The oil cooler line developed a crack and sprayed oil all over the inside of my engine compartment while I was in newport. I saw the pressire begin to drop and immediately pulled the car over and shut it down. I fixed the leak by covering the leaking area with a piece of hose and clamping either side. As I drove back to Tiverton (after putting in some oil) I was reading 45 bars at full speed the whole ride home. As I turn a corner, it burst again and this time it was worse. It dumped the pressure down to zero immediately. I was always keeping an eye on the gauges, so at most it was 5 seconds... then I bypassed the cooler altogether and use a hard hose to connect the top and bottom connections.

The car starts and runs fine now, no weird noises to speak of, just a big mess. It sounds normal. What kind of problems could/will I run into? Are these engines pretty hearty? The ride home from Newport to Tiverton was 15 miles, and it was reading 15 BAR at idle and 45 at full throttle.

__________________
http://www.betten.mercedescenter.com...n_banner_1.jpg
1976 300D
190,000 Miles
Colorado Beige

1975 300D
Parts Car
78,000 Miles
Rustbucket
Also Colorado Beige

1984 190D 2.2 (Dad's)
156,000 miles
Champagne Metallic Clearcoat

Since you were watching the gauge and you shut it down immediately, I would speculate that you did no real harm. Now, if you had been making a WOT run and not noticed it for several minutes, that would be different.

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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

They are very sturdy and I think you will have no problems from that little incident.
I think our cars should be equiped with buzzers for the low oil pressure warning.. since most people don't watch their guages as close as you do....

When you replace those cooler lines, make sure they won't be cut by a belt or anything else - they can be in slightly different positions. And your gage is reading in psi, (15 psi, 45 psi), because it was made for the North American market.

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'82 300SD - 361K mi - "Blue"

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

listen, look, .........and duck.

No wonder the hose broke!!!

I dumped the non diesel rated oil I used last night to limp the car home, and there are non noticeable metal shavings or anything in the bottom of the pan. Just the black, cruddy, normal oil. I started it this morning and it fired up no problem. I am filling her up with Delvac 15-40 and keeping an eye on the consumption to see if it eats anymore. I just really like this car, and I am sending it in to be resprayed soon, I just hope I did no real damage to the vehicle. We'll see.

__________________
http://www.betten.mercedescenter.com...n_banner_1.jpg
1976 300D
190,000 Miles
Colorado Beige

1975 300D
Parts Car
78,000 Miles
Rustbucket
Also Colorado Beige

1984 190D 2.2 (Dad's)
156,000 miles
Champagne Metallic Clearcoat

I very much doubt you did any damage if you shut down within seconds. Those engines are pretty tough. If you have good oil pressure, no overheating, normal power, no strange noises, etc. I would guess you are OK.

BTW, I graduated from URI about 100 years ago (Mech Eng, 1980) and my wife is from Tiverton, small world.

Really lucky you caught the first hose leak. There is a good chance at no point had you gone to no lubrication at all. Just because you had no oil pressure for a very short period (seconds) does not mean your bearings reached a totally dry and hot condition as the bearing surfaces have some oil retetion abilities. Like one other post have always believed these cars should have a low or no pressure warning buzzer.

You surely did no damage.

After we change oil, the engine runs for five seconds without any oil pressure. Without any significant load on the bearings, it's effectively impossible to do any damage.

Good thing that you noticed it quickly. After two minutes of no pressure, the results might not be so good.

I'm no expert but I suspect the bad news is that the fittings at the oil cooler could be stripped and you might have to rehab the threads when you replace the oil cooler lines/motor mounts. I recently determined that one of my oil cooler hoses was statrted to be nibbled on by a drive belt. I was certain at the time it was the motor mounts. Now I believe that the radiator support was pushed in (accident) on the oil cooler side and that helped move one of the lines a wee bit cloer to the ac belt. Now that I've replaced the motor mounts and straightened the rad support I'm confident the ac belt shall stay clear of the oil cooler hose now...

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Rob M
Norwich, VT USA
1980 240D Euro delivery 4 speed manual silver/blue
~160K miles

Probably no damage.
Browsing somewhere on the net the other day, I noticed a site selling one oil sender switch that combined a pressure reading with a buzzer. Long overdue development in my opinion.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Sounds like you dodged the bullet. When I worked at a Mercedes dealer in the early 80's they frequently replaced engines because some twit didn't understand the implications of dropping oil pressure. I'd heard there were fewer similar problems with the American cars with their idiot lights that are a little easier to understand - such as "STOP DRIVING CAR NOW!" flashing in bright red lights. The older Mercedes on the other hand just have a needle and that is it.

You were lucky.

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http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/l...aman/Fleet.jpg

Peach Parts W124.128 User Group.

80 280SL
85 300SD
87 300TD
92 300D 2.5 Turbo
92 300TE 4Matic

A while ago (maybe a year) someone on eBay was selling an entire kit, including the sender and a window for one on the spare idiot lights on the dash. I don't think I've seen it recently.

Drove the car around all of today, the morning after the incident. Performed flawlessly, started up quickly as usual, about 3-4 seconds of cranking or 5-6 "chuh chuh". Pressure stays at 45 while under full load, down to 30 or 20 depending if it comes off the highway at idle. No power problems, and the exhaust isn't blue or smelling like oil. Minimal blowby out of filler cap, rhythmic with the firing of the engine. I am gonna monitor the oil consumption and hope its ok.


I can't wait till winter to see how this performs. This bad boy started up on Feb 7 of last year with old oil and diesel fuel in under 20 seconds of cranking

__________________
http://www.betten.mercedescenter.com...n_banner_1.jpg
1976 300D
190,000 Miles
Colorado Beige

1975 300D
Parts Car
78,000 Miles
Rustbucket
Also Colorado Beige

1984 190D 2.2 (Dad's)
156,000 miles
Champagne Metallic Clearcoat

No damage..

See my thread on "Another good reason to replace your motor mounts" or something of that nature...scary how long it lasted driving with low-no oil pressure...

Still runs even today!