Sunday, February 21, 2010

W126: What Do You Think?

Took almost one and a half hours to reach Air Keroh exit to the Melaka Town. The W126 car was kept in the used car dealer warehouse in view of closing for CNY festive season. It was specially arranged to send to used car center for viewing and test drive.

My first impression on this car was the paint work looked absolutely dull. According to the used car dealer, they do not intend to restore the car prior selling, but to sell the car as it is. If the sale of this W126 is secured, i will need the heart of the car, i.e: ENGINE perhaps the gearbox too! Hence, the body chassis is not important to me anymore.Oh yeah, this W126 is equipped with manual transmission gearbox.

Got the key from used car dealer, fired it up... VROOM... the engine started up with solid rev'ing sound without any wobbling. However, Some engine oil leaking marks saw underneath. Checked the engine oil dip, oil level was within the maximum level. Brake fluid level was at the maximum level too. Checked out the exhaust tip, spotted the condensation water spilled out a bit... (guess that's fine when engine is still cold). Tested the brake system, kinda spongy feel, you won't know the brake is working or not unless you take the car out for a spin. Guess it is ready to test drive the car for further inspection.

Air cond (A/C) system was not working, spotted that the A/C compressor was malfunctioned. Power windows are not working except for driver's window. It was discovered that the car has got difficulty to move from idle. The front brake was jammed. Having said that, I was asked to step further on the acceleration pedal to force the car move...and the brake jammed issue will dissapear after a while. OMG...

However, the brake problem came back as soon as i stepped on the brake pedal. Decided to stop the test drive immediately rather than putting myself into risk. They promised to get it fix prior delivering the car.

Apart from that, i noticed that some white fumes generated from the back of the car! It means the engine is required some attentions on it, either the engine has got too much of carbon stored in the engine due to the car has not been used for long time OR water coolant leak. I was told that the car seldom use, and had never been drove out from Melaka state.

As soon as i got back to the used car center, the JPJ registration card was examined in details such as single Chinese owner, original plate number was NH3333 (wow.. what a nice plate number huh), engine number, and the VIN number. Checked on the service history records. Car was sent for servicing regularly; air cond serviced 3 times so far; and of course the genuine mileage was captured in the car service history. Negotiated the price for the car. Price was reduced to RM7,200 initially. Further negotiated the price in view of the heavy repairs needed. Finally, i was offered at RM5,000 with the condition that the brake problem must be resolved prior delivering the car. I decided to take up the car! :P

Check out the pictures of the car after the jump...






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