Hello all and thank you for all of your help with my cold starting problems "GLOW PLUGS" are needed for cold starting!!! I absolutely love my 1980 300D Benz!

Now I have a couple of other questions:

1). I have no heat at all I turn the dial and it does nothing. A/C Blows snowball's

2.) No dash Lights

3.) No speedometer, new cable and still not working.

4.) rear defroster only defrost 1 line in the rear window.

Any help you can give me I would really appreciate

Thank you,
Lind

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1st time Mercedes Owner.
1980 300D 123/130
what do ya expect for $600.00
Needs TLC

Regarding the dash lights, I had a similar problem. I recommend removing the cluster and then remove the potentiometer (spelling?) and just jumpering the two posts left. Also unscrew the cluster components and check the copper strip circuitry to make sure none of it is burnt. This DIY should give you some guidance on cluster removal, the potentiometer is the white odd shaped box on the lower right of the black center speedometer. http://www.peachparts.com/Wikka/W124InstCluster

But they do have needs. And when you get a Benz that is fast approaching it's 30th birthday, they can have many needs. Fortunately you have found a good forum to help you through some of these problems. I would really recommend Lind, that you go through the DIY section, (Do it yourself) and see what might have been published regarding your problems. Some have more then one potential answer, and some parts just wear out through use or miss-use, like your rear window defroster and will probably need replacement. The search feature at the top of the page can bring you many good answers. As you can see, there are only so many people reading this forum at any given time, but over the years thousands of questions have been asked and answered, and though a few have been lost, almost all are there just waiting for a new owner of an older Benz to come along and ask again. In your first question you refer to the climate control not giving any heat, but a heck of a lot of cold air. Are you looking for heat and air. The second and third problem regard the speedometer and dash lights. I know that both of these problems are well covered in the archives. Check them out, they are easy to find. As far as I know, there is no easy repair for the rear window defroster. With one wire heating, I would suspect some one has damaged it pretty badly and it will probably have to be replaced to work correctly.

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Junqueyardjim
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. C.S. Lewis



1983 Mercedes W123 240D 4 Speed 285,000 on the road with a 617 turbo, beautiful butter yellow, license plate # 83 240D INDIANA

2003 Jaguar Type X, AWD. beautiful, good mileage,
Mom's car, but I won't let her drive it!

*1) I'm afraid you need to do a search on Evil Servo. Sounds like you will need to bypass the servo in favor of a manual valve for coolant flow. Try the search feature above, Google version with "servo bypass" or something similar.

*2) Solder a jumper wire between the two strips of the rheostat. Search that also. To get cluster out remove kick panel above driver's knees and push cluster out from behind. You will have to push in some slack on the speedo cable at the firewall side. Rheostat is white ceramic squarish piece on back.

*3) Hmmmm. Usually a new cable takes care of this. Did you verify that both sides of the cable had the correct ends for your configuration? I think in an '80 that the tranny end is flat and slotted and the speedo end is smaller and square. It is common for the odometer to slip, but speedo is less common.

*4) Too expensive to repair really, unless you want to spring to have a new rear glass installed.

__________________
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

#4- got glass coverage? maybe some kids were playing baseball across the street......

__________________
1984 123.193 372,xxx miles, room for Seven.

1999 Dodge Durango Cummins 4BTAA 47RE 5k lb 4x4 getting 25+mpgs, room for Seven.

You can lay a new defroster grid over the one in your car -

http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/Product/tf-Browse/s-10101/Pr-p_Product.CATENTRY_ID:2002923/p-2002923/N-111+10201+600002300/c-10101

Sixto
87 300D

Thank you all for the responses I have looked and searched through alot of post here which is why I asked the questions I have no problem removing the cluster Im getting to be a pro at it it seems. :> My problem is that I have the oil pressure line connected to it and I read in one of the posts to be very careful but could not find an easy way to remove it without looking like a grease monkey or worse getting it all over my car. :<.
and I have no clue what a servo looks like, I keep looking under the hood but there are no labels. ROFL to tell me what I am Looking at. anyone got a picture? of this EVIL SERVO I am supposed to find?

Sorry guys my daughter is telling me Im retarded. What do you expect from a girl eh?


Thanks, everyone

__________________
1st time Mercedes Owner.
1980 300D 123/130
what do ya expect for $600.00
Needs TLC

“4.) rear defroster only defrost 1 line in the rear window. “

This comment tells me that your rear defroster is working but what has probably happened is something scraped across the conducting grid/s causing a break in the circuit (open circuit). Take a really good look at the grids on the window and see if you can see where it is scratched through. If you can find where it is scratched someone (I believe it is Permatex) makes kit that is basically a tiny jar of copper conductive paint with a brush and a cardboard stencil with to make lines (like the lines on the defroster grid). You essentially paint on and restore (close) the circuit. I bought some several months ago from a privately owned auto parts store as when I explained it to the AutoZone and Kragen folks they just scratched their heads. Meaning you might have to look around for it a little. I no longer have the card/bubble pack it came in but I am 90% sure it was made by Permatex.
I believe it cost aroud $8.
I did a search= Permatex 15067 Quick Grid Rear Window Defogger Repair Kit
To view the pic: http://www.amazon.com/Permatex-15067-Window-Defogger-Repair/dp/B000HBI9YQ

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

well guys I think I have found the servo but not sure. also there is a black cover on the drivers side with what looks like relays under it and a inline fuse but there is no fuse in it and regular glass fuses do not fit and the euro fuses do not fit. does anyone know what it is and/or what it is for? I can take a picture if needed.
thanks. I have read somewhere that someone referred to it as a Sugar fuse?

__________________
1st time Mercedes Owner.
1980 300D 123/130
what do ya expect for $600.00
Needs TLC

Honestly, if you want - just replace the potentiometer/rheostat. Yes, it's an expensive part, but it takes 20 minutes to do (start to finish) with the majority of your time spent getting that darn speedometer cable re-attached.

It may be just me, but there is something better about fixing something right, and not mickey-mousing it for the short term. That's just me - I can see why people just jump the two terminals of the rheostat; it's an expensive part!

Anyhow, that's my two cents on that. Don't let someone tell you to use wire hangers or tools to pull out the instrument cluster from the front, either. That's on a W126/124. Just push it out from the bottom.

Also, use caution when removing the oil pressure gauge/sensor line from the back of the gauge cluster when you're removing the cluster. Use two wrenches - a 10mm and a 13mm, I believe.

__________________
2003 Volkswagen Jetta Wolfsburg Edition, "Tiffany," - Black/Black Cloth - 75K miles, Jetta #6; my faithful, turbocharged, BBS-adorned sled

SOLD 3/08 1981 Mercedes Benz 300D, "Elise" - Astral Silver/Black M.B. Tex - 217K miles - I miss her everyday; the best-built car I've owned

odd thing is... the problems im having are just about the same as yours! rear defroster & dash lights. i need to get on this...

__________________
Matthew McIvor

2016 E350 4Matic Black/Black
2007 GL450 4Matic with Off-Road Pkg Silver/Black
1995 E300 Diesel White/Gray
1994 S600 Euro Black/ Black Velour
1986 560SL Blue/Blue/Gray
1986 190E Blue/Blue 93k

Have you tried fuses that look like this -

http://img.eautopartscatalog.com/live/P200973820OES.JPG

(image from FastLane)

Sixto
87 300D

How often do you turn your working rheostat off of full bright???

__________________
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

Haven't yet!

__________________
83 SD

84 CD

Sorry man, OCD-like tendencies strike again. I can't have a mickey-moused jumper wire in my rheostat, it has to be PERFECT!

__________________
2003 Volkswagen Jetta Wolfsburg Edition, "Tiffany," - Black/Black Cloth - 75K miles, Jetta #6; my faithful, turbocharged, BBS-adorned sled

SOLD 3/08 1981 Mercedes Benz 300D, "Elise" - Astral Silver/Black M.B. Tex - 217K miles - I miss her everyday; the best-built car I've owned