Negative... Not a speck of rust anywhere on this car. I have been looking at it for 2 days now. Pulling up carpet, the battery tray, door panels, etc...

The modulator was recently replaced according to the records. I will have to look into that. Possibly a source of the whistling?

That is not Armor All. I coated all the aluminum and bare steel under the hood with a fine mist of oil. Some over spray got on the hoses and stuff. I have yet to wipe it all off. I live on the water (salt water) so corrosion is a problem if you don't coat everything every couple weeks.

whenever the battery tray rots out it usually take the metal beneath it with it. any w123 ive seen with battery tray rot which seems to be a lot the metal beneath it is rotted.You can clearly see where the blue paint ends and where undercoating/primer starts.

Theres probally rust underneath the undercoating/sound proofing that hasnt shown yet but when it does show it might to be late

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1986 300SDL, 211K,Dealership serviced its whole life
1991 190E 2.6(120k)
1983 300D(300k)
1977 300D(211k)

That black "disconnected" vacuum line under the dash is supposed to be...disconnected.

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80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)

Which one? I have found 2 that are disconnected now.

There is a large on and a small one. The small one goes out the firewall and over the Injection pump. The large one goes out the firewall, through a filter and then splits into 2 small lines.

Sorry for the confusion.

check the intake for the turbo. if the air horn seal ring is old and cracked it will let some turbo whistle/noise pass.


well good cover it in some oil... the sacrificial coating on all of the metal looks like crap when it starts to sacrifice itself.

I would really pull that "battery tray" and inspect under it and then replace it with the proper tray and proper battery. Mercedes has the offical group 49 they sell for like $120.
The SDL has one and it looks a lot better than anything else. But my second choice would be an interstate battery. those optimum red tops do not like to sit longer than 2 or 3 days. My friend has one in his impala SS and delorean which have been sitting and after those few days they were dead. They cannot take even a small drain.

Thanks for the input Joe. I will plan to put a real tray in there. I just don't like the looks of the one that is in there.

I already pulled the tray once. I'll pull it again just to be sure. They obviously sanded and repainted the area under the tray. It is covered with that bedliner stuff. It is not very thick and you can still see all the factory seams. I pulled the carpet back on the inside too. Nothing but factory paint everywhere. So if there was any rust it does not look like it rusted through.

I got it up in the air now trying to isolate what I think is a vacuum leak. I found 2 under the dash. Both black lines. One is small and only pokes about 2 inches through the firewall grommet. That one goes over to side of the plastic piece on the injection pump under the hood. The other line is larger diameter and much longer. It sticks through the firewall grommet about 7 inches. This is the one that has the filter on it. I plugged this one for a few minutes and got the door locks to temporarily work only very slowly.

Someone said that one of these lines is supposed to be open?

Is there a good vacuum diagram somewhere? I looked up at the sticky in the Diesel Discussion area and saw some but not what I was really hoping for. I'm still trying to learn the names of all the components under this hood. So, it makes it a little hard to describe all this stuff.

Thanks again!

AJ