My mechanic said almost the same thing to me when I got my '87 300D Turbo. He commented that the 603 was an especially expensive engine to repair. So far, I guess I have been lucky -- most of my expenses have been associated with fixing the problems left to me by the PO. Routine maintenance of a 603-- oil and filters. etc., is pretty much the same as a 617. In terms of my time, the 603 is actually easier to maintain, since valve adjustments are not required. It may be that the "expensive" comments are related to the increased complexity of the 603 -- an additional cylinder, hydraulic valve tappets, pulling the intake manifold to get at the glow plugs, etc.

Jeremy

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"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

Chris - after taking an hour to regain my composure, I checked my car and no signs of any cracking. I'm hoping it was a manufac. defect so that if my car had problems it would have appeared by now. If it's truly a design problem, I guess I'll keep worrying. :0 Seriously thanks for the heads up.

Uggg! Just went thru that again after 25k miles. What a huge pain. I guess you could try and R/R the plugs with intake mani on, but that aluminum head is so soft its REEEEALLLYYYY easy to strip threads and then you are in an even bigger world of hurt.

Does anyone else have to climb on top of the engine to get at the 12 hex head bolts holding Intake mani on, or is that just me being a grease monkey?
Wife came into garage and saw me standing on motor and just laughed and went upstairs...

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Paul
Benz-less
I need an SDL !

I hope she took your picture.

I did not stand on my engine when I recently took mine off. It has been off before, so all the bolts came out quite easily.

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1987 300TD 309, xxx 2.8.2014 10,000 mile OCI


Be careful of the toes you step on today, as they may be connected to the ass you have to kiss tomorrow. anonymous

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter won’t mind.” Dr. Seuss

It you don't have any cracks, I wouldn't worry about it. Do you have the new style vacuum pump? If not that is a good thing to worry about, that and overheating.

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1987 300TD 309, xxx 2.8.2014 10,000 mile OCI


Be careful of the toes you step on today, as they may be connected to the ass you have to kiss tomorrow. anonymous

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter won’t mind.” Dr. Seuss

We owned an 87 300TD as my wife's primary car for 13 years.
I finally replaced it with a minty 95 E320 wagon, and my wife was sad to see it go. So sad, it took a year after I bought the E320 to finally get her to turn it loose.... Only major hit was the $4,500 replacement head.
My experiences with the W124 chassis led me to seek out the nicest 95 wagon I could find, even if it meant paying more than a W210 wagon.

I've been driving W123 diesel for almost as long, and it was W115 diesels before that, and the running cost of a W124 is more, but not significantly so....with the following thought:

It's more a factor of the age and mileage at this point, as far as the expectation of trouble free motoring goes. This was why the 87 300TD was replaced. While it was still in great cosmetic and mechanical shape, it was still almost 20 years old, and had 237,000 miles.

I no longer felt comfortable with my wife driving the car out of town. while I'm perfectly content to percolate down the road in my 83 300D, it's an entirely different situation to have your wife stuck on the side of the road.

I love both the W123 and the W124 diesels, but the age factor was more important in our case, and since MB hasn't imported a diesel wagon since ours, I had to move over to a gasser.

Jim

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14 E250 BlueTEC black. 45k miles
95 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 66k miles
94 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 152k miles
85 300TD 4 spd man, euro bumpers and lights, 15" Pentas dark blue 274k miles

She is used to seeing stuff like that now, hell since she's known me. We had a spare bathroom she decorated in fluffy pottery barn stuff and one day moved the shower curtain and found the head from my 83 GTI sitting in the tub (hey it was an apartment...)

There are a few lugs integrally cast into the OM603 intake mani at #4 and #5 that make it tough to get at the bottom bolts, even having removed and replaced them all 2 yrs ago. Maybe I need more doctor seuss ratchet extensions or something...or a 24" long allen wrench.

Anyways, I love the OM603, but if you take it into the shop everytime it needs attention it will get $$$$ quicker than a 123/6. And temper my opinion of the car with the fact that Im known for going about things the hard way. I figure if we landed on the moon, damn near anythings possible. Well maybe with exception of fixing the sunroof...

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Paul
Benz-less
I need an SDL !

what a great mechanic. Setting you up for the kill.

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1982 240 D, 308,000 - 321,127 miles (sold)
1982 300 TD,166,500 - 226,000 miles
1998 E 320, 120,000 - 144,000 miles
2005 C 230 K, 26,000 - 77,000 miles (sold)