You going to dump all that money to fix it then sell it? You might as well keep it then.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

I keep 'flipping a coin' over it. On one hand I might as well keep it and on the other hand why keep a car that sucks money. Also, this is the car my wife drives and she is fed up with it. She has been working on a letter to M-B.

The fuel coming up out of the IP at the hard lines is because of copper crush washers that need to be replaced. This is a job I would (and did) farm out to a professional. The procedure for torquing the lines down is specific, but not foolproof. And if you do it wrong there is a possibility of warping a $2000 injection pump.

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Rick Miley
2014 Tesla Model S
2018 Tesla Model 3
2017 Nissan LEAF
Former MB: 99 E300, 86 190E 2.3, 87 300E, 80 240D, 82 204D Euro
Chain Elongation References

The copper washers are on the inside of the pump elements. If there's an external leak, more likely it's the rubber o-rings that are deteriorated, but to replace them you need to replace the copper washers anyway to maintain a proper seal.

Anyway, I wouldn't be too hasty if I were you when it comes to dumping the car. You need to ask yourself, do I like to drive this car when everything works well? Is the stuff that's broken right now affordable to fix and am I willing to spend the money? Unless you answered no to both questions, you need to think about this very carefully. I almost dumped my '96 but now I'm glad that I didn't as I finally have it at the point where it doesn't need anything significant and I do enjoy driving it. I would say the Achilles heel of the W210 diesels are fuel leaks and rusting spring perches. If you take care of those items and you still have the car, you might as well keep it.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

Thank you for the input. I am scheduled to take the car in this Friday morning and pickup a loaner. The dealership uses M and C class models for loaners; I am hoping for a C class sedan. If it is the o-rings and copper washers I doubt that Shaver's would have parts in stock so I would guess that I will have the loaner over the weekend.
Regarding the o-rings that you mentioned do you know what the size is on these? The reason that I ask if the o-rings are the problem I would like to have them replaced with Viton o-rings even if th dealershio will not back them up. I believe that part of the problems with the fuel leaks on these are the rubber o-rings. With the belly pans these cars really hold the heat in under the hood and I believe that this causes shortened life of the o-rings. Viton is a material that can handle the heat much better.
As frustrated as I am with this car I lean more towards keeping it than my wife. We have had this car for 15 months starting at 48,000 miles and in the time:
1. Glow plugs replaced
2. Map sensor replaced
3. Fuel lines and seal/o-rings replaced
4. Fuel o-ring replaced (that lasted only 8 months)
5. And now another fuel leak to deal with.
This is why my wife does not like it.
Before this car she drove a Buick Centry for four years and put over 90,000 miles on it. On that car I replaced the brakes, changed filters, and changed oil; that's it. The only time it gave some problems was some bad gasoline that set off the service engine light. When it comes to dependability that 2000 Century was many, many times better than the E300. Before I married my wifffe both of us were GM owers and similar experiences....no car ever left us stranded. I expect better from Mercedes. Detter Zeche has his work cut out for him.

That's nothing. You should see my list of work done and I've had the car for 1 month less than you. The fuel system is certainly not the most robust design, but you do have to expect rubber in contact with fuel to deteriorate eventually, especially with biodiesel.

I don't know the size of the o-rings. You'd have to take one out or buy a new one to compare to the Viton rings.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

ncof300d you posted this previously, was this just for the fuel lines?

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raMBow

1999 E300DT Obsydian Black Metallic, Heated Full Leather Parchment options, E2, K2, 136,000+, best 36.5 mpg - GP's 12-04 & 11-12 Zero Stuck
2010 Honda Odyssey - The BrideMobile - best 26.5
(2) 2005 Honday Accord- (1 -Corporate 1 - Personal) - 110,000 4-cyl 30mpg
2000 VW Golf GLS TDI, Upsolute Chip (sold to Brother, now 300+k on it) 48.5 mpg like clock work
1987 Honda CRX HF - Sold 87,000 always over 50 mpg Max 67 mpg

Yes, the ones for the fuel lines are for the clear 'snap-on' lines. The clips are very fragile from heat cycling over time, but if you are careful you should be able to change these with out replacing the lines, however, it may not hurt to order the lines and keep them around just in case. I replaced my llines, but I kept the old ones. I broke the clip on one of them when removing it, but since I had new lines I was not the most careful.

I just got off the of phone with the service department at Shaver Imports in Fort Wayne, IN. The Service Manager informed me that the problem is the o-rings where the fuel lines connect to the IP. Get is....the service manager is 'looking for parts' becasue Mercedes no list these parts as being available to dealerships!!! This amazes me; drive train parts not available for a 1999. I very politely blew up at the service manager. This is the absolute last straw for me with this car. It is nothing but a POS built buy a car company that does not stand by the products that they build nor supply parts for what they built. The bridge is burnt!!

I picked up the car tonight.
1. The shut off valve is leaking, not the seal, but the valve itself
2. The copper washers and o-ring need to be replaced on the pump. I spoke with the technician for a while. I asked about the parts availability and he embarrassingly explained the situation. When he looked up the o-rings and washers for a 1999 E300 no parts where listed. The only way to get new parts was as part of a new pump at $4200!! (no rebuilds available, only new) He told me that he thought that the situation was ridiculous and he called some other location within M-B about the parts. The technician was informed to reference older 606 parts listing. The technician told me he questioned doing this because he has seen small differences in the IP parts on different years of 606 engines, however, he was infomred that the parts would work.

I told the technician about my history with the car. He felt sorry that this 606 has had so many problems at 71,000 miles. He told me that the lowest mileage that he has replaced the o-rings and washers on the IP was just over 200,000 miles. He continued that with what has been done and what is to be done this next week I should be good to go for a long time on the engine. He told me that I have a nice E300 that has just had many failures in a short time. He believes that some of the issues have actually been due to the lower mileage (48,000 miles) over six years. I appreciated the technicians his candor and I believe that he was sincere. On the contrary, my phone conversations with the service manager this afternoon seemed to be more of matter of denial the issues and finding a solution.

The parts are to be in within a few days. The estimated damage is north of $700. Aside from general maintenance, I hope this fixes it.

This week should be fun....my truck has a service appointment on Monday for a fuel management issue and the 1981 300D is scheduled for a front end alignment on Thursday. Friday I may join the Amish.

I didn't know that your shutoff valve was leaking as well, or did I miss something? I had the same problem with my car. As far as the IP o-rings and copper seals are concerned, you can definitely get those separately, though I just noticed they're not listed for the '99 model in the online parts catalogs. Most likely they are the same as the ones for the OM603 IP and those are available and cheap.

Before I bought my '96 E300 I test drove 4 W210 diesels, all of them with 100K miles or less. 2 of them were leaking fuel from the IP elements so I think this is a quite common issue.

The shutoff valve is about $100 if I remember correctly, but the parts for the IP elements are only a few bucks in total, though the labor is somewhat extensive. Still, $700 seems steep, but then again it is an MB dealer where labor is traditionally expensive.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

I did not know about the shut-off valve until yesterday.

For the most part I am a 'do it yourselfer', however, to many things have been happening lately....life. Also, this car is my wife's daily driver and I want to be sure that it is done right. I have no indy shops near me so the dealship is pretty much my own option. At this point I just want it done and done right. I am going to request the old parts back. I am going to measure the o-rings. NExt time it happens Viton is going on.

For your reference, on my 97 210 I replaced the leaking shut off and all the plasitic lines all together at some where around 100k miles, about 2-3 years ago. Maybe age of the lines (7-8 years) is a factor more so than miles? It seems to be a time frame that crops up a lot.

Any way no leaks since. I am sorry for troubles. I got my car new from the dealer 10 years ago next week. In my case, mechanical repairs (not wear and tear) on this car seem to come in waves. If you research this forum you can find all the shortcomings and the anticipated failure mileage from single owner cars. Except for rust issues (none in Florida), I have encountered most of the popular problems. I have always done heavy PM so I can't blame the failures on previous owners shortcomings or so called indies' improper repair, which together I believe are a major cause of uncommon problems.

If you have any insight into your cars past maintenance and repair history, I think you could figure out what's coming next. If not then its like playing Vegas. How lucky do you feel? And how much money do you have in your pocket?

My bottom line is the car is not cheap to run, unless you fix it yourself. Great fuel mileage, great long distance ride, safe with all those airbags, etc. But this is no "abuse and neglect it everyday car" nor does it live up to some of the hype that is posted on ebay.

Good Luck

Like I said before...look for another source for service or do it yourself. Between this $700 and the $340 they charged you the last time you have spent over $1000 of which 90% is labor....I know the stealership's profit center is in the service department but they are hosing you. I would say the time it would take to replace those seals, including the R&R of the intake manifold should be under 3 hours for an experienced tech...so basically they are figuring about $600 in labor for 3 hours time...that just seems excessive to me.

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Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

Part of this is the price I pay for living in a rural area. I have checked with two diesel shops, but both only work with trucks and other commerical engines. The dealership is an hour drive for me. Any alternative is likely to be at least a two hour drive. There is a indy VW shop a half hour away. I have heard that he is good with diesels. I gave hime a call, but unless it is a VW he will not touch it.
I guess this is the dealerships way of getting part of the $6000 back that they dropped of the the price of the car when I bought it. I wonder how much the tech gets out of this. I trusted him, but I am not so sure about the service manager