I know where there is a 240D tucked away in a used car lot in Richardson, Tx. (near Dallas). It has been there for a few months. I talked to the owner about it and they said the motor needs to be rebuilt. I asked them if it ran and if I could start it and they agreed. It took a while for it to catch but it did start and after a minute or so settled down to what I thought was a pretty decent idle. Definately hitting on all four. The lady showing me the car pointed to the shaking engine as proof it was not running properly and I did not disagree with her out loud BUT my personal opinion is that there is nothing seriously wrong with the engine. Because of the supposed engine problems, she said she would take $800 for the car. I suspect it could be had for $500. More about the car:

Overall decent shape, but...
cracked windshield
Hood pull gone, coat hanger wire instead
paint fair (yellow)
Couple pieces of trim missing
I did not drive it, but it's an automatic. She said it drives.
Not sure what year... 81 maybe?

If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll get the phone number and address of the lot for you.

-David

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-Dave

Why did it have to be an automatic? I still wouldn't mind looking at it, and would like the info. I'm just east of Dallas, and was in Richardson today. Had to make a Harbor Freight run.
I have been saving to have my front end rebuilt on the wagon, but have always wanted a 240, just not an automatic.......
Leave message or pm me if you would. and thanks for the heads up for your forum buddies....
See, this would be better than that diesel Volvo.....

__________________
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

PM me, I know where an '83 is for CHEAP.

__________________
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]

There's a white '85 TD in Mckinney sitting behind a shed near an alley with expired stickers since '03.
Its funny how we can spot 'em. I was driving past the alley about three blocks down from where its parked and caught just one end of the TD in the corner of my eye.
I can't ever catch the folks home.

I'm taking a closer look at the manual 230TE (123) sitting in a field this week.
Gasser.

Manual

__________________
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

I've already put more in my car in parts than what I paid for it...but Oh what a feeling when you slide in the drivers seat and know that you have done ALL the work to it!

__________________
91 350SD
14 F150 Eco
19 Fusion Hybrid
11 GT500

I'm 30 miles from the Red River and I have enough smoke outside to burn my eyes.
I covered the entire ranch this eve looking for fire, called 911. They tell me the south part of OK is on fire. I find nothing on the news here.
I've got ash blowing in.

Good luck Dan. Lots of fires around here too! Almost all the ponds are bone dry or only have a foot or two. Only the spring fed ponds have anything.
Hopefully that wagon in the field is safe.

__________________
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

I had been mending the fence on the south end of the ranch yesterday using an old MF tractor to punch post holes. Lots of dry leaves, grass...
Later on that eve I smell smoke. Wind is kicking up 35mph gust. You know what went thru my mind. I thought I was going to have a heart attack running around looking for the source. Turns out its 40-50 miles north.

Rain went right around me.

Nothing on the news re the fires.

It's at Ted's Auto 227 South Central Expressway in Richardson. It's on the Northbound frontage road just south of Belt Line. Hard to see the car from the street, it is behind other cars at the rear of the lot.

Phone number is 1-866-617-4689

I just called to verify that the number was correct and talked to a guy who said that the motor was NOT bad (not what his wife (?) said) but that it had some electrical problem which caused the motor to shut off suddenly. I did not see any evidence of that when I was there. Anyway... happy hunting, diesel buddies!

__________________
-Dave

1983 240D 115K on the working speedo, although there is NO WAY!

What a dissappointment! Not a bad looking little 240 really. It is acceptable looking for a cheap driver. Paint is in OK shape, but starting to fade. If you fed your baby mustard and water, and she wet her diaper, that is the color. But it would work. Interior.....OK I guess. Carpet isn't torn or anything, but it is a light color, and I don't know if it is cleanable. Black carpet mats over them all.
Headliner is alittle droopy in back, dash has a few cracks, but still looks pretty good. Drivers seat is torn and soft. Other seats have that faded tan/pink look.
Sunroof and windows are electric, sunroof is slow. (with car running). Trunk had no signs at all of water damage, and rear window seal looked too good to be original. Car cover in trunk. Chrome things over wheel wells.
AC compressor came on, but air never was cold. Wasn't really even cool. Still R12. Windshield horribly cracked, wipers don't work. Cruise would engage, but seemed to accelerate. One of the oil cooler lines looked new.
Glow plug light did not come on. And based on how it tried to start, not many glow plugs, if any, were working. 80 amp fuse not blown/cracked.
Now, everything above is roses compared to the rest. Front end is loose, and pulls alittle left. (it isn't near as bad as the '85 wagon I drove over there in, though! ) Several of the boots on tie rods and ball joints have collapsed. The test drive was OK I guess. First, the tranny slips when starting off. It does that in either forward or reverse. It is like feathering the clutch on a manual. No slipping in any other gears. Works well in fact. Car actually drove decent, better than my wagon, from a suspension standpoint. I liked it, but absolutely no power at all. I've only driven one other 240 automatic, and it seemed to have more umph than this one. I was comfortable with how it drove, tranny slipping aside.
This brings us to the reason to run away from this car. BLOW-BY!!!
The most I have ever seen! It looked like a freight train stack with the oil cap removed, puffing a cloud constantly. I set the cap on to see if it would "tea-kettle", and besides from just almost blowing itself off, it spewed oil everwhere. On my shirt, on my arms, on my face, etc....... Guiser!

Too bad. Unlike the $800 mentioned above, they quoted me $900. I guess I look more like a sucker! Without the blowby, and at a lower amount than they wanted, it had possibilities. With that blowby, it just doesn't have much left. Also, there was no oil on the dipstick, and the tranny fluid was slightly below the bottom mark. Not a pretty red either. Antifreeze green, but not rusty.
Could anybody run a Carfax and/or a search on the tag? I couldn't get the Russian vin site to work on it either.

VIN # wdbab23a0db403516
Texas plate R97 FJH

__________________
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

Sorry to hear about those fires Tom. I know that must be very frustrating. Hopefully you will get needed rains this week. There are some forecasted for Texas, but not sure if it will get in your area or not. I wish we could send some of our rains your way. We are about normal rainfall for this time of year. Yesterday (Friday) was very wet and windy. Early, it was sunny and warm, then strong west winds roared in and then rain squalls.

I drove by the lot again today and saw that the 240D was still there. Sorry to hear it was a POS (I hadn't thought to check for blowby).

Oh well... it has been there for several months, maybe they will eventually realize that it is not worth what they are asking (whatever that may be on a given day).

__________________
-Dave

I would have considered it had it been a standard, even with the near worn out engine. It actually looks presentable from the outside. Interior ....eghhhh
This would not be a car that would start in cold weather, though. Not a chance.
Too bad folks with rusted out but very drivable 240's can't run accross a car like this. Heck, if I had the standard tranny setup, I could almost talk myself into it. Then I could quit driving by that diesel Volvo wagon.....

__________________
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

You want a manual trans? Here ya go:

http://houston.craigslist.org/car/121101182.html

In Houston though... and it says the body is less than perfect.

__________________
-Dave