Why should the state care about motor mounts?

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Michael LaFleur

'05 E320 CDI - 86,000 miles
'86 300SDL - 360,000 miles
'85 300SD - 150,000 miles (sold)
'89 190D - 120,000 miles (sold)
'85 300SD - 317,000 miles (sold)
'98 ML320 - 270,000 miles (sold)
'75 300D - 170,000 miles (sold)
'83 Harley Davidson FLTC (Broken again) :-(
'61 Plymouth Valiant - 60k mikes
2004 Papillon (Oliver)
2005 Tzitzu (Griffon)
2009 Welsh Corgi (Buba)

I'm not sure. The state inspection has criteria for "broken" motor mounts, so I guess that's whomever is doing the inspection's definition of "broken" is...

I ended up getting either sachs-boge or lemfoerder (I'll find out when I open the box)


How acceptable is it to park the car on ramps (parking brake, P, chocked wheels), while working on it (or under it)?

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1982 240D, sold 9/17/2008
1987 300D TurboW124.133 - 603.960, 722.317 - Smoke Silver Metallic / Medium Red (702/177), acquired 8/15/2009
262,715 and counting

If you can get down to Stokes County NC, we can get it done in an afternoon...It's not too tough. ALWAYS use chocks and ramps and/or jack stands.

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1987 300D (230,000 mi on a #14 head-watching the temp gauge and keeping the ghost in the machine)
Raleigh NC - Home of deep fried sushi!

If you know someone with a Japanese car, return the scissors jack and borrow their jack to lift the engine.

I suspect damping fluid leaks from collapsed mounts give themselves away.

How severe are the delivery valve leaks? Maybe you can blow a can of brake parts cleaner on the IP to pass inspection. Who performed the inspection? It surprises me that anyone other than a Diesel tech knows delivery valve leaks from, say, bad injector line fittings. You got your money's worth of a diagnosis on that point alone.

Sixto
87 300D

It was the shop that did the PPI inspection on my car. ******** (German specialist) in Yorktown, VA. I should have gone to a gas station . They've got Bosch logos all over their service shops. At first it was just a 'fuel leak', but I managed to talk about where it was with the service adviser - he said at the IP, and I asked if it was the delivery valve seals (it really pays to read this forum ). So, on the write-up for the "failed items" it simply says motor mounts and delivery valve seals. I'll do just that.

I don't really know anyone in the area. The jack was only $10 () at harbor freight.

__________________
1982 240D, sold 9/17/2008
1987 300D TurboW124.133 - 603.960, 722.317 - Smoke Silver Metallic / Medium Red (702/177), acquired 8/15/2009
262,715 and counting

Good news, the UPS guy dropped off the motor mounts (peculiar, though, 1 sachs, 1 lemfoerder...)

But that's something to worry about tomorrow.


I got the IP and the intake surgically clean. Man, it's really looks nice. Took off the injector lines. I just moved the three rear ones out of the way, which removing the three in the front. Collars off without a hitch (got them nice and clean, too).

Then there's the delivery valves...popped those out, the o-rings looked fine (hmmmm), but pretty grungy. The old ones are square, as opposed to the new ones that I put in (from dealer). Gave everything a dip in power service (no diesel on hand) to get the stuff off, made sure the springs were in the dead center and that the copper rings were centered, as well. Replaced the o-rings, and torqued them to 30Nm, 30Nm, then 35Nm.

I reattach the collars, put everything back in place. Tightened the injector lines at the IP, left finger tight at the injectors.

While my girlfriend cranked the car (10 second intervals), I watched for fuel. It took a while, but we finally got some. Tightened them up. I noticed while it was cranking that there were bubbles (in the small amount of water left from degreasing / detailing the engine) around the first injector body. Crap...

Is that just the heat shield?

Ok, well, after we got fuel, I figured I'd try to start it. Glowed, cranked for a couple seconds, started to fire...but not on all cylinders. It got a little better, but it was still a little lopey at lower RPMs. Crap, again...

It almost feels like it's running on 5 cylinders. I drove around the block while paying attention to the engine, and it almost seemed to stutter. Parked it, opened the hood (car still running), and I loosened each of the injector lines at the injectors, plenty of fuel squirting out on each, idle got worse on each...but, at either the 3rd or 4th, it wasn't too much of any improvement. It was getting dark, so, I'll check it tomorrow. The 4th delivery valve was a bear to get out, plenty of crud in the threads. I cleaned it up, and it went in just as easily as the others - I'm not sure if this means anything, or if it's related to the problem.

Any guidance for where I should go next? I'm probably going to go buy a craftsman deep socket for the injectors, and replace that 1st heat shield, but I'm kinda at a loss for what to do. I can disassemble the offending delivery valve if I can figure out which cylinder it is.

The motor mounts have still yet to be replaced, so, I assume that this contributes to the bad idle - I could feel the steering wheel shaking, not something that I felt before, bad mounts or not...

Thanks guys.

Quick PS: I didn't replace the copper seals, is there something wrong with that?

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1982 240D, sold 9/17/2008
1987 300D TurboW124.133 - 603.960, 722.317 - Smoke Silver Metallic / Medium Red (702/177), acquired 8/15/2009
262,715 and counting

That will do, just make sure you have a decent set of ramps. If I use my ramps and not the jack stands, I have several larger 6"x6" piece of lumber that I stack up underneath just in case. Nothing freaks me out more than the thought of having the tranny crushing the breath out of me . . .

Oh, and for cleaning the IP, get yourself a couple cans of cheap brake cleaner and lots of shop towels.

__________________
'95 E300D ("Tank") - 231,000 miles
'79 240D ("Biscuit") - 197,250 miles (Sold)
'83 240D ("Ding-Ding") - 217,000 miles (Death by deer)
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"Back off, man. I’m a scientist” ~ Peter Venkman

Yeah, I opted for the 12000lb GVW (6k per pair) autozoo ones. They're awfully heavy. I'll probably pick up some chocks tomorrow while I'm hunting for a socket for the injectors

I was impressed with how clean I got the IP. I hit it twice before I started removing the lines (once to get the area cleaner, and once again with a long screwdriver and shirt to get behind the delivery valves). After I got the collars off, I had to go over it again. There's a lot of crud underneath them...

Here's what it looks like after getting them back in (with the collars still off) . I used the Gunk Engine Brite (Citrus) stuff. It worked quite well (I think I did help though )

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
1982 240D, sold 9/17/2008
1987 300D TurboW124.133 - 603.960, 722.317 - Smoke Silver Metallic / Medium Red (702/177), acquired 8/15/2009
262,715 and counting

Ok, if nobody has any reservations, I'm going to fire up the car this morning, try and isolate the cylinder, and if I can figure out which it is, remove that delivery valve and make sure it's seated and torqued properly.

I'll probably do the #1 injector heat shield first, but, I am not completely sure it's the culprit, just an additional trouble maker.

After that, I'll start on the motor mounts. The passenger side looks to be fun getting at from the top, you can barely see it between the exhaust manifold / headers / whatever the technical term is for them.

Nate

__________________
1982 240D, sold 9/17/2008
1987 300D TurboW124.133 - 603.960, 722.317 - Smoke Silver Metallic / Medium Red (702/177), acquired 8/15/2009
262,715 and counting

Think how much more fun it woulf be if the 'football' (trap cat) was still there.

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

Ouch...

Guess I'm lucky. I sure do hope I can get this all taken care of soon, I'd like to put the car back on the road.

Good thing I stocked up on heat shields with my last part order


Until the next post in this charade,
Nate

__________________
1982 240D, sold 9/17/2008
1987 300D TurboW124.133 - 603.960, 722.317 - Smoke Silver Metallic / Medium Red (702/177), acquired 8/15/2009
262,715 and counting

I think we've isolated the cylinder to number #6...no noticeable change in idle when loosening the injector line. Guess that's the next place to go.

Well, I got the first injector out, made sure to not get any crud into the prechamber, and replaced the heat shield. Cleaned the outside threads on the injector, and replaced. Still bubbles around the injector Is this a prechamber problem? It's not at the threads of the injector, but more outside, near one of the indentations (about 4 o'clock from looking at the top of the injector, from the front of the vehicle). What type of mess have I uncovered? It's not going to leak fuel from there, is it? I don't think it would fail inspection because of that, but...ouch.

The battery's pretty tired from all the cranking, between yesterday and today. I'll charge it up and see how it does. It's a massive interstate, 850CCA and just about brand new. It better hold up... Oh, I guess I need a new battery tray eventually, too. YUCK.


Ok, peculiar thing I noticed (not sure if it's a design feature), but after cranking the car and then stopping, the shut-off lever stays down? It returns to it's normal position when the key reaches the 'glow position'.

I guess this is one of those 'fix' one thing, find two more things to fix...

__________________
1982 240D, sold 9/17/2008
1987 300D TurboW124.133 - 603.960, 722.317 - Smoke Silver Metallic / Medium Red (702/177), acquired 8/15/2009
262,715 and counting

So, it stopped raining, and the sun came out. Yay.

I got the most of the air out of the 1st injector line with a bit of cranking.

I then moved back to the delivery valves - the 6th was clearly the culprit. Either, A, I'm an idiot, and knocked the spring off while inserting the delivery valve before, or B, I'm clumsy today and just knocked it off on to the ground while taking it off. It might be A. Who knows?

Got everything cleaned up, back in, cranked in 10 second intervals (probably 2 or 3 times). I tightened up the line at the first injector (saw fuel dripping), and glowed for 20 seconds, and cranked. Whoo, there she goes

Hop out, tighten up injector line #6, bleed air out of all of 'em, and it's looking much better - albeit noisy. I drove around the block and the amount of smoke and noise went drastically down, however, it still makes more noise than before - perhaps similar to my OM616 when running on B100.

It kinda makes a quiet "chunk chunk chunk" (I don't really know how to describe it - it's kinda like a sewing machine). I would guess that's added noise from the delivery valves that haven't fully seated yet? The added clatter is mostly at idle. Is this something that just takes some time and driving to go away?

I've got other things to do this afternoon, but, I'll probably make sure all the fuel lines are tight, and then clean it all up and check for leaks. The return lines are kinda old, so that might be something for me to consider if there's still a little diesel hanging around...

Next time, fun with motor mounts!

__________________
1982 240D, sold 9/17/2008
1987 300D TurboW124.133 - 603.960, 722.317 - Smoke Silver Metallic / Medium Red (702/177), acquired 8/15/2009
262,715 and counting

Hmm... sounds like they were more concerned about you filling their pockets with parts and labor as the only way to pass the inspection. What a racket.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

Nate,
You do realize that Mercs dont usually require this much work! You should get 11 out of 10 for perseverance. Good luck with the mounts! I have only ever had to replace the one on the IP side of the motor.
When I was younger a common trick for some car dealers was to steam clean a motor and then strait away give it a heavy coat of clear lacquer. This would stop most leaks for a few hundred miles. If you look at most large earth moving equipment, they have a 1/4" thick in places coat of paint. Its a pain when it comes to rebuilding but it does keep the oil in.
If I was you, I would be parking just around the corner from the shop & giving the IP etc a good final wipe before I took it in. Its very clear that the shop is mainly interested in trying to make money from you!