why doesn't my car exist?
 

So I just bought a 1984 Euro market 280e with a hard starting problem I'm pretty sure is a bad fuel accumulator. Anyway, so I've been looking to buy one online but whenever I search for my car it does not exist. No one lists a 280e past 1981. I assumed it had to do with the 280 being discoed in the US after that, but I found one website referring to three phases of production for the w123, the last of which started after 1981. So what I really need to know is will these 1981 parts all fit, especially for the fuel system stuff? Any insight would be appreciated.

Marc

you might have to shop in germany for parts. go to Auto, Motorrad, Kfz Ersatzteile & Zubehör - eBay Motors

If you have isolated the fault to the fuel accumulator, I would go ahead and buy for any 280 listed in the same era. It is unlikely such a part would be peculiar to Euros and it is fairly inexpensive anyway.

Thanks
 

Thanks for the replies, I took Oldsinner's advice and went looking in germany with the help of google translate, and found that some of the parts were (including the accumulator) listed by different ranges due by dates, in this case 1979-1984, and then further by chassis #. There were two different options based on the date range so I cross referenced them back and found both are readily available here, both are listed under 1981 280e an ce, as rocky suspected as well as several later cars. I'll keep checking back just to be safe, but I have a feeling now the 1981 parts will work in most cases.

A few things on the accumulator.

There will be 2 threaded lines for pressure and a small hose for a vent to the tank.

Pull the small hose , turn on the pump and see if fuel continues to come out of the accumulator, if so the diaphragm is bad. Note, the other end of the small hose should go back to the fuel tank so be sure to crimp it off otherwise you will have a flood due to gravity.

The internal spring could fail but I'd call that rare.

Have you installed a fuel pressure gauge and watched it? If engine off fuel pressure stays up, you don't have an accumulator problem. Also, a temporary way around an accumulator that does not hold pressure is to manually run the fuel pump until you have pressure then try to start the car.

Thanks for that! I won't have a chance to look it until next weekend. I haven't put a gauge on it but it starts fine cold, but if you leave it longer than 5 or 10 minutes it starts hard, so I figure it's either the accumulator or the WUR, and I really do not want to buy a WUR if I can avoid it, so I'm hopeful.

That's exactly how my SL was when the accumulator went south. Cold it would fire right up....instantly in fact. But if you parked in front of a convenience store and dashed in and out, it was quite an embarrassing show trying to get it to restart! Wait for 45 mins or so, and it would start back up again, but not as well as when cold.

FWIW, the accumulator on my car was different from the 1981+ models used on the US cars. It only had 1 fuel inlet and the vent line and had to be special ordered. Car-Quest was able to take the original one and cross the number over, so that may be something to consider.

try serching for the part by part number look on your old parts for the numbers then google that number

I came up on a site that listed all the interchangeable part numbers for a given part number search, but I guess I didn't bookmark it.

If anyone knows the site I'm referring to (or similar) please post a link.