Hey all,
My 96 E300, the wife's 09 E320 bluetec and our ML500 need work that I am unable to do here at the rental house (with HOA). Can anyone recommend a reliable, honest shop in the DC/VA area? We are willing to travel to get the work done, but having a hard time finding a shop that will work on diesels, older MBs, etc. Please post any recommendations, Thanks in advance, John.

Don pools-falls church
Drive european-falls church
Silver star-maryland
There's a good shop in springfield, can't remember the name

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1983 300 Turbo-"Nora"
1983 240D Auto "Lucia"-slowest on earth-1st love
1985 300 Turbo-Blue Goose-slowly plucking parts

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o...ly15/mbsig.jpg

Thanks I'll look these places up online and give em a call. We also heard of a couple of good shops in Richmond: World Foreign Car Service and Simply Import. We're in Fredericksburg, but it seems that nobody can recommend a good indy in the area...

The w211 came with a warranty so we will have to see which shop would be willing to do the work and submit the "claims" to the warranty company for us... (The warranty states it covers replacement of gaskets, so it should cover the oil cooler gaskets)

The MB of Tysons dealership is a very high volume place and they have diesel experts on staff. They outsource some of their machine work (e.g. broken glow plugs) to Allied Machine in Falls Church, but for standard maintenance and repairs they're solid. They even have a vintage MB expert on staff who was working on a 300SL gull wing last time I was over there! They are not inexpensive however.

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1998 E300 turbodiesel

America's Rights and Freedoms Are Not The Enemy!

Foreign Car Service (Hans Kestermann and sons), 501 Bashford Lane, Alexandria 22314. At the northern edge of Old Town Alexandria, just east of N. Washington St/GW Parkway. 703-549-4100, M-F 0730-1730.

When they say 'foreign,' they mean German, and mostly Mercedes. And to them, a '96 is not 'older.'

Good luck.

Auto Dynamics in Gaithersburg, MD. Ask for Don Andrews.

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-- Chris

'95 E300, 216k miles, Silver Surfer
'05 E320 CDI, 138k miles
'07 S550 4matic, 69k miles

Gone but not forgotten:

'76 300D, 350k miles?, SOLD in 1995
'75 240D, 300k miles, SOLD in 1991

Thank you for the recommendations! The ML's waterpump went out on 95 South and as soon as the temp started climbing the wife called and I told her to pull over. Later it was towed to a shop about 15 miles away in Richmond where the waterpump was replaced. After testing, it was given the thumbs up and we used it for a couple of weeks but around 300 miles later I smelled coolant at the tailpipe and saw steam from the tailpipe after a drive to Richmond so it is at another shop. The shop said the headgasket is toast and is looking to replace the motor with a reliable used one rather than try to rebuild the original with 170K. I'll check into these shops for the other cars and keep ya'll posted and update about our experience at the one in RVA.