Krautbeaterwagen, Zwei

Time-based maintenance log: 3 month oil change done February 24th. Bosch filter, Tractor Supply 15W-40.

I dropped the old starter off at my local repairman to get it fixed, and got a call week later that he was going in for heart surgery and wouldn't be able to get to it for a few months. So I'm trying to find a new shop now.

Haven't taken any recent MPG readings, my daily drivings have been so random its hard to keep track of mileage and stuff (with a broken odometer). But I seem to get 3 or 4 days worth out of 11 gallons or so, driving usually 80 to 100 miles per day. It just keeps doing its thing, no surprises, no drama. knock on wood It's a diesel Mercedes.

You adjust the valves yet?

In reply to Esoteric Nixon:

No, I still haven't. My experience has been that with modern oils, and a well-broken-in engine, the valves rarely need attention. The engine starts quickly and seems to have all 85 of its horsepower present.

Time based maintenance log: changed oil and filter on Saturday (6/4). A little over 3 months. Also replaced the primary (little, cheap) fuel filter. A fellow W123 owner I was chatting with said he did them every oil change! I might go every other change. It did have some gunk in it. I think they're about 98 cents each.

I also fixed the front license plate; one of the mounting tabs rusted and broke off.

Started filling up with 50 cetane fuel form the local Southern States. The car seems to go a little further on a tank and may have a bit more pick-up. shrug Its actually cheaper than the other diesel fuel stations, which all only sell 40 cetane stuff.

I recently obtained a "Diesel" emblem from a Pugeot 504, and decided it looked cooler than the Mercedes emblem. So the German one got replaced with zee French one.

The dent back here happened during the big stonwstorm this past winter; I think someone backed into the 300TD. I pounded it out...somewhat. It adds character.

A few months back, I noticed a slight greenish film forming at the top of the radiator. I'd top off the coolant every 3 or 4 weeks, and the slight leak from the top of the radiator seemed to hold steady. Last Friday, though, I left the car idling at the recycling drop off center, and when I came back to it about 30 seconds later there was a Frisbee-sized puddle of Lime Kool-Aide under the front of the car. Time to install that new radiator.

Of course, it's not just a drop-in affair. Sometime around the early-80s Mercedes went from a simple radiator with an overflow pipe (no coolant catch canister) to a sealed radiator with a separate expansion tank- the tank has the radiator cap on it. The early radiators (like the one in my 1980 W123) are nearly NLA, and about $400 when they do pop up. Luckily, the later system is a near drop-in retrofit. Or so they say. And the radiator, expansion tank, a few hoses and other odds and ends only set me back about $150.

Pics of the new install will be forthcoming; I banged it out in about 3-1/2 hours last night.

Let's play, spot the new parts.

The expansion tank was a bit of a cludge. On the 300D turbos I've seen it's mounted on the passenger side, but the hydraulic rear suspension reservoir is over there. So I removed the cruise control module (which was inoperative) and put the tank over there. It's zip-tied in place for now, good enough.

Oh, good thing I checked this! Time for another 3 month oil change!

EDIT: and....done. Everything else seems OK, though there's a sort-of shocking amount of oily residue all over the bottom of the car. Kindof everywhere. It's always been leaky, but doesn't seem to consume much oil- maybe half a quart per month. All the other fluids are full.

The sort-of-shocking amount of oil turned out to be the SLS (hydraulic load-leveling rear suspension). I went to pick up a ladder, a Volvo B20 engine, and a wine barrel (you know, just a normal sort of a load) one day last week, and the rear end of the car was riding pretty low when I got home. And not in the good, low-rider way- more like the embarrassing hooptie with a load of crap inside way.

I checked the SLS reservoir and it was bone dry. I filled it, and drove to work the next day. When i got home, though, I noticed this leaving my driveway:

...and the reservoir was bone dry again. Well, let's see...which of these expensive-looking parts could it be...

Luckily, none of the SLS components turned out to be the culprit. After wiping everything down with towels, I let the engine idle and quickly found the gusher:

A piece of power steering hose and some clamps solved the issue, at least until I can get some new hard line.

Idled the car in the garage, the repair held. Not wanting to inhale the diesel exhaust fumes, I rigged up an exhaust vent with my shop vac hose.

The SLS line snakes over and around the rear suspension; replacing it may not be a trivial affair. Perhaps a few more hose clamps around the rubber power steering hose will fend off future failure long enough for some other major, expensive part to fall off?

looks pretty permanent to me. :)

As Katie and I were leaving the birth center for her monthly checkup, I went to start my car (the Benz wagon) and it responded with a heart-sinking click click click. Katie had driven separately, so she gave me a jump with #suburben and we headed to dinner. Being a diesel, the 300TD will run indefinitely without even a battery, but the re-jump after we left the Mexican restaurant took a few minutes to charge the battery, and by the time I made it home, the headlights were like a pairs of fireflies mating in glass jars.

My voltmeter's batteries were also dead, so after hunting around for some fresh batteries, I checked out the Benz and found that the battery seemed to have a partial short. The alternator was putting out 14 volts, but when connected to the battery it dropped to around 12. I tried a different battery and the system worked fine, so I went inside and ordered a new "Gold" battery, to replace the "Silver" that had lasted exactly 2 years.

A quick run to Advance Auto to pick it up, and 30 minutes later, the new battery was successfully installed, and I made it inside in time to, coincidentally, catch the "Silver and Gold" soliloquy in "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".

Time for an oil change, soon!

Aaaaaaaand the alternator, it turns out, was the culprit.

Changed it yesterday. Fortunately NAPA had one in stock. Let's hope this is the end of my electron-flow issues for now.

In happier news, new tires are getting installed on another set of wheels today. Planning on swapping them over this weekend when I do the oil change.

Awesome car, awesome thread. Thanks for letting us ride along with you on this adventure!

In reply to PeterAK:

Thanks for the compliment!

A little more fumbling about was needed before the charging issue was completely resolved. On Thursday the Benz refused to start again, this time while attempting to leave my place of employment. On top of that, I'd left my jumper cables (and all my tools!) in my truck, so I had to shamefully bum a jump off of a friendly co-worker.

Once home, I re-checked the alternator connection and found the smaller of the 3 wires holding on by a single strand. Once that was re-terminated, I load-checked the system and it would charge fine (14V or so) at idle, but the voltage would drop alarmingly when I turned on the headlights and heater. Neither of those systems seemed to show ridiculously low impedance, but after going about the car with a voltmeter for an hour or so and freezing my fingers to the bone, I realized I could slightly smell what seemed to be burning rubber.

The fan belt! In replacing the alternator, I hadn't tensioned it properly and the alternator pulley was slipping under load - but not making any noise. After tensioning the belt to provide the required 3/8" deflection, everything seemed to charge properly under all loads.

One side-benefit of checking out the car's electricals was a few minor issues were found and corrected. One of the horns had a broken wire (crimped on a new connector) and one of the headlights turned out to be blown.

When you've parted out a dozen or so cars, you never need to buy new headlamps:

Granted, I went through the entire crate and ended up tossing about half of the bulbs as no good. But still.

Oh, and yes- Saturday, December 10th: Oil and Filter Change.

Used headlights. Nice. Sometimes I feel like I'm too cheap but then it's demonstrated that I have much farther to go. Teach me thy ways oh master!

dculberson wrote: Used headlights. Nice. Sometimes I feel like I'm too cheap but then it's demonstrated that I have much farther to go. Teach me thy ways oh master!

Next week: How to collect brake dust and re-mold it back into pads.

Replaced the fan belt and the power steering belt Monday night. Both had never been changed since I've owned the car. Both were very, very old. I also had an overhauled starter that I swapped in- that only took me 1.5 hours this times. What a hateful job.

Unfortunately, even the overhauled starter still does the weird "spin no catch" thing when the car is very cold (under 30 or so overnight). So that's the third starter I've had on there that does this. When the car's warm, it never does this. WTF???

Went to swap on the new wheels and tires, and the offset is apparently wrong. Grrr. The backs fit OK (though they sit in a bit more than the stock wheels) but the fronts hit the tie rods. So I ordered spacers, and longer bolts. Whoever told me W126 wheels would fit without spacers was wrong.

volvoclearinghouse wrote: Unfortunately, even the overhauled starter still does the weird "spin no catch" thing when the car is very cold (under 30 or so overnight). So that's the third starter I've had on there that does this. When the car's warm, it never does this. WTF???

I had completely forgotten but now that you mention it, our Vibe would do this but the threshold was a more convenient 8°F. The new/reman starter does the same damn thing but the threshold is down to 4°F. Autozone took my word for it and replaced it...same thing. 4 degrees. Of course the car had to be completely and totally cold for the problem to happen. Had to be parked for 8 hours, outside, with a nice breeze. I guess there's a point at which the grease gels up too much? 5 or 6 degrees...it's fine!

So, yeah, I don't know. Sorry. Our solution was "well it's only that cold once or twice a year" but that doesn't help you.

In reply to RedGT:

Yep. Sounds just like mine, only at lower temperatures.

I plugged the block heater in last night and it fired up no problem with morning (32 degrees). Tomorrow will be the real test, it's supposed to be in the teens when I get up. It will be plugged in again.

I am wondering if it's some sort of voltage problem? Granted there's a new battery, new alternator, all grounds recently cleaned and checked, etc. And even when the battery was low, the starter would still grab and crank (albeit slowly) as long as the temps were warm. So it's got me baffled. I'm thinking about maybe bypassing the key switch with a remote starter switch some cold morning and see if that helps. Maybe there's some weird failure mode with the key switch on cold mornings?

Oh, and the driver's power window quit working. So that's nice.

AFAIK key switch and voltage won't affect engagement. when 12V is applied to the starter, it does 2 things - engages and spins. On a car that old anyway. If it's getting power to spin I'd think it is getting power to engage. We know from experience that low voltage = engage, but not enough grunt to turn the engine. "click-thunk" rather than "whirrrrr"

Might not matter, but is the starter control wire going directly to the starter from the switch, or is there a relay? The switch should just activate a relay, and the relay contacts should then power the starter. Should be easy enough to add a relay if there isn't one.

In reply to TED_fiestaHP:

I'm not sure if the wire to the starter comes directly from the keyswitch, or if it's relayed. In any case, as RedGT pointed out, it's getting power to spin plenty fast, so it should be getting enough power to engage.

Last night I set up a timer on an outdoor outlet. The cord plugged into that timer is connected to two things: First, the block heater on the Benz, and second, a light in the chicken house. The timer is programmed to come on at 3AM, to provide block heat to the engine and to fool the chickens into thinking there's more daylight than there is so they lay more eggs. (The layings get pretty sparse around this time of year with the shorter days; yesterday Mrs. VCH, chief egg-collector, gathered only 2 eggs out of 11 mature chickens)

The jury is still out on whether the light is helping to coax more eggs out of the birds, but the old battle wagon fired right up perfectly this morning, with 23 degree temperatures and 30 mph winds. No starter miscues.

Which W126 wheels? The 15 inchers? If you want to sell them...

Esoteric Nixon wrote: Which W126 wheels? The 15 inchers? If you want to sell them...

I bought the spacers. They already have $400 worth of tires installed on them.

Soooo...fighting spacer issues on the 300TD. Spacers seem to fit fine on the rears but the front hubs, notsomuch. So, there's a set of brand new Cooper CS5's on 15's in the back, and a set of worn-ass Firestones on 14" Bundts on the front, until this spacer thing gets figured out.

On the plus side, I installed new rear brake pads on Saturday. The old ones had about a millimeter or two of material left. New pads were free (got them from a friend who sold his diesel and gave me a box of spares leftover) but retail for $22 online (Bosche OEM pads).

This spacer thing is so strange, I always thought the later W126 15" wheels were he same offset. Could they possibly be a set from a W201/124?

In reply to Esoteric Nixon:

That's my suspicion. The seller swears they came off a W126, but I forget what model he mentioned. I, too, was always told the W126 wheels would work fine with ET.

Anyway, in for a dime, in for a dollar, as they say. Still trying to find front spacers that will work. I can't believe, with as popular as the W123 is, that NO ONE seems to sell a front wheel spacer that fits.