Living with a 1987 Mercedes 190D TURBO DIESEL....

Great progress. A homemade smoke machine is your friend with one of these. 

They can be found on eBay for cheaper, but these radios both look like they belong and have modern features if you need a new one.

Dude! That interior cleaned up really well.

Tell me about this fender vent on the passenger side. I've never noticed those before. Did they all have them?

crankwalk said:

 

 

 

Tell me about this fender vent on the passenger side. I've never noticed those before. Did they all have them?

 

 

Just the 5 cylinder turbo ones.

As the owner of a 5-spd gas W201, I can barely imagine how slow a diesel auto is.  But I still love yours - cleans up real nice.  I'm not sure about the wheels - I don't hate them, but I'm not in love either.  The stock 14" ones look incredibly dinky tho - I've been running 16" for quite a while now, and just this week I put the 14s back on while I repainted the 16s.  It really make the car look more like a toy or something.  So I wouldn't discount keeping the 16s just yet...

In reply to NorseDave :

I officially hate the wheels, they make the car look cheap  I reckon these are the sort of rims an 80's coke dealer would put on the car...  problem is I'm not sure I like the alternatives.    Also, The car sits really high, I'm not sure this is normal, because I literally know nothing about these cars.

Keep in mind this is a TURBO diesel,  so far I have discovered it has two speeds.... slow and fast(ish).  Im trying to get the hang of it ..LOL

Tk8398 said:

crankwalk said:

 

 

 

Tell me about this fender vent on the passenger side. I've never noticed those before. Did they all have them?

 

 

Just the 5 cylinder turbo ones.

My 95 nonturbo 6cyl e300 also had the vent

In reply to Tk8398 :

I definitely want to go with a period correct radio. The ones in the link look about right.  I have also been thinking of 3D printing a vintage Becker face and putting together a custom MP3 system.

I had a look at the vacuum pump today and it has the smooth face.  Hmm.

Day 3 

No pictures today  I forgot to put the SD card in the camera and I do not have the usb cord to download pics from the internal memory.

Anyway the car is tagged and insured.  I put about 50 miles on  driving around town.  I think I'll name this car Stinky.  

Since there is no record of the last oil change, I  went ahead and did a oil and filter service,  This car holds 7 qts of oil!  I used Shell Rotilla 15-40 diesel oil from Tractor Supply.  I think they had the best prices locally at $12.00 a gallon.

Stay tuned!

In reply to Doc Brown :

What's your budget for wheels? A set of Centras or Rials look good on these cars. Also, pre merger-AMG's.

If you're a baller then OZ Futuras lol

I kinda like the low end mid 2000s C230 (?) wheels on that generation

Slightly lowered, Blaupunkt stereo, 17 inch AMG monoblocks (i dont care if cliche, they are still awesome),legal tint all around, 50% on the windshield. 

VIP!

Doc Brown said:

In reply to Tk8398 :

I had a look at the vacuum pump today and it has the smooth face.  Hmm.

Definitely get a new one as soon as you can. If it fails best case you are looking at pulling the oil pan and collecting all the broken bits and putting them back together like a puzzle to make sure you didn't miss any that will cause problems later (like getting sucked into the oil pump and seizing it), worse case it will break the timing chain and you need a new engine. 

ProDarwin said:

I kinda like the low end mid 2000s C230 (?) wheels on that generation

 

Those are CLK wheels

In reply to Doc Brown :

For the ride height, there is a rubber shim that sits sandwiched between the top of the spring and the spring mount. There are 4 shim thicknesses available from the dealer. Maybe yours has the thickest ones? Unfortunately, to remove the springs you need a special compressor...

In reply to Rocambolesque :

Cool, I'll take look and see what is going on. Thanks!

These cars aren’t so quick from a dead stop but have nice midrange power when the turbo is spinning. The trick to driving smoothly is to “roll” into the power with your right foot rather than treating the throttle like an on/off switch as you would with the earlier 5-pot turbodiesels. 

Also, the slightly deflated looks to the front seats can be cured with new horsehair pad inserts.  Fills the covers back in nicely and is more comfortable after. 

Day FIVE.

I spent several precious hours on Friday and Saturday morning going to Mercedes school (youtube).  I also visited various Mercedes camps on the internet.  The reason for my sudden education was the automatic transmission.  The transmission initially seemed fine because it had a nice firm shift, but then I realized Mercedes would never ship a car that shifted like a pro-street dragster.  I reckon the Mercedes crowd would object to neck snapping shift and so I dived deep into the internet to see what was up. The short story is to start with simple things and work your way back to the transmission.  Apparently the root to all problems is always going to be vacuum related, so that's where I started. 

Before we get to the meat of this post, I'm officially naming this car PIG PEN  

OK lets look at some pictures...

According to the internet, the car should generate and hold 20 inches of vacuum.  As we can see this is not the case.  Further testing indicated the vacuum pump had no problem generating vacuum.... so somewhere there was a leak.   Now, I'm a bit ignorant as to why a diesel automatic transmission needs a vacuum signal.  in a perfect world, the only signal the trans will ever see is 20 inches of mercury.  Its not like the vacuum varies like on a gasoline car, on this car the vacuum is always going to be 20 if things are perfect. I obviously do not understand what the trans is doing with the vacuum signal.  Anyway the internet says it must be 20 so the hunt for the leak commenced. 

The vacuum source for the HVAC or power door locks or what ever is going into the cabin turned out to be a massive leak.  Since this was non essential gear I went ahead and capped off the cabin vacuum line.  Next I probed around and found this half ass repair.  The area circled was a huge leak.  I cleaned up the splice with new hose and was able to pull full vacuum on this circuit.  Notice I'm wearing gloves... touching PIG PEN ever so slightly will transfer massive amounts of dirt. LOL

Whenever possible, I used the Mityvac and a pair of forceps to trouble shoot the vacuum system.  Basically just pump the mityvac and pinch lines until the leaks are located.

This thingy is the EGR valve control valve.  I'm not sure how this is supposed to work, but I feel it wasn't working.  With the engine on or off, this thingy was sending vacuum to the EGR valve... so basically the EGR valve was always open.  also this thing was a huge vacuum leak.  I don't know E36 M3 about diesels but that don't seem right.   The vacuum source to this device was capped off.  According to the internet this is always the right thing to do.  Apparently the EGR valves causes many problems as the car ages.  I'll will re-visit this valve soon, but for now it is out of the circuit.

EGR valve looking kinda funky, I'm thinking its going to be in the bin soon

So with all the vacuum problems sorted out, the car finally was able to generate a full 20 inches of mercury at idle.  A quick road test confirmed the transmission issues mostly resolved and the car shifted more like a Mercedes should.  While I'm happy with the results, I felt the need to do a full survey of  all the simple stuff that may contribute to transmission problems.

Hmm, oh yeah, Perhaps I should check the fluid.  It took me a full 2 minutes to figure out how to unlock and operate the transmission dipstick.  Apparently the folks at Mercedes were afraid the dipstick would pop off  or something.  This dipstick is both child and adult proof .  Anyway, the trans was 1.5 qts low.

While poking around the engine bay I discovered a minor fuel leak.  The leak has something to do with the rubber low pressure hoses.  I need to research what sort of hose is acceptable for diesel fuel.   While the fuel leak is relatively minor, it did do some damage (see next picture)

Directly under the fuel leak is one of the front suspension bushings.  Evidently the diesel fuel  has attacked the rubber and fouled the bushing.  I'll sort this out latter.

One of the things I learned at Mercedes school was this little trick.  With the engine running, pull the oil fil cap off and let it rest over the opening.  On  a healthy engine the cap should just rest there,  If the engine is spent, the cap will flop around lie a fish out of water.  Although PIG PEN is a filthy animal, he is apparently very healthy.  

PIG PEN was here......

Although my momma told me not to, I went down town and played in traffic.  The transmission  more or less behaved itself, but I'm a little concerned at 3/4 throttle.  A odd surging has developed on the 2-3 or 3-4 shift.  This actually feels engine related and not the transmission.  New fuel filters are on order... stay tuned for that episode.

Because German car, no cup holders.  This is merica, cup holders are mandatory.   Anyway, the chick at Tim Hortins slipped me an extra donut, Why? because I drive a Mercedes and demand the best service.... or she was just trying to get rid of some stale donuts.  Stale or not, the donuts and coffee were a perfect end to todays endeavor.

Remember folks, when you see PIG PEN coming, grab your gloves.

Stay tuned!

In reply to conesare2seconds :

You are so right, with the vacuum leaks resolved the car performs well at low speed.  Once rolling the power builds fast(ish).  

I give you 1000 internet points for your observation on the seats, Yep they are sagging and could use a bit of a boost.  Thanks for the heads up.

Do you have one Euro headlight and one US?  The pass side one looks like the US-style with a big ole sealed beam and a separate fog/parking/city light.   (edit - also you're missing a trim strip under the headlights)

I'm running the CLK wheels discussed earlier.  When I bought mine, the seller wanted to unload those wheels along with the car.  I wasn't that excited (I knew nothing about them other than the pic he sent me) but I ultimately relented and essentially got the set of 4 for $150.  I then discovered they are probably the best wheel MB has put out in maybe forever.  Forged 16x7's that weigh in at a mere 13lbs each.   They're not the most stylish, but they still seem to go for $300-400 each when I see them pop up for sale.  The AMG monoblocks pic'd above still look a little off on 190s to me.  The car in the pic is a W124, so a bigger car and I agree they are THE wheel to put on those cars.  17s on a 190 to me are little too far towards the "stanced" look.  They're also pricey, and hard to find - I've been looking for a set for my 400E for a while now...

Locally there are tons of MB's in the junkyard, so finding different MB wheels shouldn't be a problem.  It's just finding what you like.  I've never seen either of the ones we're talking about here in the yard though...

In reply to NorseDave :

The PO put the headlights in, They are both the same, possibly it's the angle in the picture.  The PO also supplied the trim strips for under the lights but this is only day 5 and I have not gotten to them yet.

The wheels say a lot about a car.  This car is sort of plain and I feel it needs plain wheels.  

There is a set of these on the list of craig for reasonable money with good tires on them.  The trouble is I'm not sure they would fit or look good.  I cant seem to find a picture of a  190 with these rims.

I don't think those wheels clear the brakes on newer (86+) Mercedes. 

Tk8398 said:

I don't think those wheels clear the brakes on newer (86+) Mercedes. 

You're right, bundt wheels do not clear anything after 85. 

In reply to yupididit :

Ok, so that explains why no 190 pics with them.

Just curious, if they did fit,  would they be acceptable looking or are the something an old fart would put on a car?

In reply to Doc Brown :

Both.