Has anyone else had the nightmare? Driving along on the highway, look down at the dash to find 0 BAR OIL PRESSURE! Truly terrifying, I think I gave the oil pressure gauge more eye time than the road today.

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1983 240D 3.0T 4-speed manual, now sold

1989 Subaru GL Wagon 5-speed Touring Edition

Nope hasn't happened to me, but if it did I wouldn't be watching the gauge I would have the engine off and sitting on the side of the road until I could diagnose the problem.

Mercedes really should have included a low oil pressure buzzer in these cars....

-Jason

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1991 350SDL. 230,000 miles (new motor @ 150,000). Blown head gasket

Tesla Model 3. 205,000 miles. Been to 48 states!
Past: A fleet of VW TDIs.... including a V10,a Dieselgate Passat, and 2 ECOdiesels.
2014 Cadillac ELR
2013 Fiat 500E.

Never had the nightmare, but I did lose oil pressure once. I got off a highway ramp and it dropped to zero when I stopped. I shut it off and had it towed; it needed a new oil pump.

Engine builders are fooling with electric oil pumps as back-ups for some custome cars. It would be cool to have a 1 bar backup pump on the MB engine just in case. Flick a switch and voila! Saves the engine!

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Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

You don't "watch the gauge" and keep driving if it drops to 0, you instantly turn off the engine and pull over!!!

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

Well, yeah, I'd hope I watch it closely enough to be able to catch it in time, but that's the essence of the nightmare: I didn't.

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1983 240D 3.0T 4-speed manual, now sold

1989 Subaru GL Wagon 5-speed Touring Edition

I had that problem with my 240D, and it turned out to be the timing chain. Get it checked out, because I needed to get a new engine for the car in the end.

Good thing you have that nice 617 sitting in your garage for the 240

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Regards,
Ian White

1995 E300 Diesel w124 OM606
2014 E550 w212 M278 biturbo

2001 BMW 740i E38 M62 (past)
1981 300SD w126 OM617 (past)

I just don't understand (honestly, I swear I'm not trying to be a smartbutt) why people don't just learn a discipline of gauge-checking instead of relying on a buzzer. I literally am never on any road in any driving conditions in any car when I can't give you younger-than-ten-seconds-old information about every gauge on the dash. I picked this up from my dad throughout my childhood. He used to fly, and if you lose OP while flying a single-engine airplane, it's considerably worse than a toasted M-B diesel. They can't rely on buzzers that could fail. They simply build a discipline of doing a full panel gauge sweep every 10,20,30 seconds, whatever their safe-range is -- i think 15 maybe what he taught me -- so that they can spot a problem before it becomes a crisis no matter what. A buzzer system isn't foolproof, and depending on it to the point of not ever doing these gauge-checks while driving is probably a better way to toast engines than just trying to build disciplines.

I admit, there are some categories of drivers (Young people, motor-nonenthusiasts) who won't sweep the gauges even if they were ordered to... but would the buzzer really mean enough to them to get them off the road before damage occurred anyway, if they don't understand why OP is important? I mean unless it was the star trek "red alert" siren I don't think it would get a non-gauge-reader off the road in time to prevent a lockup.

Just my two cents. Buzzer or no buzzer, idiot light or no idiot light, arm that squeezes your neck when it detects low OP, whatever the system is... there's no replacement for simply training yourself to spend 9.5 of every 10 driving seconds watching the road and the other 0.5 watching the instrument cluster. That's more foolproof than these foolproof systems everybody keeps talking about. Is having one more emergency backup system a bad idea? Certainly not. But the "it would have saved every engine" mentality is surely an overstatement.

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~Michael S.~
Past cars:

1986 300SDL
1987 300SDL
1982 240D
1982 300SD


Current:

1987 300SDL

I have to be honest here. I check my oil pressure and coolant temperature gauges more often than I check the speedometer...

I don't do it too often, but very regularly. Once every 15 seconds or so if I had to guess.

Some of my non-gearhead friends don't understand an oil light on a newer car. Oh, it's time for an oil change? Oh...dear...what has the world come to?

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1982 240D, sold 9/17/2008
1987 300D TurboW124.133 - 603.960, 722.317 - Smoke Silver Metallic / Medium Red (702/177), acquired 8/15/2009
262,715 and counting

I check my gauges constantly, I really watch the OP gauge when slowing down or stopping. Never diverting my attention from the road for too long, of course

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RIP: 80 300SD
RIP: 79 450SEL
2002 E430 4matic (212,000km)
2002 ML500 'sport'

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FACEBOOK: PANZER450

X2 -- My gauge checking often interferes with my "sight seeing".

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daw_two
Germantown, TN

Links:
Sold last car --- 05/2012 1984 300D Light Ivory, Red interior
Cluster Needles Paint
New Old Stock (NOS) parts

Past:
3/2008 1986 300SDL "Coda"
04/2010 1965 190D(c) "Ben"
& many more

By the time some one works out what the buzz is for, the motor is toast any way.

An auto back up pump may work would, need to be set up so that it ran at idle often just to stop it seizing from lack of use.

The most likely fail safe device would be something like an engine watch dog. If the oil pressure drops below a certain value or the temp goes over a certain value the motor is shut down, would need the trans to go into neutral as well. We have watch dogs on our unattended motors (pumps etc). have never seized one yet. Have had fan belts break in the middle of the night & no problems.

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Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club group

I no longer question authority, I annoy authority. More effect, less effort....

1967 230-6 auto parts car. rust bucket.
1980 300D now parts car 800k miles
1984 300D 500k miles
1987 250td 160k miles English import
2001 jeep turbo diesel 130k miles
1998 jeep tdi ~ followed me home. Needs a turbo.
1968 Ford F750 truck. 6-354 diesel conversion.
Other toys ~J.D.,Cat & GM ~ mainly earth moving

Not on the Mercedes , but on the VW Rabbit (also diesel) I lost all oil pressure. I had just installed one of those aftermarket oil coolers, and all it had was worm-drive clamps to hold the hose to the fittings. Well, I guess the hose had compressed over a few weeks and one of them popped off.

Luckily, I had a factory idiot light (fittingly) as well as a gauge that I installed from a T on the head, so I caught it immediately. There's really no reason why this can't be adapted to the Benz....

I watch the gauge on the Benzes, but there's no way to do a good job of both driving and guarding the gauge.

Rick

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80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)