Replacement 230/EARLY 250 Fuel Sender

[hands_aus]

I have a 280SL fuel sender in my early 250SL which is always inaccurate and annoying.

Before I do anything radical like splurging money, I was wondering if anybody has replaced their old fuel sender with one of the new MB replacement 230SL fuel senders and what was the reaction?
Any feedback is welcome.
thanks

[rogerh113]

Have you cleaned the sender?  You can easily disassemble it for cleaning (little nut on the bottom), and I have done it successfully several times.  There is sort of a plastic labyrinth at the bottom that can get stones and other garbage in it.  Pretty simple unit, and perhaps a simple cleaning will fix it.

regards -- Roger

[scoot]

I have a 280SL fuel sender in my early 250SL which is always inaccurate and annoying.

Before I do anything radical like splurging money, I was wondering if anybody has replaced their old fuel sender with one of the new MB replacement 230SL fuel senders and what was the reaction?

Is your early 250SL supposed to have the type of sender that has the float on a rod?  If that's the case, my understanding is that those aren't compatible with the later style tube shaped sender. 

So I don't know if you just have a crappy 280 SL sender (clean the insides of it) or if you have the wrong type of sender.

[114015]

I have a 280SL fuel sender in my early 250SL which is always inaccurate and annoying.

Before I do anything radical like splurging money, I was wondering if anybody has replaced their old fuel sender with one of the new MB replacement 230SL fuel senders and what was the reaction?

Nope, Bob.
All 280ies, 250ies and late 230ies have got the same tube type fuel gauge sender unit, the A110 542 1204.
Only early 230ies up to serial 008953 have got the float-type sender unit.
Both are - as you already mentioned - not compatible with each other since each has its own instruments unit.

Only choice is to clean yours up - as Roger recommended
or get another one from (any MB) donor car with the same sender unit type.

Good luck,

Achim

[hands_aus]

Hey Roger, Scott, Achim,
When I bought the car in 2002, this problem existed so I removed the sender from the tank and dissembled it.
It was perfectly clean. The float moved easily. The resistance wires were a little dark but I was reluctant to scrape them.
I re-installed it and decided to live with it, annoying as it is.
I will try cleaning the sender again.
Thanks for replying

[mazmonza]

Hi Achim,
Are you sure about that, when I bought my early 250 it was 11 years old and it had a float sender.
I suppose it could have been changed from a tube type but I can't think why.

Maurice 

[wayne R]

Hands-aus,   like Achim  has said float  type on early 230SL to 008953,
but that was for manual models , actually continued to  013302 on automatics,
so that is very late in the 230SLs, so like  Maurice says --who  knows perhaps
Mercedes used some of the early float ones on early 250SL.
Maurice would be interested in what your chassis number is,or
perhaps,  some export units were fitted with float types.  regards.

[rogerh113]

It is a really good idea to check your specific car against the information above.  A LOT could have happened to your car before you got it, and there are no guarantees that one of the prior owners had a sender failure and put in the wrong unit.  I actually like having an operating fuel gauge, and I think you might be able to get there pretty easily.

Wait a minute - my profile says senior!!   How did they know....

[mazmonza]

Hi Wayne, my number is 002613

[hands_aus]

My VIN is 113043 22 000114 which is fairly early in the new model series.

I think MB used up their old stock on the new models before using the new stock on the new models so anything is possible.

I vaguely remember a discussion on here about the different gauges and senders for the different models having different 'internal resistance' so that for the early models the sender and gauge match but are totally different to the later model car gauges and senders.