I just bought my 98 C280 with 160k miles on it and am concerned about two common problems I have been told about. The first is the wiring harness and the second is the head gasket. I have three questions... First is should I just replace them now? And secondly is this a do it yourself job or a pro job. Last, how much can I expect to spend on both if I do it or pay someone to do it? I do have a close friend that is a mechanic, and I feel reasonably sure we could figure it out if we got good advice on the procedure from a manual or something. Thanks for your help in advance.

 

it's not causing you any trouble now...so why replace?

maybe the previous owner already did that.

 

shouldnt be a problem, i beleive u will have the newer v6 engine, the problem was associated with the straight six engines.
Correct me if i am wrong and u have the straight 6

 

I agree with C280. You must have a V6 engine which is not prone to these problems, so happy motoring for you.

 

Guys thank you so much for your input. I was very worried about it. I travel a lot and didn't want to be stranded. I really appreciate your help.

 

As far as the wiring harness goes, the ones that were made of substandard materials were the ones on the early 90s models.
So you should be fine there as well.

 

I have the same 2 problems on my '95 C280, but I just bought the car and are under some kind of warranty. The head gasket drips oil and the wiring harness has exposed wires. Going to try to get the owner to repair it under warranty. It's not causing me any problems, but shouldn't be like that. I hope he agrees. I certainly don't want him to take the 'well, it's not broken, so I'm not going to fix it' mode.

 

try and get them fixed, because it wont take much for them to turn major,
Any playing with the wires could cause them to go bad.
firstly ask him to just do the headgasget, and in theory the wiring will need to be done at the same time as it will most likely get ruined taking it off for the head gasget, cos if you plonk it all on the previous owner at once he may run away

 

Hi C280. I'm going to have the head gasket replaced. Will the new one be any better, last any longer than the original? Does the head gasket leaking or replaced lower the longevity of the engine?

 

nah the new head gasget will fix the leak, just make sure it is the head gasget leaking.
and hopefully you need to replace the wiring harness at the same time, cos it will probebly go at some time in the future but it will be better for you if it happens under warrenty cos the wiring harness is like 1-2k to fix