I don't think I would trust the MPG readings that the car computer gives, until I proved the readings to be correct by the miles divided by the gallons technique. It is in the manufacturers interest for the MPG reading to overstate things so you will be happy with the car. I recently saw a study where three cars by different manufacturers, were checked and all three were off, by between 1 to 3 MPG. The details of the study escape me at the moment, but maybe this explains why the new cars are said to get so much better mileage than the older cars.

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'97 E 300 D

Uh, don't think so. I mean even if its off 1-3 MPG we're still talking about 45 MPG from a full sized sedan that weighs in well north of two tons. The newer cars get better mileage than the older ones because of direct fuel injection, precision fuel metering, atomization and optimized injection timing that the old Bosch inline pumps couldn't even begin to dream about. I won't even bother mentioning the astonishing performance that accompanies the amazing frugality of these engines.

My trip computer economy is optimistic by about 1-2 MPG on the 06 CDI, my wife's GLK250 was spot-on the two times I checked it on longer trips. I've never seen my computer get to Tyler's levels but I have seen it at 46.5 MPG on rural two lanes at 55-60MPH.

Skid row's numbers just astonish me, the only way I could get my display that low would be to take a two hour stop-and-go trip by spending the first hour idling in the parking lot drinking coffee. Are you using full-throttle on every acceleration event? Wow. Have you ever taken your car on a 100 mile highway drive at 55-60 MPH?

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98 Dodge-Cummins pickup (123k)
13 GLK250 (135k)
06 E320CDI (323K)
16 C300 (62K)
82 300GD Gelaendewagen (54K)

It would take a cross country trek to give you an accurate calculation at the pump versus mileage. My computer said since reset I had averaged 38.8. 200 or so miles in town, about 450 on the highway with 150 being the hypermile trip. I think the high flow diesel pump at truck stops threw a bit more than normal as it shot some out the tank before it stopped, but still very close to the computer at 36 mpg. Enough for me to say the computer is just as accurate to go by as the pump, given you aren't going to fill exactly the same each trip. I will continue to check and see if this 2-3MPG below turns out to be a trend.

Today I took it to Kansas City on a fresh tire, going the 75MPH speed limit. Computer said 45.1 MPG average since filling up at the truck stop 150 miles ago.

I have never owned another car that provides such a wide variety of pleasures. A ultra fuel efficient land yacht with all of the luxury comforts that can still spin the tires, belch smoke and feel like you've got the power equivalent to the Hoover dam at the wheels.

Selling the first CDI to Tim was a big regret, and it took me a year to find a comparable deal. Yes mine was cheaper, but did not have the 1 owner provenance with stellar condition and care.

I wish I could buy 10 more as I had many interested parties in the green one and a few PMs asking for a price when I bought this one, but nice ones aren't easy to find without paying a premium.

Joe, maybe your car needs a good Italian tune up? I bet you give that thing a few good rips and she'll be belching all the cobwebs out. I only get that kind of MPG when I'm in boy racer mode.... wait, even that still shows mid 20s.

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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!!!

Excellent feedback and remarks, Tyler, Tim.

It feels good for me to know that you can drive any car under the sun, yet you've zeroed-in on what Tim and I also believe to be the best bargain going in MB diesels today.

I bought my one-owner '83 300SD @93K miles from a small note-lot style dealer that proclaimed himself; 'MB diesel-specialist' here in '91. He bought all the incoming MB diesels he could get his hands on @ wholesale from Park Place Motorcars MB in Dallas. I believe there to be a huge, pent-up market for priced-right '05'06 CDI sedans around here. You'll sell all you can get your hands on, IMO. I would expect few problems ever to develop with them for a knowledgeable client-base, that would keep me from marketing the right ones to anyone here - Nationwide from Wichita, KS. is about as equi-distance from the borders and coastlines as one can get.....!

I wish you'd of been available that Sat. afternoon in July when I was in Wichita driving the '99 E300 through I-35. I wanted to show you the condition of how I've taken care of the car, before transferring it to my Brother and SIL in Omaha. BTW: It's going to be a garage queen in Omaha going forward for the mostpart, with no exposure to winter weather with ice/snow/salt-chemicals.

The '06 CDI I found @ MB of SanAntonio was just the right thing for me. Better condition than the '99, and I picked it up $4,500 back of retail. I offered $5K back of asking, and they countered $500 more. I took the deal. Anyway, it's the most comfortable fit I've ever had in a car. I never thought I'd buy a car with this high of miles on it, but the condition of the car, coupled with the records and price - sold me.

The last captioned picture reflects the 22K miles since the last reset of the on-board computer. I've only driven the car 650 miles or so in the past 3 months. 300 of that was bringing it from SanAntonio to homebase. The previous owner apparently has driven basically city only - 22 mph average cumulative speed in 22K miles. On a typical day, my CDI get driven 2 miles. One mile to and from the health club..... Hence, the mpg of 21 mpg. Today was a high-mpg day - 27 mpg, to-from the health club. On the rare occasion I put my foot into the foot feed, (not flooring it though) the car pulls forward immediately with unexpected power. Less delay in response time delay than the '99 W210 diesel.

Tim, I drove 65 to 70 mph from SanAntonio-Dallas w/o AC for most of the 100* day's drive in June. I drive 60 to 70 mph to downtown Dallas when going to Baylor Dental College - several times over a couple months. The mpg is what it is - howver, the tank is trending 24.31 mpg this tank, based on the RANGE to EMPTY page/metric. Whuch ius not all that much better than my '99 E300. Tim, my CDI mpg meter is between 29 to 33 mpg @ it's daily start up idle.

Have you even put fuel in the tank yet? My first tank when I picked the car up from Tyler netted my 812 miles before the reserve light came on.

My experiences are quite different than yours, when I got the car slightly more than a year ago it had 167K on the clock. Just went down to the garage and as of this morning its now showing 203K.

I had to laugh when I read the ball-joint comments, just as Tyler said I'd noticed some funny wear patterns when rotating the tires and a couple weeks later the ball joints started squeaking. I replaced them last week, not sure if they are original but the improvement in steering feel/tracking is astounding. The ball joints are cheap and they are pretty easy to replace.

__________________
98 Dodge-Cummins pickup (123k)
13 GLK250 (135k)
06 E320CDI (323K)
16 C300 (62K)
82 300GD Gelaendewagen (54K)

The highest mileage I have ever recorded in a vehicle I owned was in a 2000 Corvette hardtop. I drove 100 miles up fl to and the speed limit was 50 down a 2 and 4 lane road. I filled up drove 50 miles turned around and refilled the trip said 50 mpg. But it was 49 on fill-up calculation.

My CDI recorded 42 mpg at about 74 mph when I picked it up after purchased on the west coast of Florida, and drove back to the east coast.
I converted it to run on WVO not long after that. I go 2000 miles between diesel fill-up and I drive hard constantly.

I loaded 80 gallons of grease into the trunk of my CDI and drove to the Carolina's and back. The trip gauge went up to 37 mpg when I got back. I concluded that running grease decreases fuel consumption by about 5 mpg.

Driving on really low cost fuel increases you full throttle use, especially in the city. my long trip registers 24. that is down since my commute got shorter.

Yup, I'm familiar with all that; I've had many MBs with that feature. It's common across the late 210, 203, and 211 model lines. If you want to see depressing numbers, I'll post up a shot of my E55 after driving it to work during rush hour.

When we purchased my wife's bluetec the cumulative counter had never been reset, it had the same number of miles as the odometer - 45K. The car apparently saw a lot of highway commuting as the average speed was showing 38 or 39 MPH. Cumulative fuel economy was a few tenths below 30MPG - 29.8 is the number I recall.

The bluetec doesn't seem able to match the MPG numbers you-all post up from the CDIs, but it isn't shabby either.

Yes, filled-up 200 miles ago, right when the low-fuel light came on. Filled-up immediately. Car took exactly 19 gallons, without too much coaxing over the initial burp. Which was nearly exactly as the Owners Manual states that it illuminates when approx. 2 gallons to empty. Tank capacity: 21.1 gallons.

The MB dealer had a full tank of fuel put in it the day before I decided to buy it. The day before that, there was 1/4 or so tank of fuel.

Since I filled-up, I will now track the per-tank full fills' mpg.

Got a couple Qs:
I'm noticing that when I let up on the foot-feed quickly after accelerationg up to 30 mph or so, I hear a quick hissing and the short whistle of the turbo spool doing a quick wind-down. Windows open with a subdivision street curb out to the left of the car to reflect the noise up to the driver's open window.

Engatwork told me that if I was hearing the turbo-spool when letting off the foot feed on my W210 E300 a few months ago - something was wrong, since I wasn't supposed to hear it. Well, I could barely discern (hear it) naturally, when driver's window open when letting off the foot feed quickly at 30 or so mph after accelerating up.

The CDI's noises I hear are more evident than the 99 E300's, so, perhaps I have a leak in the turbo under the hood somewhere, or, my hearing is sensitive to something not being right, under the hood? RE: (poor fuel mpg)

Another thing - the brakes seem to be 'set' whenever beginning backing, or when shifting to D from reverse after backing. It feels like the disc pads are 'set' if you will when first giving the foot feed pressure. Another oddity about the car; the car feels as if it's slowing because of being in the wrong gear approaching 10 mph when coasting toward a stop, before it then feels as if the gear disengages and the car is left to coast freely. Again, perhaps I'm too sensitive to what I feel the car doing, but it's almost as if the brakes are being applied or 'set' by the SBC system. Any symptoms like these experienced by you guys with CDIs?

This car has gone through one set of rear rotors already, and disc pads all the way around, as reflected in it's VMI records. That didn't sound right to me, but as I said, maybe it's the SBC system doing the disc pad engagements too much. Hence, perhaps this is affecting the mpg.....

FWIW, I can hear the faint sound of my Ford 7.3 Powerstroke's turbo whine slightly when letting-up on the foot feed under the same circumstances as described above. With full factory exhaust muffler system on Ford.

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"Got a couple Qs:
I'm noticing that when I let up on the foot-feed quickly after accelerationg up to 30 mph or so, I hear a quick hissing and the short whistle of the turbo spool doing a quick wind-down. Windows open with a subdivision street curb out to the left of the car to reflect the noise up to the driver's open window...
The CDI's noises I hear are more evident than the 99 E300's, so, perhaps I have a leak in the turbo under the hood somewhere, or, my hearing is sensitive to something not being right, under the hood? RE: (poor fuel mpg)"

I've not really tried the above scenario, I'll give it a shot today and see if I can hear anything. If you've got your foot down and the engine is under boost it seems totally reasonable that you'd hear some sort of sound when you abruptly chopped the throttle. The CDI's have a much higher upper boost pressure range than the earlier engines, IIRC its somewhere in the 20-30 psi figure. From what I know of whats going on under the hood what you are experiencing seems totally normal to me. With regard to your 'maybe somethings wrong with the turbo plumbing...' line of thinking I guess that could be possible but I'm sure boost level is a monitored data item and if it wasn't at the level the ECU was expected to see you'd have a CE light on.


"Another thing - the brakes seem to be 'set' whenever beginning backing, or when shifting to D from reverse after backing. It feels like the disc pads are 'set' if you will when first giving the foot feed pressure."

I have noticed this but not on a regular basis, I just assumed it was the SBC system acting in an I'm-smarter-than-you-are basis when it detected that I'd shifted from R->D and the car was still moving at like 1 mph. I just assumed that the trans computer told the SBC to stop the car before the shift members engaged. Seems like a reasonable course of action but I'm speculating - not sure if its set-up this way.

One feature of SBC vehicles that I've read about is called a traffic-jam stop feature. You put the car in this mode and the SBC assumes that you're in a stop and go traffic jam and the SBC will hold the car in position with your foot off the brake. When you touch the gas the SBC releases the brakes and the car moves forward until you release the gas and at that point the SBC system will smoothly brake until the car stops and will then hold position until the next time you touch the accelerator. Unfortunately it appears that USA spec cars don't have this feature, I could see this being really for todays road conditions.

"Another oddity about the car; the car feels as if it's slowing because of being in the wrong gear approaching 10 mph when coasting toward a stop, before it then feels as if the gear disengages and the car is left to coast freely. Again, perhaps I'm too sensitive to what I feel the car doing, but it's almost as if the brakes are being applied or 'set' by the SBC system. Any symptoms like these experienced by you guys with CDIs?"

No idea on this one, coasting to a stop my car behaves like all others I've driven. I can feel it downshifting as the speeds drop but feels pretty normal to me. Never noticed the SBC doing anything here unless I put my foot on the brake.

"This car has gone through one set of rear rotors already, and disc pads all the way around, as reflected in it's VMI records. That didn't sound right to me, but as I said, maybe it's the SBC system doing the disc pad engagements too much. Hence, perhaps this is affecting the mpg....."

Doubtful, I'm sure it was just the dealer trying to sell pads and rotors. I'm constantly amazed at how much garages charge for pad/rotor changes - at dealer retail prices MB should be installing the pads/rotors for free. When I picked up my car from Tyler the pads were about 50% worn - I just replaced them at 201K and while the rotors were still in spec I also replaced them. I got about 32k on a half set of pads - which is about my average over the years. I don't think the SBC system is any harder on pads/rotors than a conventional system. I also don't think its likely that SBC drag is making any difference on your mileage.

You didn't answer my earlier question, have you ever reset the cluster mileage computer and taken the car for a rural 50-100 mile drive at constant speeds of 55-60 MPH? That's where Tyler and I are getting the 45+ MPG figures and I'm wondering if your car could do it in those conditions.

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98 Dodge-Cummins pickup (123k)
13 GLK250 (135k)
06 E320CDI (323K)
16 C300 (62K)
82 300GD Gelaendewagen (54K)

My SBC cars also feel as if they are applying the brakes when in neutral. Always assumed it was SBC being clever.

I have read about both a hill hold and a traffic jam function in SBC. The latter is a mode where the throttle pedal provides both acceleration and up to 20% application of the brakes. Basically you can drive with one foot on one pedal. Both modes are disabled in U.S. cars, but can be enabled via STAR.

I think it would be challenging to perform equivalent fuel economy runs in Texas for two reasons. The speed limits down here are so much higher. Our rural 2 lane roads (FM - Farm to Market, or Federated States of Micronesia if you own a Garmin product...) are mostly 70MPH. You'd get run over driving 55 or 60. Second is our heat; we run the ac most of the year down here. The higher temperature and radiant heat from the sun means the ac is removing more BTUs from the cabin, and accordingly is drawing more energy from the engine. I am not sure how to quantify this impact, but suspect that as fuel economy numbers increase it becomes more significant in terms of the number of MPG lost. But wait, Joe doesn't run the ac - never mind!

I think Joe's fuel economy numbers are about right considering his described use of the car. One mile trips are pretty much the worst case scenario. Why not just walk to the gym?

I've found running the A/c in my TDI has less than a 1-2mpg impact....

__________________
-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)

How does the CDI do with the grease? How many miles do you have on the conversion?

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"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

Yes, inquiring minds want to know!

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All Diesel Fleet
1985 R107 300SLD TURBODIESEL
2005 E320 CDI (daily)

LOTS of parts for sale!


EGR block kit
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/355250-sale-egr-delete-block-off-plate-kit.html

1985 CA emissions 617 owners- You Need This!
Sanden style A/C Compressor Mounting Kit for your 616/ 617 For Sale + Install Inst.

Sanden Instalation Guide (post 11):
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/367883-sanden-retrofit-installation-guide.html

I imagine its pure enough to drink... Walter White level of fastidiousness. Still makes me nervous.

__________________
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 don't think I'd be running grease through a 20,000+ psi fuel system where the injectors cost several hundred apiece....

__________________
-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)