Careful there! You gave that recommendation to someone a few months ago who followed it, it seemed to work for a few days then the same problem came back. He got so disgusted with his 300 TD, sold it and bought a Prius.

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 167,870 July 2025
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

Yes I have that effect on people

I do stand hard by the belief that these two items, should be considered preventive maintenance on a car 20+ years old and who knows how many hundreds of thousands of miles....

I do wish people would leave me the w123 before adopting a Prius

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So you enjoy giving bad advice, leading forum members to spend money on unneeded repairs, get frustrated and dump their Mercedes?

A starter should last a long long time if not abused on a well maintained vehicle, well pass 20 years. The starter runs for what? 1/2 sec to 1 sec to start a well maintained W123 diesel. Add up the total number of starts over 20 years and it should be fine and not worn out. On the other hand, if you have to crank for 5 minutes every time to get it started and overheats the starter, it will be toast even if the starter is brand new. Another bad thing to do to a starter is to crank with a weak battery to the point it stalls and you keep trying to start. That heats up the windings and shorts them out and that starter is toast.

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 167,870 July 2025
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked