Hi Mr. FNT - we’ve missed you on the 500E board and new posts about your 124.034. Hope it’s doing well. Interesting CZcams cast … seems to me that about 95% of what you are saying here is applicable to any job, and life at large. It’s too bad that what you are saying hasn’t been taught to people growing up by their parents.
Truer words have never been spoken. I'm actually working on a video right now. I'm swapping the mechanical engine fan for an electric fan, but I'm using a PWM controller instead of it functioning only on/off. There are also some other repairs I've been lagging on, too. I need to replace the driveshaft center support bearing as well.
@@FriendlyMBTechWhy are you swapping the electric fans? We have had a few members do this over the years - it is documented in a thread or two on the topic on the forum. What we have found, is that basically since they were new, the MB fan clutches shipped on the cars, and available from MB as replacement parts, have been mis-configured from the manufacturer (these fans went NLA for the V-8 W124 about 4-5 years ago). The clutches require some tweaking to get them right, and this entails trial and error. This has nearly always been a flawed part on the part of Mercedes, and the sub-manufacturer never got them right. This has resulted in nearly all 500Es running hot over the years, and lots and lots of parts being thrown at these cars (water pumps, radiators, CoolHarness hacks, etc.) to try to get them cooler, when the fan clutch was the problem all the time. When properly operating, the M119 in the W124s should run around 85-90C. Under load, perhaps 95C. Instead what happens, is that a lot of the cars are running in the 105-110C level because of the bad fan clutches. The one good thing about the M119 W124 fan clutches is that they DO NOT leak viscous fluid like the M103/M104 clutches do. The aftermarket fan clutches that are available are Chinese junk. They often don't disengage at the proper temperature, and stay engaged too long. It's a real problem. So many parts have become NLA for these cars over the past couple of years. You have to be quite dedicated and resourceful to keep them on the road nowadays.
@gerryvanzandt7894 I too am guilty of having the aftermarket fan clutch as the factory on was NLA. It doesn't overheat, but they temps get a little too high for my liking, especially in the summer. I'm not replacing the AC fans, those work fine. The fan I'm using is off another MB car. It's the same size as the mechanical fan as well.
@@FriendlyMBTechI have a new MB NOS fan clutch I installed on my car in my 2020 COVID Engine Bay Refresh. It's a Sachs/Horton unit (the last OEM for MB for the clutches before they went NLA). I have two original spares (one from a 1992 and my original 1994 clutch) that I need to do the tweaking on to get them configured right so they work correctly. My Horton unit, new from 2020, works perfectly until ambient temperatures get above about 60F or so. Running A/C, in the summer (80+F ambients) the temp will get up to 100C, sometimes 105C if it is super hot out. The second fan engages at 107C and that forces the temps down, until they bounce up again. I replaced the water pump, radiator, thermostat, expansion tank and fan clutch (and all hoses) on my 2020 Refresh. All MB factory parts. The radiators for the V-8 W124s (both the 124.036 and 124.034, separate part numbers but technically fully interchangeable) recently went NLA from MB -- within the past six months or so. The best option now is a Nissens unit; unfortunately Nissens moved their radiator production from their native Denmark to Asia some years ago. Behr makes a "cheap line" of radiators that are half the price of the South Africa made units that they sold to MB as OE parts for many many years.
@gerryvanzandt7894 I used very few aftermarket parts when I rebuilt the M119. All of those parts were external parts. One being the fan clutch and the others being the mounts. People said the mounts wouldn't last 10k miles and it's been 25k miles. I still can't feel the engine running inside the car. Every single other part was factory. It's only recently that I've been toying with the idea of an electric fan swap that functions like a factory electric fan should complete with pulse width modulation varying on coolant temperature. I don't want to half ass it. I'm putting together a harness for it with the Tesa tape. I'm going to route it so it's only noticeable if you know what to look for. I want it to look and function like factory, just without the loud fan sound like a semi.
Preach! Spot on information. You newbs take this coaching as gospel!
AMEN !!!
Hi Mr. FNT - we’ve missed you on the 500E board and new posts about your 124.034. Hope it’s doing well. Interesting CZcams cast … seems to me that about 95% of what you are saying here is applicable to any job, and life at large. It’s too bad that what you are saying hasn’t been taught to people growing up by their parents.
Truer words have never been spoken. I'm actually working on a video right now. I'm swapping the mechanical engine fan for an electric fan, but I'm using a PWM controller instead of it functioning only on/off. There are also some other repairs I've been lagging on, too. I need to replace the driveshaft center support bearing as well.
@@FriendlyMBTechWhy are you swapping the electric fans? We have had a few members do this over the years - it is documented in a thread or two on the topic on the forum.
What we have found, is that basically since they were new, the MB fan clutches shipped on the cars, and available from MB as replacement parts, have been mis-configured from the manufacturer (these fans went NLA for the V-8 W124 about 4-5 years ago). The clutches require some tweaking to get them right, and this entails trial and error. This has nearly always been a flawed part on the part of Mercedes, and the sub-manufacturer never got them right. This has resulted in nearly all 500Es running hot over the years, and lots and lots of parts being thrown at these cars (water pumps, radiators, CoolHarness hacks, etc.) to try to get them cooler, when the fan clutch was the problem all the time.
When properly operating, the M119 in the W124s should run around 85-90C. Under load, perhaps 95C. Instead what happens, is that a lot of the cars are running in the 105-110C level because of the bad fan clutches.
The one good thing about the M119 W124 fan clutches is that they DO NOT leak viscous fluid like the M103/M104 clutches do.
The aftermarket fan clutches that are available are Chinese junk. They often don't disengage at the proper temperature, and stay engaged too long. It's a real problem. So many parts have become NLA for these cars over the past couple of years. You have to be quite dedicated and resourceful to keep them on the road nowadays.
@gerryvanzandt7894 I too am guilty of having the aftermarket fan clutch as the factory on was NLA. It doesn't overheat, but they temps get a little too high for my liking, especially in the summer. I'm not replacing the AC fans, those work fine. The fan I'm using is off another MB car. It's the same size as the mechanical fan as well.
@@FriendlyMBTechI have a new MB NOS fan clutch I installed on my car in my 2020 COVID Engine Bay Refresh. It's a Sachs/Horton unit (the last OEM for MB for the clutches before they went NLA). I have two original spares (one from a 1992 and my original 1994 clutch) that I need to do the tweaking on to get them configured right so they work correctly. My Horton unit, new from 2020, works perfectly until ambient temperatures get above about 60F or so. Running A/C, in the summer (80+F ambients) the temp will get up to 100C, sometimes 105C if it is super hot out. The second fan engages at 107C and that forces the temps down, until they bounce up again.
I replaced the water pump, radiator, thermostat, expansion tank and fan clutch (and all hoses) on my 2020 Refresh. All MB factory parts. The radiators for the V-8 W124s (both the 124.036 and 124.034, separate part numbers but technically fully interchangeable) recently went NLA from MB -- within the past six months or so. The best option now is a Nissens unit; unfortunately Nissens moved their radiator production from their native Denmark to Asia some years ago. Behr makes a "cheap line" of radiators that are half the price of the South Africa made units that they sold to MB as OE parts for many many years.
@gerryvanzandt7894 I used very few aftermarket parts when I rebuilt the M119. All of those parts were external parts. One being the fan clutch and the others being the mounts. People said the mounts wouldn't last 10k miles and it's been 25k miles. I still can't feel the engine running inside the car.
Every single other part was factory.
It's only recently that I've been toying with the idea of an electric fan swap that functions like a factory electric fan should complete with pulse width modulation varying on coolant temperature. I don't want to half ass it. I'm putting together a harness for it with the Tesa tape. I'm going to route it so it's only noticeable if you know what to look for. I want it to look and function like factory, just without the loud fan sound like a semi.