1986 300E, 140,000 mi.
White with blue MBtex interior

Hello to all,

This is my first MBZ. I've been a Volvo owner (5) for a long time but have always liked the looks and reputation of the Mercedes. My wife's sister is moving to Hawaii (Kona) and they didn't think it would be worthwhile to ship two cars so she asked me if I wanted to buy her Mercedes 300E for $3000. She had purchased the car new, serviced it very regularly, and had every service receipt since new. What could I say but YES!

I have to say I was a little nervous about taking on a strange make of car. I do nearly all my own car servicing and repair and I was pretty familiar with Volvos. After I have lurked on this site for awhile and read many of the threads on it, I feel much better about being able to fix what breaks on this 300E. As you know, the 103 engine in that model is pretty straight forward, no EGR or air pump -hooray! I'm already familair with the problems of Bosch relays.

Just briefly about the car. It has recently (within 10K miles) had the following done:
New master cylinder
New radiator, hoses, thermostat, and fan
New accessory belt
New Michelin tires
Resealed front timing cover
New dist. cap, rotor, plugs, OVP and fuel relays
New outside temperature sender
New front struts
New front brake pads and rotors

In addition the motor mounts and rear suspension control arms are fairly new.

I have replaced the battery and plan to replace the injector seals. The engine idles a little unevenly. I also disconnected a very erratic alarm system until I can get time to work on it. I plan to try to get the dash lighting to work better, possibly LED bulbs. I thought Volvos were bad but this is really dim! I have put nearly 3000 miles on the car now and it appears that the oil consumption (15-40) is about 1/2 quart, not too bad.

Well this is long enough. At some point I hope I can be of help to others on this forum. I am fairly active on the Brickboard (Volvos).

Jim Holst, in Oregon.
1986 Mercedes 300E
1993 Volvo 940 wagon
1984 Volvo 240 (daughters)
1976 Dodge pickup, hauls anything

Welcome to the Shop Forum. It's a great resource.

I have a Volvo as well, and I check out the Brickboard from time to time, too.

Looks like you got a nice 300E. Maintenance is everything with these cars, and it looks like this car has been well taken care of.

Regarding the uneven idle, Larry Bible told me that early 300E's have hot cams, and idle a little uneven.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

Welcome Jim.

I was reading your post thinking, "Boy, that name seems familiar."

Sure enough, I recognise it from the Brickboard. There are several members who are active in both.

I'm sure you'll love the car -- it sounds like a nice one.

The only problem is that now you have two makes of cars you're passionate about -- so you have a whole new skill/knowledge set to learn. But it's worth it.

See ya around both forums.

Jeff Pierce

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Jeff Pierce

Current Vehicles:
'92 Mercedes 190E/2.3 (247K miles/my daily driver)
'93 Volvo 940 Turbo Wagon (263K miles/a family truckster with spunk)
'99 Kawasaki Concours
Gravely 8120
Previous Vehicles:
'85 Jeep CJ-7 w/ Fisher plow (226K miles)'93 Volvo 940 Turbo Wagon
'53 Willys-Overland Pickup
'85 Honda 750F Interceptor
'93 Nissan Quest
'89 Toyota Camry Wagon
'89 Dodge Raider
'81 Honda CB 750F Super Sport
'88 Toyota Celica
'95 Toyota Tacoma
'74 Honda CB 550F

Welcome,,,, this is great site and I'm sure you will get a lot of enjoyment and knowledge from it as I do.

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95 SL500 Smoke Silver, Parchment 64K
07 E350 4matic Station Wagon White 34K
02 E320 4Matic Silver/grey 80K
05 F150 Silver 44K

You know, come to think of it, you're right. There are a lot of us that own both Mercedes and Volvos.

I can think of two right off the bat (besides us): psfred and 71rcode.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

I too, own a MB and two volvos, 90 740 ti, + a 89 760 ti . The 740 has over 300k and the 760 over 200k. great cars, when maintained. steve 83sd

[QUOTE=suginami]You know, come to think of it, you're right. There are a lot of us that own both Mercedes and Volvos.

When your at the top, where else is there to go! I'm also a Volvo-to-Benz convert and a member of the brickboard too! I drive the Volvo 740 in the winter while the Benz family are asleep! BB alias, VolvoSavvy....

I'm sure you will find this board VERY valuable. I'm a brickboard member too. I currently own a Volvo 740, MBZ 260e and 300e.

I have owned and maintained a bunch of Volvo's for the past 20 years and also just recently graduated to Mercedes. I find them a little more complex than the RWD Volvo's but working on any high-quality car can be a delight. Mercedes also have a great ride and the soundproofing is way above Volvo's.

You will appreciate some of the design that went into the 124 series. And probably curse a few things too, like the climate control system and serpentine belt tensioner.

It sounds like your car is pretty well maintained. I had oil consumption issues with both of my cars until I replaced the valve stem seals. With regard to the camshaft, the original service records show that the camshaft on my '88 260e was replaced under warranty at about 10,000 miles with "abnormal wear". There might have been a bad batch of camshafts because generally, like Volvo, they last about forever.

You fool!
Should have bought a Lexus.
NOTHING ever goes wrong with them.
The APPRECIATE in value, rather than depreciate.
The dealer will NEVER " bend you over " when you need parts.
There................now that I have that part off of my chest, a warm welcome to THE forum.

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2007 C 230 Sport.

can anybody direct me to a pdf thread that shows the correct timing mark alignment for a 1993 mercedes 300e 3.0
L-6

Try the search function in the drop down above. No idea what a "Pdf thread" is. Perhaps you are looking for a thread or discussion that includes "1993 mercedes 300e" timing marks.

I find it best to

1. introduce your self.
2. explain what you are working on.
3. explain how your exhaustive search on this forum left you so many questions, you had to post something.
4. Post in an appropriate thread. (this one has nothing to do with 300E timing marks).

So 300Holst, is your sister still in Hawaii? How is the 300E treating you?

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83 300TD (need rear wiper assembly dead or alive)
84 300SD Daily driver
85 300TD almost 400k miles and driven daily.
98 E300D *sold
86 300SDL *sold and made flawless 10 hour journey to new home.