I know my 83 300D turbo rather well now so I know a lot of what to look for in one of these fine machines. I have a friend that is looking at an 85 300D turbo. Did that year model have any particular quirks or problems that one should be aware of? Cosmetically it looks great, but that is as far as I have gotten. It has about 110K in it and the owner is asking around $5k. I believe that to be a little high, I was thinking between $3500 to $4000. What does the board think.

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Keith Schuster
2006 E350 98K miles
2013 Ford Explorer 15K miles

Buying any five cylinder 123 Benz, make sure that there is no oil in the air filter housing or dripping out of the tube at the passenger side, front top of the oil pan. If it throws smoke and lots of oil all over you when you take off the oil cap with engine running, it has blowby. Any of these signs deserve lots of investigation before purchase. You DON'T want to get one of these cars needing liners or pistons.

Good luck,

Thats what I needed to know. Bill I really do not think the owner is aware of what they have! I beleive they inherited it from parents. Larry thanks for the heads up on the blow by, I believe there are pretty good maintenance records. I guess my biggest concern was that this was a Trap Oxidizer model or something like that. I should be able to look at it in the next couple of day's, if my work load slows down.

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Keith Schuster
2006 E350 98K miles
2013 Ford Explorer 15K miles

The only unique thing - based on what I have read - on the '85 is the vacuum system under the hood is a little more different/ complex but it is nothing that a competent diy'er can't deal with.

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Jim

All '85s are not trap oxidizer models....only California versions.....Federal versions have regular air cleaner housing with oil blowby hose and drain.

Having done a lot of repairs on my car, and having followed MBZ chat sites for a few years, I know of no real quirks with the 85 as compared to others. As mentioned in previous response, there are some minor differences/upgrades pertaining vacuum system, transmission, cruise, but not major ones.

It sounds like a good vehicle...an 85 with 110,000 miles is a find.....hopefully it has not been stored for long periods.

The main thing I would try to verify is if regular oil changes and valve clearance adjustments had been done...if so, there is not much that could have gone wrong with upper (valves, head) or lower end (pistons, rings,etc.).

There are a lot of 123 diesels for sale that have had a valve job (or need one) at 100,000 miles or so....only because the car was neglected and valve clearances were not done.

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1984 300TD Wagon, 407,800 mi (current daily driver)
1985 300DT Sedan, 330,000 mi (gone to that great autobahn in the sky)