Hi,

I own a 79 TD Wagon. I got it because I had such good luck with my 240D sedan. It is totally different -- while my sedan is perfect and fixed up easily, the wagon is defying all attempts to whip it into shape. Here are some of the things I messed up on (the wagon isn't inherently better or worse than the sedan):

1) make sure you get a quick clean fast startup when you turn the key. The engine must be cold when you do this -- touch it.
2) when the car is warming up, check for smoke
3) after the car is driven around, check for smoke

See any problems? Walk. Smoke is a great indicator of many types of problems some easy and some hard to fix. Add a little extra caution for the used car lot.

My wagon smokes. Not as much as JimmyL's (he has horrendous photos online) but it smokes enough to embarrass me. It has low compression on one cylinder.

Watch out for the early W123 climate control (mine is so toasted). Run the AC, run the heat does the AC come out of the window defogger vent (common)? This is expensive to fix. I'm not sure when they stopped putting this junk into the cars, you may want to search ACC.

The leveling system has another sticky point, if you want to drop an engine from another car into the TD, you need the engine with a leveling pump fixture on it (cast into the head). I've seen many 5cyl NA engines out there but none have the right head. Your alternative is to rip out the system and replace the rear shocks with gas shocks. Yep, I thought of dropping in a new engine but it looks like I'm stuck.


Cheers,
Yoko