I had a couple VW's with Bosch K-Jetronic (aka CIS) fuel injection. The problem is hardly anyone understands pre-OBD fuel injection systems, especially mechanical ones. K-Jet is actually extremely reliable, but problems have to be diagnosed by careful fuel pressure readings at different points in the system. Modern mechanics tend to try to easter-egg them by throwing in lots of new parts, which gets expensive fast.

Those cars also got pretty terrible fuel economy by modern standards, which probably contributes to them getting junked early. Think non-crossover SUV mileage.

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1981 Mercedes 300TD, 1994 Honda Civic Del Sol
http://mefi.us/images/fuelly/smallsig-us/67195.pnghttp://mefi.us/images/fuelly/smallsig-us/103885.png

Ha, I just finally noticed this. Holland's in Billerica is where I see them most often. Seems like a good yard in general.

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"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

I have a somewhat opposite problem. I have a 1980 300D that is in excellent condition. I bought it in 1997 from a good friend who bought it new. He was 90 years old. He had just put a factory new transmission in it. It had 140,000 miles then. It has 180,000 now. I have a diesel Isuzu that is my daily driver. I replaced the lower control arms, the rotors, the calipers, the tie rods, the flex discs, the evil servo, the ac compressor (last year) and much more. It runs and drives beautifully. (The evil servo appears to have gone bad again.)

Here is the problem. I have it here where I live in southern Mexico on a six month visa. Every six months I have to drive it down to the Guatemala border and renew the car visa. The current visa runs out in April. I am going to get rid of the car. If nothing transpires I will just drive it over the border to Guatemala and sell it to the first person who has money in his pocket for whatever I can get.

I am 72 years old. After a lifetime of messing around with old cars I have finally gotten sick and tired of them.

Richard

Beautiful car, Richard. A shame you can't find an enthusiast there in Mexico to inherit it.

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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

Here in California I'm still seeing 123s in the local Pick-n-Pull, probably because they don 't rust as fast as in other areas. For several years there have been fewer of them and more 124s. Occasionally even a 210 although they still seem to be considered fixable by the insurance companies.

More and more, cars from around 2000 with no collision damage are showing up (not necessarily MB). Something expensive has broken, apparently, and the cars aren't considered worth repairing. Sad.

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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

Where are you located? It would be a fun road trip for me to bring it back to TN. How difficult would it be crossing the border headed North?

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

Jeremy, This car lived in Santa Rosa for many years, as did I. I drove her down here in June of 2013. You probably didn't see her much because I kept her in a garage and drove my diesel Isuzu almost all of the time.

Junkman, It would be an adventure. I have to take the car personally to a border customs office to de-register it with Mexican customs in April. Guatemala is a nine hour drive from here. Laredo is three days (two if you push it hard). I am not going to drive to Laredo. So figure four days from Guatemala to Laredo, and then another two to Tennessee.

I have until April to decide what to do. I am not figuring on getting much money for the car. Even if it were back in California I couldn't get much for it, and I can't sell it here. People ask my wife all the time if she wants to sell it, but they don't know the expenses they would incur getting it imported and legal.

As I said—it would be an adventure for you to come down and drive it to Tennessee. (Of course, you might fall in love with Mexico and decide to stay. That happens a lot.)

Richard