Hello there once again!
Still looking for a nice daily driver for myself... still doubtful about the diesel benz I want to get... right now I am leaning towards the 190D because of its fuel economy, manual transmission and because it does not have the OM603 overheating problem. I had the chance to take a look at a wonderful 1986 300SDL in Portland, OR (actually, the neighboring city, Vancouver, WA). Here are some facts:

-150k miles
-Black, with grey interior.
-Freshly rebuilt transmission.
-Original Becker radio
-#14 Cylinder head
-The door panels had sun damage
-Some dents in body, not too significant

Tom (360-909-6883), a mechanic himself, was asking $4,000 for it. I am still wondering if I should have bought it!

http://portland.craigslist.org/clk/ctd/1323319716.html

There's another 300SDL with 200k miles in Portland, but I did not get to see it... it looks pretty nice to me, and it is still less than $4,000. Here's the Craig's List link and the info of the seller:

http://portland.craigslist.org/clc/cto/1320503532.html
Alex 503.358.5651

This is my philosophy: if I see a nice benz and I do not buy it, I rather inform a community with a minimum of love for these cars. I honestly do not want the wrong people driving these beauties.

We have an 86 SDL and we love her. From what we were told on here find out if any front end work was done to her as that can get quite expensive. Also, our A/C didn't work someone on here said that can turn into a major issue. Turns out ours was a couple of things, first someone had put that die in it to find a leak and that was clogging up the system. We basically drained the system or rather out mechanic did and refilled it with the new refrigerant but then the fuse kept blowing, he switched it to a 20 amp and viola' we have cold AIR.....beautiful, beautiful cold air. I can't tell you how good that feels in a black on black benz in the summer in SC. Ahhhhh Ok, enough of that. Um other than that we really love her she is a wondeful car. I've driven her from SC to MI several times and all over the state. Got 32 mPG on the trip. SHe has strong power, turbo is in perfect condition. We paid 3500 for ours.

Erika

Overheating issue? Only if the radiator or other cooling system parts have a problem, a well-maintained SDL or 300D (603) will not overheat.

If you're worried about the early 603 cylinder heads, worry also about the early 602 and 601 cylinder heads, they were of the same design, had the same problems, and were updated at the same times as the 603 cylinder heads (check the FSM).

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff