So I am pretty new to the diesel world. This is my first winter with the car ('83 300sd). Today the high was about 50. When I went to work this morning I started my car as normal, started perfectly, then went to leave to drive to work (I have a whole 1 mile commute) and while driving it seemed my car did not have much power sometimes. I left work this afternoon and it did the same thing, I would get going about 40 mph and it just would not really have any more power. I kept driving around for about 10 more minutes and eventually the car started running like normal, accelerating just fine. Do I need to let the car idle for a while to warm up? Or is there some other potential problem I need to be watching out for? Also, I live in Nashville, TN. It does not get real cold here, should I look into getting a battery blanket or something for the dead of winter?

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1983 300SD Turbo Diesel Automatic

Idling with a diesel doesn't do much to warm things up. Best thing to do is crank it up and drive....but gently at first. With your one mile commute, you may not see much by way of power....especially when it gets really cold.

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14 E250 Bluetec "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 153k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 171k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver, 142k mi, wastegate conversion

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

Just take it easy on it until it is up to normal temperature (don't floor it, don't rev super high, etc)

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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

Same.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

Thats what I assumed. Thanks, I just wanted to make sure nothing was starting to go screwy on me.

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1983 300SD Turbo Diesel Automatic

It wil be sluggish, and it probably isn't good to rev to high RPMs until warmed up as others have said.

But, it should be able to go faster than 40 and it should be able to rev to high RPM shortly after starting -- I've been guilty of doing both trying to pull out onto a fast road a block from my house. Not my SOP though.

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'83 300DTurbo http://badges.fuelly.com/images/smallsig-us/318559.png

Broadband: more lies faster.

I don't think you need a battery blanket. If it gets down really cold and the car is hard to start, you might plug in your block heater, if one is installed.

Make sure your glow plugs are in good working order.

Winter is kind of a double-edged sword for diesels. They don't burn fuel well until they warm up, but once warmed up the cold intake air is more dense providing more oxygen for the combustion cycle.

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'85 300TD "Puff The Magic Wagon" - Rolling Resto
'19 Mazda CX-9 Signature - Wife's sled
'21 Morgan 3-Wheeler P101 Edition
'95 E300d - SOLD
'84 300TD "Brown Betty" - Miss this one
'81 240D "China Baby" - Farm grocery getter

The oils viscosity is much thicker when cold. It will rob some power. Although I am not sure if you loss is excessive or not. If you know of another member locally with the same basic car. A direct comparison might be helpful. Thats before starting to check other things out.

What you quote sounds more like a 240d on dino base oil. When their engines are cold you have to almost live it to understand. I always idle at least a couple of minutes before taking off cold.It does help on those. With a short one mile comute and to enable easier starting in cooler weather mind the possible oil drag issue. I might put synthetic oil in your car. It does make quite a difference.

Since you brought up possible temperature related issues. If the turbo engine is hot and you have just travelled a fair distance at speed. It is felt by some mechanics the engine will last longer if you let it idle for a minute to equalise temperatures before shutting down.

This also keeps colder oil flowing to the turbo bearings until it has had time to slow down. Otherwise when you shut down the turbo may still be spinning at 150 thousand revolutions and there is a lot of residual heat absorbed into the bearing and seal area if you stop the oil flow. The remaining oil may start to carbonise a little even.

Although the low designed operating temperature of these blocks in general would not be prone to form really excessive hot spots. I have always wondered why mercedes ran their diesel engines at lower than optimum operating temperatures. Just to cater to customers that treated their cars like gas ones perhaps?

I know operating at 160F or 80C hurts fuel milage and makes the wear component so much higher normally. So high these engines do not see 500k without requiring a rebuild usually.

From the mercedes companies perspective they probably felt the original owners would not keep their cars long enough to really matter. I also tend to agree if that was their rational.. Someday I will attempt to find out exactly why they did this. If someone else knows it would be helpful.

If you are in a situation that you can put a timer on the block heater in cooler weather even one hour activation before driving off should make quite an improvement.

Engine wear is reduced and fuel consumption will be lower on a short commute. Starter, battery,and alternator wear is reduced etc etc. For the slight cost of the hour pre warm electrically I really think it would be cost effective.

Your description otherwise is what I would define a rough or heavy duty cycle basically. So also take the car for a run once a week to boil off the condensation that may accumulate. I have seen cars used steadily in this fashion have at least a quart of water accumulated in the base oil otherwise.

Anything cold will be a little sluggish. Diesel engines are compression fired, so until the compustion chamber gets up to temperature and the fluids warm up, you won`t have a lot of oomph.
My wife is a little sluggish until I get her warmed up to operating temp.

Only driving 1 mile to work, the engine will not be up to operating temp, and that can cause some problems. any condensation in the oil, fuel leakage past the rings etc... won`t have a chance to get hot enouth to cook off, and can cause some sludge problems and carboning up of the compustion chambers.
with your short run, might need to change the oil more often.


A good run a couple times a week if you can fit into your schedule will help. A good italian tune up.

I might let mine idle some in the cold mornings before I take off to get some heat if the window is frosty or fogs up to clear it. I also have 3 miles to the freeway and 1/2 down hill. so when to the FW Iam up to op temp.

Charlie

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there were three HP ratings on the OM616...

1) Not much power
2) Even less power
3) Not nearly enough power!! 240D w/auto

Anyone that thinks a 240D is slow drives too fast.

80 240D Naturally Exasperated, 4-Spd 388k DD 150mph spedo 3:58 Diff

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works

I have about 780 feet btwn the house and my business. I dont walk since I have to carry a cash drawer. If I use either diesel, I make sure I warm it up on one leg of my commute. I am more worried about the battery not recovering from the starting sequence.

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[B]AlanT
BELEN NM


93 dodge cummins truck~old reliable
01 Volvo AWD XC70 Turbo Wagon
74 450 SE on the way out!
Recent: 1972 Toronado 56k on the clock!

IF it plugs in, lights up, makes noise,
I'M ON IT!

For the past year (now over a year) with my diesel, I have had approx. 20 mile round trip commutes. Winters in New Hampshire can get bitter cold, so I start it with the block heater still plugged in (it's on an independent circuit, of course), and I let it run for about 5 minutes, give or take. Then off I go.

I would also side with Barry, idling your car for about a minute or two at the end of a trip will definitely help the engine and turbo, especially for the 60x owners. I took my dad's SDL on a 650 mile trek to Ohio last summer and followed that rule religiously. No problems whatsoever.

Everyone's habits for preserving drivability on the drivetrain are different. You'll have to find what seems to work best for you. Given the fact that you have such a short commute, I'll tell you what a trusted indy told me. He has an F-350 Super-Duty with the Power Stroke diesel. His commute is about 2 miles to the shop, he always idles his truck 10-15 minutes before he heads over. Other threads on here would suggest that constant stopping/starting and short trips on a diesel can reduce the lifespan. But it's a universal acknowledgement that MB diesels are among the toughest engines ever built. If you kill it prematurely, it's either absolute rotten luck, or operator error. Again, try a few things and see what works best for your routine. Never forget the toughness of your daily driver

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Never be ashamed to ask for help.

1985 300D
1987 300SDL
1970 Jaguar E-Type OTS
2002 Dodge Intrepid (Traded In)
2011 Ford Crown Victoria

A life of short drives with no time for the engine to warm up would be considered "severe duty" by Mercedes and all service intervals would be cut in half. Using a block heater will help the engine warm up and a trickle charger can be added to keep the battery topped up. Charlie's suggestion of a weekly Italian tuneup is also a good idea.

I was surprised (after installing an oil temperature gauge) to see just how long it takes to get the oil up to temperature. The coolant warms up within a few miles but it takes much longer to get the oil hot. If the oil doesn't get hot the water and other volatile contaminants (combustion by-products) will not be removed.

Jeremy

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"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

One more point against idling cold. Two winters ago we had a pretty hard winter here, or at least by our standards (it got down to single digits). So for a few weeks i would let the battleship idle for about 5-10 minutes before leaving just so the defroster would do something. That spring it was time for an oil change so i decided to take a small sample and have a used oil analysis done. Apparently my fuel dilution percentage was a bit high as well as my lead content. According to BlackStone, high fuel dilution in the oil can soften the babbet coating on crankshaft bearings leading to premature wear. So needless to say i do not idle it cold in the winter anymore regardless of outside temperature.

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1985 300SD "Battleship"

I would consider this fact and use 5w40 synthetic oil instead of the 15w40.

Many folks have reported to having more power in the mornings when they switched.

And as stated previously, idling does not warm up the motor, only driving it does.


.

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1983 123.133 California
- GreaseCar Veg System

New-to-Diesel these cars are not meant for 1 mile commutes. It's the wrong application.
What made you buy the Benz?

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Cheers!
Scott McPhee

1987 300D