Hey i was just wondering if anyone of you can help me out. i leant my 1985 300sd to my friend the other day and it came back sounding pretty bad. the oil is fine, but now it blows smoke and shakes alot, and theres a little knocking sound that is kind of sketching me out. Also when i go up a hill in first gear it feels like i'm in a fisherprice car cause theres no power. My cars got 430k km, engine worked perfectly fine before, he said he was going 150km. Any suggestions what it could be?


Thanks.

He was going 150km or 150km/h?

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1993 W124 300D
-297K on the clock as I type this.

Watery diesel or gasoline.

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James Marriott
2003 Buick Regal
1983 300D (228k, frau Auto)
1996 Suburban K2500 (192k, 6.5 turbo diesel/4WD towmaster 10,000)
www.engineeringworks.biz
1987 300SDL junker 170k
1982 300SD junker, 265k

Are we talking about a heavy knock (bottom end) or an injector knock (like someone sharply hitting metal with a hammer)? It sounds a bit like it could be a bad injector. Also, when was your last valve adjustment?

its more like an injector knock i geuss.. i've owned it for 5 months and haven't had a valve adjustment.. how much would a bad injector cost to repair? and if it was a "heavy knock" how bad would that be?

Thanks.

I was assuming it was an injector knock due to the smoke and loss of power. A bottom end knock would be like a bad bearing sound (more of a clunk), but that probably wouldn't explain the power loss. Your valves should be adjusted every 15K miles, so you might want to take a look. I just paid about $50-60 each for rebuilt injectors. You might also want to test the compression to make sure you don't have a bigger problem.

Are you bringing it to a shop or doing it yourself?

i'll be bringing it to a shop.. atleast for a diagnosis, after that if they say its not that big a deal i might get my hands a little dirty...

Just have them do a good diagnosis so you know whats going on before you start replacing parts. Hopefully, it's something simple.

k so that was yesterday when i posted that and when my car was running horribly, but from my girlfriends house to my house which is about 25km, the car runs beautifully again... ahah i have no idea why but maybe i should just be thankfull and not let my friends use my car !!!

You may still want to get it looked over sometime, at least make sure the valves are adjusted.

Make sure you or your mechanic drain the oil and drop the oil pan. Check to see if there are pieces of the bronze bearings at the bottom. If there are, you have a spun bearing and need to replace the engine.
Tow it to someone who knows MB Diesel engines and let him listen to it.
If it isn't rod knock, it could be any of a list of alternate problems -- injector nailing, valve issues etc. -- all of which are much cheaper than a spun bearing.
Don't run the engine too much while trying to figure what's wrong, or you will find a rod going through the side of your engine block -- then you will have no questions as to your problem. And don't run it at all after you drain the oil.
Good luck and may your problems be cheap ones.
Paul

Did you happen to fill it up with a new tank of fuel?

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Yeah, there might be a bad batch of diesel in it or gasoline.


Is there any easy test to see if there is gasoline in diesel fuel (like smell)?

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-Typos courtesy of my mobile phone.

Would diesel separate from gasoline if you stick it in a clear container? I know you can do this with gas and water but that doesn't help us much here...

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

You should be able to smell the gas with the filler cap off. It is possible your friend inroduced gasoline to the mix.