I sort of 'jointly' own a 87 300TD with my cousin. The story of its acquisition and eventual home is long, but briefly, we bought it in southeastern Ohio in October of 2009. We paid $800 for it (cheap wagon club!), but it needed a lot of work. Collapsed motor mounts, brakes were shot, ABS/SRS/parking brake lights always came on, odd electrical issues/rewiring in the engine bay, odometer stuck at 325k, missing the muffler
, creaking in the front end (suspected tie rods), SLS shot, broken headlamp assembly, etc. In addition, the body was rough -- paint was faded and the clear coat was cracked, and rust was severely destroying both front quarter panels and door sills. So while the purchase price was cheap, it was in poor shape. That being said, the motor felt strong, interior was in decent shape, and while it had a #14 head, there were no signs of an imminent blown head gasket. We suspected that it was originally a fleet car from an MB dealership (which was later confirmed via CarFax). We were confident it could be fixed up into a daily driver. And hey -- it had crossbars! (gotta find some positives...
).
While driving it north to Michigan, where I lived at the time, I was hit with a seized right wheel bearing around Columbus, OH. In retrospect, I should have been more cautious and paid attention to the occasional sudden squirrliness (for lack of a better word) coming from the rear end. I thought it was the shot SLS behaving badly. I chalk it up to inexperience (it was my first time driving a w124)
. Fortunately, I was only going about 15-20 mph when it happened, and the limited-slip rear diff saved me. The car just slowed to a halt. The photo below shows the awful state of the rear wheel, and was taken while I was waiting for a tow truck.
The towing company, in its negligence, failed to properly secure the wagon onto the flatbed. Consequently, when we first slowed down, the wagon rolled into the cab of the truck. The hatch was punctured and badly dented by the cab. Over the next several months, I battled with the towing company and AAA to make it right -- to take responsibility for the damage, and fix it, which nobody wanted to do. In the end, I got an estimate from a bodyshop, filed a claim with the towing company's insurance, and was sent a check. It was a PITA, but we came out on top... about 3X the purchase price of the wagon.
With money from the settlement, we found someone to haul the wagon up to Alaska, where my cousin lives, and had left over $ to repair all of the major issues, with the exception of any body work. The wagon is currently enjoying its first winter in Alaska with studded tires and a salt-free environment. The rust is still there, but it runs like a champ. We hope to either repair the rust sometime soon, or find a nice 300TE donor body. We might bring it back down to the lower-48 in a year or two, once I have the space and time for more than one car (my 85 wagon keeps me busy enough).
Long story short, I guess that makes #28 on the list of '87 TDs.
