Miles,

I will try to help answer some of your questions:

1. I've never taken one of these odometers apart but I would venture to say that you can either get a used one and note the mileage so you can keep track of it or you can take it to that place you mentioned to have it fixed. Personally I'd rather have it fixed, that way you won't have to be searching for a speedometer assembly.

2. Your oil question has been thoroughly discussed on this forum. I would suggest using what the car has been using all this time and keep using the Chevron Delo 400. That is what I've been using in my 240D and it's excellent diesel specific oil. The only thing that may be different from everybody else in the forum is that I change my oil every 2K....but that's just me but I would't wait until 4K to change it as the previous owners on your 240D. And when you do change it, "change it hot and change it often" as per Larry Bible's famous quote. For oil filters, you can order them in bulk from this website at Fastlane and you can't go wrong. They will probably send you Mann filters or Hengst. I wouldn't put anything else in these cars.

3. I've never driven a manual transmission 240D so I really couldn't answer your question with regard to the noise but I hear these transmission are virtually indestructible as are the engines. I would replace the transmission fluid and see what that does...remember do the cheap stuff first.

Herb
'82 240D
'87 300SDL