My newly acquired 190e, and some questions

[sparks_190e]

Good evening all. This week I have purchased a lovely 190e 2.0 Auto.

It’s been well loved, it’s totally clean and free of rot and had an excellent service history. I’m absolutely in love with it. It’s slow, slow compared to the 330ci manual I sold earlier in the week. I don’t care. It’s utterly fabulous. It drives lovely. People say they encourage sedate driving. I would agree!

I have a few questions, as I don’t actually know that much about these cars. It was just too lovely to pass up.

The oil pressure gauge- on throttle it’s at 3, off throttle and at idle it drops to just above 2. Normal?

In drive it idles at just about 1000 rpm.. I was expecting it to be around 8-900, maybe I’m too used to refinement from the E39/E46 generation of BMW?

Now I know it’s nearly 30 years old, but I hear and read loads of stories about these being cheap and easy to run. Is that actually the case? I’m prepared to spend money come it’s annual service and in between should issues arrive. I have a maintenance budget of circa £1000-£1200 a year in mind (circa 4K a year). Is that realistic? I can do very basic stuff, but realistically it will have it’s service at a garage come MOT time.

The underneath of the car was throughly under sealed or “waxoyled” a few years ago. I am very keen to preserve it’s rot free condition. It’s lived outside for the last few years and dealt with British winters and it’s been fine. That will be the case in my ownership too. How often should I consider an under seal rust protection treatment, and how much (ballpark) should I be paying a competent bodyshop to do this? Is there a good product I can for example apply myself.m behind the wheel arches?

I have a bulb out on the dash display by the looks of things, behind where the fuel gauge and oil pressure display is.

The coolant temperature seems to be around 80 degrees when fully up to temperature, it rises a fraction (and I mean a fraction) above 80 in traffic and on a long clear stretch of road just below. Is that about right?

So the car was first registered in August of 1990, I am the 7th owner in 28 years and 10 months. It came with a load of history, it’s original stamped service book and owners manual, and even the clear folder produced to the first owner way back in 1990. As mentioned it is the four speed automatic, mated to the 2.0 4 cylinder engine. Options seem pretty sparse, electric sunroof, electric windows (3 of which work) no air con, and properly comfortable cloth seats. It feels like it’s built like a tank. In 2007 the instrument cluster failed at approx 55k, and an MOT tester incorrectly recorded the mileage. The cluster was replaced and the mileage is actually around 145k. I have all the paperwork that corresponds with the mileage. Apart from the offside front wing the paint work is largely original. It looks great, just needs buffing a bit. The gorgeous wheels are from a later C Class I believe. I lox’s them. I can’t believe she’s mine for little more than shed of the week money.

Here she is- thanks for reading!

[PositronicRay]

Oil and temp sound OK, tick over a little high.

Love these, proper merc feel to them.

[Perseverant]

Very smart looking! I've had my 190e for 14 years or so now - it's a manual in black with grey MB Tex interior. About 150,000 miles. It's been pretty reliable over the years and now attracts comments as there aren't so many around. I've replaced fuel pump and filter some years back, plus springs and wishbones, not to mention the rear subframe. The last thing was the front section of the exhaust, which took about 20 minutes to remove but 3 hours to fit, presumably as it was a pattern part and needed some persuasion with a small crowbar. I'm 65 now and should probably have more sense! On the rustproofing - I sprayed wax on the underside and redo this every couple of years or so. It's also worth removing the plastic trims on the sills and so on to treat the bits underneath, which will hopefully be fine. It's easy to do and worth the effort. Most service parts are easy to come by, and if my own experience is anything to go by, Mercedes garages are helpful and some original parts are not that expensive. Another little bit of advice is that the heater blower may become noisy at that age - replace it (generating a heap of bits) rather than attempting a repair like I did and doing it all again.

[sparks_190e]

Perseverant said:

Very smart looking! I've had my 190e for 14 years or so now - it's a manual in black with grey MB Tex interior. About 150,000 miles. It's been pretty reliable over the years and now attracts comments as there aren't so many around. I've replaced fuel pump and filter some years back, plus springs and wishbones, not to mention the rear subframe. The last thing was the front section of the exhaust, which took about 20 minutes to remove but 3 hours to fit, presumably as it was a pattern part and needed some persuasion with a small crowbar. I'm 65 now and should probably have more sense! On the rustproofing - I sprayed wax on the underside and redo this every couple of years or so. It's also worth removing the plastic trims on the sills and so on to treat the bits underneath, which will hopefully be fine. It's easy to do and worth the effort. Most service parts are easy to come by, and if my own experience is anything to go by, Mercedes garages are helpful and some original parts are not that expensive. Another little bit of advice is that the heater blower may become noisy at that age - replace it (generating a heap of bits) rather than attempting a repair like I did and doing it all again.

Thank you, all taken on board