did some fruitless troubleshooting after they suddenly quit working the other day. so i disconnected them and plugged the port with a screw. now my transmission shifts smoother than ever. I think it had been pissing away vacuum through that system even before the locks failed completely.

Honestly, with 26 year old german iron i'm thinking i should just pick my battles. i never really minded manual door locks anyway.
Seriously the car is running awesome now though. Also replaced my power steering filter and most of the fluid (yes, i'm lazy), replaced the fuel filters and the air filter. waiting on some calipers from NAPA and i'll have new front brakes too.

so yeah that's my story. it seems that with the door lock system out of the loop the vacuum system on this car is vastly more compact and simple.

Repair the system properly, you'll be very happy with a working central locking system.

__________________
1985 300TD Turbo Euro-wagon
1979 280CE 225,200 miles
1985 300D Turbo 264,000 miles
1976 240D 190,000 miles
1979 300TD 220,000

GONE but not forgotten
1976 300D 195,300 miles
1983 300D Turbo 175,000 miles

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...e485-1-2-1.jpg

I'll get to it. it's low on the list.

It would help everyone if you would identify the car. Assume it is a 300D since the SD door locks are on a different system from the transmission.

yes indeed 300d. It does make sense that blockign off a leaky door lock system would improve shifting even though it's a seperate system right?

i should probably mention that i live at 5000 ft altitude, so vacuum operated things in general tend to work worse.

The door lock system is isolated by check valves, but it is not "separate" in both directions.

as i understood it the orifice t's would slow vacuum loss through the door locks, but not stop it completely. I'm really digging this car shifting like a champ. I had thought the locks were not that leaky, as they would hold vacuum overnight+ but starting to think they were losing enough while driving to mess things up.

__________________
1985 Mercedes 300D turbo 144k

if they held over night then that means the locking circuit doesn't have a huge leak in it.

While driving you door are most likely un-locked(right?), so if the tranny shifts hard then i would suspect a leak in the unlock circuit(yellow with green hoses).

__________________
1985 300TD Turbo Euro-wagon
1979 280CE 225,200 miles
1985 300D Turbo 264,000 miles
1976 240D 190,000 miles
1979 300TD 220,000

GONE but not forgotten
1976 300D 195,300 miles
1983 300D Turbo 175,000 miles

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...e485-1-2-1.jpg