Hello,
I'm somewhat new to maintaining a car and I just recently aquired a 1985 300D Turbo with the W123 body type for a pretty low price. The interior is pretty worn and the clear coat of exterior paint has been peeling so that's a big part of why it was so cheap, (no rust though). What I mainly care about is the mechanics. The car is said to be in good mechanical condition with very good brakes and AC.

It sounds like the guy collects these cars and he told me that it's only been driven a few times in the past year. Knowing this, what are the main things I should be aware of? I already know the tires need to be replaced. Any fluids that will likely need changing? Any other suggestions?

Thanks!
-Sean.

 

tell us about the mileage on the car, etc.....

 

The mileage is 283,000. It has been in Florida for the past year (where I live). Before that it was in Texas.
A couple other things I forgot to mention:
It has the problem in which you have to hit a button on the engine to shut the car off. I figured out from doing some reasearch that this is probably because of a damaged or dislodged vacuum line.
It's also been converted to run on veggie oil using a 2-tank system.

 

Wow, thats a lot of mileage....Nice.

with regard to the shutoff, I am having the same problem and have been doing some research on the net about it as well. I think it is a vacuum leak, but have to track it down.

I am not that familiar with veggie oil conversions, but from what I know, you have to frequently change the filters for your "fuel" b/c of all the particles in that grease. As far as the enging is concerned, you might want to do a "Valve Adjustment" - see dieselgiant.com. They have many many tutorials about Mercedes diesels.

I would start with a coolant flush, and oil change (use a Mann filter). Do a transmission flush and service. If nothing else is wrong, then dont fix what isn't broken. Here is the problem. There are a million things you could replace, but then it would be too costly. For a daily driver, I would start with what I have said.

 

Thank you, that helps quite a bit. The dieselgiant tutorials sound promising.

As for the shutoff problem, I found this topic if you're interested.
http://www.mercedesshop.com/shopforu...ad.php?p=80108

I'll post more once I can see how it goes.

 

Thanks for that link. I just took mine in for service at my mechanic. We'll see what he says - I think its promising, when I told him the problem, he immediately said, its probably a vacuum leak - so this tells me he knows what he is talking about.
Tom