johnshasteen

We've owned our '82 300SD and '84 300CD since new and I expect us to drive them until either we or they die. Even if I was looking for a replacement, I would not waste my money on any MB, gas or diesel, built after about 1996 as quality problems abound with them.

harkgar

How is the paintwork on your 2 cars? I traded in my 1986 560 SEL recently because bubbles started sprouting out in several places, mostly fenders. The underbody and mechanicals are still quite perfect.

It was just getting too expensive for a 21 year old car.

Untertürkheim

Use high quality syntheitc lubricants and regular maintainance...your cars will never die.

harkgar

Agreed. Regular maintenance first and synthetic fluids second. There is also the issue of oil grades.

Most newer models, MB included specify funny oil grades like 0W40 for my CDi all year round (most diesels specify 15W40 for summer) and 5W20 for my Honda Accord. The reason suggested on oil blogs is that the car makers have to meet CAFE numbers. Engine durability is not as important as CAFE as the makers would get penalised if the CAFE numbers are not met.

For the GL320 CDi MB specified 5W40 "low ash" synthetic oils (Castrol). This is due to emission requirements. No problem with 2006 and earlier MB diesels.

For a diesel the summer oil should be 15W40 with the high compression and turbo charging.

harkgar

A friend of mine had an early 1980s W126 5 cylinder diesel and he drove it for over 20 years and the body died. The a/c died. The upholstery became tatty (many cuts and holes). The engine is so noisy his daughter refused to be picked up at school (spoiled *****).

Yet the engine was still humming after approximately a quarter of a million kilometers. The day it was given away (no one wanted it at the time so he gave it to his mechanic) the engine drank anything oily - motor oils, automatic transmission fluids and peanut oil. Black smoke? Nothing more than the occasional cute puff and certainly no thick black stuff tree-huggers so love.

The 1980s diesels were particularly powerful but they certainly were well constructed and lasted a long time.

johnshasteen

My CD has been repainted about 5 years ago because I t-boned and totaled a wimpy little 190E that made an illegal left turn in front of me on Westheimer in Houston - I got a front end from an 85 sedan and mine was like new again, but if that had not happened the paint was perfect until that. Texas is not hard on the cars and they don't rust down here - the leather cooks in the brutal summer sun, but the bodies do just fine. I got a gray leather interior from an east coast, rotted out '89 560sel and put it in my wife's 300SD, the newer seats have rear head rests and I put 15" '86 alloys on so her car is like a show car.

DslBnz

1/4 of a million kilometers, IMHO, is not much to brag on. He needs to keep up with preventative maintenance. I've got almost 500K kilos on my two diesels, and they look and drive exceptionally well for cars of their age. Even compared to their successors, today. But of course, the front ends were completely rebuilt, new shocks, upholstery carefully detailed and protected, body washed and waxed every 2 - 3 weeks, undercoat examined and treated every month.
Servicing applies every 4K miles with diesel rated fully synthetic oil.

It certainly takes $$$$ to keep things performing 100%. And if you want to beat on an MB, you can do so. But it will fail you sooner, and you will feel miserable driving that old, tired, jalopy. I don't know about you guys, but I wouldn't settle for anything less than a simulation of riding on air (check your steering damper resistance), and the uncertainty of whether your engine is at tick-over or shutdown during an imperceptible idle in your Mercedes (engine mounts).

Take care of your cars and they will serve you well. Do NOT let problems cascade and fix what you can when you can ASAP. You will enjoy life much more, have exceptional MB performers, and they will never let you down.

harkgar

I certainly agree with you on cars built 10-20 years ago. MB was superior in many ways. Today it is a different story. Honda is touting a 2.2 turbo diesel for MY 2009 which does not need any urea injection. Toyota is number one for first QTR worldwide. Hopefully MB is going to build some excitement into their cars, diesels included. The Germans still have the edge when it comes to driving excitement.

Every middle aged man wants to bang some other young chick but they also want to return to their wives (most of them anyway) after the last few seconds of joy, if the wives are worth coming back to.

MB needs to work hard, very hard, to be good wives so MB enthusiasts will return home.

vwnate1

Didja ever buy one ? that '78 300CD for $85K was just silly .

The NA 300's are fine , not terribly slow on takeoff unless the car is loaded with people / stuff . fuel milage suffers on the non turbo cars ~ I have three , all NA and I'm glad to see 30 MPG occasionally , my brother's '81 300SD OTOH , is always loaded up with people , 350 # of electronic gear or both and it rearely gets below 31 MPG and always returns over 32 MPG when we take road trips . it's the W-126 (" S-Class ")

Me , I'm a mechanic so I vastly prefer the W-123 series as do most hands on Dieselheads .

Spend the $ for a real cherry then take sharp care of it and it'll outlast you , even in The Windy (salty) City

jtl60047

Hey All -

I'm still looking....

I'm in a decent position - don't "Need" to buy a car right now.

Each time I probe a dealer with questions regarding their cars or products, I get the same dis-honest or un-knowledgeable answer. Scares me a bit. So I walk away. It's a nice position to be in.

I know that I will find one in the near future, but I'm not willing to buy someone else's basket of troubles....

vwnate1

I hear you !

SWMBO and I stopped to look at a '99 Mercedes 500 Coupe yesterday , it was clean , low miles and only $20K , the obvious re-paint wasn't bad , I figured due to sun damage here in Los Angeles ...

The seller insisted it had original paint in spite of minor overspray on the rubber bits and clearly showing the original paint through chips along the edge
of the driver's door .

Plus of course , Mercedes uses good Glassurit pant , not the crappy dull shine sh*t this car was re-painted in ~

I told the seller ' it's obviously been re-painted , if you're going to lie about such an obvious thing , you'll prolly lie about some other defect I'd care about so fess up or I cannot buy this car ' ( the XYL was primed & ready to buy this cherry) he continued lying and so lost a cash sale

Who know why some folks would rather lie than make a sale ?

190E-Boy

I owned a gas benz for ~250K miles (let it go with 312K miles on the odo) it was a 190E 2.6. One of the best cars I've ever owned with low money requirements.

I currently have a E300 (W210) 1996. I too wanted decent mileage with roadwarrior comfort and longevity. Found a bargin 1996 with 96K miles on it for 12.8K so I assumed I'd have a little work to do for that price (purchased in Dec 2005) did not have the phone or bose option or heated seats. Also no headlight washers or rear screen. But nice enough. I've been driving it for about 1.5 years now as I transitioned my 190E out and have put ~60K miles on the car

Things I've done (est price incl labor):
Wiring harness - 450
glow plugs - 350
Steering Rack - 800
fuel line - 100
front brakes - 350 (normal maintenence)
Battery - 110 (wasn't necessary but always good insurance on a used car)

Things I need to do
AC - $100 to 2200
Maybe the Head gasket - $1600

Head gaskets are unusual on diesels but I need to investigate if I really have a problem or a leaky hose

Control arms/bushings - $500 (est)
cracked dash - by the air vents - haven't looked at price yet

So although my price was cheap there are repairs that I expected and that will bring my price up to about the same as the ones I was looking at while shopping but keep in mind I put 60K miles on it as I racked these up.

Currently at 155K miles and no real regrets yet, it's hard to compare it to my 190E as that was amazing and fun to drive.

Mileage- driving like a maniac averaging 80 mph and ranging up to 100 mph on short bursts I get about 30 mpg. When I drive a bit more conservatively ~75 mph with bursts up to 80 mph I get 33 mpg. Once I was patient and ket things under 75 mpg and tried to keep at 65 mph and I think I got 35 mpg. Mainly highway driving of course. My commute is ~140 miles a day.

Good luck shopping.

You can look at the AC and alt on years 96 + by accessing the on board diagnostics code.

While running hold the REST button down on the climate control for 5-6 sec and the display will change. scroll through using the left AUTO button and scroll backwards using the right AUTO button. For a discription of what the are search the forum if you can't find them I'll look for a link for you and post. To get the error codes shut the car off, start it up and within 20 seconds you need to turn the left temp to HI and the right to LO then press the REST button and the ( i forgot) there's another button that needs to be pushed simultaneously and then you can see all the error codes. I'll look it up and send the link. Very good for negotiating price!

egon82

As to the biodiesel - you may want to be careful as you consider the older mercedes (70s-80s) - biodiesel can be corrosive, and can eat away or loosen up old rust. I was just starting to try biodiesel in my '82 240D and right after I was warned about this, my fuel lines clogged - couldn't help but wonder if there was in fact a relationship. The advice I got was - diesel or straight-up vegetable oil in the old mercedes, but not biodiesel. (Of course, I also had some rust issues already, which you may not.) Just another thing to look into as you consider your options...

EdzBenz

In response to the above post, I don't think biodiesel is more corrosive (if at all) than diesel fuel.
Here's what clogged your fuel lines: Diesel fuel is VERY dirty, and caused a build up of petroleum based gunk inside your fuel tank over the years. The properties of biodiesel will break down petroleum based products. So, when you added biodiesel to your tank, it cleaned out all of the diesel gunk that got caked to the inside of your fuel tank over 20 years. This is what causes your fuel lines to clog up. It is recommended to change your fuel filter after the first tank of biodiesel is run through the engine. This process should be repeated if the clogging persists.
Rubber is also a petroleum based product. This is why you need to replace your fuel lines/seals with new lines that are resistant to biodiesel.
Another great property of biodiesel is that it will clean your injectors in a similar fashion to a diesel fuel additive.
I used a 20% blend in my 190D and it ran awesome.

egon82

Thanks for the clarification. What YOU said may well be why my MB diesel mechanic said to lay off the biodiesel (and go for the veggie oil) on the old mercedes. They heat their shop with WVO in the winter so it's not like they poo poo alternative fuels. But I don't personally have an expert opinion either way.

Untertürkheim

Actually, Biodiesel is much better for your can than SVO or whatever. The problem is veg. oil is that the longer chain hydrocarbons and glycerins are not filtered out so that they result in lower combustion temperatures and less complete combustion. This eventually clogs up your engine and returns less power and fuel economy.

If you insist on running renewable fuel, use B99 and put all new fuel lines on your car.

Ashkan's C43

just normal oem fuel lines or would they have to be some kind of special fuel lines?

jjay911

More diesel talk.... Continue... Im interested..