Hey everyone I really need your help. I bought a 1985 MB 300td last night. The car is in immaculate condition. The odometer reads 177,00 miles, and I bought the car for $2400. I got it checked out by a Mercedes dealership and they said it was in good condition except for a leaking rear shock and needed new control arms. So I got the car home and started looking at the maintenance records (which are very well documented), the car got all its appropriate tune-ups and had 201,000 miles in 1994!! I then ran a Carfax and found that the car was bought at an auction in 01/2000 with 298,000 miles. There is then one maintenance record in 11/2000 stating that the car has 140,000 miles….interesting. So based on my calculations this car could have between 330,000 and 477,000 miles. I talked to the seller who was unaware of this problem and agreed to take the car back. My question to you all is what should I do? I told the Mercedes-benz mechanic about the problem and he said he couldn’t believe it had that many miles on it and that because the engine still ran strong (and turbo worked…which means compression is O.K.) his assessment of the car was the same. The car really runs great, starts right up on cold mornings, and is superficially beautiful (no wear on interior). What is the maximum lifespan on this motor? If it runs great now should I be confident that it won’t blow a head gasket, timing belt, etc in the near future. I have a week to think about it and get the car checked out by other mechanics, are there any things I should look for?? Should I offer this guy a lower price..if so how much?? Let me know what you all think.
Thanks a lot.

Brett

Can MB tell if the engine numbers match the original numbers? Maybe the engine and/or transmission was changed out. Obviously some work was done in some form, like a new instrument panel.

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1983 300SD
200000miles

If the Mercedes dealership couldn't find anything else that it needed besides a leaking rear shock and new control arms then I would say you found yourself a keeper. You may be able to get them to knock off a few bucks for the discrepancy but you probably paid a fair price.

Exactly. If your car is a good runner and the Mech said it is in good condition than you are lucky for that price. 300TD's go for a TON...read the forum there is a discussion on that right now. Don't know about interior but since you don't comment I assume fine. I say keep it either way. It is not about milage that determines life span of the engines (by the way timming chain not belt). It is maintnance and this sounds like it is well maintained.

Example. N/A 617 I bought 129K (just rebuilt top end becuase of poor maintnance)
300TDT 290K engine almost perfect runs better than the 129K car, no blowby at all.

KEEP IT. But if you can get a few extra dollars off for the car do it. Keep us posted and WELCOME TO THE FORUM!!!!! Look forward to seeing you on here more in the future.

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76 300D 130K "Stella" (Sold )
74 240D 299K (Donated to Highschool For Senior Project WVO)
83 300TDT 290K (My one and only)
Sanford, NC

If it runs as well as you say I would guess the engine has been replaced at some point, but I would definitely try what Phil says and see if MB can tell you for sure.

I would run a blowby test on this engine. The test involves idling the car and revving a bit with the engine oil cap off - you look for steam at that point. I have also read that a piece of plastic wrap over the hole can help you determine whether there is any blowby or not. Definitely do a search on 'blowby' and read about what it is and how to test for it. If your engine doesn't have very much of it then it is probably worth buying, no matter how many miles it has.

The TD's can command a premium price so it sounds like you might be getting a pretty good deal, even with the mystery mile situation.

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Ralph

1985 300D Turbo, CA model
248,650 miles and counting...

Mine has 350K miles, purchased for $1500 and needed close to that same amount in work. The standard concensus is the quality of maintenance and not the number of miles determines the value on these cars and I believe you found a cherry. After another 200K consider the factors then.

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Sam

84 300SD 350K+ miles ( Blue Belle )

This area has been a bone of contention for a long period of time. I have felt the standing jokes are more serious than imagined. Most the cars running around with a couple of hundred thousand miles indicated may be in error. They may have already accumulated close to a half million miles as I have two examples with over 200,000 miles indicated that the interiors still look new. Plus they mechanically run as new. Still do not have a clue if the odometers are true though. Even the cold start abilities are the same as new. Yet most offers in this milage range on ebay show wear and sometimes lots of it. Plus defects galore. The only difference this time is carfax and available service records in this very rare situation was helpful in establishing the true overall milage still to only some degree. I even brought one with dummy records. Anyone ever wonder why on 95 percent or greater of older mercedes diesels available the records are missing even the original oil change booklet? If carfax had not clued you in and it usually does not by the way you would have been content with the indicated milage like most are. We seem to always want to believe in the upside as it is inherent in human nature to do so in general. I would suggest getting a price adjustment if previous owner is plyable and nieve and trucking on. Even if you do not what in this world is going to stop the same thing happening again and you getting even a worse example with higher or simular true total milage. The odometers on the 123s and 126s should get an oscar award for their general performance. Common sense dictates like myself people originally buy new diesels to drive excessive miles when new. There have to be exceptions of course but they are most likely fewer and farther apart than what is believed. The first rollback takes place when the car is traded in for the first time by the original owner or buyer as it made the differential in resale so great for the first ten years of the cars life. Almost automatically happened then. Not as common today of course.Then it happens a few more times if the odometer keeps working. Usually the 123 and 126 odometer goes out a few times more in the interm as well adding other opportunies. Finding a true low milage example is extremely hard but it does happen. It's the old story I guess. What you do not know may not hurt you. If the mercedes people stated the car was in pretty good shape that is about as good as it gets as most 123 diesel cars out there would not do as well on an inspection. What they found was minimal but I have a little difficulty with their skill level as a good mechanic with extensive 123 experience going way back does know all the total milage indicators and would be hard to fool. Perhaps the car had really good maintenance and got by him but more likely he was not old enough to be servicing them from new. For your own amusement check the engine numbers to see if it's been changed. If the car has had proper maintainance over the years and your records do not indicate a rebuild it is possible the original engine is still running well with reasonably high compression. I of course may be wrong in what I believe but benefited from earlier experience to some extent with their gas models. I was doing jobs on their engines that were not due for hundreds of thousand miles with sometimes as low as 60-70 thousand showing on the odometers and the people thinking it was the first time around or perhaps thinking only the second time around. It was crazy back then and things did not really change much till the recent past. Although you can buy a head program box for the new odometers for about 800.00 canadian I understand so the practices are not totally dead or they would not be selling the rollback system for the liquid crystal odometer systems. Guess it's just part and parcel of what makes the economy go round. Anyways sounds like you have a pretty good car. I do not know if I should post this or not but will throw it up for general thought and comment. My views are not set in stone and even critical response is not objectionable to me. These are just my views afterall and carfax could have screwed up their reporting system as well on this particular car. Anything is a possibility in life. Oh, and welcome to the site as I see it is your first post and with the support available here it is a great place. I am probably the resident crazy as my viewpoints are somewhat more divergent at times than others.

four tires pumped up and all for $2,400.00 to include a dealership mechanic giving the car a passing grade; what else could you expect? Free gas for the next four years? Some people are just lucky.

BenzDiesel

I agree that the $2400 you paid is a fair price. From what you said I will assume that somebody messed with the odometer, moving the first digit back. The car had 201,000 miles in 1994, 240,0000 miles in 2000, and now has 277,000 miles. You will likely spend another $1000 on the car, and you then have one that probably do not need any work for a while. I will keep it, but try knocking some money off, say offer him $2000. Once a record gets into carfax, it is almost impossible to change it.

thanks for all the input, you're all great. I records I have don't indicate any rebuilds, they are just for scheduled maintanence. I have the original data card with the engine #, where do I find the # on the engine. Thanks
brett

The odometer was probably replaced because it broke. It happens all the time on these cars. If the dealership looked at the car and that was all it needed, why not still keep it.

If it runs that good and is in nice shape, forget about the miles, the car is over 20 years old.

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1981 300D 147k
1998 VW Jetta Tdi 320k
2001 Dodge Ram 2500 141k
1979 300D 234k (sold)
1984 300D "Astor" 262k(sold)
Mercedes How-To and Repair Pictorials
I love the smell of diesel smoke in my hair

Sure sounds like the mileage has been massaged....but, 2400 bucks, looks and runs good is great. Jack the seller for some more cash back to ease your mental pain...cash back is always a good thing. If you like it, it sounds like you got a good deal.

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Mark
1983 300TD Wagon
Even a broken watch is right twice a day