1991 Mercedes-Benz 560SEL

27 CommentsPosted as: ClearPOST COMMENT July 31st, 2025 at 4:18pm ESTStuttgart_Steel (492) Seller 1Good luck everyone as we come into the final moments! I'm really happy and proud to represent this one. I'm a huge W126 fan and this is a good example. If anyone is buying the car sight unseen, you're more than welcome to fly in and take delivery of it and drive it back. Good luck! July 31st, 2025 at 4:17pm EST$11,000 bid placed by @TheGoogleGradJuly 31st, 2025 at 4:09pm EST$10,750 bid placed by @ProdigalPetrolHeadJuly 31st, 2025 at 4:05pm EST$10,500 bid placed by @JavierbuJuly 31st, 2025 at 3:51pm EST$10,250 bid placed by @TheGoogleGradJuly 31st, 2025 at 3:34pm EST$10,000 bid placed by @ProdigalPetrolHeadJuly 31st, 2025 at 3:20pm EST$9,500 bid placed by @JavierbuJuly 31st, 2025 at 3:19pm ESTStuttgart_Steel (492) Seller 0@omarshareef happy to see you in here.July 31st, 2025 at 3:16pm EST$9,250 bid placed by @omarshareefJuly 31st, 2025 at 2:21pm ESTStuttgart_Steel (492) Seller 0@nobrakes I love the name. Two hours remaining! Let’s go over a few of the highlights -recent service to get the car ready for sale done by DC Motorwerks and myself -147 Arctic White is a super tough color. You don’t get clear coat issues like you do with the metallic paints of this era. -timing chains, guides, head gasket, valve guides, etc done already. It should be good for another 100k+ miles. -lots of service records and a healthy Carfax report -very original on the outside and inside. The interior is gorgeous and you can tell this was a garage kept car -It has Michelins that have about 1k miles on them with a fresh alignment. It’s super unapologetic and a very straight example of a car that’s getting harder and harder to find. Good luck everyone! I’m available for last minute phones calls if need be. Just PM me.July 31st, 2025 at 2:14pm EST$9,000 bid placed by @nobrakesJuly 31st, 2025 at 1:30pm EST$8,750 bid placed by @JavierbuJuly 31st, 2025 at 12:29pm EST$8,500 bid placed by @ProdigalPetrolHeadJuly 30th, 2025 at 4:40pm ESTStuttgart_Steel (492) Seller 0As we come into the final day, I just wanted to commend the commenters for asking the hard hitting questions. I loved interacting with you guys and attending to all your questions! I feel like we covered everything there is to this car, but if we missed something, please drop a comment below and I'll get to you! Thanks to all of the interactions thus far! July 29th, 2025 at 9:40am ESTStuttgart_Steel (492) Seller 0@mikelaca Front bumper clearance is 7 inches Rocker panel clearance at the front is 8 inches Rocker panel clearance at the rear is 11 inches Hope that helps! Let me know if you need anything else. I have a pretty gnarly driveway and I can get in and out without scrubbing. July 29th, 2025 at 12:19am EST$7,810 bid placed by @JavierbuJuly 28th, 2025 at 9:43am ESTStuttgart_Steel (492) Seller 0@mikelaca Absolutely. I'll grab a measurement when I'm near the car again later today. Give me a few. July 27th, 2025 at 11:22pm ESTmikelaca (8) 0@seller are you able to measure the clearance between the front bottom of the front fender and the ground? Since it's lowered I'm curious how much clearance there is for parking curbs etc. July 27th, 2025 at 7:43pm EST$7,560 bid placed by @MavteamJuly 27th, 2025 at 3:18pm ESTStuttgart_Steel (492) Seller 0@rideair The general consensus on the top end work is every 130/150k miles if the original head gaskets hold up. Brass valve guides round out and the links in the chain tend to get smaller in diameter because of use / improper oil weight creating slack. I asked my uncle who has been servicing only Mercedes since 1971 about why a M117 would pop a head gasket that early and he said the original gaskets just kind of sucked. That was a pretty regular occurrence when these weren't that old. We're assuming that's what happened as the dealer said pitting on the head. I inspected the rear passenger side of the block (where the gaskets leak) and see no oil. The other W126 that's live right now I'm hosting had a top end rebuild and it had the original chain at 180K and it was perfectly fine. It was replaced of course but technically didn't need it. Another sign of wear are the rocker arms flat spotting creating a tick. This car doesn't tick. Also oil use from the valve guide seals with blue smoke exiting the exhaust pipe. This car doesn't do that. If the tensioner fails, it's a slow failure as they're oil pressure driven and you get chain slap on start up. This car is quiet on start up. I even pulled the coil plug to crank the car without ignition to build oil pressure right after I did the oil service last week just to be safe as is OE procedure. This car is exhibiting none of those issues. Timing chain guides are plastic and degrade with heat cycles -- they get dark red and brittle. If anyone wants to worry about something, that would be the area of concern since they're plastic. But again, these last 150K typically so they should be fine. Oilers are like $8 and is a 1 hour job if you've never done it before. I looked inside and they looked nice with proper oil dispensing when the engine was idling. If anyone wants a video or pictures let me know. I see no signs of it requiring a top end refresh. These cars WILL alert you over a long period of time if it needs top end work and you can drive them for thousands and thousands of miles while these systems begin to degrade -- failure is not whiplash fast which is nice. I honestly think it's a redundant service at this stage of the car's life in my professional opinion or I would have done the job myself. July 27th, 2025 at 3:04pm EST$6,555 bid placed by @mdreiJuly 27th, 2025 at 1:55pm EST$5,560 bid placed by @MavteamJuly 27th, 2025 at 9:47am ESTrideair (6) 0Haven't seen to many needing a top-end rebuild at 43K, which is interesting. Since that was 50K ago along with many years passing, the new owner should check the chain/tensioner/guides, etc.. along with the cam oilers, since you're alre