The 86 300SDL I just bought I finally got registered a couple days ago and was able to drive it around some. I drove about 45-50 miles at the most and it used over 1/8 of a tank. I divided the size of the tank by 8 and then that amount into the miles I went and got around 10-11 MPG that's insane. I noticed the oil is pretty black but from what I read in the owners manual if the oil is getting bad it tells you with a light.

I know I need to change it and I know that friction from the engine will make it use more fuel but that much more? I would imagine it has to be more then bad oil although I don't know very much about diesels other then what I have read here on the forums.

Does anyone have any ideas? It has plenty of power and runs great shifts fine. At about 65 MPH it runs around 3000 RPMs. There is no check engine light or anything of that sort on. It seems everything is working fine other then the mileage being ****ty.

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86 Mercedes 300SDL - 400k+ miles