Man what I week. Rt. front caliper sticks, order in parts and do a rebuild that does not work due to rough spots, can't (don't want to) drive the car till I get a new one tomorrow so I use the daughters 77 240d and run out of fuel 2 blocks from home today! Damn guage said I had a good 1/4 tank and it has been fine in the past so I guess it's got some junk in the tank that jammed the float. So if things happen in 3's I hope the string of bad luck is over.
1. low pad light
2. caliper rebuild and new pads fails
3. run out of fuel due to bad sensor
Good news is I at least I have owned a few diesel tractors in the past along with the MB's so running out of fuel is not a big deal. Took a 5 gallon can of fuel and about 5 minutes to get the 240 started. Lucky I had a tank of bio here ready to go so didn't even need to go to a station to get fuel, just walked home, filled a can and walked back to the car. Not only that the old style hand pump on the 240 is in great shape. Does not leak a drop and didn't have any problem getting fuel to the injector pump. The 240 is the first diesel I have ever seen that does not leak any fluids at all. For once the "D" does not stand for "drip"

Hey Bill, happy B-Day!

When you look at the big picture we all piss and moan about problems with our 20-25 year old cars. What do we expect, nothing but routine maintenance I don't know of any other car that would have this kind of support after 20 years where the members would be discussing their daily drivers and how to repair them.

The p&m crack was more or less pointed at myself I can remember the first car I bought back in 76, a 72 VW Bug. The thing was more or less a POS and was a whopping 4 years old. Don't get me wrong, body wise it was in great shape but I had to rebuild the engine with 55k miles on it. Also replaced the entire brake system in the 3 years I owned it, replaced the exaust twice, and when I got rid of it the engine was drinking a qt. of oil every 500 miles after 30k on the rebuild.
My 83 300d has 255k miles and is still on the origional engine which runs great. Besides MB what other cars do you see on the road from the 70's and early 80's? Even my 82 S-10 pickup which I bought off the lot brand new and was maintained above and beyond what the book said to do needed a new engine at 72k because the block cracked in the middle of the summer no less 4 years after I bought it. GM would not admit it was a bad casting or design problem but I know it had to be.
MB had the best cars in the 70's and 80's but don't need to tell anyone here that, we know