About me and my cars

My name is Victor. I was born in 1980 in the family of electronic engineer and school teacher. As a kid I was messing with all my toys. Every model car was fully disassembled and put back together. Most fun I had with wired remote controlled truck my father bought me. Growing up I spent lots of time at my father little workshop. He used to fix all kinds of electronic devices and would teach me electronics basics. In high school I used to fix my classmates electronics: cassette boom boxes, gaming consoles, small TV sets, and some household appliances. I built a stereo system for my bicycle consisting of two channel home-made stereo amp, two speakers on steering wheel, dynamo at rear wheel to power the setup, DC converter, and cassette player at steering mounted tool box. Later, I had added a small motorcycle battery. Back then it was something super cool as nobody had anything like it.

In 1995 my family and I moved from Russia to USA. After high school I went to work as an auto mechanic helper in NYC repair shop. I used to handle all electronic repairs as main mechanic had very limited electronics knowledge. He could rebuild any engine in his sleep and I learned a lot about mechanical and engine work from him.

After sometime my father and I started our joint business. We stated offering satellite TV installation along with low voltage wiring and sound systems setups. We sub-contracted for a local installation company and had a salesman who would bring our own customers. On weekends, I used to mess around with our car and my friends cars, installing radios, sound systems and other car toys. As flat panel TVs became more affordable, we switched our goal toward flat panel and home theater custom installations. Custom Home Theater systems installation is our primary business to this day.

I always loved to work on cars. My first car was a work van 1986 Ford Econoline. Not much I did to it. It was in decent shape and I only added CD player in-dash, tweeters in pillars, and bookshelf speakers under seats. My father had 1992 Odlsmobile Silhouette. I did complete sound system with Playstation2 and VCR player along with mood lights throughout the car. Girls loved it :)

I dreamed to have a Mercedes though. I could not afford one as we spend lots of money to promote the product my father and I invented and hold US Patent for. But after some time I finally bought my first Mercedes. It was 1988 420SEL gray on palomino interior. It was in decent shape and I didn’t pay much for it. Many repairs had to be performed to keep the car on the road. You can check “jobs performed” section to see complete list of labor done to my cars. I absolutely loved the car. Unfortunately, there was a crack in the frame. It was due to an accident the car had years ago. After two years I had the car crack developed to a point where it needed attention and I already spotted another car I wanted.

I found 1990 300E white with beige leather in local advertisement. Car was sitting at the repair shop parking lot in non-running state. Owner did not want to put money into it and wanted quick sale as repair shop wanted it off their lot. I bought it for $700. Body and interior were in perfect shape except for cracked front bumper cover and dirty interior. The problem with the car was seized air pump clutch bearing. Owner was driving when bearing seized breaking accessory belt and rupturing transmission coolant line. Repair shop wanted to change air pump, belt, and coolant lines for more that $900. I bought replacement clutch, removed air pump out the car, changed the clutch, reattached original coolant lines, refilled transmission, started the car and drove away in 3 hours. More repairs were done to this car you can find under “jobs preformed” section on home page.

I loved this car but my dream car was always w140 body. I was searching for one for more than a year driving 300E. I finally found one for $1000 in non-driving state of course :)

1992 Mercedes Benz 500SEL black on black. What a car. I absolutely fell in love with it second I saw it. No dents on the body, no damage to interior. It was very dirty though. Main problem was engine failure. One of the distributor cap rotor broke. Car started to misfire but customer drove on four cylinders for two more miles. Driving on four cylinders put lots of strain on timing chain breaking top chain guides. Also, chain skipped two teeth on camshaft gear. Luckily no valves bent. I towed the car to my friend’s parking lot, opened camshaft covers, reset camshafts and timing, put new chain tensioner and new distributor caps and rotors, started the car and drove away. I put lots of time and money restoring this car to its glory. I think I could have bought a nice running S-class for the amount of money I put into it. But I gained very valuable knowledge and experience working on one of the best cars ever built. Please see complete list of repairs done to my w140 under “jobs performed” link on home page.

I drove 500SEL for more than two years. One day I saw an ad for 1996 E320 for sale for $1200. It didn’t start. I went to look at it. Car was very nice except dent on passenger rear quarter panel and dirty interior. It was burgundy on beige leather and it had full custom entertainment system custom built subwoofer enclosure in the trunk, sport suspension, 18” AMG rims, tinted windows, rear back up camera, headrest monitors, playstation2, iPod dock. The problem was the flex disc broke and driveshaft separated from transmission flange. Emergency brake cable wrapped around loose driveshaft bending gear selector link. Gear selector link pulled neutral safety switch out its alignment. Without neutral safety switch the car didn’t crank. I decided to take a chance and bought it. I had it towed to my friend’s repair shop so I could use his lift. I bought new gear selector link and flex disk. I bent neutral safety switch back and the car started fine. I drove it for a little time. I still had my 1992 500SEL at the time and it was really hard for me to make a switch from S-class to E-class even though E-class had all the bells and whistles. Someone I know made me an offer on E-class and I sold it. E-class is a very nice car and I certainly would drive it over any other car in its class.

One hot day I and my fiancée were driving from the beach and, out of curiosity, we stopped by a car that was for sale locally. It was 1999 ML430 silver on gray. It was highway mileage out of state car in excellent condition. I took it for a test drive and it performed excellent. My fiancée liked it for its cargo capacity versus S-class cargo capacity. We are active people and needed bigger car. I chose to buy it. Now we had two Mercedes’. S-class was driven in town and M-class was driven to our camping trips, skiing, and southern NJ getaways. But S-class had to go because it was not practical to pay insurance on two car with New York State rate.

I still drive Ml430. I use it for work as well. But I miss w140 a lot. Hopefully in some near future I will purchase either w140 coupe or w220 S-class sedan. I like to buy cars with issues and sort them out. I might buy w220 with some electronic problems, or w140 coupe with some mechanical issues. It all depends what comes around. ML430 treats me well even though it is not even close to build quality or luxury of w140 S-class sedan.

Update: 8.23.11

Bought 1994 S500 with 160000 miles in New Jersey about 2 years ago. It had whole dashboard removed and placed in back seat and trunk. Serious short developed in body harness behind dash. Lots of wires together, smoke came out behind cluster. Mercedes dealer started the job, removed dashboard, but after dash was removed demanded more money for labor. Owner refused to pay extra (over $2000 more in labor!) and junked the car all together. The car was in very nice cosmetic condition with all removed parts in back seat and trunk. I came over, connected some connectors, and car started on first crank after sitting for three months. Transmission engaged smooth, no delay in reverse. So I bought the car, took heater box out and replaced evaporator at home, went back with tools, installed heater box and most of dash back in, and drove away. Many repairs were done to the car, including rear hydraulic struts to regular shocks and springs conversion. I will post them under “Jobs preformed” section.

In July 2011 I sold 1994 S500 and bought 1997 S320 with 117000 miles. S320 has much weaker I6 3.2 liter engine than mighty 5 liter V8. You can feel some lack of power going uphill with loaded trunk and full tank of gas. In the city, there is plenty of power even with A/C on. It accelerates pretty good when floored, however. Gas mileage is great and engine power output satisfies me completely. I love HFM engine management along with 722.6 transmission. There are some repairs I had to do to a car. I’ll post them under “Jobs performed” section later.

Well, here is some information about me and my cars. I hope you enjoyed my website and hope to help you out with your repair needs. Happy motoring to you and your families!

Best regards,

Victor