Greetings All,
I have a strange rattle that has developed. it is a higher pitch than the diesel clacking and seems to be coming from firewall.
I gave 15 second video of me getting on and off throttle. Linkage appears ok?Note air cleaner is self made and give the low pitch growl when on throttle.

Any ideas on the rattle? maybe it is too lean? I am going on a 2K highway trip.
Thanks in advance.


https://youtu.be/m-vwlQU191E

Had this on my 240d. At mid throttle at cruise under light load it would clatter. It turned out to be dirty injectors. The little pilot holes at the tips of the pintles were clogged. Good luck.

Whoa I listened to your sounds a bit. You may want to pull the valve cover and see if everything is right in there.

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79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles

Thanks for the reply.
The injectors are Monarcks with about 2k miles on them. Valves were adjusted but had noise before that too. Air cleaner is removed for now to try to find noise to no avail. Am leaving for a long trip tomorrow and keep my fingers crossed.

Subscribed .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

I would rent a car. Rather than head out with an unknown problem present. If you know what it is you can consider how long it will allow you before failure is going to occur.

Otherwise it is a bit of a crap shoot or even worse. Failure on the road would cost more overall that a rental in too many cases.

Roger Barry. Sounds like timing chain to me. What a nightmare if it lets go on your trip.

I'll third that. I pretty much rent cars for all trips over 500 miles in distance. If something major lets go on one of these older benzers, you might need to:


1. Mortgage your house to pay the repair bill.
2. Might not be able to find the necessary parts for sale (NLA, no dealer nearby, etc.)
3. The indy you end up with might be a rip-off artist.

Then there is always the fee the tow truck driver charges for long distance tows.......OUCH!!

? why the heck would I ever own a vehicle I can't trust on cross country trips ? .

I only get to do them once in a while and I want to be safe and comfy, relaxed in a familiar environment when I'm on unknown roads .

Safer to drive my old Mercedes (or whatever) , $pend those rental car dollars on proper maintenance .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Agree nate. In my previous life, I drove plenty of rentals on business. I have always however been more comfortable in my own vehicles when on a long trip. I know the condition and in the case of my W123, there is very little I can't fix good enough to limp home or to a shop if needed.

That being said, I too would be wary of hitting the road with a possible death rattle going on .

I did take a three week 3,000 + mile road trip to bury Pops in my then ailing 240D, the engine had maybe 200# compression on #1 cylinder and low oil pressure, I took it easy the entire trip and had no troubles .

My Brother and I drove his '87 300SDL from L.A. to Maine and back with a bad #14 cylinder head and the rubber coolant return hose to the surge/puke tank clogged with red RTV (! discovered that in Maine) and had no troubles although we had to cut off the AC going up hills in Utah, Colorado and so on .

It's _always_ safer to drive a familiar vehicle when on new / different roads .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better