted June 22, 2023 I started to change the front brake pads on the MB this morning. When I started looking at what needed to be done to replace the pads it looked simple at first, and then I discovered that one of the pads has an electric wire going to it from a connector on the knuckle. I think it has an electronic wear indicator that turns on a light on the dash when the pads get worn down to a certain point. First time I've ran into this so I'm going to have to do some reading to find out how it works before I take it apart. I'm sure there will be a YouTube video that shows what I need to know. MB guys like to do YouTube videos.... lucky for me since I know very little about a MB. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted June 23, 2023 Topic Author Share Posted June 23, 2023 I finished the front brakes up today. It turns out the brake pad wear sensor has a tiny rod that sticks down into a hole in the pad. A lead coming off the sensor plugs into a connector on the knuckle. When the pad wears down enough that the sensor rod touches the rotor it grounds a circuit that tells the brake computer to turn on a light on the dash. It's a stupid waste of engineering time and money that's not needed as far as I'm concerned. The squealers that are on the GM brakes work just fine to warn you when the brake pads are worn out and are much simpler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2seater Posted June 23, 2023 Share Posted June 23, 2023 Is that a solution to a problem, or question, no one asked?? Maybe the engineer that designed that was deaf so a visual clue was needed?🤣 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted June 23, 2023 Topic Author Share Posted June 23, 2023 I also did some work on the headliner today. I added some buttons that screw into the headliner board to hold the cloth up. Yeah, it's a half-ass job. It will do until I decide if I want to get someone to fix it right. Nobody looks up at the back of the headliner so I might just leave it like it is for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted June 23, 2023 Topic Author Share Posted June 23, 2023 11 minutes ago, 2seater said: Is that a solution to a problem, or question, no one asked?? Maybe the engineer that designed that was deaf so a visual clue was needed?🤣 I think some engineer's brother-in-law had some sensors he needed to sell. 🙂 You can see the sensor in this photo I took before I took anything apart. The sensor plug is yellow in the center of the photo. You can see the white lead going over to the sensor in the outside pad on the right. As I said before, I think it's stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted June 24, 2023 Topic Author Share Posted June 24, 2023 One of these cars is going to have to go. It's going to be a really hard decision. Both cars have their strong points and weaknesses. My heart is with the Reatta since I've had it so long. Common sense tells me the Mercedes is the logical choice for me at this stage in my life. It's amazing how different the technology and thinking was from these two car makers on how to get a vehicle from point A to point B. The '88 Reatta is a more high tech car than the '96 Mercedes. The question is; is all that high tech stuff really needed? And does it make the car better? They drive so differently but both handle really well in their own way. The Reatta wins hands down in looks with it's sleek design and it has the best looking paint. The paint on the Mercedes needs to be buffed like I did to the Reatta a few years ago. Obviously the Mercedes has enough doors for two cars, which I don't like. 🙂 On the other hand the Mercedes has a classic design that grows on you and it's a more comfortable car for an old man like me. The Mercedes is a smaller car outside by a few inches but it has more usable space inside. It is really hard to decide which one is better and which one I like the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ship Posted June 24, 2023 Share Posted June 24, 2023 You just have to make a decision: Decide to keep both!! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAVES89 Posted June 24, 2023 Share Posted June 24, 2023 I wasn't joking about it going in my garage. I might be a buyer and remember I have a perfect set of suede 16 way seats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted June 24, 2023 Topic Author Share Posted June 24, 2023 Dave, if I decide to sell the Reatta I'll let you know first. I know it would get a good home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAVES89 Posted June 24, 2023 Share Posted June 24, 2023 5 minutes ago, Ronnie said: Dave, if I decide to sell the Reatta I'll let you know first. I know it would get a good home. It's not the Reatta I want, I have Reattas, I like the MB. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted June 24, 2023 Topic Author Share Posted June 24, 2023 3 hours ago, DAVES89 said: and remember I have a perfect set of suede 16 way seats! I'm not sure the suede seats would look good in the MB. 🙂 It already has a decent looking interior if you happen to like real wood trim. I think the black S-10 floormats I added on top of the MB mats really sets it off. 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAVES89 Posted June 25, 2023 Share Posted June 25, 2023 28 minutes ago, Ronnie said: I'm not sure the suede seats would look good in the MB. 🙂 It already has a decent looking interior if you happen to like real wood trim. I think the black S-10 floormats I added on top of the MB mats really sets it off. 🙂 Sorry I think you misunderstand me. The suede 16 ways are for your Reatta. I wouldn't change the interior on the MB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted June 25, 2023 Topic Author Share Posted June 25, 2023 3 hours ago, DAVES89 said: Sorry I think you misunderstand me. Yeah, I think I've misunderstood most of what you've said since you mentioned something about "it" going in your garage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted June 28, 2023 Topic Author Share Posted June 28, 2023 Changing the oil on a Mercedes is certainly different from a Reatta. First thing you have to do after you get the car jacked up is remove 4 bolts to take off a splash shield from under the the car that covers the bottom of the entire engine. It's a plastic pan about 3 feet x 3.5 feet. Then you remove the drain plug and get the oil draining. Next you go to the top of the engine and unscrew the top of a canister that contains a cartridge oil filter. (Not saw one of those in years). Removing the top of the canister causes the oil inside it to drain into the oil pan and out the drain plug. Pulling the cartridge out of the canister could be a messy job if you weren't ready with a catch pan to stick it in and rags to wipe your hands off. The recommended oil is 5w40 "Euro Spec" full synthetic. I didn't even know they made oil especially for European cars but AutoZone had it in stock in the better brands of oil. I was really surprised that a 4 cylinder engine would need 5.8 quarts of oil to fill it up but this one does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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