Something odd happened to my '83 300SD today.

As I was driving down the road my charge indicator light came on; at the same time it became very hard to steer (steering pump failed?). (There was also an odd noise that I heard a second or two before this happened, but I can't quite describe it. Thud? Whop? Fhup?) So I pulled over to the side and turned off the car and had it towed back home.

When I got it back home, I made a brief visual inspection under the hood. Nothing unusual visible, so whatever it is it's internal somewhere. I turned it back on. Immediately after the engine turned on there was a brief (one second) but strong shudder from the under the hood. However, afterwards it ran fine--no indicator lights, steering was fine, engine sounded fine. I drove it slowly around the block to test. It ran as it usually does.

Now the German car shops around here are closed on the weekends . So I have some time before I take it to the shop to be inspected on Monday. I'm not so confident about driving it that far yet, though.


What do you guys think?

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1983 300SD (W126, OM617) with 404k miles!
(OK, so the engine was replaced at 147k mi)