Welcome to the Barrelbrigade 2019. We're on our way to MOT-inspector Joep Schuurmans,
and for the following days, you're going to see our Barrelbrigade-cars get checked in the garage. And we kick things off with my beautiful Benz.
It hasn't been to the moon and back, only 184.389 km's are on the barely lit display. And if I'm honest, I think I'm already behind,
because everyone driving behind me is saying that it looks like a crab. It looks kind of odd.
I know that the wheels are like this, so I think it's a bearing arm. Also, what worries me, is that two gears have failed.
I've got first, second, and fourth. Third and fifth however, are gone. Luckily, the reverse still works.
If you're paying attention, you've spotted the window next to me. I removed the door panel and I shoved the window up.
After that, I pushed the button and it stayed up!
As you might've noticed, we're doing 'my' bit in one of my favorite items of the Barrelbrigade.
I've got the honors to drive Nic's A-Class, the family car for the smaller wallets. And what do you get. Well, it doesn't look very good.
It rattles, it squeaks, it cracks, it shakes, the door panel is loose, I can't even use this door. That's a safety hazard right there.
If something happens, you're not able to bail out quickly. That's dangerous. Also, the third and fifth gears don't work most of the time.
Sometimes, it doesn't even get out of fourth gear. That could be easily solved. Airconditioning doesn't work, the switch for the...
heated rear window doesn't work, and a lot of other things don't work. That's why it's a 'lemon'.
Just like a proper lemon, emergency lights light up the dash. Among which is the ABS-light. What a lot of people don't realize is that ABS is very important.
It makes sure that your wheels don't lock up, which means you're able to swerve. If that light is on, there's a problem with the ABS.
Which in turn means that the ABS doesn't work, and that causes very dangerous situations.
Never drive with burning ABS-lights.
There's some oil in there. - Indeed, there's oil in there.
It isn't even charcoal black. And it's above the max level, signs of maintenance, Nic.
Even the brake fluid looks proper.
So someone's been nice to my car? - It sure looks that way yeah.
Even with 'only' three gears, it was pretty doable. When I drove off the grounds, I tried to go into third and it didn't work.
- You can push what you want indeed... But I didn't get used to it, so I tried it again some time later.
But then it worked, so it's not a very big mechanical problem. Soon after that, I found out that after you turn right, it does change to third.
But after you turn left, it doesn't anymore. - So you always have to change gear in the corner?
Yeah. Because if we look at the gearbox mechanism, which is operated by cables, we can see something is loose here.
That's not how it's supposed to be. And you can imagine, because it's now like a small weight dangling about, that it blocks some of the mechanism.
Is it mendable? - Well, yeah. I can.
And what's that going to cost? - He's got €150 left!
No, no, no... - Everybody gets one free repair during this check.
Oh, would you look at that. - A repair of my choice that is...
Too bad... - I secretly hoped Joep would say something like that,
that he was able to fix it, but this is even better...
It looks pretty good for a... How old is it again? - It's from 1998.
So for a twenty year old car, it doesn't look too bad. - It's still a Mercedes-Benz after all!
- Yeah right, as if they don't rust. The subframe is still alright, a bit.
But from the look of things, it's not too bad. - If I'm honest, I thought it would be worse.
It rattles, it squeaks, it cracks, there are warning lights, you don't have ABS, your door doesn't open,
your window doesn't work, the airconditioning doesn't work... - You do have a nice underside though...
As with a lot of cars, the Mercedes-underside has covers meant to reduce the wind noise.
Some of which have a technical function, but others like sill covers are purely for esthetics. And it tends to rust underneath there.
And if we look here, there's quite some rust there. Let's see how easy it is to remove them...
Even without sill cover, you can't see a lot of rust, but when I start touching around here...
- Oh dear...
You're grabbing kilo's of A-Class from under there man... - Stop it! I don't like you fondling my car.
Other than that it's pretty rust free right? - Yeah, except for this hole here.
Just like other parts from the A-Class, the brake tubes for the rear wheels are pretty unreachable. Usually, they get checked with every service.
If I check the tubes, which is easily done because we removed the sill cover, I can see they're full of cracks.
It has a chord layer structure to solidify it, just like a tire. However, on some parts, I can even peel off the rubber.
So you're only left with chord. This car has been driving around with a MOT- failure for years, only it hasn't been spotted because it's kind of hidden.
If you ask me, brakes are overrated. - Yeah, who needs brakes anyway.
There's a little bit of play on the front suspension. That's because the ball joint is worn out.
The ball joint is the part which connects the bearing arm and the wheel hub. Both parts should be able to move freely in all directions,
so they've made a round joint. And if I pull the wheel, there's some play. For the MOT, you can have some marginal play, but this is just worn out.
Round and round...
Joep, some mean people say that my car looks like a crab when it's driving, but I haven't heard you speak about that.
- No, you're right. I've only driven the car itself though, and not behind it. But you sometimes see cars driving which look off, like a crab.
That you can see one side, but not the other. So because of this damage, the wheel could be damaged as well.
But does it cause problems, because it sure looks that way. - Well, it drives pretty good actually. Everything is fitted pretty well.
So I wouldn't say it causes a lot of problems. - Well, this was the Mercedes A-Class, and luckily for me,
I think it pulled through. Tomorrow, Jan Lemkes will put his Alfa Romeo 156 to the test.