I broke the cardinal rule of buying sight unseen twice. The first time I was fortunate and came away with a very nice 1984 300D Turbo from an private owner in Atlanta who lavished his time and money on my Mercedes. The second car I drove home Thursday from Memphis has more problems than I even care to get into. It's a 1987 300SDL with 202,000 miles. I bought it on flea-bay from a car dealer in Memphis that swore it was in great shape and was ready to drive home with no problems. Oeyvay!!! When I met him Monday evening to get the car (it was dark) he mentioned that I might want to look at the battery because he had trouble getting it started. What a jerk!!!(I ended up putting a new battery in the next morning)He had also promised me that the oil would be changed, and he would see about the brakes being serviced because in his words, "they aren't working to good and you might not be able to stop". I made it home so I guess he slapped some pads on it but the receipt for the oil change he left on my front seat was for a 1997 Saab with 147,000 miles? (I changed the oil myself before I left.) I could rant for along time but I really just need to figure out what a few thing are or are not right under the hood.

Heres the good. From what I can read on this forum my engine seems to be okay. It doesn't leak oil on the drive from what I can see and there is no blowby. The oil level on the stick doesn't seem to have moved much from when I changed it in Memphis. On the way home, with my wife and kids following me it never blew out any smoke and seemed to be increasingly responsive as the miles ticked by after I stopped to fill it up, add a can of diesel tuneup and took the car up to 85-90 mph. This car like to run!!! I know the catalytic converter (football) has been reamed out. Its kinda slow taking off from the stop , but if I put the pedal to floor it responds pretty good for an old lady with 202,000 miles on her. The transmission seems to shift smoothly up and down thru all gears with no snaps or hard shifts.

HERE IS THE BAD.

1. Lots of stuff missing under the hood.

• All of the windshield washer apparatus is missing from and including the tank all the way forward to the hood nozzles.
  
• It looks like parts have been removed from the engine because there are brackets without any attached apparatus. (unfortunately not the EGR or ALDA.)
  
• Miscellaneous wires and vacumn lines I will have to identify and check out. (will test with mightyvac.)
  

2. Lots of shudder at idle. And I do mean shudderringgggg!! At idle I can see and feel the steering column vibrating strongly. The car also is vibrating somewhat. I is audible. With the hood raised the engine doesn't seem to be really shaking at all. Not any more than my 617. When I rev the motor past 900 to 1000 rpm the shaking goes away. Also when I pull away from the stop sign, the shudder goes away. Changing gears at idle with brake on doesn't make a difference. If the engine seems to be idling smoothly would this eliminate the vacumn lines leaking as being the main contributing cause wouldn't it? I think the vacumn lines must have leaks because of the general state of disrepair under the hood. Visually the engine shocks are not vibrating either, at least on the drivers side anyway.

3. Strange vibration in suspension after hitting bump. Three times on my way home (about 375 miles) I had to slow down or brake the car to stop a front end shudder after hitting a pot hole or series of bumps. Whats weird is that the car seems to track straight and the ride felt okay. In my humble opinion I don't think the shudderring problem and this vibration are related.

What I want to do is make sure the car is safe, and runs right before I go fixing all the other laundry list of stuff. Can anybody forward me or post pictures of the 603 engine looking straight down, from the front, left, and right side so I can tell what I am needing to fix and replace?

Sounds like engine mounts and time for a suspension rebuild. Is the shuddering frequent or more of a pulsing?

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1995 E420 Schwarz
1995 E300 Weiss
#1987 300D Sturmmachine
#1991 300D Nearly Perfect
#1994 E320 Cabriolet
#1995 E320 Touring
#1985 300D Sedan
OBK #42

Hope the guy you bought it from isn't the same dealer from Memphis known to list his cars here (Herb)

I'd say all in all you got lucky, the issues you describe are probably typical and even the worst of them, #2 & 3 on your list, is probably failed motor mounts and easily fixed...start there.

My one rule is NEVER pick up a car in the dark...don't ask me how I learned this expensive lesson

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Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

dont replace the motor mounts without looking at the oil cooler and lines or you'll be jacking up the engine twice
The shuddering after hitting a pothole is typical of any old car with worn out front end typically these diesels being heavier the front end is more susceptible to wear

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commercial fisherman diesel in my blood in my boats trucks and Dear old Dad has had me drivin them since i got my first license in 1968
1986 300 SDL 427654
1999 Chevy Crew Cab Dually 225423
1986 300 SDL 287000 Dad's
1987 190 Turbo 158000 Mom's (my inheritance)

Shop in the junk yards for the windshield washer stuff, should be cheap. You have two washer motors, should have the wiring there, if not, get that when you get the tank and motors.

If someone reamed out the trap oxidizer you are screwed -- it should have been replaced under warrenty when it plugged (although if it is still OK, it will plug and you can get it done then). If it was plugged, it usually starts to come apart and ruins the turbo, and there is a trap catalyst that goes under the floor -- all about $2000 if you do it yourself.

A new steering damper ($35 or so) will fix the front end judder -- they get a hard spot in the travel near the center and bounce when they get old, feels just like a solid axle with bad kingpins -- hard shake right to left that stays the same as you slow down, sometimes goes away when you brake hard.

Engine shake is most likely bad mounts (the rubber must be somewhat higher than the cup on the frame) and a bad shock or two (don't remember if there are two or just one). Fairly easy fix except for the cup hold-down screws on the driver's side. Cut an allen wrench down for that, you MUST seat the wrench fully, else you have to remove the engine carrier arm and drill the bolt out....

Plan on a total brake job -- rotors, pads (yours may be OK, but I'd get new OEM one just in case) and caliper rebuilds -- they are likely due anyway, and if they were run down to the metal, the seals in the calipers are toast. You need excellent brakes in a car that runs 125 mph....

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

I used to sell cars, been ripped off a few times, so learn from my mistakes. These are tricks shysters play on you. When buying a used car, if you follow my rules, you will rarely get ripped off....

1) I know you can't set the perfect time of day to see a "cold" car (before it's been started for the day), but if you can, please do so. Don't tell the seller that you want to see it cold, but when you get there, ask if the car has been started yet for the day. If he says no, while you're looking around the car, sort of without him knowing it, casually feel the tailpipe to see if it's hot or warm. If so, he may be trying to hide a problem that exists on startup.

2) Walk around the car, viewing it from an angle to see any slight warpage or ripples in the metal. If there is, this might tell you that the car has been wrecked.

3) Look under the car to see if the frame is straight. If bent or if you see major shiny areas on the frame (where tools have been applied recently) vs the rest of the underside which is normally dirty, that might point out a problem.

4) Check the oil. With the exception of a diesel where it's pitch black, on a gas car, the oil should be golden. If the owner has almost never changed the oil, except right before he's trying to sell it, there might be a dark streak within the oil that won't come out. Also, look at the distick itself! If it's burned looking, there's been some big problems along the line.

5) Get in the car, close the doors. Make sure the windows go down AND back up. Take a good smell. If the car smells weird at all, chances are, you'll be living with that smell for the rest of the time with that car. Dog smells, water smells, heavy smoke smells, they are typically there to stay so I hope you enjoy it. If not, don't buy the car.

6) Look at the speedometer. Odometer rollback doesn't happen much anymore, but the numbers should be pretty straight, in a line. They're not all straight, but start noticing yours and other car's odometers to get a feel what "normal" looks like. If you see any weird marks on the dashboard that looks like the foam has puffed out here and there, someone may not have turned the odometer back, but may have replaced the odometer. Someone pulled that on me, with one 50,000 miles less. I sued him and won for $2400 of my money that he ripped me off on.

7) Drive the car, and DO try reverse! An owner who knows he has transmission problems will set you up by parking the car on the street pointed for you to normally drive off. While driving the car, try it on back roads, driving normally. On a windy neighborhood street, you don't have to drive fast or serpentine a lot to see if there's something wrong. Just hit a few bumps, do a few turns to see if it responds or sounds strange.

Next, you have to take the car on a highway of some type, to get the car up to at least 60, hopefully higher. If the steering needs alignment, it'll be more apparent at higher speeds. Let off the gas to slow down without hitting the brakes. As it slows, does it downshift properly or lose its gear?

Turn the radio off. If you hear ANY wierd thing, at higher or slower speeds, and your gut says "something is not right", either have it checked by a mechanic, or don't buy the car, period.

8) If you drove there alone with your car, and buy his car, don't leave his car behind to pick it up later. People can switch tires, radios, or a/c compressors on you, while you're gone. Instead, take his car that you just bought, leaving yours behind. Locked.

9) Don't trust Carfax. I once did a Carfax on a car, and it "Qualified" for their $5,000 guarantee, that it showed no wreck history, no odometer rollback, and 10 other wonderful things. The next day when I went to the shop to fix the "bad idle", the mechanic told me the car had been wrecked. I contacted Carfax for my $5,000, but they said no way. They only guarantee no wreck HISTORY, not that the car has never been wrecked. If someone wrecked it and didn't go through their insurance company, there would be no record of it. Turns out the "rough idle" was caused by a cracked cylinder head that happened during the wreck, a nice $1500 repair job. Carfax will give you a bit of helpful info, but that's it.

10) If you buy a car out of state and there's a problem, you will either be sued, or have to sue, in that state, meaning you'll have to travel there. So agree to buy only once you know what you're getting, then be done with the deal.

11) If you sign something that says "As is", and the guy told you all was fine, you bought it. Buyer beware. If the guy had falsified receipts of work done or something else similar and you bought it "as is", that's different, and is "theft by deception".

Good luck!

Thanks Everyone for chiming in.

Winmutt: the shuddering is constant and pulses somewhat, but mostly a strong shudder felt in the car and steering wheel as mentioned. Ya I will probably start a list of things needed to rebuild suspension asap.

The Ebay seller was "Memphisdiesels"

Captainmonk: are you telling me to watch how I jack up the car so as not to damage or destroy the oil linesand cooler, or are you saying I should replace above items?

Psfred: I wasn't going to get into this one about the Catylitic convertor but Its part of the story. About the third day after I had paid the deposit to the dealer, I asked where the car was so my brother-in law; who lives in memphis could look at the car for me. The guy told me the car was at the dealership getting the trap oxidizer replaced,per warranty. I was amazed and confused; I didn't know what a trap oxidizer was. I called Phil and Phil told me to call Roy. Roy is cool. He shared at great length about the function of this thing and then told me that if I wanted to eliminate the problem completely, I should "ream out" the trap oxidizer so that it would not be a problem in the future. He mentioned that his cars might have had this same thing done but he wasn't sure who or how it had been done, or for that matter when. This conversation never took place, if you get my drift. Anyway the Mercedes dealership wouldn't replace the "reamed" unit and they put it back together, because they said the warranty had been voided by the reamed oxidizer and the modification to the exhaust. Is this possibly the trap catylst under the floor that I am probably missing due to the exhaust modification? So I guess I'm okay with this oxidizer having been previously "reamed out" per Roy. The Turbo does kick in and is working at present.
Is the steering damper the same as the steering shock?

I love working on these old mercedes. I am smitten. I love quality. I would have never imagined that I would be screwing around with old mercedes though. It was back in the late eighties when I quit messing with cars because of all the computerized crap the manufacturers began slapping on cars. i love old retro though. I rebuilt a BMW 2002 from the ground up when I was single and had more time on my hands. fun car.

Anyone have pictures of engine bay?

As long as the trap ox isn't there, your fine... The problem was it failing and destroying your turbo... Might even be better off this way... No cat either

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Ich liebe meine Autos!

1991 Mercedes-Benz 560SEL | Megasquirt MS3-Pro | 722.6 transmission w/ AMG paddles | Feind Motorsports Sway Bar | Stinger VIP Radar | AntiLaser Priority | PLX Wideband O2 | 150A Alternator | Cat Delete
1981 Mercedes-Benz 300SD | Blown engine, rebuilding someday...
1981 Mercedes-Benz 300SD | Rear ended, retired in garage.
2009 Yamaha AR230HO | Das Boot

Excessive speeding? It ain't excessive till I redline!