I have never owned a Mercedes much less a diesel Mercedes, however I have owned several diesel trucks and my parents have owned Mercedes cars for many years.

My children are getting close to driving age (my son now has his learners permit) and I am looking for an older, safe, somewhat reliable car for them to drive (or me to drive when I would rather sit in a car).

I have seen two 1980 300SD for sale in my area. I drove one yesterday. It started very easily (it was almost 75 degrees), however after that the entire car started to vibrate. The engine smoothed out if you depressed the accelerator enough to raise the rpm to almost 1000. It still seemed to have a slight miss. Upon driving it, the transmission seems to need adjustment. The transmission did not shift from first to second until the engine was revving rather high, then it shifted hard. The next shifts wre a little better, but still hard. When trying to get the transmission to shift down I had to completely floor the pedal and there was quite a delay in the downshift. I looked at the transmission fluid dip stick before starting and the fluid was still pretty clear, though not new looking. It did not smell burned.

After returning the car to the lot, the engine still vibrated as it did when I first started it. I shut it down, waited a couple of minutes and it restared perfectly, with the same vibration.

Some of the plastic parts on the accelerator linkage ( they had vacuum hoses running to other areas of the engine) looked worn out and probably were not operating as designed. A hose running from the turbo ( I think) to somewhere else was broken and not doing anything.

The other car I have not driven yet, but I did hear it run. It did not vibrate as the previous one did. I plan to drive this one soon.

What might be some possible causes of this vibration and could it be just one bad injector? Does the transmission sound like it needs adjustment or is it more likely shot?

I would appreciate this input of this forum very much.

Doug Vazquez

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1994 Ford F-350 7.3 liter turbo diesel