Thank you for your response.

PO handed me a baggie with a half dozen of the o-rings for the fuel lines. I still need to get myself more familiar with the system. I'll be going through the DIYs.

I am going to take a close look at the perches, and at the entire underside of the car. What I can see doesn't look that bad, but I know how corrosion can be hidden by the undercoating and seam sealer. I'll be poking and picking things pretty thoroughly.

__________________
- Greg -
1973 220D, The Prodigal Benz
1974 240D

That one made me laugh!

It would be nice to not have to pull the rear subframe. We'll see what I find. Thanks for your time.

__________________
- Greg -
1973 220D, The Prodigal Benz
1974 240D

Some cell phone pics of the car in question. Far from perfect, but it seems to be OK overall.

Attached Thumbnails

       

__________________
- Greg -
1973 220D, The Prodigal Benz
1974 240D

I went to Startek yesterday to estimate the cost. It looks like the cost is now $75 a year, which may not be so bad. On the other hand, if I had paid $75 for every year I have owned my car, the total cost would now be $750.

People who have paid the $60 per day rate went on line and copied all day, getting materials that that are stored in PDF files. That's not the way I want to fix a car.

I have never understood the reason Mercedes makes access to their repair and maintenance materials so expensive. One of the reasons that the price of out-of-warranty Mercedes vehicles goes down so fast and so far is that they are so expensive to repair. Making it cheaper to repair those cars would at least theoretically increase their value and make buying a new one make more sense. Mercedes could do that by making this information available at much cheaper rates.

I think I'll survive with the info I have now. Thanks for the suggestions.

European companies sometimes have a way of doing things their own way regardless of what makes sense to mere mortals. Luxury brands in recent decades have been making a push to protect their interests in the service market. Withholding information and parts is part of the strategy. They do it to make the money, and to maintain the prestige of the brand and of the ownership experience. What sucks is that we consumers end up with less choice. At least we can still buy parts for our MB cars. I work with watches, and most companies do not sell parts to people outside of their networks, nor supply technical information.

__________________
- Greg -
1973 220D, The Prodigal Benz
1974 240D