It was love at first sight,and after I took it for a 45 min. drive and gave it a visual once over through lovesick eyes,yesterday, I paid $4700. for a '79 300SD,with 89,000 original miles. Previous owner was a doctor who kept it garaged and ,obviously, didn't drive it much! Now, I'm wondering if there is anything particular to this model year,etc. that I should have checked out.Does anybody out there have any experience that I could learn something from? Anything I should for or pay attention to?? ANY and ALL replies will be greatly appreciated!!!

In a word RUST!

The W116 was probably the rustiest Benz ever, combination of the steel and the design, I think.

Front and rear windshield gaskets are probably hard by now, not a problem while the car is in the garage, but it will leak, and the water will consume the floor pans in short order. If the edges aren't pliable, replace them!

Otherwise, these are great cars. Usually no trouble with the diesel until 200,000 miles or so, not even then if properly maintained.

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

Congrats on your '79 300SD with such low miles! That is a benefit that it came from somebody who kept it garaged. The thing that you should worry about is that it obviously was not driven very much. That's really hard on cars.

I'd lube everything in sight. The window seals are likely to be dried out causing leakage like the previous poster said (there is a cure). Lube the the side mirror adjustment linkage before it breaks, check the vacuum draw on the vacuum pump, check the auxiliary water pump for seizure so you have heat if you need it. Check the parking brake linkage and adjustment. I could go on, but I'll just tell you that I had the same things all be out of disrepair in the two '79's I bought. One was owned by a doctor and babied, the other wasn't, but they both had the same problems.

What I have found in both:

Low vacuum on vacuum pump
parking brake out of adjustment or shoes needing replacement (they have their own shoes, can you imagine?)
worn out rubber grommets for hoses going into air cleaner from oil
old style fuel pump primer leaking
broken air cleaner mounts
rack dampner out of adjustment
leaking fuel hoses by the injectors
leaking climate control servo
in need of valve adjustment
and in one car which was the babied one, a non sealing fuel filler cap, which was a big deal!
broken linkage to side mirror because it was never lubricated

So, I would pay careful attention to getting everything loose and sealing again.

If it really has been garaged, lift up the floor mats and see if it has ever been taking in water from either the window seals or in front of the rear wheels, or behind the front wheels, and if those floor boards look like new, jump up and slap the ceilings because you will truly be in love.

That is a GREAT CAR!

P.S. Check the odometer and make sure it is really turning. Both cars I bought had problems with this. It seems they just put the odomoter rod on with pressure or something and it seems to loosen over time, making 100 miles appear to be 10. Woops!

Congratulations!

Congrats, DB! You will definitely love the car. You can do a search on my user name and pull up alot of great tips these guys gave me on my 80 SD over the past year. Definitely follow the "lube and loosen" advice and check your seals. My trunk will fill up with water in the wells if left out during a storm. That's my next repair when I get her painted. The only big scare I had was shortly after purchase and I started losing power in a big way. All filters had been replaced, but it turned out that the filter in the gas tank was clogged. STurtle is right about the sitting being hard....but you can get the kinks out in short order. I just had my second valve adjustment after several interstate trips and she's running better than ever. Sometimes you just gotta blow the soot out....

I've got a 450SL, had a 300SE and have the SD......honestly, I love the 116 more than any of them.....

Post some pictures!

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TClanton
1980 450SL 90K
1980 300SD 112K