This is the dash of the 500E.  The burl wood is in excellent condition (except for the center console piece not shown).  The previous owner installed a Pioneer CD and changer.









This is another interior dash picture.  The steering wheel, dash, armrest and door panels are in exceptional condition for their age









The front seats shown almost no wear at all and the leather is soft and without cracks.










The rear seats are also in excellent condition, but needed a good cleaning along with some leather conditioner.







Another picture of the rear seat bottom










Here you can see more of the rear seat area along with the passenger side door panel.








The rear seat as seen from the passenger side.

 

Not all older cars have seats in this good of shape, so restoration or installing custom fit seat covers is sometimes necessary.






Passenger side front door panel.  Aside from the material around the map pocket needing to be re-glued, all the panels are in excellent condition.









The 500E came from the factory with the smaller diameter Sportline steering wheel.  This particular wheel is also in excellent shape for its age.









This car arrived with beige Mercedes floor mats, I promptly replaced these with a set of OE W124 rubber all season mats.  This is my 2nd set, my 1st set lasted well over 10 years and lived in several different cars, very durable and well worth the money.







The inside of my arm-rest storage had some holes present from a past cell phone install.  To clean it up a bit, I installed some black felt (self adhesive).  The installation is simple, just cut the felt to fit the curves of your storage compartment.  This was done in three pieces, the front piece and two smaller pieces on either side of the phone jack recess.










3-25-06 - Burl wood steering wheel update


The OE 500E steering wheel is the same used on the Sportline models, its 390mm vs. the 400mm normal wheel.  While it is a tad smaller in diameter, its not very ergonomic, so when the chance came my way to pick up a new wheel, I of course jumped on the opportunity.





First, you must remove the airbag, you need a T30 torx bit and a bit extension to get the job done.  In this picture you can see the twist type driver I used, MB has a special tool for this process, but you can get by without it.  Make sure your bit extension is slim, otherwise it will not fit into the hole on the back of the steering wheel.






Once you have the airbag off, you just need to unplug it (please make sure your ignition and preferably your battery is disconnected before you do this) The next chore is to get that stinking 10mm hex nut off.






Ok, so this is the most difficult part.  This nut is on very tight.  The best course of action is to have a 2nd set of hands to hold the wheel in place (ignition on, ignition lock off) and you will need your 10mm hex socket, socket extension and socket wrench.  This time aground, I used a four foot section of copper pipe as a lever over the end of the socket wrench, with this lever, I was able to break the nut loose with minimal effort.








The new wheel I purchased used the normal style airbag, so I had to first locate one.  Since my new wheel was a 92-97 wheel, I needed a matching airbag, the 98-99 airbags were a bit different and would not fit (looked very similar though).  To top it off, my new wheel arrived with no internals (horn contact ring or airbag mounting assembly), upon further research, you can not purchase this piece separate from the steering wheel and the internals from a 98-99 are not compatible.  Fortunately, the person who sold me the wheel was kind enough to send me a 92 S Class wheel with the internals intact, so I swapped them over and was good to go.







So here is the 10mm hex nut unbolted.  To remove the wheel, you should just be able to simply pull it towards you, if its on tight, you can wiggle it back and forth till it pops off the steering shaft.







The steering shaft with the old wheel removed, I took the opportunity here to clean this up and re-grease the area before installation of the new wheel.









The new Brabus type wheel being fitted.  This wheel was a newly built wheel (built on an OE core) and is ergonomically shaped, covered in vented black leather and Burl wood on the top/bottom.  Make sure your wheels are straight before you mount the wheel.  To be safe, I normally mount the wheel, then go for a short drive to make sure the wheel is aligned correctly, you don't want to take the airbag off again once you get it back on.







And the finished product.  I like this wheel very much.  More information about steering wheel swaps can be located under my 190E section as well.










E55 Steering wheel upgrade


Although the burl wood wheel is nice, I always like the smaller diameter all leather AMG steering wheels.  I picked up this two-tone E55 wheel for a good price, as the grey dye on the top of the wheel was worn off in some areas.  I stripped off the rest of the grey dye to prepare the surface to be re-dyed in black.








I did not have a matching AMG airbag for this wheel, so I picked up a 95 500sl airbag, which I prefer over the slk/clk airbags (the 500sl has the molded MB star, the slk/clk airbags have a plastic insert with the MB star on it.









 
This is the inside of the burl steering wheel, which uses a earlier design, for the most part, all the 92-99 wheels are interchangeable, but little modifications like extending the clock spring horn wires are necessary.








This is the inside of the E55 wheel, the bolt/nuts need to be removed so you can use the screws from your OE steering wheel (see previous picture)








You also need the clock spring (horn contact ring) from your original steering wheel.  If you have a 92+, that is good, but if you are doing a upgrade on a pre-92 model, you would need to get a clock spring, as yours won't work for this upgrade.









The E55 wheel does not use a clock spring like the older style wheels, so you need to pull the plastic filler ring out so you can fit your clock spring.









Clock spring fitted to the E55 wheel, you can then reuse your screws from the original wheel so bolt this in place.










E55 wheel with the older clock spring fitted.










Routing of your horn and airbag wires are a little different also.  The airbag plug won't fit through this hole, so you can cut out a small piece of the metal and fit a grommet to protect the wire.










The wires from the clock spring also need to be extended to reach the side horn buttons.  You can see that one of these wires is not removable from the clock spring, so I extended it, the 2nd wire is completely new and they are routed through new grommets and looped around the outer perimeter of the assembly.  One wire is plugged into the left airbag horn button and the other wire is plugged into the right side airbag horn wire.







The finished product.  The horns work as they should and the airbag works as it should.  The E55 wheel is thicker and smaller in diameter than your stock wheel, which makes for a nice upgrade to the earlier model MB vehicles.









8-10-09 - RAID Steering wheel install  

I bought this steering wheel from Ebay and it was complete with a compatible Mercedes hub.  RAID wheels are popular in Europe and are one of the only aftermarket wheels to include a airbag.  This is the wheel as used on a Aston Martin, although the one I have is not covered in suede.








This is the RAID hub for Mercedes.  It will accept the early contact ring (92-93) or the plastic insert for the later models (94+)








This is my 93 contact ring before installation into the RAID hub.










As you can see here, the contact ring fits perfectly into the RAID hub











Since removal of the steering wheel has already been covered, I won't repeat those procedures.  At this point, the RAID hub is installed.  Needed wiring for the steering wheel horn buttons is included with the wheel









Another angle of the hub after installation










Here is the wheel installed.  The included horn wires plug into a junction box inside the wheel and then you can splice them into your contact ring wires.  I insulated these wires with electrical tape as a precautionary measure.  The horn buttons are thin membranes mounted under the leather









This is the final result.  The airbag secures to the wheel the same way as a OE Mercedes wheel.  The RAID is about 1" smaller than the E55 wheel and is full leather and perforated leather.  At some point I would like to affix a Mercedes star to the center of the airbag as I don't care for the white lettering nor the white stitching.  I still have the E55 wheel and its a tough choice as to which one to leave on the car, I may put the AMG wheel back on since I now have more AMG parts on the 500e and save this RAID for my next W124.







Another view of the steering wheel











1-10-06 - Center Console Wood Replacement


As with all older Mercedes, the wood over time fades and cracks.  Since they all do this, its difficult to find a used part that is not in worse shape than yours.  My center wood panel was very faded and cracked.  I tried re-finishing the wood, but since it is not real burl wood, its easy to sand right through the thin layer of burl.  One interesting item to note, I was going to replace my console wood with a 94-95 console (no fader cutout) but MB no longer offers it, only the pre-94/95 item with the fader cutout and they offer 94/95 owners a black plastic plug for the fader hole!

 





This is my original console wood.  Very faded and cracked in numerous places.  This is one wood piece that has high visibility in the vehicle, and for me, I want it as clean as possible.

 




 Here you can see the new vs. the old.  Look at the area around the shifter trim, see how dark it is compared to the rest of the console?  You can also see many of the cracks                                                           









The new wood console in place.  Some of the switch holes were a bit tight and required some light filing to allow the switch's to fit without forcing them into place.  Of course since its new, its a bit darker than the rest of the trim in the car now, really no way around that, unless of course you want to replace all your trim!  The match is very good though and since the other trim is vertical vs. horizontal, its difficult to tell there is a mismatch.








12-5-05 - Shifter Shaft Replacement and W203 Shift knob


I never did like the OE shift knobs on the W124's and W201's, nor did I like the fact that you couldn't just unscrew the knob and replace it.  In the past, if you wanted to upgrade, you have to replace the entire knob assembly or cut off the old knob (exposing the bare shaft) and epoxy a new knob onto the original shaft.  Here you can see a W202 shaft next to a OE shaft with the knob cut away.  The W202 part (A2022670401) is a direct bolt on replacement for the W124 and W201 and provides you a shorter and thicker shaft to use the newer style (twist on) type of knobs found in the W202, W140, W203 ect.)





This picture shows the OE shifter shaft (minus OE knob) and the W202 shifter shaft with a W203 shift knob on it







I bought an entire W203 shifter assembly, boot, knob, shift ring, W/S switch and shift indicator.  I picked this up for the incredible price of $2 plus shipping, around $8 total.  Although most of the parts can't easily be retro fitted to the W124, the knob was in perfect condition and would work for this project.










This is the original shift knob that was OE on most all W124/W20's and other early MB models
 






Another picture of the OE knob before removal.










First we need to remove the center console storage box.  Although not shown here, there are two philips screws in the front of the box, take them out and the box lifts out.  This screw (shown) is what you need to remove to lift out the center console wood.  Be careful lifting out the wood, you don't want to stress it, you run the risk of it cracking (if its not already cracked) and its best to lift the wood up and carefully remove the power window switch's.






Before lifting the console wood up, you need to remove the black plastic trim around the shifter housing.  This comes up rather easy using your fingers.









Once the power window buttons have been released from the console wood, you can unplug the heated seat buttons (if you have heated seats of course) and the wood will lift right out.








You can see the assembly that the power window switch's sit in, this whole assembly is kind of loose and will lift up when you lift up the center console wood, I applied pressure on each of the four power window switch's till they popped out of their mount (on the console wood), the fader control and power window control came out of their socket and stayed attached to the console wood. (see below picture)








Under side of console wood showing fader and power window switch still attached.








Next, the shifter trim needs to be removed, if you look at it, you will see tabs on the front and the rear that need to be depressed, once you do this, the trim will come up.  You don't have much maneuvering room, so its best to move the trim (like shown) so you have access to the bottom of the shifter rod and C clip.










There is a gold colored C clip that holds the shifter rod pin in place.  Using a needle nose pliers, remove this clip (don't loose it) and then you will be able to slide the pin out.  Also, there are some bushings on both ends of the pin (you can see one in this picture that popped out) make sure you don't loose these.  Also see http://www.2phast.com/500e/techdocs/124_shift_knob.pdf for a Japanese PDF on the same procedure.








Here you can see the bottom of the shifter assembly and the pin, spring and bushings.  Remember how the spring is installed before you take it off, its an important part of the assembly. 









Another picture of the assembly and spring.  You need to remove the U shaped mount so you can slide it out of the boot.  You need a pair of pliers and a 14 mm open end wrench to loosen the nut, then you can unscrew the U bracket and nut.









The inside of the shifter box with the lever removed.  Now is a good time to clean it out and replace any bulbs that may be burned out. 










The W202 shift rod compared to the stock W124 shift knob/shaft









So remembering how the spring mounts and not forgetting the two bushings, you can place the W202 shift rod over the mount holes and slide the pin in place.  Because of the pressure on the spring, its not easy to get the bushings into place, use a small flat blade screw driver to move the spring a bit so the bushings slide in.  Once the pin is fully seated, you can replace the C clip (using your needle nose pliers)








Once the new shift rod is in place, test its movement and ensure that you managed to get the spring assembly on correctly and of course, that you didn't mount the shifter rod backward (refer to your OE knob/rod for proper alignment)








Once the rod was installed, I re-installed the top shifter plate and all the associated pieces (including the 1st gear start B switch) and tested the shifter for proper functionality.









Another picture of the W202 shift rod installed.










The W203 shift knob has a twist type base, you twist it to unlock the mount, slide the knob onto the rod, then twist the base back into alignment, and thus locking the knob onto the shift rod.  The fit was perfect and secure.










The finished product.  A nice update to your interior which easily allows you to change knobs as you see fit without the hassle of taking apart the entire console.







Another side view of the knob install.










One last view of the knob install.  The W202 rod, keeps the knob close to the shifter gate through all the gears.









6/7/10 - W210 Shift knob installation

 

So the W203 shift knob is just fine, but I managed to locate a W210 E Class knob (w/Mercedes Star emblem) for a mere $21 on Ebay.  I like this design better than the W203 knob, so decided to switch.

 

 



Side profile view of the W210 knob.  As with the other knob, the base twists, then the knob is inserted onto the shaft and you twist the base again to lock it in place.  Unlike the W203 knob, the base of this one does not actually come off. 

 

 


Upper view showing the MB star emblem.  Hopefully, one day I can locate a G500 emblem (which has the MB star and V8 logo) and make the swap.

 

 






8
-19-10 - G500 V8 Shift Knob Install

 

I originally wanted a G500 V8 shift knob, but could never locate one.  Just my luck, found one on Ebay not too long after installing the W210 knob.  This knob was only available on the G500 and is black leather and burl, which match's the 500e wood.

 

 





The condition of this knob is "like new" and its another great Ebay find for a mere $80.  You can order these from the dealer, but the cost is over $400.  I also found out that you can not order just the V8 emblem by itself.

 

 





Having a W202/R129 shift shaft makes swapping knobs so very easy.  If you have not upgraded to this newer style shaft, I highly recommend you do so.

 

 

 

 



4-1-06 - SLK Pedal install

First, don't get suckered into purchasing these from Ebay, directly from the dealer they are about $45.00 vs. the $90 some criminals are charging on Ebay.  For a W124 you need part numbers, 170-300-00-04, 170-290-01-82, 203-430-00-84








You can see that the parking brake and brake are going to be easy slip on items.  The accelerator is a different story, as its completely different from the W124 accelerator.







First you need to remove your floor mats and the underlying carpet.  You can then easily pop off the parking brake and brake covers









The parking brake pedal is by far the easiest to install and only took a few minutes.








The brake pedal pad is virtually identical to the W124 pad in design.










The brake pedal is not quite as easy to install.  I used a small wide flat blade screw driver to help get the lip of the new pedal cover on.  Its probably best to start with upper right corner already on, then work your way down and around, using the screw driver to help pull out and stretch the lip.






The accelerator was the most difficult part of this install.  You need to remove the pedal first, so pull out the small silver clip at the bottom, then slide the bottom of the pedal to the left and you should be able to release it from the accelerator shaft, just be careful and don't force it.  So we first remove the SLK pedal cover from the SLK pedal assembly.







If you want the SLK pedal cover to sit correctly on the W124 pedal assembly, some trimming of both the pedal cover and assembly are
required.  Your Dremel will come in handy here.  I wanted the SLK cover to sit exactly the same as the OE rubber cover, so that required a bit of trimming of the top of the assembly.






There really is no way to get the SLK cover on the OE W124 pedal assembly without making a slice in this flat wide piece of the pedal cover.









With pedal cover sliced, you can easily slide it down onto the OE pedal assembly.  You might want to trim just a little bit at a time off the pedal assembly and just keep refitting the pedal cover till you get it sitting where you want.






You can see that the sides of the OE pedal assembly are a bit taller than the SLK pedal assembly.  Again, its time to break out the Dremel and get to trimming.









About 1/8" of the side needed to be trimmed down.  This allowed the lip of the SLK pedal cover to better wrap around the OE pedal assembly.








With the sides of the OE pedal assembly trimmed down and the pedal cover properly fitted, there was only a little more trimming of the pedal cover to get it to sit correctly and wrap.









There is a lip near the bottom of the OE pedal assembly, this is where the OE rubber pedal cover rested.  So when I starting trimming for the SLK pedal cover, I made sure it would rest on the same lip.






And the final product. 











04-01-06 - B Pillar replacements.

One of the few interior flaws on my vehicle were the B pillar covers, the material was torn away in some places and peeling in others.  The MB dealer is insane with what they want for these pieces (upwards of $800) but thanks to Livin_it_up at 190rev, my problems are over.








To remove these, you need to remove the seat belt and the bottom trim cover of the B Pillar, you need to be careful removing the top clip of the B Pillar cover, its best to use a flat blade screw driver to help pop the clip loose.






The old cover vs. the new cover (actually not new, but in almost perfect condition)










Auto Dimming Rear View Mirror


Keeping with the update theme, I decided to implement an upgrade originally performed on my W201.  Our older car don't have auto dimming mirrors or Homelink built into them.  I have designed a method of integrating a newer style auto dimming mirror onto a factory Mercedes Benz stalk.  This new mirror includes not only auto dimming, but Homelink and a compass. The mirror also replicates the OEM look.  All wiring is internal to the stalk.  Ever since I developed this upgrade back in 2000, many people have used my information to build their own auto dimming mirror.  But there has been a large portion of the Mercedes community asking me to build mirrors for their vehicles.  Starting in 2007,  I starting providing mirrors on a custom order basis.  There is now a dedicated web site just for this purpose and the link is below.


http://www.2phast.com/mirror






Illuminated Door Sills


These door sills have an aluminum finish and light up when you open the door (only the fronts).  These were on the 500E when I bought it, not sure if I really like them or not.





This is what they look like at night.  The install appears to be pretty straight forward, two wires, one to +12 and the other connects to the door pin ckt so they illuminate when you open the door only.




Euro Trunk Warning Triangle

The W124's have this nice molded carpet that covers the inner trunk lid and as you can see, there is an outline for the trunk mounted warning triangle that is found in the euro models.  Installation of this triangle is not overly complex but if you want to make the install look nice and professional, you need to exercise some judgment when you start cutting holes in your trunk carpet.







The first thing to do here is remove the carpet from the trunk.  Be careful and take your time, otherwise you can break the clips and/or lose them in the procedure.









Once the trunk carpet is off, you can see where the triangle bracket mounts and where the feet of the triangle sit, these areas should be readily visible as Mercedes painted these areas black but not the majority of the trunk lid.









To determine the correct spot to cut into the carpet (for the triangle bracket) I first removed all the clips from the trunk carpet piece, then I used some black touch up paint to paint around each hole as shown here in the picture.








I then re-installed the trunk carpet and applied pressure at the top where the triangle bracket goes.  Once removed, you can see a faint outline of where the triangle bracket clips go.  This was my starting place to start cutting.  The bracket will not sit correctly if you just cut out the holes as shown, you actually need to cut out a large chunk of the carpet for the bracket rests against the trunk lid metal.






Once I had the first set of guide holes cut out, I was able to place the bracket and out line it with some tape.  This allowed me to cut out enough of the carpet to allow the bracket to sit flush against the metal with out having any metal show around the edges of the bracket.







To cut the holes for the triangle feet, I placed the triangle in the molded recess and market the position of the fee with tape to give me a pattern of where and how much material to cut.  I cut two almost identical rectangles.








My trunk bracket came from my W201 and as some of you already know, they don't come off very easily.  Several of my mounting tabs broke off, so I needed to counter sink a hole for a screw (as seen in the picture) if your using a new bracket, you won't have any need for the screw.  You can also see that the fit for the bracket is perfect, no metal showing at all!







This is the bracket installed










A distant picture of the trunk and warning triangle









These last couple of pictures look much better (no camera flash)









The triangles can be purchased from either the US, German or UK Ebay and the brackets can be ordered through your local MB dealer.  The brackets for the W201 and W124 are the same, I am not sure what other models use this same bracket.  The part number for the triangle is
140-590-0212 and the part number for the bracket is 140-890-00-14







6-29-06 - Euro Fire Extinguisher install


Another European only option was the drivers seat mounted fire extinguisher.  These are virtually impossible to get in the US and getting one shipped from Europe to the US is not a walk in the park either.  This is the spot on the drivers seat where the OE MB bracket will be installed.








There are several recesses on the seat that indicate where you need to drill your holes.  The tips of the tabs need to tuck up under the seat material as shown in this picture.  MB recommends six screws, but four is enough.  The remaining two are on the very bottom and to install them requires taking the seat out.








Here are two of the star screws installed (two holes already pre-drilled for you), the other two are on the bottom of the bracket and I can't get good pictures at that angle. (see additional pictures at end)









You also need two speed clips which go on either end of the mounting bracket.










This is the bucket that comes with the 1 kg Gloria Fire Extinguisher (some appear to come in red and some in black), it slides onto the bracket clip and then secures with two screws and two washers.










This is the 1 kg Gloria.  Older MB came with a 1.3 kg Gloria and those also had a interior matching carpet cover.









Here is the Gloria mounted.










6/15/09 - New 1.3kg Fire extinguisher installed



The previous Gloria I had was a 1.0kg extinguisher, which is from later model Mercedes.  I happened to find a 1.3kg Gloria complete with beige carpet cover and some extra parts I didn't need.

 







Here you can see the 1.3kg Gloria on the left and the smaller W210 1.0kg on the right.  Either of these is fine to have in your car, but I prefer the factory extinguisher with the carpet cover.














This is the new extinguisher installed.  In case you have not noticed, its on the passenger seat, the oddments box resides on the drivers seat.










The following pictures show the individual parts.  Special thanks for Dave Meimann for putting together the pictures/part numbers.

 

Left and right brackets and part numbers








To mount the fire extinguisher on your drivers seat, these are all the parts you need, minus of course the actual fire extinguisher.










These are the two pre-drilled holes.  I have been told that not all W124's have pre-drilled holes, but the indents should be there.









The bracket, clips and two screws installed.







The bottom two screws installed.









This is the bucket and strap as supplied by MB.  As you can see from my pictures, my bucket is identical and is red.









The 1 kg Gloria with MB part number.  Gloria Fire Extinguisher specifications PDF







Euro Oddments box installation 9-21-06
 

Another rare option for the W124/W201 is the Oddment box, a plastic storage box that mounts just like the extinguisher does.  You need a correct bracket (A1248680212) which does not have the extinguisher tab, or, if you already have a extinguisher bracket, you can just cut the tab off like I did (see following pictures).  This item is located under SA 56152 in the EPC, its is not searchable directly by its part number.








This is what the Oddments box looks like, it has a roll top door, which needs some greasing so it moves smoothly.










I chose to install the Oddments box on the drivers seat and move the extinguisher to the passenger seat, which meant I needed to order a passenger seat bracket and all the accessories (see extinguisher install above for part numbers) and since I already had a drivers seat bracket, I elected to just cut the tab off so the Oddments box will sit flush.









The Oddments box installs like the extinguisher using the same type of hardware.








If your local MB dealer can not order this item, you can try contacting http://speed-autoteile.com and inquire with them, that is where mine came from.

 

 



Valentine 1 Radar Detector Install











                                                                                    

                                                                                       
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