Summer 2025 turned out to be a bummer concerning my 1982 380 SL. Problems started small but then got far more expensive over time.
As a preface I have owned this California car since 2014 and have put 53K miles on it. Currently it runs like a dream (with one minor exception I will cover in a later post), and is a great top down cruiser.
I had been experiencing poor gas mileage for some time -- probably since Started screwing around with the lambda oxygen sensor, and connected a new unit poorly to the lambda control unit. Those units are single wire and with a very fine wire covered with a cable sheath.
So I took it to an expert at Foreign exchange, who did little more than fiddle with it until the sensor started working, and charged me $400 plus. More than an attorney or doctor.. That made me so mad that I fixed the issue myself, starting with a new Bosch Oxygen Sensor that the expert had suggested. The trick in making this right waste remove the wire leading from the control unit to the sensor, thereby have a good access to making a solid connection. Previously I had tried to connect wires while under my back, and that did not work. MPG rose to an average 19!
More troubling was the fact that the Foreign Exchange guys had picked up that the brakes were pulling rather dangerously to the right. Now front brakes need, with an estimate of $1400!
So I took that matter to my mechanic, Brock, who works for an outfit that I thought would be cheaper. Guess what? the Bill was over $1400, because I also leaned that the transmission fluid was burned and need to be replaced! Ouch. I did salvage two harness wires connecting to the wear sensors from a pick and pull car at LKQ Cincinnati! That was a small victory that saved me a few bucks.
Oh, and it was not long after I got the car back that on one of my near daily rides the brake pedal went to the floor! Here it took little sleuthing --- it was what you might think, a master cylinder -- and another $400 to get a firm pedal and a safe car.
Great, but there was more coming. It was about this time that I began to notice that my coolant was contaminated every so slightly with a red substance. I thought it might be rust, but indeed after a bit of deceptive work by Brock, it was determined to be transmission fluid. Another potentially costly problem.
More follows!
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