Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum as well as to my 1985 300TD, something happened yesterday as I was driving along a relatively flat highway. Everything seemed fine for the first half hour of my drive, I was going about 100kph(60mph)but then after accelerating up a small incline (very small) and leveling out again it seemed like the car all of a sudden lost some power, I found with the pedal pushed all the way to the floor I could go no faster than 80kph (50mph) and then the for the next few minutes the car would slowly decelerate and eventually I could not get going any faster than 60km (35mph) as all this was going on I was listing to the engine and I could hear the turbo boosting and the rpm increasing at times but it was not pushing the car. It felt like the transmission was not working. I pulled off the highway and let it cool down for a bit and took the backroads home. It drove fine going on the slower city roads, still lots of power and turbo was working, the only other abnormal thing was the few second delay from when you step on the gas from stand still seemed to be a longer delay than normal. Transmission fluid level was ok. Is my transmission going? Is this a common problem? Thanks -Robby

 

Great car!.... I have owned several 300s most of them had over 100000 miles when I bought them and in many cases the previous owners sold then out of frustration with problems such as yours. This problem is easily missed diagnosed as a defective injection pump. but that is for a later story.... lol..... just a few good basic questions before we can dig down.

How many miles?...... how long have you owned the car?...... how much fuel was in the tank when symptoms occurred? and do you have any maint history of when The fuel filters have ben replaced?... such as the main filter up front and he little pre filter down by the injection pump....... and oohhh yes the most under replaced and missed diagnosed filter on the car..... the fuel tank strainer filter !! fuel level in the tank especially when its on the low side may cause the symptoms you are offering How often has this problem occurred? If you have answers to the high teck questions post back ... lol..

Best regards
Perry

 

Hey Perry thanks for getting back to me, I just bought the car last week from a trustworthy guy, he used it every so often to cruise around town, Its not his main driving car and it has been sitting around more than it has been driven. It has about 150 000 miles on it. The tank was around a quarter full. It could be one of the fuel filters like you said because only the main filter has been replaced reciently. This is the first time it has happened as far as I can tell. The only reason I thought it may be a transmission problem is because it really sounded like the engine rpm and turbo were running as if I were traveling at a much faster speed than I actually was, but I don't have a lot of experience with these cars yet so I'll check the filters first, that sounds like the first logical thing to do eh. Thanks again, I'll get back to you,-Robby

 

Ok it seems like it was just the fuel filters, I chaged them and it seems to be working fine now, Thanks!