I've got a 124 4Matic wagon and it's broke. I didn't know when I bought it because the purchase was made in summer on good roads. I didn't know that it was inoperative until the first snow of last winter when my summer tires couldn't keep me going straight. I had new snows put on the car drove like a charm. Since the older 4Matic system was normally RWD, engaging the system at the first signs of wheel slippage, but not in my car, it drove like a normal RWD car with good snow tires. We made it through the winter with no problems at all, plus it was fun to break the rear loose around corners when I wanted by merely applying a little extra throttle upon entry. What joy!
I'm told by one former-Benz now indy mechanic that replacing the seals for the first transfer case (which had some seepage upon initial inspection) would be a $500 job. I'm told by another former-Benz now indy mechanic that there is only one shop in North America that can rebuild the tranfer case and it's obviously not cheap. I'm considering merely leaving the car as it is or going the seal replacement route. The only downside to having a RWD 4Matic is the increase fuel consumption, which is horrific compared to my thrifty little VW TDI. Tim 1982 300TD 1991 300TE 4Matic (actually 2Matic) 2000 VW Golf TDI ------------------------------ Message: 10 Date: Wed, 9 May 2007 19:53:03 EDT From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [MBZ] 4-MATIC To: mercedes@okiebenz.com Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
<<I don't know the answer to your question, but I asked my mechanic once about the 4Matic (he had a TD with 4Matic for sale, don't remember what year it was) and his answer was basically this: "Like most Mercedes systems, they work well if they are maintained.? They don't tolerate neglect very well.">>
I'd say that also if I was trying to bail out of one these money pits. I know a local guy who used to own a very pretty 124 4-matic wagon as a business car and he finally gave up and bought a VW diesel (Jetta, something?) and he was one of many on the other MB lists who had replaced transfer cases because of fluid swaps between the transmissions and transfer cases. It's seal failure and "maintenance" is not the cause but just a bad design. MB gave up on this design years ago and they have a new design (again) on the '07/'08 cars. RLE
