Mercedes 126 Repair Resources

The best investment you will ever make is the purchase of Mercedes's own factory service manual for the w126. For some reason, M-B is not selling this manual at the present time. (To see what they are selling, visit the M-B Classic Center.) But you can find legitimate (and not-so-legitimate) copies on eBay every day for around $20. The manual's most glaring deficiency is the near-total lack of information on the transmission. Its greatest strength, in my opinion, is the wonderfully complete electrical manual, with circuit diagrams for every system on the car.

You may see some eBay sellers touting a WIS manual. This is not the same thing as the factory service manual and is extremely difficult to use. This is a tool for professional repair shops and I would not advise you to spend money on this.

On the other hand, I would most definitely advise you to subscribe to Thomas Pindelski's website dedicated primarily to the 126 but also containing some help for 107 SL owners. For a modest subscription fee you gain access to some terrific pictorial guides. He doesn't seem to have updated the site much in the last couple of years, which is a shame. But this is money well spent.

Finally, Kent Bergsma, a shop owner in Washington State, has written a number of useful repair manuals. He also sells some useful Mercedes tools and used parts (though you can find cheaper parts elsewhere).

There are two forums on the internet that will help you greatly. Benworld.org has a forum dedicated solely to the w126. One of its members, known as jhodg5ck, owns a shop in Atlanta that specializes in 126 repair and enhancement; he knows his stuff. Unfortunately, as with all online forums, there are many members whose opinions ought to be heavily discounted. You have to hang around a while to figure out who's worth listening to.

Equally useful is the mercedesshop forum. While this forum covers all Mercedes models, its members include several professionals and many others who work in technical and engineering fields. Of particular note, although he seems to be less active on the forum these days, is Steve Brotherton (known as stevebfl), the co-owner of Continental Imports in Gainesville, FL. Steve is one of the most knowledgeable Mercedes techs in America, period. His shop is the only place I trust to work on my car if I have a major issue I can't handle.

As a vital companion to the factory service manual, get yourself a free annual subscription to the Mercedes electronic parts catalog (EPC). This is the same program the parts counter guy consults when you visit your local "stealer." If you can find the part number yourself, you may be able to source the part elsewhere and avoid the ridiculous mark-ups most dealers inflict on us.

When it comes to new parts, there is a quality issue that needs to be noted. Purists insist that only genuine M-B parts will do. The problem, of course, is that this sometimes forces you to pay dealer prices as the online parts houses do not carry the full range of factory parts. That debate could easily occupy a lens unto itself. For present purposes, I'm going to don my flame suit and tell you that many after-market parts are made to a very high standard by German and other European companies with years of experience. Names like Lemforder, Febi-Bilstein, and Elring can be trusted and I have no problem using their parts. Some of these companies actually manufacture the "genuine" M-B parts and put the fabled three-pointed star on them. That's right: Mercedes is the ultimate "re-boxer." Is there a difference in quality between the units supplied to Mercedes and the ones sold on the after-market? No one seems to know for sure; in some cases I really don't think there is. In the photo, the flex disc on the left had the Mercedes star ground off for sale through other channels. It's exactly the same quality you'd get from the dealer.

That aside, you can save yourself a small fortune buying from online suppliers like AutohausAZ and Euro Parts Direct. Both of these companies offer free shipping on orders over $50 (if you're prepared to wait up to a week for delivery by UPS ground). I have rarely needed to return defective parts to them, and have had no trouble getting refunds when I did.

For used parts, I've had good luck with Potomac German Auto and SoCalMercedesParts. If you're fortunate enough to live in California, you probably have some good pick-a-part scrap yards to work with. The Sunshine State seems to be uniquely blessed with a large population of old Mercedes, some of which have recently fallen prey to the insidious Cash-for-Clunkers program. eBay can be a Godsend but can also be a nightmare. Honest sellers are hard to find; junk is seemingly omnipresent. Study feedback ratings carefully! At the bottom of this lens is a random sample of current offerings from one of the most decent and helpful people I've encountered on eBay.

Besides electronic modules, there are a couple of key parts on Mercedes 126 cars that are ridiculously expensive to replace. The all-important fuel distributor costs somewhere in the region of $2,000 new from Bosch. And when it comes to the leak- and slop-prone steering box, I don't want to think about how much Mercedes would charge for a new one. (They do offer rebuilt units as well, but they're no bargain either.)

The best rebuilder of fuel distributors is CIS-Flowtech. You can not deal directly with them, but their units are sold by AutohausAZ among others. Avoid the Python units like the plague!

The best rebuilder of steering boxes is C&M Hydraulics in Las Vegas. The owner, Chris Brown, is very knowledgeable and helpful. Once again, they do not work directly with the end consumer. Their units are available from several vendors, but Autohaus has the best prices at the time of writing.

Sometimes, a job will call for a specialized tool, and this can get expensive in a hurry. Don't even think about using a generic AutoZone tool on Mercedes coil springs, for example. The stored forces are immense and will break these cheap tools easily, to say nothing of decapitating the unwitting mechanic. If you work on the fuel system you will need a CIS pressure tester; the cheap ones at McParts are designed for the more modern pulsed-injection (EFI) systems with a Schrader valve. And if you want to tackle lower ball joints, the press tool will set you back a whopping $330, and there really is no alternative if you don't want to tear up the boots during installation.

In some cases - such as our last example - the cost of the tool simply can't be justified and we need to farm out part of the job to a friendly independent M-B tech who's willing to help. (Not many are. They make their money on parts and want to sell you the complete job, parts & labor.)

But if you decide to take the plunge and bolster your arsenal, there is one eBay seller in particular that will save you a lot of money: El Paso Tool.