I put my money where my mouth is and disconnected my oil separator on my 300D. Why you ask? Well the shaking at idle had broken the separator return tube. That tube is $60. The rubber grommet in the air cleaner lid fits so loosely around the inlet to the oil separator that it was allowing grit into the intake. I have tried in vain to get another grommet, no dice, from Phil or the dealer. I capped the return bung on the oil pan. I closed of the top and bottom of the oil separator in the air cleaner housing. I drilled a hole and put a 3/8" brass hose barb in the flat spot on the U-tube intake right before the turbo. I then ran a piece of 3/8" fuel grade hose from the hose barb up to the 90* rubber elbow from the original vapor vent setup on top of the valve cover. I inserted a piece of 3/8" brass tubing into the fuel line and then pushed the fuel line into the rubber elbow. The brass tubing allow a hose clamp to secure the elbow to the 3/8's hose without crushing/closing it off. No more oily muck in the top of the air filter. After @400miles there is no apparent extra oil use or any other problems. I did this because my two other diesel vehicles have similar setups with no oil separators. Looking at pictures of Euro MB's they don't appear to have oil separators either. IMHO the oil separators were a US emissions thing. So far so good. I would take a picture but I have no idea how to post it. RT

__________________
When all else fails, vote from the rooftops!
84' Mercedes Benz 300D Anthracite/black, 171K
03' Volkswagen Jetta TDI blue/black, 93K
93' Chevrolet C2500HD ExCab 6.5TD, Two-tone blue, 252K