I think one of the contributers on this board (Cazzidy maybe?) had an engine self destruct when the prechamber dropped into the cylinder. This make me wonder...is there a replacement interval for the prechambers?

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There is not a replacement interval... but they should be inspected more often than they are.... It is very straight forward taking them out and looking at them.....and those 7 little holes need to be clean for your fuel to be properly atomized and spread correctly in your engine.
I missed the thread you mentioned.... that would be very very unusual ... it would be a matter of the lower part burning or rusting off to allow that to happen...

There was a recall on the real early 616 and 617 engine prechambers. They replaced them on my '77 way back when, while it was still under warranty. They said that there was a history of failure and that they wanted to replace them. BTW, there was also a recall on the timing chain for that car that was done under warranty.

I have never heard of them coming apart on the later engines.

Good luck,

what car?

Go to alldata.com and plug in your car's info..
you can read the titles for recalls and tech bulletins back a certain number of years for free..
If you car is running fine then you probably don't have the problem chambers .... or they were replaced earlier when something else came up...

The one I had that was recalled was a '77 240D. I bought it in March of '77 and it had just hit the lot when I bought it, so I would expect it's production date was about January '77. It was a year or so later when they told me of the recall, so I would assume that cars built after about January of '78 would have had the updated prechambers.

As leathermang said, maybe you can get more detailed info to see if yours is subject to the recall. If it is later than a '78, I expect that it is not.

Good luck,

notice how all of the newer models have so many more recalls. that just goes to show the old ones are the best.

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What makes you think that the new ones have more recalls? My '77 MB had the most recalls of any car I ever bought regardless of make.

Recalls are not all bad. ALL car makers make engineering and production mistakes. What counts is how they handle them. If they identify them and correct them at no expense, that is a good thing. Some of the mfg's just let it go.

Have a great day,

But it does imply some advantage to giving the manufacturer's a couple of years on a model if they are trying to fix it.. like buying an 84 123 might be better than an 80 all other things being equal....

A really valuable link Leathermang, thank you very much.

because most of the new ones have been having recalls on the wiring harness

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Your original post indicated that the new cars had MORE recalls, now you are saying they have DIFFERENT recalls.

Have a great day,

what i am saying is if you go to alldata.com and copare the older models to the newer ones they have far more recalls. wiring harness,heater blower ,ect....

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I broke the alignment tab off of one of the prechambers on my 1985 300D. Fastlane didn't list prechambers, so I ordered one from ************************. When it arrived, I thought it looked OK, but it is not a Mercedes part. I am probably being silly, but for piece of mind, I went ahead and ordered a Mercedes prechamber from Caliber Motors. The price is about double (about $50 versus $100, or so).

How did you break the tab off ?