From owner-diesel-benz-digest-at-digest.net Thu Apr 15 09:34:27 2004 From: diesel-benz-digest diesel-benz-digest Thursday, April 15 2004 Volume 01 : Number 1416 Forum for Discussion of Diesel Mercedes Benz Automobiles Derick Amburgey Digest Coordinator Contents: [db] administrivia: notes on using this list [db] 84 300D Re: [db] 84 300D Re: [db] RE: 95 E300D Re: [db] 84 300D RE: [db] 84 300D Re: [db] 84 300D 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: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 05:45:02 +0000 From: Richard Welty Subject: [db] administrivia: notes on using this list Digest.Net mailing list "Meta FAQ" These general notes on using Digest.Net mailing lists are posted on the 1st and 15th of each month. This file may be found on the web at http://www.digest.net/general-notes.txt [last revised 5/1/02; removed list of spam strings, as i'm not the only one filtering on them -- rpw] Additional information on Digest.Net's spam policies may be found at http://www.digest.net/email-policy.html and http://www.digest.net/blocked.html Table of Contents 1. Why don't my postings go through? 2. Why can't I unsubscribe? 3. How do I post to the list? 4. Where are the archives? 5. What other lists are on digest.net? 6. Is there a web subscription form? 7. Why not move the lists to someplace like (egroups, topica,...)? 8. How do I contact the server adminstrator in an emergency? 9. What is Krusty Motorsports, anyway? The Meta-FAQ 1. Why don't my postings go through? There are several things that may interfere with postings making it to the list. a) Are you a member? Some read the ftp archives rather than receiving the list in email. Persons who read the list via email are automatically members, but readers of the FTP archive are not, and need to contact me (rwelty-at-krusty-motorsports.com) and get your name added to the list of "permitted senders". b) has your email address changed? some of you have had changes in your email address. your old address still works, and is still on the list, but your From: line shows a new address. this can happen for various reasons; you may have changed jobs or ISPs, and left a forward in place, or your IT staff may have fiddled with the email system. you will need to unsubscribe your old email address and subscribe the new one. this may require my involvement, if you can't figure out a way to get your old address off the list using the conventional majordomo commands. you can use the majordomo "which" command to probe for old addresses. send a message to majordomo-at-digest.net with one or more which commands in the body, one per line. to check for potential addresses for Fred Flinstone, formerly of bedrock.org, the following commands can be sent: which flintstone which bedrock note that the matches above might return any of the following addresses, if they appear in the list (in other words, you can use vagueness and incompleteness in your recollection as a tool): Fred.Flinstone-at-bedrock.org fflinstone-at-wilma.bedrock.org flintstonef-at-bedrock.com c) do you have more than one email address? if so, only the subscribed addresses can post, unless you contact me (see 1.a) above for relevant information) d) are you using (intentionally or accidentially) special "features" of your mail client? [this section is no longer operative, as the demime software now strips html, attachments, rich text format, etc. from postings automatically.] e) are your posts too large? there is a 10,000 character limit on posting sizes; this is done for various reasons. you can always split up large postings to get mail through. f) are you including majordomo commands at the start of your message? administrivia control is turned on; this is a trap for things like "unsubscribe" at the start of a message. try to avoid obvious majordomo commands in the subject and the first 10 lines, or misspell them in obvious ways (e.g. unzubscribe, 1ndex, h3lp, g3t, etc.) g) are you triggering spam traps? some things are red flags; for example, many phrases found commonly in spam are automatically blocked. h) are you using "funky" character sets? [7 bit restriction lifted experimentally on 8/2/00 -- film at 11] unfortunately, there are "issues" if i permit any character set other than old fashioned 7 level ASCII; therefore, you need to avoid national character sets that include various accents, umlauts, national currency characters such as the British pound symbol, etc. i) are you unintentionally including complete digests in your reply? You need to check and make sure you cut down replys to the minimal size; digests are between 20,000 and 25,000 characters in length, and if you include a complete digest in your reply, it clearly won't make the 10,000 character limit. By the way, this feature is intentional. j) Are you using a "bad" ISP or mail relay? See http://www.digest.net/email-policy.html for more information about Digest.Net policies about email. k) Is the error message you get back "User Unknown"? If so, you may be running afoul of spam control severices (again, see http://www.digest.net/email-policy.html) When these services register a hit, the error code 550 is returned. 550 is a generic code that many broken mail systems report as "user unknown". The "rejectlog" entries for the previous day's mail traffic on digest.net may be viewed at http://www.digest.net/rejectlog.01 Some of you may find it useful or instructive to use the telnet program to connect directly to port 25 on krusty-motorsports.com and see what kind of reply you get; this requires some technical knowledge and is not for everyone (you can get out of this at anytime after the initial banner simply by typing quit and hitting enter.) l) Is SMTP over TLS involved? This is a bit esoteric, but as of 8/8/01 the digest.net mail server will attempt to use "TLS" (Transport Layer Security) for outbound mail if the destination mail server offers it. SMTP over TLS is fairly new technology, and a bit buggy. I am monitoring the logs on the server, and when I see TLS related problems, I manually place the problem destinations on a special exception list; however, this may delay email to the destination host until I make the exception. 2. Why can't I unsubscribe? a) are you using the right address? send to majordomo-at-digest.net, and the command format is unsubscribe list-name my-email-address b) has your email address changed? majordomo has no way of knowing that Fred.Flinstone-at-BarneyCo.com was once fflintstone-at-bedrock.org. you can check this with the which command (see 1.b) above for details) 3. How do I post to the list? You may use either one of two addresses: for example, the bmw-digest may be reached using either bmw-at-digest.net or bmw-digest-at-digest.net If you are using the correct addresses and your posts don't show up, check out the stuff in 1. above. 4. Where are the archives? see ftp://ftp.digest.net/ for digest archives. the web archives have proven problematic, and are awaiting time for a systematic attack on the problems they've been having. 5. What other lists are on digest.net? see http://www.digest.net/ for more information. 6. Is there a web subscription form? Yes, recently added. go to http://www.digest.net/bin/digest-subs.cgi 7. Why not move the lists to someplace like (egroups, topica,...)? The Krusty Motorsports server (aka, digest.net) was explicitly to provide for efficient management of the various automotive mailing lists, done the way that the owner of the server wanted it done. Any migration off of the server (which is already bought, paid for, and configured) would create any number of issues. 8. How do i contact the Server Administrator in an emergency? If my regular email address (rwelty-at-krusty-motorsports.com) isn't working for you, you can fall back on rwelty-at-suespammers.org 9. What is Krusty Motorsports, anyway? Krusty Motorsports (http:/www.krusty-motorsports.com/) is a business which is owned and operated by Richard Welty (rwelty-at-krusty-motorsports.com). Krusty is an S-Corporation in the State of New York. Krusty provides a number of Internet related services, such as mailing list, web sites, pop3/telnet accounts, and consulting on internet related issues. For more information, see the web site. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 09:18:46 -0500 From: "Roger Conlon" Subject: [db] 84 300D I'm going to be looking at a 1984 300D soon and was wondering what chassis this would be ( 124 or 123 ). What should be the normal operating temperature reading on the gauge. What type of fuel mileage should it get. Any other hints to look for on this model. thanks Roger _________________________________________________________________ Check out MSN PC Safety & Security to help ensure your PC is protected and safe. http://specials.msn.com/msn/security.asp ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 05:41:01 -0700 (PDT) From: Jerome Kaidor Subject: Re: [db] 84 300D Roger Conlon wrote: > > I'm going to be looking at a 1984 300D soon and was wondering what chassis > this would be ( 124 or 123 ). *** 123. A good year. Turbocharged. Should get about 25MPG, have relatively good power for a diesel. I seem to remember seeing between 80 and 90 degrees C on mine. Oil pressure should pin the needle when you rev it up. A solid, heavy, car. - Jerry Kaidor ( jerry-at-tr2.com ) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 07:53:38 -0400 From: "Chmielewski Family" Subject: Re: [db] RE: 95 E300D Has anyone replaced the rubber bushings on the rear end of a W124? Does it take any special tools? I was wondering how hard it is to do. I have an 87 300D Turbo and have a little problem with its handling. The most disconcerting thing is when you hit the accelerator hard or let up at highway speeds the car starts to head off in a slightly different direction. On a slighly different topic, the same car was picking up a little oil in the antifreeze, now I'm getting bubbles of air coming up into the overflow tank. The car has 300,000 miles on it. I don't know it's history before 250,000. I figure it's the head gasket. Is there any way to easily confirm this? How hard is it to change the head gasket? Any special tools? I've done it on numerous american cars and on an 80 VW Diesel Rabbit, so this wouldn't be my first. Ted - ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 12:42 PM Subject: [db] RE: 95 E300D > Below is a post I made to another list recently. It's interesting that > both '95 E300D's I have bought each had 140K +/- on them! In addition to what > I wrote below, based on what I see on other lists and my own experience I would > say that fuel leaks are becoming common on this year E300D. Most seem related > to the plastic lines to and from the fuel filter. There are a few down there, > all hard to see due to the intake manifold. If you have any fuel smell other > than just a faint whiff, you have a fuel leak somewhere. Pulling the manifold > is not a bad job at all on this car, if needed. > > Make sure the car tracks straight, no wander. The W124 has a multi link rear > suspension which can get tired (rubber bushings wear out) and cause rear > steer. Front ball joints may be shot too unless replaced, not too bad to fix > by a mechanic, probably not a DIY unless you are skilled. > > Also, motor mounts may be gone if not done already. The car should start very > smooth, idle very smooth and no banging or bumping when shutting off. > Otherwise the motor mounts may be collapsed, not a big deal, but just mo-money > to fix... > > Begin copied post below >>> > > I was in your position about 6 months ago. Same car, a '95 E300D. Since then, I > managed to total the one I did buy, and bought another just like it! So I've > got a bit of E300D experience now. > > That said, I don't think there is anything in particular to worry about with > these cars. As with any used car, the usual "rules" apply. A detailed Pre > Purchase Inspection by a trusted mechanic is worth it. And hopefully the owner > has the service records. > > Tell the current owner that you would like to witness a "cold" start, so he > shouldn't warm it up prior to your inspection. My GP lamp stays lit for maybe > 10 - 15 seconds at temps from 20 - 35 F, and the car starts instantly after the > lamp goes off. Look for a lot of smoke on startup - a little is normal but not > a lot. Some nailing/clattering is normal on a cold start, but it should go away > after a few seconds (depending on the temp). Oil pressure gauge should rise > almost instantly. > > Test cruise control, make sure trip odometer works (reset it), make sure clock > works. There should be NO diesel smell around the car unless the fuel filter > was just changed. Strong diesel smell = leak somewhere. Test radio, make sure > antenna goes up and down. > > Test headrest motors and seats. Observe wiper for smooth operation. Ask about > fuel mileage. Minimum for this car is 30 on mostly highway driving, should be > more like 30 - 35. > > Test HVAC control. Put on auto, econ position. See if heat starts by itself > when car shows about 50C on temp gauge. (assuming you are in a cold place!) > Select defrost - fan should go to high and air should be routed to windshield. > Make sure air comes out dash vents when A/C is selected. > > When the car is fully warm (mine shows about 80 - 85C in this cold weather), > floor it on the highway when you are already traveling at 60 or so - some smoke > is normal but you should not see black clouds. Make sure tranny kicks down when > you floor it. You can feel the kickdown switch at the bottom of the pedal > travel, but it should probably downshift before that. > > Look for plastic belly pan under engine - they are often discarded when they > get damaged. Also they are often saturated with old diesel and the sound > insulation is a diesel sponge. It's not a crisis not to have one, but it's some > real money to replace. > > All I can think of for now. Let us know if you buy it! > > Rgds, > Chris Whitney > > > > ------------------------------------------------------ > This message was sent using Delmarva Online's Webmail. > http://www.dmv.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 11:44:23 -0400 From: Robert Chase Subject: Re: [db] 84 300D Agreed, I have had the pleasure of driving my brother's 123 chassis 300D while my 126 chassis 300SD is busy with a Dr's appointment. The 123 reminds me of an old Russian woman. Built solid to survive the harsh Siberian winters and with the patience to wait in line for hours for potatoes to feed her family. At first I did not really care for the 123 cars because of thier tight engine compartments (compared to my 126 with the same engine) and because of their lack of space and simple suspension. If you drive one of these cars for a while though it grows on you. Its no frills no nonsense design gives the car a solid road feel and lots of dependability. Robert Chase Jerome Kaidor wrote: >Roger Conlon wrote: > > >>I'm going to be looking at a 1984 300D soon and was wondering what chassis >>this would be ( 124 or 123 ). >> >> >*** 123. A good year. Turbocharged. Should get about 25MPG, have >relatively good power for a diesel. I seem to remember seeing between 80 >and 90 degrees C on mine. Oil pressure should pin the needle when you rev >it up. A solid, heavy, car. > > - Jerry Kaidor ( jerry-at-tr2.com ) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 11:52:04 -0400 From: "McCormick, George" Subject: RE: [db] 84 300D Roger: I've got a 84 300D that I purchased about 6 months ago. Previously I've had a 83 240D and a 83 300sd. Although I loved the 240D (manual trans) the 300D is great car and I hope to be driving it for many years. I came across this buyers guide, maybe it will help. http://mercedes-w123.net/buyers_guide.htm George George McCormick Fayette County Public Schools 701 E. Main St. Lexington, KY 40502 859-381-4245 Re-cycle yourself, be an organ donor. Let us put our heads together and see what life we will make for our children. -- Sitting Bull - -----Original Message----- From: Roger Conlon [mailto:benz_2_sdl-at-hotmail.com] Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 10:19 AM To: diesel-benz-at-digest.net Subject: [db] 84 300D I'm going to be looking at a 1984 300D soon and was wondering what chassis this would be ( 124 or 123 ). What should be the normal operating temperature reading on the gauge. What type of fuel mileage should it get. Any other hints to look for on this model. thanks Roger _________________________________________________________________ Check out MSN PC Safety & Security to help ensure your PC is protected and safe. http://specials.msn.com/msn/security.asp This student or staff email originated from Fayette County Public Schools in Lexington, KY. Please report instances of abuse or inappropriate content to postmaster-at-fayette.k12.ky.us. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 07:13:37 -0700 (PDT) From: Jerome Kaidor Subject: Re: [db] 84 300D Robert Chase wrote: > > Agreed, > > I have had the pleasure of driving my brother's 123 chassis 300D while > my 126 chassis 300SD is busy with a Dr's appointment. The 123 reminds > me of an old Russian woman. Built solid to survive the harsh Siberian > winters and with the patience to wait in line for hours for potatoes to > feed her family. At first I did not really care for the 123 cars > because of thier tight engine compartments (compared to my 126 with the > same engine) and because of their lack of space and simple suspension. > If you drive one of these cars for a while though it grows on you. Its > no frills no nonsense design gives the car a solid road feel and lots of > dependability. > *** The suspension is actually pretty advanced. It has independant rear suspension, and the front suspension arms are beautiful aluminum castings, which shows great attention to unsprung weight. In the rear, there are inboard drum brakes just for parking. To me, it's a car that "feels" large, heavy, and wide. The engine compartment is not excessively crowded compared to modern cars. I never drove a 126, would like to see how those compare. - Jerry Kaidor ( jerry-at-tr2.com ) ------------------------------ End of diesel-benz-digest V1 #1416 **********************************