Mercedes Diesel?

[karmakanic]

hazmat,

Funny you should mention your MB needing a trans. at 188k. I'm rebuilding the trans in my 300E this week, and she just turned 188k. Pulled away from a stop and suddenly lost all forward umph. Knew exactly what happened as soon as I rolled to a stop and found I had reverse but no forward gears. The rear band broke right at the weld bead where the apply boss is welded to the spring steel band. Same place they all break.

See, that one of the things with German cars. They always break the same pieces, and usually around the same time or mileage. The problems they have are design problems, not build quality related. We call them program failures. The American cars seem to have more build quality problems, although I don't work on them so I'm going by hearsay. The Japenese, welll, they don't have design problems or build quality problems either. But that's cause they cheat. They let the Germans work out the initial design problems, and then just refine the design for improved dependability.

Back in the mid seventies I was working on a Datsun (now Nissan) 240Z, I think it was a 72 model. I needed to replace a worn valve adjuster on the Datsun but the dealer didn't have one in stock and the car needed to go. Saw a 68 Mercedes 280SE engine core we had laying in the corner, had pulled it out a few days earlier to replace, cause customer had overheated and pretty well destroyed it. The valve cover was off, and my eye just fell on the valve adjuster Mercedes uses. Noticed it looked eeriely like the Datsun. Pulled it out and compared. It was identical! Installed it on the Datsun and sent it out the door. Subsequently found out the two engines were an almost exact copy, except the Japenese removed the troublesome fuel injection system, and added an additional head bolt to solve the overheating problem.

FWIW,
Dave Perry aka karmakanic

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>No matter what don't get a 240D (D stands for dog! it really is.)</font color=blue>

A neighbor and close friend bought one new in '81, and then in '82, we bought an Isuzu I-Mark diesel sedan, parked them side by side with the hoods raised, and compared the appearance of the engines. They "looked" almost identical except the fuel return lines on the Mercedes were plastic and the Isuzu were steel. And the Isuzu used a "normal" sized battery while the Mercedes had a long narrow (and expensive to replace) battery.

The Isuzu had a 3-speed automatic and the Mercedes had a 4-speed. And we never raced them, but the Isuzu "felt" like it had better acceleration.

Anyway, the neighbors put over 200k on that 240D before trading it off, and we eventually gave the Isuzu to one of our daughters and she later traded it off with only 158k on it. They had both held up well except that the Isuzu body and upholstery was getting into pretty sad shape.