No really a question, but chasing down W123 door lock vacuum leaks is still a PITA. Last night my 300D started suddenly showing vacuum leak symptoms (slow door locks, delayed shut-off). I've done this before, and I know the procedure, but I still spent about 4 hours today before I determined that the problem was a leaky vacuum pod on the fuel door. I was sure it was a loose connection under the hood someplace because my indy had just finished replacing leaky IP seals, then I fiddled around under the hood a little. So I was sure that was the problem, wrong again. I did figure it out just in time to run out and get a new pod before my indy closed for the weekend. I wanted to get this done today because I'm taking the car out of town next week (about 2000 miles) and it's I real PITA if the locks don't work when your traveling.

One thing that's a little strange is that the last time I had a vacuum leak on this car it was the same pod, about 4 years (150,000 miles) ago. Of course, I started looking at the vacuum pump and worked back through all the tees so this was the last thing I got to. Has anyone else noticed that the fuel door pods are more prone to failure, or is this just a coincidence?

I am a new owner of a 1981 M-B, 240D. First M-B I have ever owned.

My locks, work, but after shutting down, the locks will no longer work, without starting up the engine. I know there is a slow leak somewhere but ..... not even sure where to begin. I did check the hose in the engine compartment, and from the vacum pump to the vacum booster for the brakes, and everything 'looks' ok.

should I attempt to replace hoses , how hard is this,

bob 1981 240D, 172,000 2,000 by me.

Hey Bob,
There is a vacuum reservoir on these cars, and it looks kind of like a large egg crate. Seems like on a sedan it is under the rear window shelf, accessible from the trunk. On my wagon, on the vac lines at the firewall, the yellow goes to the door lock actuator and the yellow with gray stripe goes to the vac reservoir. Maybe yours isn't connected??
Without the reservoir, you will have vacuum to operate the door locks while running, but no vac "stored up" after vehicle shut down. Unfortunately, having a small leak in the system will also cause this issue, and in that case searching this site will reveal tons of posts on the subject.....

__________________
Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John