I bought the new sensor from MB. It came with a couple of feet of wire, several different sizes of bushing pins and I believe two different bushings. I don't know for sure that my line was original, but it ran from the left fender over the oil cooler and then up through a gap between two of the plastic panel pieces. It then ran aft of the receiver/drier and back up the fender at the glow plug relay. Over the firewall and then into the fuse box. I remove the fuse bus and there was a connector leading from the instrument cluster LCD display.

As far as getting it out, I jacked up the left front side a bit and removed the plastic panel in front of the wheel that covers the oil cooler. The temp sensor comes in from the top and sits in a hard rubber molded carrier. The carrier (can't think of what else to call it) is screwed in with two rusted phillips sheet metal screws. These go through the plastic bumper. The front screw grabs the hole in the flange that is connected to the temp sensor. The back screw was pretty easy to get out, although it is still not easy to get a good angle on it with the oil cooler there. The forward screw was the one that I had to dremel out after fighting it for WAY too long. Once both screws are out the rubber carrier and temp sensor come right out. It is pretty obvious how the new sensor sits in the carrier as the carrier has a cut-out. The carrier goes back in first with the rear screw (new ones in my case) and the temp sensor is fed down from the top as you have to get it positioned through the hole in the bumper. The second screw is inserted through the rubber carrier and the temp sensor flange and into the existing hole in the bumper. I found it difficult to line everything up at that point, especially as it was not possible for me to get two hands on the carrier. Eventually after lots of swearing I got it. I then fished the new wire along the same route as the old one, trimmed it to size, soldered the new bushings, fed it through the grommet into the fuse box and attached the plastic connectors.

If the oil cooler was out it would a much easier task. But who wants to do that? The new one works like a charm.

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1987 300TD 231,000
#22, afterglow, plastic fan, euro lights, alternator upgrade, cluster housing update