FS: my sick 1992 300D (many new parts and Euro goodies!)
 

I the old girl out of long-term storage the other day and spruced her up just a bit, and have been tooling around town for the past few days, enjoying every moment of it. Until yesterday. Suddenly, shuddering in reverse, and very little power. Yes, reverse clutch seems to be gone. Sigh...

Anyway, this car is quite nice -- well worth repairing or replacing the trans, I think, but also a VERY good parts candidate, as it's had LOTS replaced and is essentially rust-free. I'll do my best to list the repairs I have made, and see whether I can recoup a little something. With a second child due any day now, I really don't have time to shop for and replace a transmission, sadly.

First off, the car IS drivable (great power in all forward gears), but the fluid is dark; I have a spare filter and gasket, and could do a filter and fluid change if someone wanted to risk driving it as-is to get it home.

I bought the car in 2008 with 245k miles on it. It now has only about 247K on it -- it was truly a "Sunday driver," and babied. Some of you may recall my thread about the head gasket issue. It was down for about a year while I took my time repairing it, and has been running fine since. It nails at cold idle, but injectors all tested good, and injection timing was set with the official MB A/B light device (do I have the name of that thing right? Anyway, it was the official tool, borrowed from a member here). Power is excellent in forward gears. I feel the engine is in great shape!

Now, to the repairs and mods:

upon purchase, I changed oil, oil filter, fuel filters, did a Diesel Purge, and installed a boost gauge. I also:
swapped out the rear shocks (Bilsteins installed)
did the pressure-activated boost mod
did the EGR/flapper mod
deleted all the vacuum junk that ran the EGR
installed a new antenna mast
did front sway bar bushings
did rear drag arms
rear subframe bushings
installed Depo Euro lights
replaced strut mounts
treated some very light surface rust on the driver's door (along the body cladding line)
got an alignment
flushed & filled radiator
replaced steering damper
replaced ider arm

I noticed a touch of rust on the driver's side spring perch and got spooked shortly after all this. I ordered a MB replacement perch, and had it welded in. There was a tiny spot of rust in that wheel well, too (inner fender area), so we cut that out and welded a hasty patch in. Solid again.

After this, I installed new tie rods, and then the head gasket went. It was a small leak, so I has able to get the car less than a mile home with no overheating at all. Not even close. So over the next several months, I ordered and installed the following:

head gasket kit
breather hose
had injectors tested & cleaned (all good)
injector seals
did valve guides while the head was off (head also checked out good at the shop)
chain guide pins replaced
valve cover gasket replaced
all head bolts but one checked ON (in spec length-wise). replaced just the one
did coolant flush and replaced radiator (new Nissens)
did oil and filter change

Shortly after this, I installed a Euro headlight switch and plumbed much of the vacuum line to hook up the leveling switch. Never got around to hooking it up, but it's all there!

I also installed a Euro trunk triangle in it's proper location, and I have a set of VERY rare W124 mud flaps (OEM) that come with the car. I also have an equally rare W124 Euro fire extinguisher and bracket that I may let go with the car, too. The grille was cleaned up and blacked out, and I also have a W124-friendly keyless entry module to go with the car (not yet installed, but there is a thread here detailing the process for this particular unit).

The body is very good, but I suspect some panels have been replaced in the past. It's clearly been repainted on some panels, as the color is slightly off here and there, and there is clearcoat peeling on a couple of those "mismatched" panels.

Wheels are later-style 8-holes, and tires are new, though they are slightly off size-wise. They came with a W201 190E parts car, so I used them. The car has a dealer-installed OLD SCHOOL Pioneer cellular phone mounted in the cabin; kind of a neat period piece! Interior is quite nice -- dash is very nice, seats solid, etc...

You may note that I replaced a LOT of suspension parts. Since I bought it, the car has been unwilling to re-center itself (steering, I mean) after turns. I've had two local shops align it, and it gets better each time, but not quite "right." I've had it aligned on three different sets of wheels/tires, to see if that was an issue, and it wasn't. I really think it just needs to go to a dealer with W124 experience and a spreader bar. My local shops are NOT import-oriented; they may just not be up to the work.

In any case, if interest warrants, I'll get some more pics, and we'll talk. Am I out of line hoping for $1750 out of her? As happens so often, I'm losing my butt here, but that's the way it goes. I had planned to keep this car forever -- truly my cherished Sunday driver. Reality has set in, though, and I know it will be ages before I have the time to really tinker and make it "right" again. My wife, 18-mo old daughter, and second child (due any day now) take priority, plain & simple.

What do y'all think? I don't want to part it out, but am aware that there are some quite valuable parts on the car. If push comes to shove I guess it's a possibility. It's in east central IL -- easy drive from Indy, StL, Chicago, etc... Thanks!

Interest seems to warrant a few more pics, so here we are -- not the finest, but a start! Interior is quite nice. Note crack in the center console (near radio); dash is nice, and seats quite nice for their age/mileage. The little paint bubbling is on the pass. side front door. There is also a shallow ding near the fuel cap door, as pictured. The jacking point pic is representative of all 4 -- surface discoloration, but no rot. VERY solid. Hope these help!

And the last few...

What is wrong with the fuel tank neck? I like the car I wish you were closer

There's just that ding (pictured) in the rear quarter near the fuel filler. Nothing wrong with the tank neck at all.

The car's really a nice one... you don't see many his clean in the midwest. I just wish I had the time to devote to putting her "right." And I wish you were closer, too!

without anything to scale its hard to tell at first, but that is a picture of the jack-point hole, i believe

Yes, the picture of the jack-point looking thing is the jack-pont. :grin: It's got some surface rust around it and looks a bit ugly, but is actually solid. Sorry for any confusion; I thought I explained that there was a jack-point pic and referenced the dent near the fuel filler, too (also in another pic), but it must have been poorly worded. I edited it in hopes of making it clearer, but your clarification above is correct. Thanks!

Pm sent. What's your zip code?

PM on the way!

FWIW your price seems very fair, especially considering how meticulous you've been in your maintenance. If I lived nearby and didn't already own two of them, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

If you don't mind a question out of curiosity....with all the maintenance you've done, why didn't you replace the tranny fluid before it got brown?

Thanks, Shertex. As for the trans fluid, p.o. was quite good about maintenance, too, and said that it had been changed by his indy recently. Since it was nice & red with no odd smell right up until the reverse failure, I had no reason to think otherwise. I did, however, buy a filter and gasket for eventual replacement anyway, so those are sitting in the garage.

That's weird....so I guess the failure resulted in some disintegrated parts which caused the fluid to turn brown suddenly?

I suspect the fluid (being more grey than brown, I guess) is full of the disintegrated reverse clutch bits now. I may be wrong, though. In any case, it's clearly not right!

To the OP; your price is more than fair.

Thanks, Turkey. It will surely be missed if it sells. I just spent the afternoon mowing, taking out a couple of trees, and edging, staring at it the whole time. The W124 is such a beautiful design.