Mercedes turbo diesel reliability

[Blakers]

Uncle Joe,



Thanks for the help. I was thinking that since the speedo and cruise quit at the same time (both worked perfectly before), that it must be a related problem. Could it be the pickup for the speed sensor? I don't think it has a speedometer cable.



I suppose in worst case scenario, I could just use my gps for speed.



I don't know which body it is - it is a 300SD with rectangular sealed beam headlights. The rear end sorta sticks up a little. The 79 300SD had 4 round headlights and I think it was heavier and better built.



I have never heard of the algae in the fuel problem around here and we've got dozens of diesels from D-8 Cats down with thousands of gallons of fuel stored. Perhaps our weather is not hot enough, though we certainly do have very hot and very cold and very damp, depending on the time of year.



Take care.

Blake

 

[B. Gill]

Blake your 300 sd is body type 126 i have the same one mine is year model 1983 still runs very good no oil cumsumption, i have had the same problems that most mentioned with AC ,cruise control but other than that has been very good so far no problems with transmission shifting so far is very crisp, as you said it does not have the speedometer cable it is electrical/elctronic you can change the sensor at the transmission and see if that works , or you can try replacing the speedometer it self, Uncle Joe seems like is the guy who can help with this as he been a Benz mechanic

bob

 

[Blakers]

Thanks guys... . I'm gonna check out the speedometer and go from there. Getting married in 12 days, so most things are on hold for now.



Blake

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Some friends of mine had an 86 or 87 300D with the inline 6, it was a nice car and had decent power, however at 125,000 miles they had some engine trouble. The head gasket failed, and when they pulled the head they found unusually high wear in the cylinders, bad enough to warrant reboring/rebuilding. They just had the gasket replaced at a pretty penny then got rid of it. They did not buy the car new so who knows what sort of history it had. It had 85,000 on it when they bought it.



Vaughn

 

[Skydiver]

Aluminum heads

I've recently learned that the(91-92) 350 SDL models have aluminum heads and had a lot recalls.

Don't get me wrong men I'm a loyal Merecedes follower. They had a few growing pains.

Also have seen faulty engine efi wiring harrnesses on a few 91 300 e's.

My old 81 300D died from over or improper maint.

I had a shop replace the timing chain at 105K and it broke at 160K. It would still be running if I had of left it alone.

Tim