Hello. I am looking at buying an old diesel Mercedes. What should I look for when looking at a car other than the obvious things such as mileage etc. Are there any common problems areas to look for? Thank you

Mileage on a diesel?

Well, as long as the whole grille isn't completely covered in those nice mileage badges, you're good to go. I'm in the process of acquiring a '71 220d from a family member, and frankly have no idea how many thousands(read hundreds of thousands) of miles it has on it. You want to look up and down for any sign of rust on these cars, and you're best off to get a California car. As for the engine, I will leave that to the experts to answer.

Check the underside of the car thouroughly though. and look for any obvious signs of bubbling.

On the thought of the mileage badges, anyone ever think MB was using those as a way to phase out the highest mileage cars... When you get your 13th or 14th one, it'd start to affect your air flow and toast the engine. (sarcasm implied greatly)

The diesel Benz is a truly unique creature which rivals the fuel economy of the new hybrids. As long as you don't mind a top speed of 65mph and the hour it takes to get there. (not so much sarcasm implied)

When you start looking at individual cars, take down the first 6 of the VIN, you'll see it like 108.064 or 114.615 etc... that helps us addicts decipher what model and engine the car has to better give advice.

Happy Hunting!

Cold start and smoke (blue, black, white) will tell alot. Better bring somebody who knows em with you. Otherwise the only diagnostic tool is compression that should be at least 275, hopefully well over 300 lbs - 350 is excellent, 375 is as new.

Few are prepared for culture shock of driving a diesel. It will change your habbits forever, no more fast moves at intersections or quick lane changes. I would advize against getting a diesel on a whim. Have driven trucks professionally and am used to them, otherwise wouldnt bother with em myself. Good news is all sorts of special effects, noisy engine that revs low rpm's. It always seems about to explode. Caution against automatics, gotta be standard shift to optimize narrow power band.

Get an old manual.

The standard column shifter will amaze and wonder everyone who drives with you. A 180D will require much less maintenance than horse and buggy.

__________________
PagodaLOVER
1967 230SL, manual
1959 180D, manual

It's a jungle out there, I bought a 1984 190d a few months ago and looked at about eight of these things. I was suprised at how quickly sellers were unloading these cars , most had only been owned for six months. I would advise you to plan on dropping some additional cash beyond your purchase price because if you are new to diesels like me, you may find that you have a problem with a part that you have never heard of before that may do something important! If you can take a mechanic or even get the seller to let you have it inspected at a shop, you could save a lot of heartache and cash down the road. Good luck.

Well, I'm selling my old aircooled VW van to buy it so I'm not used to speed. I don't really know anybody who knows diesels, but I would probably have it checked out by a mechanic. I have done a fair amount of wrenching on old gas cars and motorcycles, but diesels are foreign to me. For example I have found a 72 220D that has 170K miles on it, but according to the owner it smokes "as in enough smoke for me to not want to drive it." I know this usually means big trouble for a gasser, but for a diesel? I have no idea. The price is right though. $500

What else should I look for when considering a car. Thanks for all of the advice. –Bryan

The cool thing is Brian ;

_YOU_ can do all the mtce. your ownself , assuming you've been working on your old VW Van and motocycle .

Even better is this : the PO of the smoker prolly never did anything to it other than drive it so if you do the normal routine mtce. on it like a hot oil change and filter , change all the fuel filters then do a Diesel Purge and valve adjust to it , it'llprolly begine t run pretty well again , this is how i recently resurrected a nice old Coupe I bought for less that scrap parce and drove it
(wheezed belching smoke more like) all the way across Texas and Louisiana then back again home to Los Angeles , killing mosquitos all the way but it runs well now although still more smoke than I like .

Grind the price down , $500.00 for a runner sounds good to me .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Smoke is NOT a major issue with diesels...... often its injector pump timing ($175) or carbon fouled piston crowns (gotta race the engine long haul w/additives) or possibly injectors, thats all. Black smoke that smells like fuel is generally unburnt fuel caused for the reasons given above - incomplete combustion.

And unless he's got service records from day one you might as well assume 170k miles is actually 270k or 370k. NOBODY believes the 5 digit odometer on Vintage MB's.

$500 is good price for rust-free rolling chassis, even better if the engine runs. Hell, I just paid $1,000 last week for Kansas/Oklahoma w123 240D 4-spd, 220k miles, manual sunroof, 22yrs of service records (recent clutch, brakes, starter, muffler), rust-free and runs great..... bought it at the car-for-sale forum here.

There's not much that can go wrong with 115/220D, there really isnt. But low mileage replacement engines are becoming scarce. Good compression is critical. And newer 240D engines will require adaptation to fit.

Thanks for the advise. Unfortunately I was too slow on this one. I'll keep my eye out for another.