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Classic Cars Mercedes 300D Suggestions
2231 messages, Last post on Nov 11, 2009 at 9:21 AM
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Mr. S, I presume that with the CD's you can print out the pages you may need. Is this the case? I just did look in EBAY and they have a set of Manuals (Printed Copy) up for $60. I am not sure if that is a good deal or not. Also I see a lot of ads for the CD's and they are much cheaper. Any reasons for this? Also I saw an alert with one of the parts about the Flex Discs on the driveline. The guy mentions that in a few cases they break and cause a lot of damage to the car. Is this true? It is the first I hear of this. |
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| So if Mercedes are made to be taken apart and repaired, then any GM product is the same way, right? | |
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You cannot fully appreciate a Mercedes until you've taken it apart. When I compare it to my BMW, the Benz can be serviced with a minimum of proprietary tools, and most services are very straight forward. For example, I've never had another car with a drain plug for the torque converter, so that you can fully drain the transmission without having to flush it. Or the oil filter and oil drain are so nicely laid out, that it is possible to perform an oil change without getting a single drop of oil on the floor. Or take my instrument cluster. It is just a perfect and tight fit into the dashboard, no fasteners whatsoever. It just sits in place. The electrical connectors to it use small handles to release and reconnect, so that it is essentially impossible to bend the pins of the connector itself. This extreme focus on detail is just very nice. Compared to GM, the "taking apart" of the Mercedes is optional for about the first 10 years of its life. With GM it is mandatory, all the time...and not as much fun.
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Haspelbein, That was very well put. I guess another difference between Mercedes and GM is that you have to take apart a Mercedes if you want to. A GM comes apart whether you want it or not. Ha ha ha. |
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| IF you lift the hood of a GM car (which is a perfectly okay car for the money) you see lots of plastic snaps and plastic wire ties instead of bolts and nuts and metal fasteners, and lots of sealed units that cannot be disassembled; also lots of plastic tubing instead of steel or aluminum. You just stick your hands in some of the engine compartments and just the pressure of your wrists or arms breaks things. You pop a door panel or remove a dash panel on a lot of GM cars and you've never get it back in without replacing all the fasteners you just broke off. | |
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All the hose clamps in my Benz are the manual type, which you can tighten with the screw driver found in the Benz' toolkit available in the trunk, should you have an emergency that requires you to do so. But hose clamps are just an example, electrical connectors are really more important. I remember replacing a throttle position sensor in a Ford. One retaining clips of the electrical connector broke immediately. It was just cheap. The sensor itself was attached to the throttle body with plain phillips screws, torqued beyond reason. Why not spend 50 cents more on TORX bolts, so that the unit can be serviced ? (I ended up removing the valve cover, so that I could put my whole body weight against the electrical drill that finally removed the screw.) You just don't find that kind of stuff in a Benz. Sometimes MB's solutions are a little bit odd, but always thought out. |
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The comments are making me laugh. Taking a door panel out and then having to replace all the fastners you just broke off. That is hillariously true. The pressure of you reaching your hand into something breaks something else... I am rolling here. This is good humor! The 123 is indeed a great example of simple mechanical engineering. Agree. I have not looked yet but, I don't think that I have the Original MB tool box. Is it literally a box with tools? Or just a few wrenches and screwdrivers? Thanks. Still thinking of the comments and laughing. Please tell me if there is really a need to replace the flex plate in the driveline as a preventive measure? Thanks |
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| Old Volvos seem to be built the same way as old Mercedes. They're built to stay durable and for easy, simple maintenance. | |
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Actually, I'm not positive on the 123, but on the other MBs I've seen, the tools were in a little bag that you can roll out, having little pockets for the tools. If you don't have it, I'm sure you can find one on E*Bay very easily. It is crucial on my car, as it contains the wheel mounting pin. Since my vehicle has lug bolts, and not lug nuts, it is a major pain to change a wheel without it. |
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| The filter at the left front of the engine above the injection pump is the main fuel filter. A note of caution here, when replacing this filter do not try to spin this off as you do an oil filter although it looks like one. You must loosen the through bolt which is centered directly on top of the housing, in line with the centerline of the filter, this is how it is attached to the housing, You will crush the filter trying to spin it off. To install hold filter in position and tighten this bolt.There is also a small prefilter (inline) at the manual lift pump on the injection pump . The oil filter housing is on not in the left rear of the engine. This engine takes a two stage cartridge, a full fiow portion (bottom) and a bypass portion (top). It fits into a filter housing which is about 10 inches tall and about 5 inches in dia. It is made of aluminum and has a cap held on with two nuts.Your oil cooler hose pipes attach to the bottom of this housing. Nice to see you are taking an interest in your car. | |
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