My 87 300SDL makes a clicking i haven't noticed before when idling... It comes and goes... and is coming from the engine...

Anybody know what this is?

random clicking before reaching full operating temp is usually metal expanding.

continuous, repetitive, predictable clicking is mechanical and can be numerous things.

please be more descriptive

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Draining the car on my five minute ride to school, stop and am idling for a few mins turning off the radio etc...

clicking starts and sounds to be in-sync with engines normal chatter..

On some, it is the lifters telling you it's time for an oil change.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

Its the lifters. Try some synthetic that usualy helps them.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Probably the lifters but put an ear up near the Vacuum pump to see if thats the source of the noise. Which raises the question, have you upgraded to the late style vac pump yet?

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

The lifters are best characterized as "ticking".

They can be very pronounced if you listen at the back of the wheel wells.

Sometimes synthetic oil (Mobil 1) can clear it up over 10K miles or so.

Sometimes not..........

8k miles of M1 fixed all but two of mine. 15 years of being driven by a little old lady (my grandma ) must have gunked those two up beyond the magic of M1. You should have seen the ALDA fitting on the manifold before I first cleaned it out

It was on the project list to replace them this summer, but I never got motivated to buy the parts and before I knew it it was August and time to head back to school

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Dale

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g1...MG_2277sig.jpg

1990 300D 2.5 Turbo -155k
2000 E430 - 103k
2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee Ecodiesel 4x4 - 11k
2014 VW Passat TDI SE - 7k Bro's Diesel
2006 E320 CDI - 128k Pop's Benz

Pre-glow - A moment of silence in honor of Rudolph Diesel