I have heard and read that the W140 have been plagued with problems and also the the diesel in the '92 was the "lemon" engine. I am looking at a '92 300sd. Need advice please.

Get it cheap, with low mileage.

Ok, you confirmed its a lemon. Now what is cheap for a 9 year old car with 15K. Thats correct only 15K. Estate sale.

Bill

I don't know if the car has records or not. It is being sold by bid. From what I have read here I think I will curb my desire for this beaut.

thanks

That mileage is incredible...if you do buy it with low mileage and have engine problems I can almost guarantee you MB will take care of you...they have helped people out up to about 75K or so with these cars .
Besides that the car may run 500K with no problems..these cars are very strange some people had problems..some have gone 250K with none..??...go figure...I can guarantee that an MB dealer would ask at least 30K for that car...and get it!!
In any case you can probably still get a warranty(which you will want on any 140..trust me)Because the 140's have a few other problems that can cost some $$. But some of that is to be expected for a car that cost 72K new..why would expect replacement parts to be cheap?
In my opinion 140 was the best looking/driving Benz to date.
I am sure that car with 15K is a rare beauty...good luck!!

Warren Turner
1992 300SD 110K
turner@greif.com
http://images.prosperpoint.com/images/1628/82440-1.jpg

Oh man, now I am confused again. I think I will check with the dealer about any warranty. Thanks for the replies. I will let everyone know what it does sell for.

Your MB dealer will not guarantee anything.... a goodwill fix will have to come directly from the regional MB rep...but if you buy the car and have problems..I know of a few guys that have gotten MB to fix their cars or at least contribute 50% to a dealer fix(which is what you want on this car)....but the 140 cars are a dream...I have owned a 1985 300SD and 1992 300D..and the 140 is a great leap over these cars...smooth,fast,quiet,luxurious and last but not least...finally a great stereo
These 140 cars are a marvel...but at the same time are very complicated and required a more skilled hand and can be expensive to fix.....but what do you expect of a car that was $75-100K brand new...there are things on my car..such as the evaporator replacement..that I would not have trusted to many others than an MB dealer if for no other reason to have recourse with MB directly if I had further problems

[Edited by turnne1 on 02-27-2001 at 09:28 AM]

Well, I did not buy it because it sold for $51500CD or $34000US which is about right I suppose. It was was one of these deals where it was sold before it was on the market so I never had a chance. Oh well, it is nice to dream. I will have to stick with the '82 SD.

Cheers

Thats sounds like about where I thought it would sell.
That is a rare car and with that mileage any MB dealer would love to have that one to sell "over" book

Warren Turner
turner@greif.com
http://images.prosperpoint.com/images/1628/82440-1.jpg

To revisit the engine question for a moment; is the engine in the M92 300SD more trouble prone than is typical for a Mercedes diesel? As fate would have it, one of these appeared in one of my local ad rags-mileage not stated. It has piqued my curiosity sufficiently to call for more details. How is a turbo diesel overall compared to the 3.2L 6 cyl gas engine in the S320, the only other engine configuration I'm looking at? My overall impression of diesel automobiles isn't very favorable. I hate the look of the tail of the car covered in soot. Are the turbo diesels any cleaner burning?

Trouble prone...probably...some people,and I emphasize some,have had had problems...I had a complete engine installed at 102K...but I have seen cars with over 200K and no problems. It seems that whatever upgrades they put into the new engines have solved the problem(if there was one I guess)In terms of the soot/smoke issue none of the 90's diesel cars are not going to smoke like the older ones...also they will be much smoother,peppier and smoother.
Compared to the 1985 300SD I had the 1992 model is a huge difference.
As for the S320 you should notice acceleration differences from a dead stop....midrange range passing will probably be similiar...but you will notice more on the top end/top speed with the S320....but on the flipside your fule mileage will be much less and the maintenence will be more

Warren Turner
1992 300SD 110K

Gosh Warren...
 

Could you make that picture a little bigger please?

I can't quite count the metallic flakes in the paint yet! :D

sorry....I do need to resize that.....but there was one guy who didn't know they made a 140 diesel so I wanted him to be able to see the numbers on the rear

Just Kiddin' Ya...
 

Yeah! But I can read the part numbers on the taillights! :D

Did you notice how the spacing changed on this thread just to accomodate your photo? Scroll right, and see what I mean...

I's amazing what MercedesShop will do for us members! ;)

Short block or long block ?
 

In regards to the 140 diesel one of the members claims that
the short block is the "rod bender".Does that mean that a diesel with the long block is OK ? How can one tell them apart ? Does anyone know if MB has fixed the engine issues
for 94-95 ?What exactly is the problem ? What was the fix ?
(if it has been fixed )
Thanks