I came across a nice looking '80 300TD on ebay and I was wondering what I should look out for in particular in the self leveling system. The seller didn't list it having it but when I wrote him he said it did. He hadn't tested it out by loading it up but in the photos it looks a little low in the rear. I've often heard they can be troublesome.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

Hi Lietuviai.

Most of the time bad or no maintenance is
the cause of the SLS problems and most
are fairly easy to fix and not to expensive
parts wise.


The struts are the most expensive to replace
if they are bad.
As is the control valve,but doesn't break to often.
You'll know if the struts are bad when they leak.


If the reservoir is empty then you could have
a burned out pump and will need to be replaced
Not cheap but a used one will work just fine.

The pressure or air cells/hydrolic accumulators are
the most likely to fail and are a little over $100 each.

I'm going out on a limb here, the control valve
linkage gets stuck because it isn't cleaned/greased on
a regular basis.
Over time grime and grid accumulates on the connections
causing it not to function.

Also there is a filter in the reservoir that is often
overlooked.
The hydrolic fluid should be replace every year,what
isn't done in alot of cases.

It takes about 3.5 liters of hydrolic fluid for a complete
refill.


Hope this helps.

Louis.

I got a set of coil-over rear shocks from StrutMasters.com and removed the self-leveling equiptment. So far they ride nice, they were a major PITA to install because I had to drop the rear suspension because the coil-over doesn't fit through the trailing arm opening. I spent 8 hours and $299 to do it.

I just bought an '80 300TD about a month ago, whose backend was almost dragging the ground. I got an excellent piece of advice for repair. "Replace the accumulators. It's always the accumulators." Well, sure enough, replaced both accumulators, adjusted the linkage, and it works well and the wagons really ride nicely with this system operational no matter the load in back (mine is always loaded with tools and parts, 300 to 500lbs) If I remove everything in back, the system compensates and the ride is the same. Accumulators can be had from $92 to $107.
If no fluid in resevoir, look for signs around 'shocks' of past leakage. They are pricey, but don't fail that often.
Good luck.
Jimmy

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Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

FWIW, my struts on my son's 300TD were leaking like sieves. Instead of putting MBZ "liquid gold" hydraulic fluid in them ($10.00+/litre), I found some 'tractor fluid' at O' Rileys and used it instead.

They stopped leaking after we installed the tractor fluid and haven't leaked since...9 months and at least 12,000 miles.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

I just bought my wagon, and when test-driving it, I wasn't sure if the self-leveling was working. So during the test-drive, I parked the car with the engine running, opened the hatch, and my wife and I sat on the bumper to see what would happen. Very slowly we felt the car rising up as our feet slowly dragged across the ground while the car lifted. It was cool. A simple test you can do your test-drive, too.

(I do notice the tail seems to "settle" a bit when the car isn't driven for a couple days. But then it rises right back up and regains a nice stance as soon as it's driven again. Dunno if that's normal or not.)

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'81 300TD turbo <<sold 12/05 to another diesel nut