After looking for nearly 2 years (and reading almost all of the archives in this forum
), we recently added a 1987 190D 2.5 to our "stable" of diesel vehicles. It has about 165,000 miles and we are very happy with the performance and mileage. It was purchased mainly to relieve the cost of fuel that our truck was using. There are a couple of things that I'm not sure about--if they are "normal" for a Mercedes Diesel or not:
1. The radio (original Becker) makes a whistling sound that seems to follow along with the transmission either accellerating (whistle gets louder) or decellerating (quieter)
2. The radio does not seem to receive AM stations--we do live in the "country"/mountains, but most of the AM stations do come in well in the VW & Truck--is there anything we can do to "boost" other than a new radio?
3. The rear window defroster takes a LONG time to defrost (~~30-40 mins). It seems if I wait until the car is "warm" (~80c) then it works better
4. when I engaged the vacuum lock via the driver door, the alarm went off when I unlocked & opened the door. As long as I lock using the trunk it seems ok...My key is pretty worn, so I'm wondering if I should order a new key? would that help?
On the bright side, the heater warms up WAY faster than the VW which is nice on those cold mornings.
Other than the above, it starts right up in the am, even when it's freezing and runs very well. We've put almost 3000 miles in the last 2 months and get a steady 32-34 mpg.
Thanks to anyone who can help with the above issues.
Cathy & Nick