My wife just took her 1995 SL500 in for a service check at a Mercedes dealer, we just bought the car and wanted it checked out. The check engine light was on and they said it was a common problem with this model of Mercedes, the wiring harness gets brittle and needs to be replaced. she said for only $1400 she can guarantee it won't happen again. So my questions are:

1. Do they make aftermarket wiring harnesses? She said Mercedes charges $1000 for the part, I saw one
on Ebay for $700 but they didn't say if it was OEM or used.
2. Is this something I can replace easily or is it better to take it to a dealer?

She also said the motor mounts need replacing and the outside tie rods were cracked so the same questions would apply to them also. Other than that she said the car is in remarkably good condition for its age. Thanks for any help

 

don't know if they make aftermarket harnesses. doubtfull though. I would say you can do it yourself but make sure you disconnect the battery. you porbably need the engine harness that connects to the fuel injectors and other components. I would say to buy the harness form mercedes, open it up and lay it on the engine. disconnect and connect plugs 1 at a time. if you feel it is to indepth, take it to the dealer and you will pay for labor only since you allready bought the part. motor mounts....no dice they are very hard to do on your own. tie-rods......you can do yourself, but due to age you may need torches, also you will need and alignment after replacing the tie-rods.

 

Thanks for the reply :-) They want $900 to replace the motor mounts ($60 per pair online), is it that labor intensive or is that just Mercedes being Mercedes? After all, they also wanted to charge me $325 to replace the hood blanket. That's a definite DIY job that will cost less than $70 and take all of 10 minutes or so.

 

you will have to lift the motor to replace mounts. also you may have to remove cat converters and drag link to gain access (haven't worked on a 129 in a while). hood insulation will take 1-2 hours. there will be alot of scraping glue involved. it is a do it yourself job indeed but very messy. my suggestion is to lay an old sheet across the engine and buy a scraper or 15-20 razor blades. wear a dust mask as well it is like scraping asbestos.you will have to buy a can of spray adhesive and a bottle of some sort to remove the old adhesive (sticker remover) I recommend 3M. be very generous with the new glue, but remember hood has to be as clean as possible or it will start falling off in a couple months. also you only get one shot when sticking on so be persice. I start on one side and glue about 6-8 in at a time (glue will dry fast) and be pickey about placment.

 

We did the heat blanket. My wife did a bit of scraping spread out over several days with a sheet over the engine to catch the mess. Once we were ready I used construction adhesive as the glue. We put in all of the clips to hold the front then I spread the glue all around with a caulking gun. I held it up while my wife smoothed it out and tucked it in to the sides of the hood. We then took several pillows, put them on the engine then closed the hood. That molded against the pillows and held everything in place. The next day we took it off and it looked perfect :-) I wish I would have thought to take some pictures of the work in progress but I did get one of the finished job: