Will my 440,000km Mercedes Pass a German Inspection?

Taking my high mileage 1998 Mercedes Benz S210 to a German Inspection (TÜV) after carrying out some small "repairs"
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[@knorke3642]

The TÜV in Germany is first and foremost a visual inspection. If it looks off...the car fails...if the engineer don´t like his morning coffee...the car fails. It also depends on the TÜV "company", you take the car to...DEKRA is the most thorough...so if you want to stand a chance with an old sh1tbox, look for a Garage who uses someone else than DEKRA....and by the way...polishing Headlights in Germany is against the law. So if you want your headlights to pass inspection...machinepolish them until they look like new. Since TÜV is a visual inspection, the engineer cannot prove, that you polished the headlights, if they look like new ones, because he cannot measure how much material you took off the glass or rather the clearcoat....giving them a ceramic coating after machine polishing makes them last longer. I´d stay away from clear coating the headlights...because if it´s not done just right...the car fails.

[@Involvod]

Thanks for the info! That's why we tried a GTÜ this time as the only good inspection experience we had was with them. We'll keep trying different places and maybe a KÜS next time? 😂

[@knorke3642]

@@Involvod Well...actually...KÜS is who I am with...so far so good...they seem to focus on the most important stuff. However...if the car( and lets face it, your Merc does...a bit) looks scruffy...all bets are off 🤣

[@bettyvolvo]

KÜS ist besser, GTÜ war mit nen Brecheisen auf Rost-Suche 😣 letztes Mal ...KÜS nur mit den Augen und Sachverstand.

[@luciensanchez6451]

You drove your new born volvo enthusiast back from the hospital in a Mercedes? Blasphemy!

[@jospeters7558]

You spend a lot off money for the bin. Your Volvo is better .

[@tompas11A3n52KkX]

Too bad. I went to the inspection with my 1988 Volvo 740 estate about a month ago. The girl who did the inspection said that all looked good and that I had a very nice car. After that I went for some shopping and when I just got out of the car a couple passed and commented - what a nice car! Two compliments on the same day. What a nice day that was.

[@bobjohnson205]

I had a guy a few days ago offer to buy my '90 740 GL sedan for a very good price. I stupidly said no! 😵‍💫 What was I thinking? lol

[@username.858]

Damn, you have no luck with this, do you. I'd probably always go to a different Tüv inspection centre and find one where there aren't just a-holes working there. This is crazy. I know the inspections are strict, but still, this is just absolutely over the top.

[@Involvod]

We keep trying a new place each time, the search continues 😅

[@JustFixIt99]

Whatever shop did that exhaust work should be ashamed. That’s just a hack job through and through…. Most of that isn’t too bad, dragging brakes is likely just rust jacking preventing everything from sliding around properly. New pads and some wire brush work will likely sort it. The flex disk is common, and at your mileage long overdue. Now, I cannot stress this enough, DO NOT BUY A CHEAP FLEX DISK!!!! If the cheap one fails it can set off the airbags as the prop shaft flails around under the car ripping out wiring and transmission linkage. I’d suggest pricing an OE or OEM part. Wedging the window with a chunk of wood, that takes me back, been there, done that, always the rear ones it seems. For the wiper blade I’d suggest not buying one of those fancy monobeam types, I find they tend to be designed to only work well in one direction. I find the cheap Bosch Direct Connect ones work best. Bonus that they are the cheapest, around me at least.

[@Involvod]

Thanks for the tips man, I appreciate it 👍

[@benjaminmellingen5340]

the mechanic you took it to... does he usually repair lawnmowers?

[@SebastianHoffmann37]

From now on, you may call me German speaking longtermwatcher ❤ Greetz from a german who partially grew up in Canada and spent most of his life in Switzerland 😉

[@kurtsoderberg]

The forboding village church bell tolls..breaks nead tlc.

[@SebastianHoffmann37]

Guessing Germany won't be much different from Switzerland: First impression matters a lot here! If the car is clean and (on first impression) looks like it's been taken care of, they wont look too deep into your car and your chance to pass the tüv/mfk will increase tremendously! Sounds stupid from a mechanical standpoint of view, I know! But it worked for me many times. Also sometimes I've decided it'd probably be best if I wasn't there... So I sent my wife... Sad but true, seems like EyeCandy is all that matters! 😓

[@Involvod]

From what I've heard, Switzerland is the only place stricter than Germany when it comes to vehicle inspections!

[@Phiyedough]

Brake discs have an official minimum thickness so they should not fail them if they are thicker than that.

[@bobjohnson205]

A 'TUV' fail equals more content! 😉

[@kjh789az]

DON UT? That plate's worth more than the car, surely? Great!

[@nickjohnstone9939]

Ah hang in there InMerco'd. Seriously, she's an old girl the Mercedes and she's travelled a great distance. Work through the list and you'll get there. Thumbs up for every video, youre doing great!! And PLEASE, keep the Mercedes. Youre video's are inspirational to me. Thank you.

[@Involvod]

Thanks man I appreciate it!

[@nickjohnstone9939]

@@Involvod ...Anytime!

[@julian7868]

Hey Sledge, another funny thing for you: Polishing your headlights is forbidden in Austria and Germany :) Of course the Inspector first has to find that out at the TÜV Inspection (or "Pickerlüberprüfung" when you're Austrian like me) but still, be careful with that stuff. I think its because its not seen as original after the polishing and therefore the safety bla bla can't be guaranteed... In Austria nobody would care about things like that no matter what the law is but from what I've experienced regarding German inspectors this could be a different story in DE. Great video though, enjoyed it as always!

[@Involvod]

Haha, it just gets better and better 🤣 Thanks for the heads up 😄

[@JustFixIt99]

That’s just crazy… I mean there’s being anal, and there is just being stupid.

[@julian7868]

@@Involvod Yeah it's better not to think too much about such laws and at least try to laugh about it. The more I learn about car laws in other european countries the more it makes me think though...

[@zzoinks]

Is that true? Well I wonder what they think of non official replacement headlights! I've heard that there's a chance replacement headlights are not as high quality and effective as the originals from the manufacturer.

[@CrazyBalt95]

damn

[@DeanofMachines]

What an absolute headache. I get it, but still it's a pain.

[@lifelong5425]

German nightmare.....you've more patience than most......but, what next....

[@Involvod]

What next? Have you ever seen the film 'Falling Down'? 😃🔫

[@fannycraddock99]

Oh Sledge, sorry about that but I was not really expecting her to pass. I think that they would find fault with a brand new car! Hopefully the 'faults' are not too costly to fix.

[@standbanger2]

Well after the volvo inspection i was really expecting the merc to be absolutely ripped to bits but considering the list i think it not come off too bad, look at it as half full glass not half empty!

[@williamwales6619]

I appreciate you have moved into a new area. Need to build a network of good guys/people. I ,like you have put plenty of cars in front of an examiner. As for the welder i would have got him to cut the silencer of the car and repaired it properly rejoining it with flexi pipe. as for the headlights you can get a kit that brings them up a treat but it might not be available in your area. Most important of all dont let the buggers get you down. Howz the baby?? Later 👍

[@Involvod]

Thanks! She's doing great, growing at light speed 😂

[@GentilsGarage]

Bloody nightmare… and people complain about MOTs in the UK! Loved the Godfather reference 😅. Im sure you get that car up to scratch.

[@Involvod]

Thanks mate 👍

[@mortimergladbreath]

3:07 you must say "that's not going anywhere" for repairs such as this!

[@georgebutlers4945]

As they say in German "Herzlichen Mitleid" to your TUV fail. A common occurrence with any car in Germany. Volvo headlights for the later 240s and 740s, 940s are also plastic here in the States. I have replaced with glass Eurospecs on my 240. But back to plastic headlights. They are covered with a thin layer of clear coat lacquer when they come from the manufacturer. This is what yellows. You must remove the lacquer entirely with sanding to get the yellow out. Then after sanding do not buff so as to leave enough grip on the plastic for your clear coat to adhere to. Apply a couple of coats of clear coat . Afterwards when the coats of clear coat (2-3) have dried, buff to a shine and your headlights should look as good as new. Unless of course the inside of the headlights have collected crud in which case you may need to remove the lens and do the inside also. Getting back to your previous video and getting started in welding: If your German is good enough, or want to improve, there are two German KZbinrs I think worth looking at: 'Manfred Welding' and 'Oldtimer Rescue'. The first has a lot of tips on welding with what is available in Germany. The latter has a recent video on getting a nice inexpensive welder in Germany that works good on car sheet metal and he does reference Manfred. I think they are at least worth glancing at. As always love to watch your progress and best wishes to the Misses and baby!

[@Involvod]

Thanks for the tips, that's super helpful! 👍

[@ztech6596]

One positive about diesel cars is their exhausts practically never rust. My theory is that oily diesel mist makes them not corrode from the inside (protect the tubing from condensation). Had some old diesel cars rust out from A to Z but never ever had to weld any holes in exhausts.

[@Involvod]

That's true

[@NeilD163]

Yep, my volvo s60 D5 is 19 yrs old and still on the factory fitted exhaust.

[@Vaino_Hotti]

Does Germany have different levels of "fail" on the inspection? In Finland there's "fail" and "advisory to fix". Fails come from critical issues, but advisories are about less important things. 3 advisories are allowed and still pass, 4 advisories is a fail.

[@Involvod]

Yes there are minor and major defects here, but if you get 1 major, you have to fix all of the minor items as if they were major too, which is kind of frustrating!

[@knorke3642]

In the german inspection ( TÜV) there are faults that can get an advisory....like rust in non structural places...a little oil on the engine...a tiny crack in the windscreen that has not spread...tires that are close but not on the wear line...Most faults are fails and it depends on the engineer to find them.

[@bettyvolvo]

Last week my 245 gets TÜV, the Signal Horn wont 🎉 the Inspektor 🙈🙉🙊 . He says he likes those Cars much and I promised to fix it. That was a big fail, cause we check everything, Lights, Handbreak but not the Horn 😣 In German: Wie oft hupt man tatsächlich mit nem 2er? Eigentlich nur beim TÜV 🙄 Good Luck with DON UT ! Du schaffst das!

[@Involvod]

Haha, I always forget to check the horn too... and the licence plate light bulbs 😅 Thanks and congratulations 🎉

[@bluej511]

For headlights, the best way for long term is to use a uv resistant clearcoat, do a couple thin coats then wet sand again. If not then you can use a UV ceramic coat works pretty well. I might have to do mine soon, as the car sits in direct sun unfortunately and southern france is sun year round which does a toll on headlights.

[@Involvod]

Thanks for the tip, Miss Involvo'd has already given them another polish and they've come up even better, but I'll have to remember that for the future especially for a longer lasting solution

[@cestus666]

@@Involvod The best thing to do is to remove clear coat completely, polish till 2000 grit, then chemically polish them with Dichlorethan (using aliexpress vapor) and then cover it with clear paint protection film. But I don't know how TUV engineer will react if he finds the protection film.

[@trueg66]

When Lilly the Volvo failed the TÜV inspection, I thought those German inspectors were ridiculously strict, but now that it's about this Mercedes, I've started to think about it in a much more nuanced way. I also probably found the video much more entertaining than intended.

[@qwqwqwqw2222]

No, they are overly severe. At least from a US perspective, they are.

[@putinisgod6814]

@@qwqwqwqw2222 American inspection in nearly worthless

[@richardbartholomew7924]

I love this car I hope u get it 100 percent done up

[@villejussila1599]

In my experience only OEM headlights have the correct lighting pattern and output. All the cheaper ones, especially when it comes to high beams, look wrong and are just inferior in every way. Sanding, polishing and UV coating goes a long way (even if it's illegal in Germany, just don't tell anyone. 😜)

[@ched999uk]

Every time I see the Merc the number plate amuses me 🤣 At least the exhaust passed :-) The list isn't too bad - you have had worse and sorted it.

[@Involvod]

Luckily I took it to the inspection before the blowing really started, now I've slapped some gun gum on it for the retest 🙄

[@ched999uk]

@@Involvod If you can, it might be worth rotating the joining pieces as they bolts sticking down will be the first to catch any speed humps etc.

[@SlimTortoise]

Terrible exhaust job, I would probably go for a new system and then sit back and forget about it for probably the rest of that cars life, The French MOT system seems so much better in my view (I live here in France), They seem to want to pass it and if they trust you tell you what needs doing, Which they did with me 4 month ago, I have lived here for 10 years and they have never failed both our cars, but what ever the guy tells me to do after I do it myself (never taken them to a garage). The discs have a minimum tolerance for each vehicle, my Merc has 22 mm width at new and can go down to 19 mm, at the moment and for the last test they were 20 mm, I also grind off the small lip off them before the test so they look even all over.

[@Involvod]

That's nice, I do miss inspectors with the attitude of wanting to pass the car, instead of trying to fail it, I only had one like that here so far

[@Vaino_Hotti]

Was the V6 engine original to the car? I know the diesels are bulletproof, but I haven't seen many of these with gasoline engines with that high mileage.

[@Involvod]

Yes it's the original, from what I've heard all of the petrol and diesel engines fitted to this model were supposed to be really strong and capable of serious mileage

[@Vaino_Hotti]

@@Involvod A friend had an E200 (gasoline), it was so slow it was probably too weak to hurt itself. I guess that's a way to achieve reliability too...

[@jockeshobbymeck]

oh my god... it should be a crime if they dont have any sensible standards to follow on the inspections in germany! the exaust repair is not acceptable! i would never pay them for a repair that dont work! pack your bags please and move to sweden! you should see my cars that i get passed the inspection sometimes. 🤣

[@tommcl8548]

👍👊

[@luckyhomestead]

Dude, your cars are falling because they are junk and you have no money to look after them…