I had the 300TD in the shop today because I did not have heat at the floor (too cold at night to work on it my self). The mechanic called to say that all five acctuators are leaking. I guess I will have to bite the bullet and change them myself. The mechanic only had a hour on the diagnosis.

Anyway, has anyone ever done all five? I read about changing the one next to the accelerator but could not find anything about doing all of them. Does the entire dash need to come apart? Center console?

Any suggestions would be helpful since I need to get this done so my feet don't freeze

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Paul

1991 300TE (280,000)
1985 300TD (432,000 miles - retired)
1976 300D (225,000 - retired)
1975 300D (165,000 - retired)

A failure of all five sounds like a bad leak or a open vac supply line; I'd sure check each of those actuators with a mityvac before pulling them all out.

__________________
Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

If you're going to tackle this yourself check out Autolux. They sell the diaphragms required to repair the units.

Ron
http://germanstar.net

If you have to replace them, do a search on 'center vents'. You can replace the center vent actuator without removing the dash. I think the others can also be done without removing the dash. There was a post within the last two weeks which gave detailed instructions on how to replace the center vent actuator by going thru the glove box and center vent holes.

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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

I'll give it a try this weekend. Anybody have a copy of the vacuum diagram for the 85? Procedure? I never did this before.

Thanks

__________________
Paul

1991 300TE (280,000)
1985 300TD (432,000 miles - retired)
1976 300D (225,000 - retired)
1975 300D (165,000 - retired)

Hey! What do you mean too cold? I'm in NJ (not far from you)and I'm our there freezing my butt off working on my car... get yourself out there and move it!

The only time the center vents are supposed to be off is when the climate control is set to defrost right? I think something is wrong with those as sometimes they work on econ, and sometimes they don't.

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Jeff M.
Mercedes W123 DIY pages are now located here.
1983 / 1984 300D Sold
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet ~58k Sold
2005 Avalanche 4x4 ~66k

On high heat (usually above 80 on the dial) the center vents shut off. The reasoning from Mercedes is that people don't like lot air being blown in their faces. The side vents stay on to keep the windows from fogging up.