May be looking at an interesting 300SDL this weekend: 670,000 miles
 

Its just getting broken it at near 700,000 miles. :eek: I'll be in the area this weekend and thought it would be interesting to check out. Looks to be in really nice shape for the miles. The original owner died in 2001, and it sat until 2004 when the second owner purchased it. Garaged kept all of its life. I called over to the local dealer, and I discovered it has also been dealer serviced its entire life as well, with a gap between 2001-2004, corroborating the story perfectly. The service guy told me there were too many records to go through but I could get a print out in person should I desire. From the quick glance there's no evidence of a new engine, but he just skimmed.

I will be looking at the head casting and for any remanufacturing badge on the block. With a new tranny, brakes, and shocks the PO had spent quite a bit of money on it, but at his asking price I'm only half interested.;) He replaced the dead odometer with a much younger one, but claims to have the original (that would have to be fixed).

Realistically the number in my head if there's no evidence of a rebuild would likely come off as an insult, but still it will be fun to look. I asked him what evidence the dealer said to making that claim of low mileage on the engine, and there was nothing of substance behind it.

Here's the link. The interior doesn't sound nearly as bad as he puts it out to be in the ad. Just a few splits. Everything works supposedly, with the exception of the GP light and odometer. The smoking puts me off of course, as well as the inverted rear badges and crappy Sony system.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mercedes-Benz-300-SDL-1986-Mercedes-Benz-300SDL-30-MPG_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem19babc9bfcQQitemZ110507105276QQptZUSQ5fCarsQ5fTrucks

Why did I see two odometer photos showing different numbers? I take it the one that replaced the old one, started at a certain number (which he did not disclose).

http://i.ebayimg.com/06/!BnYE!kgBmk~...rDOVQ~~_35.JPG

http://i.ebayimg.com/15/!BnYE(wQ!2k~...+0WhQ~~_12.JPG

Looks like you're having fun again this weekend.

He did say he replaced the odometer when the speedo quit working.

Maybe that's why there are two? I'm a bit confused with the whole post.

He swapped in a lower mileage one after the original broke. Its a common occurrence. If it were my car I'd get the original fixed and rolled to the correct mileage. How can you have bragging rights if the odometer says something else?

Too true. I know someone on here with a 400,000+ 300SDL that had the same thing happen. Even with a full speed drill rolling the odometer forward apparently took a couple days.....

my odometer stopped working about 2 years ago at 354k I need to take it out and get it fixed and rolled forward... I should be closing in on 400k in the next year or so.

Hey taxi !!!!
If it has been used for long trips on good roads it maybe half a chance. looking at the pic of the head light, you can see plenty of stone damage as would be expected.
At 700k miles on my old 300D I was looking for a replacement car. There are lots of other issues with a high mileage car, fatigue being a real issue. look for cracks in the body & frames like around the steering idler and the steering box mounting area and the top shocker mount area.
If the motor is original, it will be blowing like a steam train out the oil filler cap after a good run.
I take it that you would not plan on keeping it long!

my odo died @ 327k mi. I nabbed a new one and matched the mileage by more or less taking apart the shaft and gears. Once I got it disassembled it took me like 20 mins to match the mileage.

Looking at the Carfax on my SDL, it was obvious that the odo had been rolled back 100k.

When I got the car running this last year, I took the cluster out and rolled it forward 100k to 312,000. It now shows 324,000.

It's easy to take apart the wheels and reset the numbers.

That was me! My old odometer was actually fine. I swapped in a different diff and took the speedo from the car too so the speed would be correct. I simply could not leave it at 150,000 miles. My car earned those 412,000 miles!

Considering the W126 speedo/odo are electronic, that must have been one high tech drill. ;) :D

And, why use a drill, you can just manually set the numbers...

Just looked at the link. I REALLY dislike the red interior, and with 412,000 on my sdl I can't even imagine 650+.

Concerning the badges. I looked at a car recently near me that sounded really nice. 300sdl (so I was told) and under 200k, then the kicker, he tells me its a 5 cylinder... I told him he was wrong (or lost a cylinder at some point:o) I go to see the car anyway cuz by this point I'm curious. Under the hood I find a 603 (which makes sense since its supposed to be a 300sdl) Then we notice my car is longer... Someone had put a 603 in an SD and threw the SDL badges on the car backward. Had it not been for the badge mistake I never would have figured it out.

I didn't use a drill exactly. I found a little electric motor and a gear that meshed with the speedo gear. Hooked it up to a couple batteries and let it run. At the time I wasn't aware you could open'r up and set the numbers, and frankly I'd have been afraid to even if I had known.