Man, just listening to his tale of woe, I don't see how so many of us that like and respect that MB engineering, could be so wrong. "It wants to make you consider your whole life."

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Junqueyardjim
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. C.S. Lewis



1983 Mercedes W123 240D 4 Speed 285,000 on the road with a 617 turbo, beautiful butter yellow, license plate # 83 240D INDIANA

2003 Jaguar Type X, AWD. beautiful, good mileage,
Mom's car, but I won't let her drive it!

Now, now, now junqueyardjim, I see from your "Corinthians" signature that you appear to be a christian, and if so you are not supposed to be judging me.

Matthew 7:1: "Judge not, that ye be not judged."

Why would you be so offended that I said I wasn't impressed with MB engineering? When did I attack anyone for liking MB?

To everyone else thanks for your leads in parting this car out. I am not rich and cannot afford to just eat a $1200 loss. I am only trying to make the best of a bad situation.

and yet another soul of mercedes benz is is taken. why must it be like this.

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Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?

As long as they would add one additional commandment for you to keep thy religion to thyself.
George Carlin (Wonder where he is now..)

1981 240d (engine donor 1983 240d) recently rebuilt engine hurray! - No more.. fought a tree and the tree won.

pearl black 1983 240d 4speed (Converted!@$$%) atleast the tranny was rebuilt.

No, I didn't judge your actions. You bought a low price car, then you admit that you are a long time mechanic, yet when it stopped running you find evidence of very little motor oil. Then you want to blame MB Engineering. How could we all be so wrong. I was just reflecting on what you had posted. It is a sad tale. You shouldn't judge me on what I might be thinking, we are all allowed our own private thoughts

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Junqueyardjim
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. C.S. Lewis



1983 Mercedes W123 240D 4 Speed 285,000 on the road with a 617 turbo, beautiful butter yellow, license plate # 83 240D INDIANA

2003 Jaguar Type X, AWD. beautiful, good mileage,
Mom's car, but I won't let her drive it!

I may be buying a W115 tomorrow, so I may need parts.

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79 MB 280 SEL Euro 133k
77 MB 450SL 154k
05 Mustang GT Vert (3) 104k
12 TSX Wagon Tech (66k) (192k)
06 Subaru Outback base (135k) 164k
16 Acura MDX (109k) 111k
18 Silverado 2500 LTZ Midnight (212) 56k
97 Ford Ranger 163k
11 RAV4 154k
01 Escape 173k
04 Honda Pilot 292k
1967 Mustang (Resto Project)
1968 Mustang (Parts Bin)
00 Ford Ranger 124k

Thats me. I just sent you a pm. Thanks ForcedInduction

Why doesn't someone near detroit go take a look at this thing and decide if it's salvageable before it gets all hacked up. If the oil is off the dipstick it may only be 2 quarts low. I still suspect it's just a fuel issue.

Re Craig's suggestion: Anyone who want to look at this car is more than welcome. I believe it is a compression problem but if someone can prove me wrong I'd give them a hundred bucks or sell them the car for a bit less than I paid, whichever they desire.

If you like the car but the engine's shot (and if you ran it out of oil, compression is low and blowby blows the oil fill cap off, it kinda sounds like it), there are enough W115 240D's around to find a replacement engine from a rusty heap with a running engine - and you'd have lots of spare parts to boot.
However, if you decide to part it out, please PM or email me as I still need a passenger side horn and passenger side taillight assembly for my '76.

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1976 240D "Katja"

I would not blame the man for being frustrated with the w115. Most guys on this forum have not had to deal much with them because they are much rarer than w123s. They are much more difficult to work on under the hood and dash. There is some pretty screwy stuff too (power steering pump w/ a remote reservoir for example). Not to say they aren't cool cars, but they are vastly different from the more recent models

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"spreading a trail of obnoxious where ever we go"
1981 300sd w/ 341,500 miles

http://www.wecrash.com/pics/ddda_banner.gif

I agree, but from his description of the rust it was probably a parts car anyway. It really sounds like the PO unloaded it as a driver on someone who was not familiar with these cars for about twice what it was worth. If it really has the stated mileage, the engine should be OK unless it's been abused. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it has a ton of miles on it, we all know how easy it is to adjust these odometers. At this point, the only real question is whether it's a parts car with a good engine or a parts car with a bad engine, that will affect it's value somewhat. The best/easiest solution is to find someone with a W115 project who wants to buy the whole car.

Craig,
I don't know why anyone would want to buy a 240D this old as a project, even with a cleaner body because of the cost of a rebuilt engine exceeds the value of the car and even if the engine is running OK now, based of the numbers of accounts of blowby, many will need to be rebuilt in the next few years.

I have a file folder filled with maintenance and repair receipts. Every receipt states a mileage and date. You can follow the car's mileage history from its purchase date all the way through until today by the stack of receipts, so the car does have only 143,000. The body, while not terrible by michigan standards, was not my primary concern because mechanically the car seemed sound.

katja,
I do not know where you live, but I cannot find an engine or rust bucket 240Ds around the detroit area, in fact although I have only owned this car for 6 weeks, I had been looking for a diesel for about 6 months and the only thing I found for less than a couple of thousand (was looking for a biodiesel project) was an 83 Mercedes 300D that needed at trans and 3 or 4 VWs. I did find some engines in some junk yards but they were never runnable and the yards all had an as-is policy, especially because the length of time they had all been sitting. You have to remember too that it is hard to find any 1976 car that doesn't have a ton of miles: Most 1976 gas car died by 1996 and the diesels that didn't had 11 more years to rack up the miles. For 1976 car driven the average 12k a years they would have 372,000 miles on them today. I know there are still some floating around with lower mileage but I think the number is a lot fewer than people think. I think mine may have had low miles because this car was in the repair shop A LOT and it may be possible that the POs were scarred enough be being stranded multiple times that they started to restrict the car to shorter trips. I have decided to pull the engine and tear it down. I may be able to sleeve and re-ring it (if the pistons are good) for a few hundred, leaving the rest of the engine alone. Either way, if I do part the car it won't matter if the engine is in or out and my curiously about the cylinder condition will be satisfied.

If anyone knows of a pre-1976 240D engine or wreck in the Detroit area I would be interested in looking at it.

Lots of folks preserve these cars, because of their age. You can get a very good quality remanufactured engine for around $5000 (you could probably find a "good enough" rebuild for about $3000). Some folks even have good luck with a "junkyard" engine for around $500. I don't know how much cheaper you expected it to be, the parts alone cost a couple $1000.

I wouldn't bother putting a good engine in a rusty car unless I was willing to spend a few $1000 on bodywork/paint, or I was willing to do it myself. Honestly, you are really better off spending $3000 - 5000 on a good condition car, it will be much cheaper in the long run. If you just want cheap transportation, buy a used civic.

Again, there is no reason for a 140K mile engine to have serious issues unless it's been abused. Was someone running WVO crap though it, was it actually run without oil pressure? These engines should easily get to around 300K without significant engine work (my 617 is almost 400K, and I'm not expecting to have it rebuilt for at least another 100K; my 616 only has about 200K, and it will probably outlive me). Either someone sold you a trashed engine, you did something to damage it, or you are misdiagnosing the problem.

I don't think you are going to find one in the "rust belt," you might have better luck in the southwest. You can install a later engine from a W123 240D is you are willing to do some extra work to transfer some parts.

I know that I never got 2.8 million miles out of any of my John Deer diesel tractors although they start better cold. Saying the mercedes diesel is junk is one of the more interesting things I have heard.
http://www.worldcarfans.com/classics.cfm?classicid=5040929.001&mercedes=1.html/country/gcf

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01 ML320 Auto White 95k "The Wife's"
75 240D Manual Yellow 57K "My baby"
84 300D/T Auto Gold 120K "Now my brothers"
84 300D/T Auto Silver 300K "Totaled"