Alright, this is my biggest mercedes pet-peeve.... non-functioning odometers. Seems that this is more of a diesel thing than a gas thing, but don't know why. I've seen several diesel cars that I was thinking of perhaps purchasing, but every other person would give me the "worked until last week" lame-ass excuse. Why don't people fix them???? Its not hard to replace or fix!

Funny how they all seem to fail just before the car is put up for sale.

The odometer in mine stopped working for (what I estimate to be) 150 miles, but then started working again. Weird.

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1982 240D.
My name is Michael, and I am an 18 year old binge-drinkin', cigar-smokin', novel-writin', all around unsavory and unnattractive guy. I tell long-winded stories, and I only shave once a week, although I've had to do it every day since I was 16.

I can deal with broken odometers, although mine all work of course.

My MB pet peeves are chrome rims, after market chrome, chrome mirror covers, chrome ad ons, hacked stereo wiring, and AFTERMARKET CHROME.

There should be a law prohibiting the altercation of an MB's factory appearance.

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'90 300SE 298k
-300K and it gets put into retirement.
'80 300D 255k Purchased new by family in 1980.

Had a:
1973 220 (gas)
1980 300SD
1992 400E

to the idea that the odos fail more on diesels, i dont know for fact any statistics but they do fail on gassers too.... and vws and volvos... all carrying vdo odos.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

yeah my 300sd's odo stopped working years ago.......

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1985 300SD Turbo Diesel 423k+? Black ext., Black int.
1987 300SDL Turbo 68k Tan ext., brown int.

No, but it costs $$$ and time, and some people, myself included, just don't see the need to spend either on an essentially superfluous component. I mean, since I'm not selling my car, it doesn't pain me to not know how many miles my car is getting, and to be perfectly honest, mileage is no indication of condition anyways.

A 300k car and a 150k car could conceivably have the same engine wear, it's all about care....

And as for a law prohibiting modification, I can only hope you're not serious, but part of the beauty of a capitalistic society is that you own your possessions, so you can do whatever the hell you want with them. I could pull a monster garage and trash every factory component in my car except the chassis and no-one could do anything about it....thankfully. That's part of the whole called freedom.

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"I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brillaint blaze
than it should be stifled by dryrot.
I would rather be a superb meteor,
every atom of me in magnificent glow,
than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time."

-Jack London 1876-1916

1983 300CDT (running WVO since 12/05)
1981 300SD (parts car)

How do you keep track of when to do maintenance work? Do you simply wait until something breaks down or do you prefer to do something before it does?

Insurance companies will probably look at a non-functioning odometer as a tool and excuse for their side if they find out that you've been driving around with a messed up odometer. A car with a "True mileage unknown" title is worth nothing to me.. and I would never want to own something like that.

If you can't chip in maybe $50 to replace a speedometer and correct its mileage, then what makes me think that the car you're driving is properly maintained? You sound like one of those "super glue it/duct tape" type of guys. When it comes to cars, especially mercedes, I sure as hell will try to avoid your type.

Broken odometer solution:

http://www.odometergears.com/subpages/mb.html

Whoa, there's no need to be personally insulting here ...

Actually, I do all my scheduled maintenance on the basis of time elapsed, and since I don't put that many miles on my car, I wind up doing all my maintenance MORE OFTEN than if I was doing it by mileage. For instance, whereas the manual says to change oil every 3k or 3 months, I do it every two months and probably put at most 500-1000 miles in that period on the car. Same with my other maintenance. So, IN FACT, my car probably gets some of the most excessively frequent maintenance work of anyone on this forum, not that I mind doing it. Next time don't shoot off your mouth when you don't know what you're talking about.

How am I supposed to "correct its mileage" if I don't know what the mileage is??!! My dad gave me the car with the odo. already broken, so putting in a new one would be a lost cause, unless I coincided it with the rebuilding of the engine, which I plan to do whenever I have to rebuild the engine. How is a "guesstimation" of mileage any better than an "unknown?" Christ man, I can give them a guesstimation without paying $70 for a new speedo and the work of putting it in. Putting in a new speedo and turning it to what I THINK the mileage is and then representing that as the actual mileage is not only a lie but a crime.

I don't have a piece of duct tape anywhere in or on my car. Try not to rant at people based on a snap judgement. I'm afraid you don't even know me.

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"I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brillaint blaze
than it should be stifled by dryrot.
I would rather be a superb meteor,
every atom of me in magnificent glow,
than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time."

-Jack London 1876-1916

1983 300CDT (running WVO since 12/05)
1981 300SD (parts car)

Actually, try $300. That's what I was quoted here in Houston, but I know a place in Austin will do it for $80.
-Joe

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

Yeah, I for one would not want to get into an altercation with a MB, those things weigh almost two tons!

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

The PO of my car was to cheap to change light builbs that burned out! So I know my odo is probably right on because if it broke it would have stayed broke.

All MB's suffer from this it doesn't matter what engine is under the hood. MB used VDO guages which are very good but don't last forever.

With any MB you really can't go by what the odo says. Maintaince records must confirm mileage.

Anyone can knock 100k off a clean MB in an afternoon and flip it for a low mileage car.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

a nonfunctioning odo is a big black mark because of the difficulty of knowing when to change the oil. most people wont do it enough, imho.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

A car should really have a time hour clock too. Just like heavy machinery.

Too many folks idle the car just as much, but nothing shown. Stuck in treffic, circle around a mall 3 times to look for ring side spot.
So when u sell or go trade in, it looks like low mileage, but infact the engine has as much running time on it, those idling hours are probably worse than freeway mileage.