I will soon be commuting from pastoral RI to the RT 128 armpit in MA. The total distance via Mapqwest isn't bad, 51 miles one way, but I know the route and it is an infamous traffic jam both ways. How well does the OM617 take to lots and lots of idle time? How well do the trannys hold up to frequent stop-n-go. What can I do to help prepare my 196,000 sedan to hold up under these conditions? My A/C doesn't work now, but I will have to have it fixed for the summer. Does the A/C work for squat at idle? I am going to try to stick with R12. Although the car will undergo extensive traffic jams, there will be enough hi-speed driving that I think I'll avoid carbon build-up related issues. Is it true a diesel uses very very little fuel at idle compared to a gasser.
What I really need is a new job, hard as hell for us 50+ year old geezers :-)

Try deodorant if you are afraid of armpit odor.

Seriously, if you are that worried about the tranny, how about cutting the cooling lines and attaching them to an external tranny cooler in front of the radiator? In trucks that do that, a trick to extending tranny life is often to put a large external cooler instead of relying on the stock one that pumps fluid thru the radiator.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

No worries, it'll be fine. My commute is 65 miles each way and about 20-30 minutes out of the 1.5 hrs is stop and go. Once you get the read of the traffic, you'll be able to adapt to it.

If you know the traffic is going to crawl at no more than 10 mph, leave the shifter in L so the trans can't shift. Too many harsh 1-2 shifts is not good. Saves wear on your brakes too. If the speeds are over 10, your only choice is S, which keeps the trans from going into 4th. I use it if I'm going to be going less than 25 or so. Coasting downhill in neutral is good if you can. My feeling is that most of the wear on a transmission is during shifting and I try to keep it to a minimum. Hans has nearly 180K on the orig trans. and it's doing OK.

I've had no problems with idle time, but then again, I'm nearly always moving, if slowly. If it's an accident and I'm not moving, I shut off the engine. Diesels do burn much less fuel at idle than gassers.

Make sure your belts and hoses are OK, you have new coolant and maybe replace the t-stat. Tint the windows if your state allows (unlike &%#@* Maryland)

My AC works OK at idle, but not great. I think it's because the recirc doesn't work. My wife's AC blows ice cubes at idle. Keep R-12 if you have it - it works much better in marginal conditions. Make sure your fan clutch works as well as your aux fan. Clean and flush your radiator inside and out. It may need to be replaced if it won't keep the eingine cool.

Remember, these cars are almost bullet-proof, this kind of driving is a piece of cake for your car - but not for you. Get XM radio for something to do besides listening to the news/weather/traffic. Relax. There is nothing you can do about traffic, don't get excited or frustrated. Let people in, wave when they let you in. Smile. Give yourself enough time so that you're not in a hurry like 95% of the other commuters and you can begin to enjoy riding in a superior vehicle, smug in the knowledge that you're getting better fuel economy in the traffic jam than that POS rice-burner.

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1984 300Sd 210k

Former cars:
1984 300D 445k (!!) (Strider) Original (and not rebuilt) engine and transmission. Currently running on V80 ( 80% vegetable oil, 20% petroleum products). Actually not, taking a WVO break.
1993 300d 2.5 275k. Current 120/day commuter
1981 300SD 188k (Hans) Killed by a deer

Most of my commutes are stop and go 55mph roads, and my car has been fine on them, I just have above average brake rotor wear... My tranny is original and has 222k on it, still going strong, rarely flares or does anything unusual, had all new seals put in it 1.5 years ago because it was leaking, but otherwise they said it'd last for a large amount of time yet based on the wear they saw.

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

Thanks for all th great suggestions. Fortunately (?) I have 2 123's both pretty much the same, one's a coupe, one's a sedan. I'll split the driving chores between them with an occasional blast for my gasser too. I can't hear so all this great and wondeful new ways of listening to music don't do much for me. Course, makes the diesel sound pretty fine to me too :-) I'm going to super-service the trans with synthetic, Trans-X and some vacuum work. It flares a bit but not too terribly. The car is comfortable on long runs so it should be ok for a big day after day commute. I guess this is one of the biggest advantages of these old 123's, they run forever and even when stuff breaks it's not usually critical. New brakes this weekend and a valve adjustment the next, good for another 20K.

Use R12 if you want but I have had great results with Envirosafe 134A replacement. I have had it in my W108 250SE (old York compressor) for the past 2 seasons and it still blows ice cold. I also put it in the 300TD last summer with the GM radial compressor and it still is fine. Check out http://autorefrigerants.com/co00033.htm for more info. I used the regular strength stuff.

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Bill Reimels
Now down to one:
1972 300SE 3.5 W109 (Euro delivery)

Don't shift the transmisiion needlessly into neutral. The loading and unloading will kill auto trans. Don't ask me how I know

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1977 300D Lost coolant while someone else was driving
1983 300D Can't run without oil
1985 300SD (gone but not forgotten)
1990 300TE 4matic Sold
1991 Yamaha Venture
1975 Kawsaki 250 triple
1974 Honda 200CL
1951 8N Ford
2008 Wildfire 650C

We were always told that shifting the trans. in neutral a lot deprives it of fluid, or something to that effect.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

It's a pleasure to see someone else drive an SD in the exact manner that I drive the SDL.

Do not shift your tranny into N whilst going down hills, etc...

When it is in neutral your front pump isn't running, therefore not lubricating the transmission which = accelerated wear!!

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Nick
*****
2002 Sprinter 2500 140" High Roof :

I'm intrigued by this information Bill. My '80TD was cheaply converted to R-134A, and did OK, but not great. Would I need to completely evacuate what is in my system now and then go back with the Envirosafe 134a replacement stuff? How many cans if system was evacuated?
Thanks Bill, nice to have options...

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Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

Usually 80-85% of the R12 capacity. I'm hardcore, I'm going back to R12. Curious to see where I can find some.

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I'm not a doctor, but I'll have a look.

'85 300SD 245k
'87 300SDL 251k
'90 300SEL 326k

Six others from BMW, GM, and Ford.

Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty.[/IMG]

Hitman,

Go on Ebay and search for freon R12. You will find plenty. You will need a certificate to buy, though. At least I needed mine.

Tom

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1993 300TE
1984 300D
1984 300SD
1976 BMW R90S

My indy says that R12 is unmatched when it comes to true cooling performance on marginal systems. If a system had more than enough capacity, conversion to 134A or the new R12 replacements is OK. On many systems, the new R12 replacements and 134A conversions provides less than ideal results.

I bought my R12 from Ebay......

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Eric Boyles
1980 450SL

One thing I forgot to mention. When using the new R12 replacements, my indy says to use one can of the real R12 with the balance of replacement R12 and you will get much better performance than just using the replacement freon.

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Eric Boyles
1980 450SL