From owner-diesel-benz-digest-at-digest.net Sat Sep 27 10:23:10 2003 From: diesel-benz-digest diesel-benz-digest Friday, September 26 2003 Volume 01 : Number 1229 Forum for Discussion of Diesel Mercedes Benz Automobiles Derick Amburgey Digest Coordinator Contents: Re: [db] what's the problem? [db] Cruise Control Subject: Re: [db] Diesel or gas? RE: [db] oil leak & grumbling Re: [db] what's the problem? Re: [db] Cruise Control [db] 300SD at auction Re: [db] 300SD at auction [db] neat stuff with instrumentation [db] parts wanted Diesel Benz Digest Home Page: http://www.digest.net/diesel-benz/ Send submissions to diesel-benz-digest-at-digest.net Send administrative requests to diesel-benz-digest-request-at-digest.net To unsubscribe, include the word unsubscribe by itself in the body of the message, unless you are sending the request from a different address than the one that appears on the list. Include the word help in a message to stag-digest-request to get a list of other majordomo commands. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 10:23:31 CDT From: acordova-at-texas.net Subject: Re: [db] what's the problem? > Black smoke means you're running rich, so I would suspect either the ALDA > (which I have no idea what it is, other than it's an air pressure sensor), or > something preventing enough air from entering the engine (clogged air filter, > etc). > > I know on a gasser that too much fuel wouldn't fire, I'd imagine too much > fuel without enough air to burn all the fuel would seriously ruin a diesel's > day at the very minimum. > > I am not really sure why 90 miles of heat (hour and a half?) would cause you > to run rich enough to cause these problems, but that is what it sounds like > is happening. > > K > The only downside on a diesel to running rich is the black smoke of incompletely burned fuel and the loss of potential fuel economy. It doesn't piss off a diesel like it does a gasser, or you wouldn't see so many big rigs (especially older ones with non-computerized fuel injection) belching. After 90 miles of heat, some sooty oily sludge in the system could soften enough to more fully clog some passages, either for vacuum or for intake air? Good luck, Alec Cordova Taylor, Texas 89 300CE, 161K ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 11:48:29 -0400 From: "Tom Scordato" Subject: [db] Cruise Control Hello Changed out my cruise control amp. When I set the unit hat highway speeds, it will stay on speed then it starts to drop in speed, slowly while still engaged and pulling the car along I am thinking it is the vacuum actuator. Any thoughts?? Regards Tom Scordato 1977 300D 189K ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 11:00:24 -0500 From: "Black, Waylon" Subject: Subject: Re: [db] Diesel or gas? Subject: Re: [db] Diesel or gas? Diesel - no question. Don't let 'high mileage' scare you. One of my 83 300 SDs just hit 330K. I got it in in Jan 02 with 292K. It only gets about 26-27 mpg because I drive faster than I should. ;) The trans is like a normal 3 speed with an extra low gear. 4th gear is a 1:1 ratio. Your best mileage will be obtained at about 2600/2700 rpms - if you can stand to drive that slow. LOL Waylon ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 11:43:19 -0500 From: "Sam Williams" <1sam-at-io.com> Subject: RE: [db] oil leak & grumbling R, Your oil may not be that low. If you checked immediately after turning off the engine, even if it ran only a short time, it would have pumped oil from the sump to other parts of the engine. The dipstick reading isn't accurate until oil has time to drain back. Check it again before starting the car. Unless the level is below the low line, you have plenty of oil to drive anywhere. At readings below that it is still safe to drive but, until you know exactly how far, it is best to add a quart as recommended by MB. Never add so much that the reading is above the full mark. If your dash is filling with oil, take it to your mechanic. Do not wear your best clothes while driving there. The oil won't stay inside the Dash; it will drip somewhere. Diesel oil cannot, by any means that I know, be washed out. If the oil gauge is still leaking, it wasn't repaired correctly last time. It might not be the gauge itself, rather the seal at the end of the line where it attaches to the gauge. You won't lose much oil from the gauge but ask your mechanic about the front seal problem at that time. The mechanic will have to take out the instrument panel (easy) to check status of leak and clean it out. Whether the previous repair to oil gauge was successful or not, the person who did it might not have cleaned up the mess sufficiently. Someone has to take it apart to find out. Sam - -----Original Message----- From: owner-diesel-benz-at-digest.net [mailto:owner-diesel-benz-at-digest.net] On Behalf Of Anaeis N Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 8:37 PM To: diesel-benz-at-digest.net; AnaeisN-at-yahoo.com Subject: [db] oil leak & grumbling That oil leak has gotten worse, apparently. Today when I started the car, it took longer than usual and immediately there was an additional noise that was lower-pitched and louder than the usual grumble. I turned it off immediately and checked the oil, which turned out to be a bit under the low-oil mark. I haven't driven it since. Is that sound and the delay starting and the hard shut down connected to the oil loss? How much do I need to refill in order for a safe drive 10 miles to the mechanic? And do you see any problem with the Rotella T SAE 15W-40 I've been using? In addition, I'm seeing some darkened spots under the plastic at various places in the rectangular panel with the knobs and warning lamps. Could that be oil or other leak related? Muchos gracias, R '82 300CD -- 223,100 miles Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 09:44:47 -0700 (PDT) From: hue wong Subject: Re: [db] what's the problem? MMMMM I bet that is why my car seems to run a bit rough on cloudy, over pressure days here in seattle. I learn more and more each day.... - --- Jerome Kaidor wrote: > Kevin Pekarek wrote: > > > > > > Black smoke means you're running rich, so I would > suspect either the ALDA > > (which I have no idea what it is, other than it's > an air pressure sensor), > > *** Yup, that's what it is. You can think of the > ALDA as an altimeter. > Even non-turbocharged diesels have them, but it has > a different name. The > ALDA just has the ability to measure significantly > below sea level. > > Without some sort of atmosphere input, the > injection pump can only decide > how much to pump based on two inputs: > > * How fast the engine is turning. > * How hard you press on the loud pedal. > > In order to arrive at a perfect relationship of X > molecules of oxigen > burning Y molecules of fuel, the pump needs one more > thing: How thick is > the air? You can arrive at a compromise that sort > of works by saying that > most people will drive at 500 above sea level on a > standard day.... But > that's not very good. The solution is to measure > the pressure. An even > better solution would be to also measure the > temperature of the air, one > could then arrive at the air density, which is a > direct measurement of the > number of air molecules per unit volume. But while > it was easy enough to > measure air temperature in the 80's, it was hard to > do anything with it > without a CPU, so the ALDA was the compromise of the > day. > > The ALDA consists of a bellows that shrinks and > expands with respect > to air pressure. That bellows is connected to a > linkage into the guts of > the injection pump. It's important enough that if > you disconnect the > pressure line to the ALDA, you have effectively > disabled the turbo. Because > then the extra air that the turbo produces is not > matched by extra fuel. > Mercedes took advantage of this fact to create a > safety system that disables > turbo boost if the wastegate fails. An air pressure > switch mounted on the > intake manifold shuts down the pressure feed to the > ALDA if the manifold > pressure gets too high. I seem to remember that if > the wastegate fails, the > turbo can produce over 40 PSI - enough to inflate > tires! > > - Jerry Kaidor ( jerry-at-tr2.com ) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 12:30:54 CDT From: acordova-at-texas.net Subject: Re: [db] Cruise Control > Hello > > Changed out my cruise control amp. When I set the unit hat highway speeds, it > will stay on speed then it starts to drop in speed, slowly while still engaged > and pulling the car along > > I am thinking it is the vacuum actuator. Any thoughts?? > > Regards Tom Scordato > > 1977 300D 189K > If you don't find a good answer elsewhere, don't forget that George_Murphy-at-compuserve.com of automatic climate control diagnosis and repair fame is also very, very good with our old cruise controls. It may of course be rude to ask him for free advice with no intention of buying anything from him, and he does sell rebuilds and otherwise hard to find bits and pieces. Alec ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 21:32:20 -0400 (EDT) From: "paul.mcleod-at-excite.com" Subject: [db] 300SD at auction How can I tell if a car is ok mechanically if I buy it at an auction. You're allowed to start the car but you can't take it for a spin -- so how can you tell if the transmission is ok etc.? Thanks for the replies to the diesel/gas question. I think I'll go for the diesel. The most personalized portal on the Web! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 21:50:52 -0400 From: Edward Pomeroy Subject: Re: [db] 300SD at auction Paul, I just took delivery of a '93 300D purchased on e-bay auction. The seller was pretty truthful about the condition and operation of the vehicle and I purchased it for about $1500 below median blue book, so I can't complain too much on buying an item based on a picture alone. It is a gamble, the best approach is not to spend more than you can afford to lose, same rule as for the casino. As I get it on the road full time, I am sure I will find more of the details not mentioned in the ad copy but it runs and everything seems to work correctly so far. Good luck with whatever you pick up. "paul.mcleod-at-excite.com" wrote: > How can I tell if a car is ok mechanically if I buy it at an auction. You're allowed to start the car but you can't take it for a spin -- so how can you tell if the transmission is ok etc.? Thanks for the replies to the diesel/gas question. I think I'll go for the diesel. > The most personalized portal on the Web! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 03:24:30 -0400 From: Robert Chase Subject: [db] neat stuff with instrumentation Spent the afternoon doing some work on the car today. Discovered some really neat stuff about the car in the process. It never ceases to amaze me how "ahead of its time" the 126 chassis is. My sunroof switch was rather worn looking and needed replacement. I bought another one and started the swap out process when I discovered something quite amazing about the car. When I pulled the connector off the back of the switch I thought I pulled a wire out of the harness. Then I looked at it for a moment and realized it was a fibre optic cable. It seems that all the dash lights on my front panel are fibre optic. Mercedes Benz was really ahead of the curve technology wise using this technology for the dash lights. I also noticed when I was rebuilding my power window switch the other day that they used LED's inside the switches. Are the fibre optic lights also LED driven or is there a regular incandecent bulb back there in the dash somewhere? For a car that was introduced in 1981 its quite amazing that they used that stuff. Does anybody know when they started using the Fibre Optic lights? There are a lot of "modern" cars out there right now still using those annoying micro bulbs. I have been looking at my broken odometer lately and wondering if I should go ahead and dive into the process of repairing it. I know I will have to remove the cluster to do this of course. Is this a pain in the butt or a rather simple straight forward task? Mercedes Source has a guide on it but I have learned from experience sometimes things are not so easy as they appear on the online shopping cart :) While the Cluster is out I would like to repaint the cluster as my black paint and needles are no longer as nice as they once were. Any body ever painted one of these things? Im also thinking of springing for a digital temp indicator while the cluster is out. Anybody have any wisdom about retrofitting one of these to an early model 126? While it might probably be easier to "replace" the cluster I have grown fond of my "Jimmy Carter" Spedometer now that I know that my car tops out at about 105mph :). ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2003 11:03:52 -0400 From: "S.D.Byers" Subject: [db] parts wanted 1x wheel for post 1986 300SD. 1x rear window for 1984 300SD 1x rear parcel shelf for 1984 300SD, tan interior colour. Available, 5 alloy wheels for 81-85 300SD/300D/300TD SDB ------------------------------ End of diesel-benz-digest V1 #1229 **********************************