Our '97 bioD sedan is now a snow plow:





Traffic mishap caused the Benz to rear end a pickup truck, inflicting little to no damage to the pickup ( bumper only), but ravaging the front end of the Benz.



Insurance is totaling the car out ( and likely dumping me ). I've never experienced a salvage, but I can "buy" the car back for $275. It's a clean car, WAS in great shape other than the fact that the engine seemed very loud when listening thru the open oil fill port. My only other experience was the 95 ( which pooched the VP soon after I R&Rd the cyl head ) where I could clearly hear the chain running 'round but no loud "swishy slap, swishy slap" like this one. I thought then that maybe i should wheel the car before THIS engine pooches on me! I asked here and y'all said it was "normal".

Other than that start starts on a dime down to 15 degrees w/o block heater, runs mint ( other than some knocking on a dry start), with no smoke. Only issue is hesitation when the engine just is reaching operating temp. Reckon some temp actuated switch is screwing up the flaps or something.

Damage goes right back to the new water pump and belt I **JUST** installed ( thanks Phil for the great pricing! And we'll definitely need new motor mounts ET AL if we decide to fix this buggy!)



Also, beleive either the A/C compressor or P/S/ pump is pooching. Have a very noticable "gear drive like" sound from under the hood, particularly at low revs. Its been hard to pinpoint.

But the condesor is shot ( do the compressor at the same time) , core support needs major reconstruction:




It essentially is going to cost me out-of-pocket to fix this; and I need to decide if its worth it. Sure can't find such a nice 131K car for 4-5 grand. But the engine noise has me bothered, as I've already had one expereince with dumping $1,200 and alot of time to R&R a leaky cyl head , to have the motor pooch soon thereafter. These motors are not cheap to rebuild, and I don't have any "playtime" to invest. I liked the simpler W124 model better, but need to stay with the modern body style. DOn;t like the eletronics on the newer models.

So what would you do? Keep the car and fix it, ending up with a "salvage" title so you can't resell it very well, or.... PUNT and maybe finally "step up" to a turbo car! ???

Thnx for ur time.