Pelican has all the crush washers. Fischer Plath brand. I just make sure to get extras of all the common sizes when I make an order. I keep a jar with fresh ones ready for maintenance work. I didn’t seem to have the big one for the differential fill plug yesterday…I should have measured it when it was out. Just search under copper washer or aluminum washer.

The parts situation is bad. On my C280 I cannot get a lot of stuff. The rubber diaphragms in the locks and hvac are starting to leak. I am just plugging things off or replacing the vacuum motors with hacked w124 stuff. Since my car doesn’t have a keyhole on the drivers side it’s going to be a problem soon. I have that passive security system that’s all intertwined with the door locking so converting back to a mechanical key may not be an option. Immobilizer bs.

I don’t blame MB for not supporting the old cars. They are actually in financial trouble now and this is one cost center that they can easily cut to maintain profitability. At least that is what the finance news says…apparently their sales have collapsed.

Supporting us old car nuts just exacerbates their problems. It really isn’t in their best interests to make us an over engineered super durable car and then provide parts for thirty years. My friend who was sales at a dealership said he liked guys like me because he could point to us and tell new clients that they were making an “investment in quality”. But I think it is just not serving them anymore.

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79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles
97 C280 147k miles