u/HugothesterYT

I was looking for a small restaurant in a very remote area of Tenerife in the Canary Islands and I found this abandoned gem, rust is eating it but you can still imagine it in its glory days.

The car is well equiped and seems to have been imported from Germany

I can't really tell if it is a 230CE or a 280CE (cannot be a diesel as we did not get those in coupé in Europe) as I did not have the chance to check under the hood. I might go in the future and check if someone knows the owner, as it could be a nice parts car.

I have been dailying my C300e (PHEV) for almost a month now and I could not be happier. I come from a 2015 Nissan Qashqai 1.2DIGT and the gap in technology and comfort during the ride is nothing short of amazing.

I was hesitant at first to buy a PHEV, my original idea was to go for a ByD Seal electric, but I got offered the merc at the official dealership at a very steep discount and it was a no brainer.

I have managed to do 106kms (around 66 milles) using only electric, though the real range is usually 90kms (56 milles), and since I can charge the car at work I can spend litterally 0€ on fuel per month. Fuel consumption is pretty decent as well, achieving around 5.4l/100kms (54mpg) while riding with 0% battery (the car the behaves as a normal hybrid).

The only issue I have with the car is that when doing a very steep highway climb the range drops like a rock, I'd not recommend to use electric while driving uphill at 120km/h (around 72 mph). The trunk space is also limited, you can only fit one large luggage and a few small ones, not enough for a 4 member family trip.

Many say Mercedes quality has dropped (I own a Mercedes w123 and w116 so I know) but the thing is other brand's quality has droppped even more. I tested more than 13 cars from different brands before deciding to buy this one and the quality of Mercedes is still ways ahead of most other brands.

Only a select few chinese cars, Lexus, bmw and maybe Mazda can currently compete with Mercedes imo, the main issue is Mercedes is offering a car with 0 extras at 20% higher price than ByD is offering their full equiped vehicles.

I thought this sound was coming from the gearbox, as it goes away when I press the clutch, but the car has a new gearbox in it because an unrelated issue and it is still doing it.

It sounds like that only sometimes after releasing the clutch pedal, usually when I first start the car, but it is not consistent. Otherwise the car works fine.

As promised here is the update of the post I published a few days ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/w123/s/21pMOpqXgW

The gearbox is working perfectly fine (except reverse, sometimes I need to move the car 1cm forward to get it to engage), so I can confirm that the 717.400 (diesel 5 speed gearbox) and the 717.401 (petrol 5 speed gearbox) are both the same inside (previous post has more detailed information).

This might be usefull as there are very few 717.400's but there are many 717.401's lying around here in Europe, which might make 5 speed conversions easier.

My throttle bushing has always been like this but it seems awfully loose to me, does this look ok to you guys or is something broken?

After many months of fighting to repair the 5 speed gearbox on my 1982 w123 it is finally back on the road! If anyone ever wonders, the interior of the 717.400 (300d diesel 5 speed gearbox) and the 717.401 (230e petrol 5 speed gearbox) are the same, so they are interchangeable, that info saved my ass.

I plan on using the 300D for the weekends and the c300e as my daily :D

PS: I plan on repainting my w123, any advice? I thought about anthracite gray, dark navy blue and bourbon red but I can't quite decide.

I just want to post this in case it is usefull to someone in the future, as I found no info about it online.

My Mercedes w123 300D had a 717.400 5 speed gearbox but it was partially failing, so I bought online a new one. Turns out they sent me a 717.401 5 speed from the 230e instead, which has the connection to the starter motor on the other side, so it did not fit.

Looking online some people said like 15 years ago in a lost forum that both gearboxes had the same "insides", so we tried to fit the new interior of the 717.401 gearbox inside of the bell housing (I think this is the name in english?) of my old gearbox. And it worked!

It seems both the 717.400 and 717.401 have the same moving parts, so they are interchangeable in case you need to adapt one for your car.

Everything seems to be working fine now, I will share with you the results once we put it back on the car, my mechanic is doing a great job with it.

PS: It seems the place I bought the gearbox from will be sending me another (now) correct 300D 5 spead gearbox, I guess I should save it for the future just in case.

I have been using it for 2 days now, what a ride!! Coming from a 2015 Nissan Qashqai and a Mercedes w123 this is like a spaceship.

The 313CV and the quality of the suspension blew me away, the silence of the interior and how well the MBUX system has been working for me are just the cherry on top, I am so glad I switched to Mercedes instead of ByD.

The only thing that annoys me is how the front looks like a slightly different color than the rest of the car depending on light conditions, I might reach out to Mercedes to see if there is anything they can do about it, as I bought it from the official dealership.

I have owned many classic Mercedes, but this is my first modern one, the drive test was amazing, instantly fell in love with it. Only thing I disliked was the feeling of the brake pedal, do you get used to it?

Tras semanas viendo coches al final he cerrado la decisión entorno a dos opciones:

1.- Mercedes c300e de ocasión (en la casa Mercedes) por 33.000€ con 50.000kms y 3 años de garantía.

2.- ByD Seal Design nuevo por 36.000€ (con la ayuda del plan auto+ en teoría deberían devolverme en el futuro 3.000€ pero a saber) con 6 años de garantía de batería y 8 de vehículo.

El primero es un híbrido enchufable con 100kms de autonomía eléctrica real y el segundo un eléctrico con una autonomía real de algo más de 500kms, tengo cargador con instalación monofásica en mi casa.

Mi objetivo es que el trayecto al trabajo de 23kms ida y otros 23kms de vuelta me salga "gratis" en eléctrico y salvo una vez al año no hacemos viajes de más de 300kms.

Sinceramente tras probar los dos me gusta más el Mercedes y su valor de reventa seguramente sea mayor, pero me preocupa el coste de los mantenimientos y el coste de reemplazo de la batería (10.000-15.000€ he leído).

¿Alguna recomendación? Tengo que tomar la decisión mañana lunes, ya que ya vendí mi antiguo coche, y estoy totalmente bloqueado con la indecisión entre ambos jajaja

I have a 5 speed 717.400 gearbox in my w123 300d but it was in bad condition, I bought online another one but when delivered we found out it was not a 717.400 but a 717.401, for petrol engines, which has the connection to the starter motor on the other side.

My question is, can I use the lid of the bell housing from my 717.400 to connect it to the 717.401 so I can use that gearbox on my 300d or must I return it and try to find a new one?

I am asking because I live in the Canary Islands and it takes 2-3 months for anything to arrive here and the idits sent me the wrong gearbox...

The car had been sitting in a garage for 10 years and did not even attempt to start, now it is perfectly working once again and we are fixing the exterior details :)

The whole proyect will most likely take around 2 months in total.