Newsletter No.061, AMG engine wins award, don't check your oil and water...
Newsletter Number 61
14th July 2003
Hello and welcome to another newsletter.
Hello again. Sorry it has been awhile between Newsletters but things are rather busy. Unfortunately, the Newsletter has had to make way to do the end of the financial year paperwork. Anyway, this is a bumper Newsletter. We have a report on a very different meeting from the Mercedes-Benz Club of the ACT, news of a recent award for the AMG 5.5lt V8 and a strange request!
One of the other reasons for the lack of Newsletters of late, is that we have been without a Service Manager for the past three months. Norm, who started with us in March, had to leave soon afterwards for family reasons. Since then, we have been searching for someone to fill this very important position. Next newsletter we will have news of our new Service Manager. He certainly has some interesting qualifications for the job.......
John Green.
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Spare parts, spares@mbspares.com.au
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Thanks.
Men and their toys.
Last week the Mercedes-Benz Club of the ACT ran a very different club meeting. The members collected together at our workshop and discussed toys! Not any old toys, but model Mercedes-Benz's. There was everything from Radio controlled full scale models to well loved matchbox toys. One member told us a rather suspect story about a rather battered model of a 230SL that was given to him by his girl freind in 1966. Apparently her father had just brought a new 250SE! Below are some pictures from the night.
If you are interested in joining a Mercedes-Benz club you can click here for a list of Australian Clubs or Click here for a worldwide list of other clubs.
Please don't check your oil or water.
Here at M.B Spares and Service we would like to encourage all our customers to never check your oil or water. Actually we are just trying some reverse psychology! Everybody who owns a motor car should check their oil and water weekly! In the last month we have had two cars towed in that have been run out of either oil or water! Now we don't mind that so much as it creates lots of business for us, but I am sure it is inconvenient for the customers concerned.
My trick for remembering to check the oil and water is to always do it either before or after you put the bin out! If you don't do the bins at your place, do it once a week at the same time as some other task that MUST happen on a weekly basis. Here are some points to remember when checking the oil and water:
- The water level in the radiator does not get filled up all the way to the top. On most radiators there is a small mark a few centimeters down from the top to indicate the full level. If you fill it right up there is no room for expansion when it gets hot and it will pump the excess water out the overflow tube.
- Engine oil level can be checked hot or cold. The important thing is to always do it at the same time. You should not compare the hot oil level to the cold oil level. If you check it cold there will always appear to be more oil than hot, as the oil will have all dripped down into the sump. Your owners manual will give you the correct method. Most say to check it hot.
- As you should always check the coolant level cold and the oil level hot, my solution is to do both cold and expect the oil level to be a little over the full mark on the stick.
AMG Engine wins award.
Now here is a great story! A British magazine has awarded Daimler-Chrysler and their subsidiary AMG an award for the "Best Performance Engine"! Have a read of the press release below from Daimler Chrysler.......
Stuttgart/Affalterbach - The supercharged AMG V8 engine is celebrating a crushing victory in the International Engine of the Year Awards after gaining a clear majority of votes from the 50-strong jury in the newly created Best Performance Engine category. This conclusive result in the face of competition from its rivals in Europe, Japan and the USA underlines once again the expertise of Mercedes-AMG in the development of high-performance engines and cars.
Every year, the leading passenger-car engine concepts are nominated for awards in twelve different categories as part of a competition organised by British motoring publication Engine Technology International Magazine. The jury is made up of 50 recognised motoring journalists representing leading media organisations from 22 countries. Many of the jurors are also members of the Car of the Year committee.
"It's very powerful, and completely without temperament the exact opposite of most frenetic high-performance engines," was the verdict of Jake Venter from the South African trade magazine "Car" when it came to the supercharged AMG V8 engine. Graham Johnson, Chairman of the Inter-national Engine of the Year Awards, was equally impressed. His assess-ment: "Blistering performance delivered by a brilliantly smooth and charismatic V8."
"This award for our supercharged AMG V8 power unit is not only confirmation of the positive results from tests carried out by press and media around the world, it also reflects the delight of our customers with our product," enthused Ulrich Bruhnke, Managing Director of Mercedes-AMG GmbH, at the presentation ceremony at Engine Expo 2003. This globally recognised exhibition for the engine industry is taking place from June 3 to 5, 2003 at the Stuttgart trade fair centre.
Developing output figures of 350 kW/476 hp to 368 kW/500 hp and peak torque of 700 Newton metres, the supercharged AMG V8 engine delivers a seriously impressive driving experience. The 5.5-litre eight-cylinder power unit made its debut in 2001 under the bonnet of the SL 55 AMG and since the autumn of 2002 has also been available for the E 55 AMG and S 55 AMG Saloons, as well as the CL 55 AMG Coupé.
Cars for dismantling
It seems that we are the W126 wreck kings. Within a period of 20 minutes last Thursday we had three damaged W126 sedans arrive on our door step! Also since our last Newsletter we have had various W123 and W115 sedans come in.
380SEL 82 232000kms, minor front and rear hit, great engine and auto, cream leather in good condition.
380SEL 84 325000kms, bad front hit, good rear and side panels, elec seats.
500SEL 81 146000mls, not sure what happened to this, it has a very large dint in the back of the l/h sill to the point that the doors don't fit properly on the l/h side!
300D 79 495000kms, broken crankshaft so the engine is kaput! A car that we used to service so we know that the rest of the car was in good condition.
300D 77 35000kms, owner topped up the oil and left the filler cap off! Engine seized..........
220/8 71, slight rear hit and blown head gasket.
Newsletter subscriptions.
Things are improving, we have had an average of about 50 people per day subscribing after the last newsletter. If you were advised in the e-mail that told you about this newsletter that you haven't yet subscribed on the new website, you need to SUBSCRIBE now to receive the newsletter in the future. We will only be issuing one more newsletter using the old system so your time is running out. If you have signed up, thank you.
Links of the week.
These four links were all discussed at the Mercedes-Veterans mailing list in the last few weeks.....
Q: What is ugly, has a Mercedes-Benz engine and accelerates from 0-60mph in 6.4 seconds?
A: Click here.
Q: What should you not do on a German Autobahn?
A: Click here.
Q: What looks like a cross between a two door Rolls-Royce and 560SEC?
A: Click here.
Q: What has Gullwing doors, twin turbo's and is really ugly
A: Click here.
As advised in the last newsletter we have changed the way we list the cars for sale in the Newsletter. The down side of the change is that you don't get a picture of each car with the Newsletter, but the upside is that there is now an exterior and interior shot of each car on the site. Please click on the vehicle description below if you are interested.
As with all changes we make over the years to the Newsletter, if you don't like it please let me know!
Cars sold:
The 1989 190E has been sold.
The following cars have recently arrived for sale:
Also in stock we have:
230E 86 model, 179000kms
Collection of three factory Stretch Mercedes-Benz's
So that's it for another newsletter. Hope you liked what you saw. If you have any ideas or want to contribute any articles, pictures or other material please e-mail me here. Also, don't forget that you can check out the old newsletters here
Thanks, John Green.
