Looking at 240D to buy
 

Hi all. I am considering traveling quite a distance to look at a low mileage 240D (90K's). Car seems pretty good although a/c is not working and there is a minor oil leak. Owner says he could not tell where it was coming from, but says there's a small puddle when parked overnight. Should this worry me on a 240D with only 90K miles? Could this be an indicator of something expensive? Also worrying me is that Carfax shows three previous owners but seller is telling me he's the second owner (although it does check out that he's had it for 9 years). He does not have most service records.

Anyway, to the point, seller sent some photos (below) a couple of which have me concerned. First, is there supposed to be so much black soot on the top of the fender wells and generally around the inside of the engine bay? I'd guess it's the result of an ongoing exhaust leak but it almost looks as if there might have been a fire at some point:eek: Is this normal? Maybe it's just road grime accumulation. I looked at photos of other cars and this does not seem to be normal:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/225015-my-new-81-240d.html?highlight=1981+240D

And what's the funky goo-like substance around the valve cover breather hose elbow? That hose clamp is not stock either. And there are oil stains visible around the valve cover bolt just below the oil fill cap. Could this be a sign of blowby out the cap?

Also, about what would a car like this go for? Everything works except for the A/C. Runs, drives, and shifts very well, btw.

Thanks!

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/2209/240dengine2n.jpg
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/8421/240dengine1.jpg

The AC could cost $300 to over $1000 to get working right. Do you need AC where you live?

None of the things you mention would concern me at all.

The evidence of condition is in driving the car and testing for blow by. It it drives nice and tight and has minimal blowby I would be interested in it. It looks pretty clean.

If its your first Mercedes I would recommend a check up by a Mercedes experienced diesel repair shop.

Not too bad under hood. Seems a PO tried to fix a blowby leak, it's that's okay, shouldn't be a big deal.

I've seen pictures of this car - It looks amazing, and appears to be in great shape...

I was going to look at it, but an offer I made on another car was accepted...

Thanks for the replies. Yes, A/C is essential where I live. The blowby might be the cause of the oil leak...or might now. Should the evidence of blowby concern me? Especially for an engine with only ~90K miles?

If the oil leak is from the upper oil pan or rear main seal, the engine has to come out to fix.

Oil cooler lines can add up too..

AC could be any number of things that you would have to diagnose if you decided to buy, but you would also find tons of info on that here.

Here is link regarding blowby - you can also do a search to find other links:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/188320-blow-curioisty-questions.html?highlight=blowby

Blow-by can result from a few different things - it is definately worth checking out upon inspection, but the real question is what are the compression numbers. You would need to do a valve adjustment before getting accurate compression numbers though.

The engine bay is not THAT filthy - you should have seen the engine bay on my 240D when I picked it up, if only looking inside the engine bay you would have thought that the paint color was black. According to the PM, his wife left the oil filler cap off after adding oil and drove it around. I took it to the car wash, sprayed it down with concentrate degreaser and then power-washed it off - now it looks like the white car that it is. Since the engine on this car doesn't look that dirty, you might be able to get a sense of where the oil is leaking from just by crawling around it.

Diesels can be forgiving of the blow-by, as many here will tell you, as long as it starts good, drives well and doesn't burn a lot of oil, you're doing alright. Again, your real concern would be with the compression numbers - if you can do a check prior to purchase then it would be a good idea.

This is if YOU do the work. Could cost a LOT more if you pay a shop to do it.

Scott

Well, party on the advice I got here, I decided to go ahead and make an offer on the car, signt-unseen. I offered about 90% of their asking price, and was flatly (but politely) refused without a counteroffer. The sellers are absolutely firm on the asking price which is just simply beyond my reach financially, especially when I'm looking at another $2K for maintenance and repairs right out of the gate (I always do a major service whenever I buy a used car). So, damn. For what they were asking I could pick up a nice W124 diesel with ~150K-200K miles, which is what I might just end up doing after-all to replace mine that just died. And I wonder after just putting 250K on a '92 300D turbo, if driving a 240D might be just a bit of a "down shift" so to speak. Nevertheless, thanks to everyone on this board with their help and advice. The never-ending search for good low-miles Mercedes diesels continues...

No big loss here. The car looks amazing.....BUT, there are 2 major things against it.
#1 AC doesn't work. The AC could easily turn into a big money item that can turn ugly real quick.
#2 It's a 240D automatic. Don't get me wrong, I love all MB diesels, but the 240D automatic is a bit slow and the hardest of the diesels to sell.

Other than being dog slow, is there anything else against the automatic? I mean it's still durable and all that right? My W124 300D went 320K miles on its original auto tranny and still shifted perfectly until the day it died. I can live with dog slow, but durability/reliability is extremely important.

And as for the 240D, the thing I really like about them is the ease of DIY maintenance. I never liked all the emissions components (EGR, yuk, which periodically got clogged with crud) and computers and sensors on my '92. It forced me to take it in for most of its maintenance.

I have both a manual and auto 240 and believe the durability of both is fine if maintained and as far as speed differences it really is a moot point with these cars. And they are so DIY friendly.

I have owned a 240 auto and would not buy another unless I was planning to convert it to stick. They are dangerously slow imho. The sticks are very tolerable.

Durability wise they are fine as long as you change the fluid and filters by the book they should last the life of the car more or less.