I found out this weekend my w108 has a problem charging the battery. Its either the alternator or voltage regulator. I'll figure it out with a voltmeter. With a modern car, it wouldn't be so simple. And that doesn't account for the thousands of thousands of sensors modern cars have.
Hi John! You are more than right. Sadly they are all the same... One little exemption might be the MB 204 (except the rear axle due to corrosion, at least they change them.). My daily 201 will be and remain the youngest car in my garage for sure. Also maintanance is a pain with the modern crab. Regular maintanance at my wifes Golf 7, 4 years old, nothing changed except this funny long life oil....bill: 900 Euros! What???
900 euros for an Oil change? I think I'd prefer to just change it out every 3k miles. It's a shame because she really likes this car. Very disappointing.
I couldnt agree more. This past weekend I replaced the upper cushion on the drivers seat of my 2013 Merc C250 sport coupe. It was by far without a doubt the hardest job ive done on a car. I really thought I was going to give up and bring my partially disassembled seat to my local mercedes shop to get it finished. Ill stick to my air cooled 911 and my 70s 450SL!
The other problematic thing about modern cars is that "cursedly expensive when things go wrong" direct injection. That whole era of the 20 "teens" when DI was adopted industry wide is a time that I call the dark period. Nice as the cars are from then, what with all their clever gadgetry, I just don't ever see a DI engine in my life. 😑
You're right regarding the DI system. This VW has it, suffered from excessive carbon build up behind the valves. Getting to that was a real pain too. Cheers John.
My daily driver (or she will be my daily driver again when my new relay arrives) is 35 years old! (W124 300CE) If I ever have to buy another car - which I hope I don’t! - will probably be the same age or older…
Hi Julian. Absolutely. I think the most Modern I would go for in Mercedes is the w126. I've been very impressed with the one my friend has. I'm just not interested in anything newer than that. Cheers John.
Modern cars, generally, have one aspect that is better than the 'good old days', and that is resistance to corrosion. I can remember cars in England, Fords, Vauxhall, and BL models riddled with the worm at four years old. I still buy a new MB or BMW every three years and thus far all have been totally reliable. This may just be luck! Still, my W108 at 54 years old, doesn't leak either! Keep up the good work here!
That is true. Some of the older cars especially back in the UK suffered from bad rust. Salting the roads certainly didn't help. It's very frustrating that a modern car such as this has such a fundamental flaw and they're still making them the same way. Knowing full well of the problem. I've seen much later Tiguan's that have the same issue.
I've heard from many classic car guys that older domestic (US) cars are ok now only because all the bugs and defects have been worked out over time. I think classic Benzes were built to last. That being said, even modern Mercedes are terrible. The HPFP issues that affected over a decade of various models tells me they're not really trying anymore. Modern cars are either meant to be leased or rented, not owned. Earlier this month I rented a SUV with 13k miles, it sounded like it had 130k miles, and handled like a car fr the 1990s.
True, even the modern Mercedes I've heard suffer. I ended up fixing the sunroof leak. I shot some more video of it because of the shockingly bad repair the Dealership did to try and solve it. That will be coming:) Cheers John.
@@mercedesmaintenance.6339 well done. I've never had a sunroof leak on either 108. Could you show in a video where the motor and gears are for it? I need to clean and regrease it.
"Rant" away John, we hear you, nearly 50 years in automotive engineering, for most manufacturers today it has become a race to the bottom of the barrel, designed by finically constrained engineers, overseen and often over ridden by the accountants department and marketing departments neither of which would know what or where a bonnet latch is! with no regard or consideration given to longevity / reputation . - Abysmal! Cheers from Too bloody Hot Oz! Glenn.
I think they're trying to pack in so many features to each car to stay up with the competition, they then cut corners to do that very thing. Letting the basics suffer. Like keeping the bloody rain out. Cheers from Rainy Northern California:) John.
Nothing new is good and certainly not made to last. Today the dealer’s money is made servicing these vehicles and that includes Mercedes. A friend of mine owns a AMG SL 63 which is very cheaply made. You will find brittle plastic everywhere including the suspension on that car. I think it cost him $800 just to change the brake pads (not rotors)! The problem with old cars is the replacement costs and availability and the fact that the parts you buy are the junk parts you find in new cars. Bring back the horse and buggy!
Hi Tony. That's true. Regarding parts for the Old stuff, I find the Mercedes community pretty good in that respect. I started the Facebook group Mercedes maintenance and Mercedes rescue to help people get together and help each other. It works very well. Come join us there if you haven't already. Cheers John.
They are all the same even Mercedes. My 1990 s class and SL are faultless . My 2007 SL and its replacement 2015 SL were both junk by comparison. I opted to take a company Tesla as my everyday car, it’s not great but at least it’s not mine 😊
It's a Volkswagen/Audi thing. They have just become a terrible brand with respect to quality. I gave up on them several years ago. We now have two AWD BMW 3-series, one diesel and one gas, both are ten years old now. We bought them as lease-returns 7 years ago. No problems at all, other than a couple recall repairs. They live outside in the rain, snow, and summer heat year-round.
That's what I've have heard. My Son actually has an 2001 BMW 330i Its been a great car!! Drives and handles extremely well. This will definitely be our last VW. Cheers John.
I sympathize. Have to say though that you are lucky with your 108's not leaking. Either you just got really lucky or the climate where you are is very good in that respect. I owned three Mercedes Benz's in Durban, South Africa, where rust is some of the worst in the world and all of them leaked. One 108, a 116 and a 123. They leaked specifically because of a decade each in that climate and the resulting rust issues. Of course the two 123's I owned in Phoenix Arizona were dry as a bone because nothing rusts here. regarding the Tiguan. Obviously it's a nonsense situation. There is no excuse for a new car to have such a problem. But all new cars are becoming so stupidly overly complex that I don't think you can every expect proper reliability from any of them. I currently own a 2020 Chevy Spark. The cheapest car in the country when I bougth it. So far so good but when I replace it it will be with a leased car because there is no way I will ever be on the hook for repairing modern car I'm stuck with as an owner. Rent them for three years and them replace them or you're just asking for a world of hurt. And of course if I can when the time is right I'll have to try and acquire another proper Mercedes from prior to 1990. Even if I have to do a bunch of work on it myself.
Yes rust of course can be an issue. Luckily my running 108's are very clean. The 4.5 has a few small areas that I have treated but nothing major. New cars are a constant disappointment, you can just feel the cost cutting. Working on this VW is a royal pain too. The wiring and connections are incredibly flimsy and easy to break. I think a pre 90's MB is the sweet spot. My friend picked up a w126 early 90's I believe I was so impressed with that car, he let me drive it back from Nevada. He loves it and drives it all the time. Cheers John. ua-cam.com/video/m71H4ysXTFs/v-deo.htmlsi=k9VlCseTXYQav9Wr
Sorry about this. Life is full of trouble and a newer car should not burden you with more. The only affordable modern cars I think are worth owning are Toyota/Lexus or Honda/Acura. They aren't very interesting but I have never had any sort of major or stupid problem with those brands like you are experiencing with your VW.
VW and it's China engine chains that grow as a tree. My wife has a VW polo. The things that happen are insane. The isolation from an electrical wire loom in the trunk that is completely open. Just from opening and closing the trunk. When you look at the loom they have given the wires all a white color and no numbers. Just in case the home mechanic wants to repair the loom himself. That's clever engineering 😉. When you investigate the way the loom is put in the car it is a matter of time to break that isolation. That is what i don't like about modern cars. They just don't care. Hey...a 4 years OLD car. 😖. My Ford Capri hits 40 years this year. Pre historic material for them.😄
It is so annoying. A lot of issues that come up are extremely difficult to fix because of the way they're made. I'm with you, love the old cars. Do you by chance watch the Barum Engines you tube channel? They specialize in Cosworth engine rebuilds. Really interesting and nice blokes. Cheers John.
@@mercedesmaintenance.6339 John; the Cosworth 24V engine in my Capri is a swap. Capri's never had that engine. Did that swap and restauration in 1994 and i was the first in the Netherlands to have it streetlegal. Bought the engine with 12000 Miles and it has now 23000 Miles. 😉. Maintaining the car by myself. Will check your Cosworth site. Thanks for the tip.
@@Wil-70-NL Very nice. What I'm Impressed with is the amount of power those Cosworths put out. A few of my mates and my old boss had Capris back in the UK. From Memory my boss had a 2.8 in silver. Cool car. Cheers John.
If you can’t build a car that doesn’t meet minimum quality standards these days - especially considering the advances in technology - then you should get out of the business. This is unforgivable on VW’s part. Except for a very few exceptions, cars these days have become disposable appliances. How sad.
It really is sad. If you check online you'll see many examples of this problem on much later cars. They obviously know of the problem and still do nothing. Ridiculous situation and very annoying.
I found out this weekend my w108 has a problem charging the battery. Its either the alternator or voltage regulator. I'll figure it out with a voltmeter. With a modern car, it wouldn't be so simple. And that doesn't account for the thousands of thousands of sensors modern cars have.
Hi John! You are more than right. Sadly they are all the same...
One little exemption might be the MB 204 (except the rear axle due to corrosion, at least they change them.). My daily 201 will be and remain the youngest car in my garage for sure. Also maintanance is a pain with the modern crab. Regular maintanance at my wifes Golf 7, 4 years old, nothing changed except this funny long life oil....bill: 900 Euros! What???
900 euros for an Oil change? I think I'd prefer to just change it out every 3k miles. It's a shame because she really likes this car. Very disappointing.
I couldnt agree more. This past weekend I replaced the upper cushion on the drivers seat of my 2013 Merc C250 sport coupe. It was by far without a doubt the hardest job ive done on a car. I really thought I was going to give up and bring my partially disassembled seat to my local mercedes shop to get it finished. Ill stick to my air cooled 911 and my 70s 450SL!
The other problematic thing about modern cars is that "cursedly expensive when things go wrong" direct injection. That whole era of the 20 "teens" when DI was adopted industry wide is a time that I call the dark period. Nice as the cars are from then, what with all their clever gadgetry, I just don't ever see a DI engine in my life. 😑
You're right regarding the DI system. This VW has it, suffered from excessive carbon build up behind the valves. Getting to that was a real pain too. Cheers John.
My daily driver (or she will be my daily driver again when my new relay arrives) is 35 years old! (W124 300CE)
If I ever have to buy another car - which I hope I don’t! - will probably be the same age or older…
Hi Julian. Absolutely. I think the most Modern I would go for in Mercedes is the w126. I've been very impressed with the one my friend has. I'm just not interested in anything newer than that. Cheers John.
Interesting channel and nice vid!
Probably a stupid question, but are you from Kent?
Cheers!
Thank you. No, I'm originally from Hertfordshire. Bishop's Stortford area. Cheers John.
Modern cars, generally, have one aspect that is better than the 'good old days', and that is resistance to corrosion. I can remember cars in England, Fords, Vauxhall, and BL models riddled with the worm at four years old. I still buy a new MB or BMW every three years and thus far all have been totally reliable. This may just be luck! Still, my W108 at 54 years old, doesn't leak either! Keep up the good work here!
That is true. Some of the older cars especially back in the UK suffered from bad rust. Salting the roads certainly didn't help. It's very frustrating that a modern car such as this has such a fundamental flaw and they're still making them the same way. Knowing full well of the problem. I've seen much later Tiguan's that have the same issue.
I've heard from many classic car guys that older domestic (US) cars are ok now only because all the bugs and defects have been worked out over time. I think classic Benzes were built to last. That being said, even modern Mercedes are terrible. The HPFP issues that affected over a decade of various models tells me they're not really trying anymore. Modern cars are either meant to be leased or rented, not owned. Earlier this month I rented a SUV with 13k miles, it sounded like it had 130k miles, and handled like a car fr the 1990s.
True, even the modern Mercedes I've heard suffer. I ended up fixing the sunroof leak. I shot some more video of it because of the shockingly bad repair the Dealership did to try and solve it. That will be coming:) Cheers John.
@@mercedesmaintenance.6339 well done. I've never had a sunroof leak on either 108. Could you show in a video where the motor and gears are for it? I need to clean and regrease it.
"Rant" away John, we hear you, nearly 50 years in automotive engineering, for most manufacturers today it has become a race to the bottom of the barrel, designed by finically constrained engineers, overseen and often over ridden by the accountants department and marketing departments neither of which would know what or where a bonnet latch is! with no regard or consideration given to longevity / reputation . - Abysmal!
Cheers from Too bloody Hot Oz!
Glenn.
I think they're trying to pack in so many features to each car to stay up with the competition, they then cut corners to do that very thing. Letting the basics suffer. Like keeping the bloody rain out.
Cheers from Rainy Northern California:)
John.
Nothing new is good and certainly not made to last. Today the dealer’s money is made servicing these vehicles and that includes Mercedes. A friend of mine owns a AMG SL 63 which is very cheaply made. You will find brittle plastic everywhere including the suspension on that car. I think it cost him $800 just to change the brake pads (not rotors)! The problem with old cars is the replacement costs and availability and the fact that the parts you buy are the junk parts you find in new cars. Bring back the horse and buggy!
Hi Tony. That's true. Regarding parts for the Old stuff, I find the Mercedes community pretty good in that respect. I started the Facebook group Mercedes maintenance and Mercedes rescue to help people get together and help each other. It works very well. Come join us there if you haven't already. Cheers John.
@@mercedesmaintenance.6339 I just joined the group John!
They are all the same even Mercedes. My 1990 s class and SL are faultless . My 2007 SL and its replacement 2015 SL were both junk by comparison. I opted to take a company Tesla as my everyday car, it’s not great but at least it’s not mine 😊
A lot of new cars are very disappointing to me. This VW is so frustrating, I've been chasing these leaks for a while now. Cheers John.
It's a Volkswagen/Audi thing. They have just become a terrible brand with respect to quality. I gave up on them several years ago. We now have two AWD BMW 3-series, one diesel and one gas, both are ten years old now. We bought them as lease-returns 7 years ago. No problems at all, other than a couple recall repairs. They live outside in the rain, snow, and summer heat year-round.
That's what I've have heard. My Son actually has an 2001 BMW 330i Its been a great car!! Drives and handles extremely well. This will definitely be our last VW. Cheers John.
I sympathize. Have to say though that you are lucky with your 108's not leaking. Either you just got really lucky or the climate where you are is very good in that respect. I owned three Mercedes Benz's in Durban, South Africa, where rust is some of the worst in the world and all of them leaked. One 108, a 116 and a 123. They leaked specifically because of a decade each in that climate and the resulting rust issues. Of course the two 123's I owned in Phoenix Arizona were dry as a bone because nothing rusts here. regarding the Tiguan. Obviously it's a nonsense situation. There is no excuse for a new car to have such a problem. But all new cars are becoming so stupidly overly complex that I don't think you can every expect proper reliability from any of them. I currently own a 2020 Chevy Spark. The cheapest car in the country when I bougth it. So far so good but when I replace it it will be with a leased car because there is no way I will ever be on the hook for repairing modern car I'm stuck with as an owner. Rent them for three years and them replace them or you're just asking for a world of hurt. And of course if I can when the time is right I'll have to try and acquire another proper Mercedes from prior to 1990. Even if I have to do a bunch of work on it myself.
Yes rust of course can be an issue. Luckily my running 108's are very clean. The 4.5 has a few small areas that I have treated but nothing major. New cars are a constant disappointment, you can just feel the cost cutting. Working on this VW is a royal pain too. The wiring and connections are incredibly flimsy and easy to break. I think a pre 90's MB is the sweet spot. My friend picked up a w126 early 90's I believe I was so impressed with that car, he let me drive it back from Nevada. He loves it and drives it all the time. Cheers John.
ua-cam.com/video/m71H4ysXTFs/v-deo.htmlsi=k9VlCseTXYQav9Wr
Dead right John, long live the classics.
Absolutely!! Cheers John.
Sorry about this. Life is full of trouble and a newer car should not burden you with more. The only affordable modern cars I think are worth owning are Toyota/Lexus or Honda/Acura. They aren't very interesting but I have never had any sort of major or stupid problem with those brands like you are experiencing with your VW.
You're right. Those makes do seem to escape most of the common complaints. Cheers John.
I am with you.
VW and it's China engine chains that grow as a tree. My wife has a VW polo. The things that happen are insane. The isolation from an electrical wire loom in the trunk that is completely open. Just from opening and closing the trunk. When you look at the loom they have given the wires all a white color and no numbers. Just in case the home mechanic wants to repair the loom himself. That's clever engineering 😉. When you investigate the way the loom is put in the car it is a matter of time to break that isolation. That is what i don't like about modern cars. They just don't care. Hey...a 4 years OLD car. 😖. My Ford Capri hits 40 years this year. Pre historic material for them.😄
It is so annoying. A lot of issues that come up are extremely difficult to fix because of the way they're made. I'm with you, love the old cars. Do you by chance watch the Barum Engines you tube channel? They specialize in Cosworth engine rebuilds. Really interesting and nice blokes.
Cheers John.
@@mercedesmaintenance.6339 John; the Cosworth 24V engine in my Capri is a swap. Capri's never had that engine. Did that swap and restauration in 1994 and i was the first in the Netherlands to have it streetlegal. Bought the engine with 12000 Miles and it has now 23000 Miles. 😉. Maintaining the car by myself. Will check your Cosworth site. Thanks for the tip.
@@Wil-70-NL Very nice. What I'm Impressed with is the amount of power those Cosworths put out. A few of my mates and my old boss had Capris back in the UK. From Memory my boss had a 2.8 in silver. Cool car. Cheers John.
@@Wil-70-NL here you go..ua-cam.com/video/A1lBOsjGbhM/v-deo.htmlsi=nlFZpi47bXacj7yn
If you can’t build a car that doesn’t meet minimum quality standards these days - especially considering the advances in technology - then you should get out of the business. This is unforgivable on VW’s part. Except for a very few exceptions, cars these days have become disposable appliances. How sad.
It really is sad. If you check online you'll see many examples of this problem on much later cars. They obviously know of the problem and still do nothing. Ridiculous situation and very annoying.
Typical Auto Union!! Leak like sieves!!
Apparently. I've seen what they look like, no wonder it failed.