Looking for Diesel Guru / Repair Shop in NJ

[marcmax]

Hi Folks,

I have a 1987 300TD with 190K that is suffering from a lack of power (especially up hills) blowing lots of grey smoke, harsh shifting, and the automatic door locks stopped working recently. It always had the hard shifting, and my wife and I drove it as-is after a mechanic in Michigan assured us this was normal for diesel mercedes. However, in its current state it is not realistic to drive, so I brought it to a mercedes shop in south Jersey, and was told that it needed a transmission and a turbo. After reading through many forum posts on here, I doubt that is the case given the complexity of the vacuum systems and fuel delivery systems on these cars. My hunch is the mechanic didn't want to get involved with the car, and knew that I would balk at a $4500 estimate. I paid $4000 for this car a year ago have already put another $2000 into it (belt tensioner, motor mounts, tires, starter, blower motor, 2 fuel lines etc)

I don't have the time (or space) to tinker with the car myself, but I am hesitant to take the car to a typical mechanic looking for 'gravy jobs'. I need to find a place that will actually diagnose the car...test vacuum, make adjustments, clean / tune components instead of throwing parts at the car with the classic line "Well, first we need to replace X before we can verify that Y is working..."

If anyone knows a diesel guru that does side jobs or a really good shop in the NJ / PA / NYC area, please let me know. My wife and I are expecting our first child in June and my 1981 VW diesel pickup won't cut it!

Best,
Marc

[Sugar Bear]

Dave J's German Car Service on 5th Street in Ewing. Independent MBZ specialist.