I managed to lose a bearing in my 300D while driving through Cleveland last Sunday. Fortunately, I was close to civilization so I was able to find a hotel, a dealer, and a rental car without much effort. I didn't have much time to mess with it because I needed to get to NY Monday.

Long story short, I ordered a reman engine and am having it shipped to the dealer to install. It won't be done before I need to head back home, so I'll need to fly back and pick up the car when it's done. It was a used engine that I put about 150k miles on, I assume the total miles were over 300k; maybe more. I'm done playing around with used engines, I really don't have time for this. Not a big deal, but it did cost me a couple of hours last week.

Sorry to hear about that mishap - tough break. Best of luck dealing with it.

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1987 Mercedes 300SDL; SOLD
1985 Mercedes 300D; SOLD
2006 Honda Pilot - wife's ride; 122K;
1995 Toyota Land Cruiser - 3X locked; 182K

Is the total bill going to be under $10,000?

Which reman company?

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1985 500SL Euro w/ AMG bits 130k
1984 300SD Turbodiesel 192k
1980 240D Stick China 188k
2001 CLK55 AMG 101k
2007 S600 Biturbo 149k Overheated Project, IT'S ALIVE!!!

I thought you already went through this a while ago?

Probably about $7-8k, plus rental cars, airfare, etc. I actually ended up getting one from adsit; neither adsit nor metric had one in stock so they both will need a couple of weeks. The bottom line was that adsit was about $2k cheaper and 1500 miles closer. The dealer has a history with adsit, and they are willing to let me buy it directly without them taking markup. I'm a little nervous about adsit, but I can't justify the extra cost, shipping, and time involved in going to metric. We'll see how it works out, at least the tech at the dealer seems to know his stuff.

I did, about 150k miles ago. That's the problem with used engines.

At least. That scenario is usually good money after bad. BTDT....

understood, unless you spend copious amounts of time and energy with them.

I thought you went Metric, thats why I ask.

Nope, I should have gotten a reman engine last time but I let myself get talked out of it. It ended up taking a few months to find a "good" used engine and it still only lasted about 3 years. I can't really complain, the last engine was actually pretty strong, it ran great right up to the moment it dropped a bearing. So, now I get to pay another $2k to R&R the engine. I just don't want to have to do it again in 2-3 more years. "Pay me now, pay me later."

You are very lucky to have croaked at a good MB dealer.

I would not have recommended my local one.

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1985 500SL Euro w/ AMG bits 130k
1984 300SD Turbodiesel 192k
1980 240D Stick China 188k
2001 CLK55 AMG 101k
2007 S600 Biturbo 149k Overheated Project, IT'S ALIVE!!!

Sometimes you first have to get burned to learn a good one is a bad one.

Were there a "good MB dealer," I think we'd all know of it.....

I hope these guys actually know what they're doing. I would have had the car shipped home if I was closer or if I had gotten the impresion that they didn't know anything about old cars. I talked to the tech for a while, he was an older guy with a 240D.

I'm also glad it didn't break in the middle of no place, I really didn't have time to spend a day getting back on the road. Now I just need to decide how I'm getting myself back home next week, I will either keep my rental car and drive it home (one way rental car fees) or catch a flight from Cleveland (I hate flying). Either way, I will need to fly back and pick up the car when it's done.

Sorry to hear. Sucks to have engine problems, especially far from home.
What bearing did you lose?

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

Number 4 rod bearing. I had them stop looking once they found that. It was also dripping a little oil from the rear of the engine, so it might have damaged the rear seal as well. Once they verified it was internal, I decided to replace the engine.

Any idea what caused the failure? Just old? Loss of oil pressure? What were the symptoms? 150k out of a used engine is not so bad, depending on how much it cost. Cleveland has a train to Chicago, then a train to Denver. Given your driving patterns, it seems inevitable that when you have major problems it will be a long way from home.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13