So we rolled the dice and picked up a 1996 E300 W210 with about 182,000 on the clock. I like that it has a real key, and that the transmission is serviceable. Engine and transmission sound and feel great. Zero leaks top to bottom, front to rear. Clean engine bay. The fluids look good. Starts easy cold and hot. No smoke. Car has had the the engine wiring harness replaced in recent years. Glow plugs replaced two years ago. It has a set of fresh tires. The bad is the beginnings of salty exposure rust, and that the suspension needs work. This car was originally in Florida, and ended up in Salt Lake City, Utah 6 years ago. Winters here are a salty mess! We bought it for hauling kid and getting to work, etc. The goal with the car is to rebuild the suspension, replace mounts and flex discs, and then get 4 - 6 years out of it. Purchase price was comfortably low. I never had a Benz this new and I consider this a test platform to feel out my liking of W210.

My biggest question - What are you doing for service manuals for these cars? I found a couple options. Anyone familiar with this?

https://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/116447206-1996-mercedes-e300-service-repair-manual-96

Pretty low price. Might be worth the gamble. I also found on eBay multiple versions of a so-called "all models" repair manuals. Anybody have experience with those?

Rear suspension is tired. It needs links and shocks at minimum. Looks like the best way to deal with all that would be to drop the subframe. I also assume that Lemforder parts are the choice these days, but what about the Meyle kit?

Front suspension seems OK. Steering is tight. It pulls right a little. I'm sure it needs something. It probably will come apart anyway to make room for perch repair - I see rust but I need to do a closer inspection. I found this thread most informative:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/mercedes-parts-reference-library/182420-w210-spring-perch-=-front-spring-bracing.html

If the rust isn't too bad I would consider installing the brace over the existing perches. Curious to hear opinions about that.

After driving it around before purchase I noticed a noise at the front of the engine at idle. Sounded like something happening in the front of the head, where the timing chain/gearing is. Turned out to be simple, exactly as this person found:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljxJ3Jern7g

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

The SPRING PERCHES, SPRING PERCHES, AND ONCE AGAIN SPRING PERCHES!!!

They had my car up on a lift one week before this episode. The spring perches on my car looked like they had just come out from the factory, with the original coating entirely intact with no sign of rust.

Parked the car overnight, and when I came out the next morning, I thought I had a flat. Turned out the passenger side spring perch let go taking half of the engine compartment with it.

The engine compartment metal had completely rusted through with no outward sign either inside the engine compartment or outside. The spring itself broke in two. Had this happened at 65-75 mph there is a good chance I would not be sitting here writing this message.

The passenger side fender dropped right down on the tire which would have made steering impossible. The spring itself could have pierced the tire causing a blowout to top it all off.

As far as the front noise you mention, I had the same issue with the shock. Your vehicle has a clutch pulley on the alternator, and sometimes if the alternator has been replace and they put on a solid pulley, that noise will occur even with a new shock. That clutch pulley is essential in keeping the pulley system quiet. Good luck with your vehicle.

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96 E300d

I appreciate the reply. Yes, the perch collapse stories are hair raising. My intention is to inspect them by removing the coatings and seam sealer where I can to better judge the condition of the joint area. I've got a pick hammer that's pretty good at pointing out thin metal, too.

I'd like to get a winter season out of the front end before doing anything up there. I want to tackle the rear end first as it clearly needs attention. The RH rear wheel's camber is negative well beyond spec, obvious to the eye. This is what I'd like to do as things stand now. I'll come up with a real plan depending on what I find with the front perches.

I'll have a look at the alternator pulley. Thanks for pointing that out.

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

The salt winters / rust may make the rear subframe difficult to pull. If the bushings are OK I'd leave the subframe in place and replace only the various struts and the shocks.

The rotating mass of the alternator will destroy the belt shock and larger alternators (more rotating mass) are worse. A "clutched" or overrunning pulley is the way to go. Special tools required for install, details on request.

The lever arm in the belt tensioner has a plain bearing that is subject to wear if water/dirt gets into it. The "bearing" has seals front and rear that often get left out.

My '96 E300D is now at 306,000 miles—a boring car, nothing breaks. Engine, like yours, is tight all over, although it is starting to use a little bit of oil, perhaps a quart a year, as the engine internals gradually wear.

I found rust in the right spring perch where the coating had peeled. Not yet deep but more wide-spread than I expected. Cleaned it all up and applied POR-15.

Jeremy

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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

My spring perches were solid but it rusted around the rear mounts for the lower control mounts. I think most people overlook this spot on the W210.



I'm not sure 96 and 97s with the 90a alternator had a OAP pulley stock from the factory. It certainly helps to add one thought. All OM60x engines could use one.

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

Thank you for the responses. I took a look with a mirror and light and found that my car does not have the OAP pulley, though it looks like it would be a worthy upgrade. I found this thread:

OM606 Belt Spring

Pivot points for the lower front control arms look good. Everything on the bottom up front looks pretty good rust wise. I can't see under enough to get a good idea of what the rear subframe mount areas look like. It does show more signs of salt exposure in the rear, but I've seen a lot worse. Need to jack up both ends and crawl around under there.

Thanks again.

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

The shop manual for my 96 E300D indicates that the clutch pulley was installed from the factory. It might depend on the vin number and the month of manufacture. I can tell you from personal experience that the solid pulley is not not the way to go. The belt will vibrate more, causing more wear and tear on the related tensioner parts!!

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96 E300d

The videos showing the difference in belt smoothness compel me to add one of those pulleys and the tool to the list.

Speaking of shop manual, what do you use? I understand they weren't printed on paper. I've searched around and don't see any "original" CDs floating around. I also looked for a manual for just the OM606 and didn't find anything. I'm willing to gamble on the low cost options I've found, but the ads aren't clear on the source of the information or the format. Plus, I need something I can access on the Macs.

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

Oh yeah - which OBDII tool do you guys like? Just started looking into those options.

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

Do yourself the favor and buy every plastic fuel line and 2 complete sets of viton O-rings for the fuel injection system. Keep them in the car in the spare tire bucket, you'll thank yourself come time when the car won't start from air leaking into the system. My E300 has generally been absolutely the most reliable, infinitely more comfortable and far nicer to drive than any of the older Mercs I've had around. Albeit, uglier. lol

I wouldn't worry too much about the perches, honestly, it's a completely overblown topic for W210's. That's not to say it can't happen, but the chances of your control arm cracking at the arm/ball joint connection is greater than your perch ever letting go. Take a pick/screwdriver and get under the undercoat / poke the control arm drain / any flaking paint and see where it takes you.

Everyone's got a different idea of what needs done - most are hypersensitive to what in my experience, are fairly uncommon failures on these cars (I only work on them for a living). Enjoy the car, maintain it like diesels should and it'll get you through those 5-6 years without much trouble.

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Allen Kroliczek
Oak Grove Autosport | Oak Grove Autosport
01 G500, 82 300TD, quite a few more.....

Mercedes used to sell a W210 service manual library on CD but discontinued selling them maybe six or seven years ago, perhaps longer. Mercedes now has an on-line service called Startec, I think. Most people have to pay to use the site to get access to service manuals and service memos. This is a link to the site:

https://epc.startekinfo.com/epc/

Access to some manuals is free; it is free for the baby benz. The last time I checked, a person had to pay to get access to the W210 manuals. There was a post on the MBCA website a couple of years ago that access would be free for older Mercedes models after some period of time (maybe 20 years). I don't know whether that was just a rumor.

In the nine years I've owned my '98 E300, I've found Pelican (Peach) Parts wiki papers to be the most useful materials for what I have done. The BenzWorld site is also useful. I've never used Startek.

Wink

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'84 300SD sold
124.128

The problem with the 1st generation W210 is that it is right after the introduction of OBDII. On these vehicles only the engine diagnostics make it out to the OBDII as opposed to modern cars where everything comes out there.

There is a 38 pin connector that is for the MB proprietary tools only. Every subsystem has a data pin back to that connector.

There are two devices that mate with that connector. One is called the HHT and is rare as hens teeth. The other is the Xentry system. The legitamate units are multi tens of thousands of dollars plus annual software registrations in the thousands per year. Or you can look on eBay for Chinese copies that are about $700 to $1000.

As for engine diagnostics a cheap OBDII that is capable of ISO protocol will work to read and reset engine codes.

The only time I had to rely on the proprietary system is when the car was involved in an accident and the body shop unplugged the door airbag without disconnecting the battery (bad juju). The only way to clear the SRS light is with the proprietary system, and the body shop had to have the dealer use their Xentry to clear it.

I've had my W210 for 3.5 years and lived through lots of stuff. But the car has been amazingly trouble free for an 18 year old with 235k miles.

A couple things to watch out for:
- Go ahead and redo the front wheel bearings on principle unless you have records of them being done recently. They will fail and when they do it will take out the spindle. Otherwise it is an hour job to replace and repack.
- Take the cover off the top of the engine and make sure the steel high pressure fuel lines are not rubbing together. Also look for oil pooling around the injectors, this is a leaking valve cover gasket.
- Check for rust behind the door rub guards, the trunk lock, and other body penetrations. They used environmentally friendly paint and in areas that are constantly covered it can wear through.
- Service manual, get one of these: https://www.ebay.com/itm/322229503645

If you have any more questions about the 210 let me know or search for threads with my name. Good luck!

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The OM 642/722.9 powered family
Still going strong
2014 ML350 Bluetec (wife's DD)
2013 E350 Bluetec (my DD)

both my kids cars went to junkyard in 2023
2008 ML320 CDI (Older son’s DD) fatal transmission failure, water soaked/fried rear SAM, numerous other issues, just too far gone to save (165k miles)
2008 E320 Bluetec (Younger son's DD) injector failed open and diluted oil with diesel, spun main bearings (240k miles)

1998 E300DT sold to TimFreeh
1987 300TD sold to vstech

I couldn't find a way to create a startekinfo account that didn't involve at least $60 for a day.

I was not aware of the DIYs here on the Peach. Thanks for bringing them up. I think can survive for now. Here's a link to the index:

PeachPartsWiki: Do It Yourself Articles - Mercedes Vehicles

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

Thanks for all the info Jay Bob!

RE: ODBII - The engine is the most important system to have access to anyway. I noticed the 38 pin connector in the fuse box under the hood.

I've seen the threads about spindles trashed by spun bearings. I have no records indicating anything being done, so I'll check them out. It's easy to add that to the list of things to do.

Yes, I had already planned to remove the engine cover for an inspection. Where I can see the fuel lines I also see plastic spacer/clips on them.

Ah yes, rust! There's already rust getting started here and there. My only concern with that right now is in structural areas. I'll get into the cosmetic stuff later. Looks OK underneath, what I've managed to see so far. Will eventually pull the plastic covers off and get a look under them.

Thank you for the suggestion on a service manual to buy. I'd seen those but didn't know if they were worth it. With something like that and the DIYs here I should be covered.

Appreciate it!

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