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  #46  
Old 08-10-2007, 07:09 PM
sixto's Avatar
smoke gets in your eyes
 
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Eastern TN
Posts: 20,841
VMI has been complimentary whenever I've asked. All they need is the VIN.

There's a section at the end of a Carfax report that shows if there are outstanding recalls. The buyer of a van we sold had a Carfax report that showed details of the outstanding recall.

Sixto
87 300D

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  #47  
Old 08-10-2007, 09:17 PM
henrydupont
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kurt Smith View Post
Got home last night to Seattle about midnight or 32 hours after landing in Omaha. The car was not all I was expecting but then again I doubt it could ever have been Long story short I decided to not walk away and keep her which I might regret but I figured I could straighten it out and have a nice car eventually $$$. Everything that is wrong seems like a case study of what you experienced readers have observed on other diesel W126's.

In this endeavor to make her well again (<-- enlisting personification if it will help me here ) I would be grateful beyond measure if I can get the help and experience that I know is on this board. TIA!

It was not a one owner car unfortunately. Car has the service records up to 55k in 1991 in Ft. Lauderdale and then it was bought as MBZ certified for $26.5k by the then mayor of a suburb of Ft. Lauderdale who owned it until he died in June of 2006. Then the seller bought her probably in an estate sale for a song and drove it to Iowa. Though he had her garaged the mayor did not believe much or maybe was unable or too busy to care for her very well. No Mercedes receipts from then on just a buildup of lube stickers in the door jambs as far as I can tell.

The seller I could not get to relax and tell me what he really knew about the car. Before I arrived I asked him if he put the Sony "Xplode" head unit in it and he said no but in conversations about what the car needs he mentions that I might want to replace the speaker because they are crappy. So I get there and what he didn't show in the pictures were the total hack job of speaker installation someone did in the back and you know somehow I don't think it was the 80+ year old mayor do you? But there I was again and I reckoned this time it was going to get me home so I rolled with it AGAIN. Maybe I really kind of like the adventure/gamble part or maybe I am just a sucker. You be the judge but please still help me because this can be a great car again. As I said in the incoherent rambles earlier in this thread I really just want the best 300 SDL that I can get together even if I have to pay; and pay; and pay BUT I don't want to pay what I don't have to!

Seller picked me up at the airport in the car and my observations on the drive back to his place are:

Freakishly, dangerously sluggish from a standing start. But knowing about ALDA etc this does not concern me too much because when we get rolling the power is there. I am really watching the temp gauge and it seems to be under control at about 90 with the a/c running and traveling on the freeway. When we get to his place I can do some more inspecting which I will sum up this way.

This car has not had proper care but to me it does not appear irrecoverable damage has been done. The paint is not as nice as it appeared in those photos but the the body shows no repairs and it is straight just the nicks and dings of 21 years. Zero rust. Interior is mostly nice except for the squeaks and; surprise, a crack in the dash but it not bad can can be filled in. Mechanically it is all there but it appears exactly like a car that was bought new, maintained and then traded in to driven sparingly by people that didn't have a clue about a diesel. Instead it was treated like the average Joe would treat an average gasser car. Change the oil now and again and wash and wax it etc.

For a laugh and tp drive home the history of this car are the tires put on the car by the mayor. They are some no name brand that say "Grand Tour - Multi Mile" made up to look like Michelins. Now hard as a rock with minor age cracks in the sidewalls Oh and more about the wheels later but I will save that.

So being that this car does not appear to be a rolling bomb as last time I hit the road.

First thing I notice is that temp gauge is not as steady as I thought. So pull into a rest stop and look around. Now I know I should have done this first but
I look in the fuse box. Number 16 is missing which is to the "blower motor". Now I am thinking this is the electric fan that cycles on when you in stop-go traffic etc. Am I right about this? I hope so because back on the road I also realized that I chose to travel interstate 90 through Sturgis at the days prior to the rally. So me thinks, "Well I am going to be iron butt on the freeway without motel with a vacancy anywhere so I am just going to drive on and watch the temp gauge closely." Now I think this was probably a good idea believe it or not because I was able to reproduce exactly what the seller told me he saw about temps the whole way. It fluctuates from 90 to just over 100 but I have no doubt it has been as high as 110. Exactly as he described the readings since he drove the car up from Florida. Now I also asked him if the cruise control worked and he said it worked intermittently (again surprise ) and then it blew a fuse. Now I am thinking the fuse he saw blown was #16 for the rad fan and the fuse I read as the CC being on has a red in it instead of a 5 amp and it is not blown.

Now that I have the car home and cold for the first time I did the squeeze test on the top rad hose. Just as easy to squeeze as when it was hot though the car was parked on a slight up incline last night. Next I did the first cold start and as expected when it first starts all the cylinders are not firing. I expected this because when the seller first got the car back to Omaha he took it to the dealer in Omaha and I have his copy of the service write up. This write up was on 9/16/2006 not but a week or so after getting back from Florida and the car had 100,101 on the clock when the service was written up. The seller then went on to put 6k on it before I picked it up. Anyway the service write up by the dealer in Omaha says:

A. "Customer states A/C & Heat is not changing back & forth"
- service performed = "Checked operation. Quoted repair. Declined at this time."
- my observation = "yep - you can go all blue and get air or all red and get heat but it does not really "climate control". I remember reading about this and I will pull up what needs to be done later. I bet the repair price quote which cost him $108 in labor for the diagnostic was enough to scare the bejesus out of his wife but maybe it is something I could fix.

B. "Customer states SRS light came on once, had not come back on."
- service performed = does not same anything else - no charge
- my observation = "yep it is flickering very intermittent like but only when the lights are on? Maybe that is the only time I noticed. Figured it might be a bad contact somewhere but also figured the airbag was not deploy while I was rolling on the freeway. Now that would be a adventure but I also reckoned I could probably get free Benz out of the deal if I survived. Also though what is that indicator light I see lighted right above the center of the steering column on the row on indicator lights? It lights up when the lights are on but it is illegible apparently due to age and I can't find anything about it in the owners manual.

C. This is the big one "Customer states vehicle is running really rough when cold, will run okay after warmed up."
- service performed = "Checked glow plugs operation. All plugs working okay at this time. No fuel leak found."
- my observation = yeah the shoe kind of hits the floor on this one. The car takes a couple of turns to start when after it is up to temp to start. Consistently starts always when warm just takes a couple of turns before it does. Now that I have it home I just went out and - starts faster cold than when warm but it does not run on all cylinders. I shut it off immediately so I can do more cold troubleshooting later while I write this.

D. This one is funny and again seems to sum up this car. "Customer states would like estimate on headlight wiper blades."
- service performed = "WB estimate on wiper blades = $26.78"
- my obeservation = "FTLOG man lets get all the cylinders working and then lets worry about the novelties!"

The car is freakishly; dangerously without power from a stop until you crawl and I mean crawl your way up to like 2k rpm. Then woosh you are on your way. Like I was saying without the electric fan I had to turn of the A/C on hills etc to keep the temp down but once I hit cooler weather in Washington the car had more and more power from 3k rpm up etc. It seemed to get better on power in the cooler temps and it is better now even from stop once I got home. Also the car stumbled when I asked for full fuel when I first picked it up like fuel starvation but that went away as I drove. There is only very slight smoke on full acceleration and only at the upshifts as far as I can tell out the tented windows. No smoke at all when you floor it off stop and get nowhere. Sound like filter, ALDA and/or cat plugged to me but I don't to get into that until I know I have proper compression.

So I would really like input on what to do with regards to diagnosing what the missing and lack of power is due to. My thoughts are to get the compression check done first and start from there before messing with bypassing the cat and looking into the fuel system including the ALDA. Like I say it is cold now but I don't have a compression tester for diesel. I was thinking of going to Harbor Freight today (ack! on HF tools but open to suggestions... I just want to get going) and picking one up. Or should I wait until Monday and take it to a dealer or shop to do. Please what "pearls of wisdom" do you have for these eager ears? Should I crack injector lines to see what cylinders are not firing when cold or just concentrate on getting the compression check?

Thanks everyone.
sell it on ebay.
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  #48  
Old 08-10-2007, 10:56 PM
Jim B.'s Avatar
Who's flying this thing ?
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: N. California./ N. Nevada
Posts: 3,611
Obtaining VMI

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kurt Smith View Post
If you are talking about my car, I assumed they do this each time you take in for some service but I didn't inquire about it Wednesday. I found out my girlfriend knows the service manager though so I am sure I could call back in and ask they run one. Is there a self serve web service?
The VMI is proprietary to Mercedes Benz, (so it is not available on the web) nor is it given to every customer who comes to the dealer for service as a matter of course. Most customers either don't know or don't care about them.

The dealer doesn't have to give them out either. But probably most will if you ask nicely, or know someone in parts or service who will obtain one for you, and give you a printed out copy of it.

Each "job" shows up by a numeric code, so you'd need the service advisor to explain each "dmg. code" entry to you and what was done.

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