OK, I must agree as I have both a manual and auto 240 and the stick is peppier

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1981 240D 143k 4 spd manual -SOLD

2004 VW Jetta TDI 5 speed 300k -still driven daily

Peppier?

Made me think of the time we were in Esslinen (just outside of Stuttgart) where my Father was born and we went into a pizza place, and they college kid noticed our difficulty with German, and wanted to show off & practice his English! We ended up ordering a "Pepperoni" pizza, we went out side to eat it, and they had put on these really HOT long skinny peppers on it! Now that was "Peppier"! (no meat on it!)

My 240D certianly is not the fastest car I have ever driven, but it is sufficient for what I need now!

Auto tranny weighs more . . . auto tranny has some "slip" also . . . I like having the stick to move around, and complete control of when I shift.

Nice one Shawn. Almost a twin of my 81 that I tragically had to get rid of a while ago except for more wood on yours. Mine had 379K when I picked it up and almost 400K on it when I had to dump it. Motor was still going great though. It was a fantastic car. Good luck with yours.


- Peter.

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2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

The trunk locks on these cars can sometimes act like they have a mind of their own and lock you out at very inconvenient times. Its best to unlock the trunk by unlocking the doors. Avoid opening the trunk with the key and you'll have less problems, at least I haven't got locked out "since" doing it that way.
Nice car, happy motoring

Oh, and be sure to check the tranny fluid, sometimes folks put 90 wt gear oil in there, probably not the case with yours but you want too be sure theres ATF (or "ATF" type) in there.

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1985 Euro 240D 5 spd 140K
1979 240D 5 spd, 40K on engine rebuild
1994 Dodge/Cummins, 5 spd, 121K
1964 Allice Chalmers D15 tractor
2014 Kubota L3800 tractor
1964 VW bug

"Lifes too short to drive a boring car"

Wouldn't that be "pepperier"?

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1981 240D 143k 4 spd manual -SOLD

2004 VW Jetta TDI 5 speed 300k -still driven daily

Yeah Your right! and it sure was!

The manual say to put in engine oil 10W20 or 20W . . . I picked up some Valvoline 20 wt tonight to change it out, was hoping to find synthetic (what do you use? . . . got some Amsoil synthetic for the rear diff . . .

On the way up to get the registration transfered . . . after about 20 mi of 2 lane at 65 mph, we got to the interstate and I bumped it up to 75 w/AC at MAX the heat quickly climbed to 110-115C (was about 95-100C) I saw a MB 320 CLK (I think that was the letters) up ahead, and my wife had just said a few miles back "how fast will this car go anyways" so I put it to the floor . . . took me about a mile to get up to 85mph and then it was all it could do on the flat to maintain that, as we are pulling up beside the 320 I looked back and saw a small cloud of black soot! The temp was just about up to 120C so as I passed them I eased off and turned the AC off from Max, and set the fan down to II it soon cooled down. Running around town w/AC OFF it was about 80-85C. While we were in town for about 2 hrs a storm came through, and cooled things off, on the way home I did another 85mph run, but with the rain & mist from the tires, I could not see if I blew/burned out and carbon/soot . . .I then settled down to a leasurly 55mph the last 20 mi home, it stayed at about 85-90C. (w/o AC on)

Filled it up with fuel . . . put in 6.93 gals drove 217.5 mi = 31.38 mpg . . . not so bad, probably a 1/4 of that was under 45mph, 1/4 at 55 mph, 1/4 at 65 mph, and the rest at 75 (except for that little Italian Tune Up) I am keeping track of it, and will see in the long run how it evens out . . .

I know the manual in certain years said to use a light engine oil, but after reading several threads here and talking with the techs at MB of Reno, I use Dexron III ATF.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

Mine averaged between 29 and 33 mpg depending on winter or summer diesel. So yours sounds like it's operating perfectly. Nice find.

- Peter.

__________________
2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

To answer your AC question , the colored thumbwheel is the on/off switch , when it's rolled all the way to the white zone , the AC pump is cut off .

90W in the tranny will kill it .

My 1st. Mercedes Diesel was a 1982 240D auto , white like yours , we still have it , well over 300,000 miles and it returns 34 MPG's @ 65 MPH across the desert , fully loaded with people and trunk , AC on MAX , yours will be the same or better .

No need to take the fuel tank all apart to kill the fungus , just find a boating supply store and buy some STARTRON by Starbrite ~ it's in clear blue bottles , works a treat .

Get or make some open ended 14MM wrenches and learn to adjust your valves then check 'em every other oil change .

No need to remove the EGR , if it bothers you knowing it's there , push a BB into the primary vacuum hose on the top of the rockerbox , that'll kill it but still allow passing inspections when they turn up in a couple years .

The plastic pipe slipped out of the moulded bent hose as the hose is stiff & hard ~ those and all the various rubber elbows on the breather tubes are cheap and easy to replace & then your oil seepages will pretty much stop .

This car is dead simple and easy to repair , begin by cleaning it up and changing all the niggly little things , you're going to _LOVE_ it ~ in Pheonix there's terrific Pick-A-Part self service junkyards that'll yeild all the small things it might need .

The trunk will give you zero troubles once you learn to always turn the key CCW as far as it'll go before pushing it in ~ all W-123's are like this .

Replacing the various vacuum chambers (don't forget the filler flap one) will usually restore the central locking to perfect health so it'll hold vacuum for a week .

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

I see the "off" position now . . . I finally read the entire owners manual, now I need to buy a service manual . . . I have 20 wt oil for the tranny, not 90. I'm putting 75-90 synthetic in the diff though . . .

When your running at 65 w/AC on MAX what does your temps run on the engine?

No problems yet with fuel, maybe the gauge to the fuel, but at the moment I have other things in front of that . . .

Apparently the pass front door is the only door working on vacuum, does that make sense? yesterday I ended up locking the car, then I had trouble getting in the trunk while the doors were locked . . . I later did find that there is a vacuum line pluged . . .

One yellow line is hooked up, one is plugged . . .

I plan to clean it up this Thursday after work, the school I work at has a preasure washer . . . then I have a 3 day weekend to play with it . . . I work 4-10hr days, and by the time I get home from horking 10 hrs out in 100 degrees I'm ready to take it easy

I do plan on adjusting my own valves too!

My AC recently got a new compresor & condenser and it has been converted to R134A . . . works, but not as quick to cool down as other veh I have had.

Phoenix is about 200 mi away, not sure how much I will save driving 400 miles round trip for some used parts . . . but . . . that maybe the only way for me to get a pass side mirror . . .which I would really like to have How hard is that to add?

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82 240D Manual 277K and still rolling!
02 Volvo S60 AWD For Sale

Phoenix is about 200 mi away, not sure how much I will save driving 400 miles round trip for some used parts . . . but . . . that maybe the only way for me to get a pass side mirror . . .which I would really like to have How hard is that to add?

It is straightforward
You have to remove the the inner cover which snaps on, then the outer cover can be removed.
Make sure you get the new inside cover with a hole for the mirror adjuster to pass through.

__________________
1981 240D 143k 4 spd manual -SOLD

2004 VW Jetta TDI 5 speed 300k -still driven daily

I'm a firm believer & user of the citric acid cooling system flush , my 240D runs 82° C unless I exceed 70 MPH or go to Death Valley then it runs between 90° C ~ 100° C , occasionally drifts up to the very edge of the red zone on the temp. gauge but as the owner's manual says , this is entirely normal , remember : Diesel LOVE heat , they thrive on it and produce more power & better fuel economy when they're on the boil .

Those yellow tubes unbder the hood ~ the one with the stripe is for the vacuum resivoir in the trunk , get a Mighty Vac tool from Harbor Fright , it'll be your new best freind . the cylindrical thing the yellow tubes are connected to , is a one way vacuum check valve , it's filthy and so is leaky if not dead , replace it ASAP , they're cheap .

The trunk will easily open even when the central locking is in the lock mode , unless of course , some boob hooked up the vacuum chamber's hoses wrong like they did on our 240D..... lukily you use , Mercedes designed an easy to remove black square cover you can pop off to acess both the hoses and chamber in the trunk .

Under the passenger's side carpet is a black plastic cover , pop it up to find the vacuum tube's "T" connecters that split the passengers side front door from the rear door , use the Mighty-Vac tool there to ascertain where specifically the leak is....

yellow tubes are locks , red stripe is the lock circuit , green stripe is the un-lock circuit .

The shop manual is long out of print , often foundin thrift shops cheaply , or occasionaly Flea-Bay hceaply *if* it's been used , many more are held for high dollars by jerkoff " serious collectors " who never , ever read the damned thing...........

The OM616 engine is a seperate manual .

Luckily Mercedes put the whole thing on a CD-R and sells it for $29.00 at any dealer or OnLine , it uses the early version of Acrobat (3.0) , this is included on the disc so run that first or it may not open...

Pass side mirror is a snap to install , be aware that Mercedes changed the base a little bit in 1982 so be sure you get the right one before you pay for it and get all the tiny screws and inside cover plate too .

they pop up on Flea-Bay and the classified section here all the time , don't pay too much they're cheap if you but wait .

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

I replaced the tranny fluid from the PO (red stuff - unsure provenance) with Mobil 1 oil as per owner's manual and have had no problems since - significantly reduced the slipping going into 2nd gear. I may try the MTF others have mentioned on other threads when I am due for a change in a year or three.

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Current Mercedes
1979 maple yellow 240D 4-speed

Gone and fondly remembered:
1980 orient red 240D 4-speed

Gone and NOT fondly remembered:
1982 Chna Blue 300TD

Other car in the stable:
2013 VW Jetta Sportwagen TDI / 6-speed MT

THANKS FOR ALL THE INFO!

I have a vacuum tester I got a Craftsman . . . now I got something to use it on!

I just this morning ordered the cd manual from mbusa

Should I wait to do the thermostat r/r until I flush it, or does that make any difference? I have a new thermostat ordered from Phil @ Fastlane . . .

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82 240D Manual 277K and still rolling!
02 Volvo S60 AWD For Sale