I replaced the valve stem seals last night on my 1982 240D and my oh my what a tremendous difference. The valve adjustment smoothed out the cold startup and idle. The stem seals stopped the plume of smoke at every take off from a stop. I let it sit and idle for 5 minutes last night and then showered down on the accelerator to see if she would blow a thick cloud of blue smoke and there was NO SMOKE AT ALL! I am now expecting to see that quart between changes reduce to a negligible amount now. I love this car!!!

I should do this. Did you take any pics along the way?

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I had done this before on a Benz I used to own and did not see any significant improvement. When I went to do this one I didn't expect to see any real change so I didn't give the first thought to pics. Seals and a valve adjustment are super simple though. Granted I do own the special wrenches for the adjustments. I love this car!!!

Well done - may you continue to give us diesel drivers a good name (smoke? what smoke?)

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!