My E300 has never had a Biobor treatment in the 20 years I've owned it and I'm wondering if doing one would be a wise thing to do or should I leave well enough alone. Car runs great - typically get 32 mpg. Issue is that I'm lucky to put 2,000 miles on it a year. Sometimes it sits for two months. It is always garaged and it is only used when I've got to go somewhere farther than my Smart electrics will take me. I will be changing the two fuel filters this spring when I service it. Just wondering if it would be a good thing to run a tube or two of Biobor through the system before I change the filters. In the 240D that I owned for 30 years, I probably did a Biobor treatment only 2 or 3 times.

__________________
Len
'59 220S Cabriolet-SOLD and living happily in Malta
'83 240D 351,500 miles original owner-SOLD
'88 560SL 41,000 miles - totaled and parted out
https://sites.google.com/site/mercedesstuff/home
'99 E300 turbo 227,500 miles
'03 SLK320 40,000 miles - gave to my daughter
'14 Smart electric coupe 28,500 miles
'14 Smart electric cabriolet 28,500 miles
'15 Smart electric coupe 28,000 miles

For what it is worth, when I talked to a guy at West Marine years ago (where they sell Biobor, note spelling difference, hope we're talking about the same product), he said that although they sell it he was not a fan. Specifically, it will kill the microbes, but it's a one shot deal and it clogs filters then. So you have to stay on top of making sure that you change filters, perhaps even twice, after a treatment.


I am a big fan of the blue Startron diesel treatment. Since I started adding 2 ounces to every fill-up of diesel I've had zero issues with black crud. I now go a whole year without any evidence of black microbes in the primary (see-through) fuel filter. If you buy it in the half gallon size it's cheap insurance.

__________________
- '79 240D - engine swap complete! Engine broken in! 28-31 mpg! Lovin' the ride!
- '86 190D (W201-126) - 2.5 NA engine, 5 speed, cloth interior, manual climate controls, 33-34 mpg (sold to forum member).

I've been using Biobor after Startron failed to fully kill the fungus in my Coupe...

Yes, it fills the clear plastic intake screen with black crud but I had that before too....

Fungus is nasty stuff and *very* hard to fully kill onc it's deep in your fuel system .

__________________
-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

Thanks for the replies guys and thanks for the spelling lesson. You made me go look at package.

Car is running so well that I don't want to do something to disturb that. Not only that, but the way I drive the car, it might take me two or three months to run that tankful of Biobor through the system. If there are nothing but good things that will happen, then I'll do it. Have gone 7 years and 50K miles on the current fuel filters.

__________________
Len
'59 220S Cabriolet-SOLD and living happily in Malta
'83 240D 351,500 miles original owner-SOLD
'88 560SL 41,000 miles - totaled and parted out
https://sites.google.com/site/mercedesstuff/home
'99 E300 turbo 227,500 miles
'03 SLK320 40,000 miles - gave to my daughter
'14 Smart electric coupe 28,500 miles
'14 Smart electric cabriolet 28,500 miles
'15 Smart electric coupe 28,000 miles

the thing about fungal contamination is you can accumulate quite a bit of with only incidental shedding and plugging of filters. but when it reaches a point where it starts sloughing off in quantity, you're screwed because there is so much there. think of the slime inside a toilet tank... when you start seeing little bits come into the bowl, there's a WHOLE BUNCH of it in the tank.

so. if the car is short term to you, maybe leave well enough alone. if a keeper, buy a bunch of filters, treat it along with a tank cleaner, and prepare for the onslaught. when i brought this '83 300SD back to life, the tank had about 1/2 gallon of molasses in the bottom that came out after removing the tank screen. i removed the tank and sloshed it with acetone for about a week and got it all out.

bottom line, i treat with a fungicide to keep on top now.