In another thread i'd made a comment about hood latches on the early 300SD's. All of the MB that i've seen over the years have the grey latches that always come out of the grill. I drove to Houston to look at a 1984 300SD this past weekend that my father purchased. I went to raise the hood and the grey latch didn't come out of the grill. The owner said that they're at the side. I reached to the right and left of the grill and pulled the two levers towards the center grill and it popped open. Was this common? Some have it and some don't? options that you had. The owner told me that his father and about 10 other men went to Germany and bought the cars, which where built for the U.S. only. I was wondering if this made any difference.

yeah, Mine is like this also,

I think that mine was a later 1984 (even though labeled as 1985) and the earlier 1984's had the grill type hood release.

My new(to me) '81 300SD has the latchs on the left & right of the grill.

For what its worth.

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Anders

1995 E300
2015 VW TDI Sportwagen 15K
1977 240D (197K)
2002 Subaru Legacy L Wagon (115k) (Wife's)
Gone but not forgotten:
2005 Buick LeSabre
1998 C230
1984 300D
1983 240D
1981 300SD
1974 240D
1974 Fiat 124 Spider
1968 Triumph TR250

The SDL had the single tab release in the center of the grill.

The SD has the two levers on the sides of the hood.

I somewhat like the design of the SD levers once you get the hang of them because you can lift from two points while pulling the levers.

The single tab in the center is not very appealing from an ergonomic standpoint IMHO.

yeah it's weird, i'd never seen it untill this past weekend. My father's 81 300D and '82 turbo had the single lever. He had a '87 300 turbo which had the single lever as well. I just wondered if they just mixed it up, trying something different or what?

My 82 SD has them on the sides but my 83 D has it in the middle another subtle difference with the S-class....Love my SD!!!!

As does my 82SD, my friend's dad commented on it when I had to show him how to open the hood (we were doing engine work), he also was impressed by how the hood can be raised to go straight up.

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

Andy was trying to open the hood of my 8'85 SD and was looking for the side latches. Oops, it's the grey pull tab.

Both my '85 SD's have the pull tab, as does my '86 and did my '87 and '89.

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Michael LaFleur

'05 E320 CDI - 86,000 miles
'86 300SDL - 360,000 miles
'85 300SD - 150,000 miles (sold)
'89 190D - 120,000 miles (sold)
'85 300SD - 317,000 miles (sold)
'98 ML320 - 270,000 miles (sold)
'75 300D - 170,000 miles (sold)
'83 Harley Davidson FLTC (Broken again) :-(
'61 Plymouth Valiant - 60k mikes
2004 Papillon (Oliver)
2005 Tzitzu (Griffon)
2009 Welsh Corgi (Buba)

Latches on either side of our '83 300SD.
Front pull tab on my sister's '85 300SD.

My very late '82 SD has the two latches.
Can anyone corelate this with something else? How about the assemble plant, or were all our cars assemble in the same plant. ( I know. at least with domestic Fords, there are often several differences between plants building the same cars).

Yeah I was wondering the same thing, that maybe it was a different assembly plant, or maybe they tried this on models during one half of the year to see if it was something they wanted to continue. Kind of puzzling.

My very early '85 SD has the side latches - actually built 12/84, so it's about to be 20 years old!

Kevin

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'85 300SD