Larry,

I have changed the oil on my 5-speed 300E, and made a mess changing the filter. Is there some trick to getting the oil in the filter to drain out before you unscrew it? It dumped cup or two of oil all over and it ran down onto the driveway, making more of a mess. I was just wondering if I missed something (I have never changed an oil filter of the screw on type on an MB before and frankly prefer the filter element in the fixed housing design that came about with the W123 Diesels and seems to be on everything else I own except the 1988 300E). The oil filter was the one that came with the car, it was not an MB part, so I wonder if the new MB one I just put on will have the same problem or not.

I am also unable to get the wood console with the window control switches around the gear shift lever off, and was wondering if the ashtray has to come out first. I have been unable to get the ashtray out as the PO installed a built in radar detector that resides in the ashtray. How does it come out?

Finally, and this is really embarassing, the shift boot is beat. I bought a new one and went to install it and did not recognize anything under the shift lever handle as removal hardware. How do you get the handle off, to take the old cracked rubber boot off and put the new boot on? My 190, and the W123's, W114/115's all had some nuts that lock the handle on after you thread it onto the lever extension. The 300E has no such stuff there, and does not feel like it comes off by unscrewing.

If you can give me some pointers I would feel much more comfortable. At the moment being stymied by the idiosyncracies of this vehicle is making me look like a boob to my wife, as I bought the car for her, and now can't seem to recognize anything under the hood or even in the ashtray. Thanks, Jim

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Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)