Nearly fed up... again! '99 E300
 

I mean really?!?

How many things can go wrong at once?

Tonight the turbo shut down and CEL came on... again! I guess this just adds to the list of things to do.

-DV Seals
-broken? disconnected? parking break cable/handle.
-Creaking steering
-CEL/Turbo
-burned clearcoat
-dead pixels & backlight in cluster

I swear, I'm going to replace it with a Honda!!!

I should know better to have a car in the desert that has so many rubber parts that will dry out.

Sorry about your bad luck. I've never heard of any of those problems before except for the CEL which could be a number of things.

Don't know the miles on it, or how it's being/been treated, but it sounds like a lot of things on that car need to be caught up with on it's maintenance and parts replacement schedule. It's getting rather old/aged anyway - you just might want to bail on it, and get what you can for it. I'd probably do just that, if mine were in the condition that your's seems to be in. The older it gets - the more stuff will go wrong with it. How much is your time worth working on it, is usually the Q.

Well the car has 231k on it. I was able to get boost from the turbo today. I will be changing the hoses and such on the vacuum lines as well as the air filter(s). I will know more on tuesday after I get the codes scanned.

Nothing listed that can't be fixed if you have the time.

I had a '99 E430. I got rid of it 7 years ago. I noticed at that time the rubber seals around the windshield, etc were dry-rotting.

My wife loved driving that car, I hated repairing it.

There are certain mental and physical challenges in owning a used car. Used cars are not for everyone.

You should consider dropping back another 10 or 15 years. I considered a car with newer styling but didn't want the electronics.

Honda...naa!
Good luck with your vacuum tubing.

I hear ya man. Last year I paid a real good indie for general maintenance (about $1500.00 ) then... the AC went out right before our hot humid summer started, another $1100.00! I now do all my own maintenance!

Anyway, if you had the space you could get another e300 and use one for parts!

older stuff was much simpler, and some of it was much better made. Heck, I keep tossing round the thought of buying a 49 Ford. Talk about simple.

And there you have it.

I've run out of both time and patience for vehicle maintenance.

Me and my girlfriend checked out new VWs yesterday.

We tested the new Hybrid Jetta. I can honestly say that the days of the Prius rule on that market are coming to a close. The Jetta was quick, quiet and refined. It is really difficult to shell out the 32k they were asking for it though.

Found the issue, see link
 

Relatively minor. It's never been as cold here in SoCal as the last couple of weeks.

Rarely see temps in the teens, but stranger things can happen.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/242888-98-e300-p0400-egr-flow-code.html#post2081616

Looks like I will be doing crud removal and EGR delete when I do the DV seals.

I've got Kartek's EGR delete stuff sitting on my desk and no car to put it in.

PM me your address and i'll mail it to you.

I appreciate that. I will get back with you this weekend. Purchasing the Jetta this Thurs/Fri/Sat to have an other car.