Does anyone know early 80's Mercedes diesels?

widebody911 · widebody911's Garage

My neighbor who is dying has a 1982 4-door 300d and his wife asked me what the car was worth so that she could make a decision on how to dispose of it. It doesn't currently run, but he said that all it needed was new glow plugs; that was over a year ago and the new plugs are still sitting on the back seat. The paint is 'fair', the seats are in great shape, the dash has some cracks. I don't know how many miles are on it or the condition of any of the other systems (ie brakes, tranny)

Originally, the daughter's boyfriend was going to take it, but it sounds like he's cooled on that idea. They would have to get it from Sacramento to Oregon somehow, then find a place to store it and/or work on it. The Oregon tags expired in 2010.

Any rough idea of value? I have no personal interest in the car, I'm just trying to help her out.

EarlyPorsche · 05-07-2013, 07:25 PM

They are durable as heck but in that condition they aren't worth a whole lot. Off the cuff and without researching I believe $1000-1500 to be about its value. If it ran probably triple that. The big issue is that nothing is clear about condition of the systems. If it really only needs glow plugs that's a quick and day fix. Those engines are so good that there are companies that make adapters to put that engine in other vehicles.

HHI944 · 05-07-2013, 08:25 PM

Throwing that engine into early defenders has become popular, throwing the 240d engine into series land rovers has as well......those engines are freaking tough.

But yeah, I'd cap at 1500 with it having sat and needing, at the minimum, a good bit of work.

aigel · aigel's Garage

Send speeder a PM if he doesn't show up anytime soon to this thread. He is our resident MB diesel expert.

G

speeder · 05-07-2013, 09:42 PM

Depends on just how good or bad the condition is and the miles, etc. Hard to say w/o pictures and more info. Sounds like a $1k car, maybe a little more...I've owned a lot of them. I'd possibly buy it, I'll PM you my info.

widebody911 · widebody911's Garage

Thanks for the info. Jerry died yesterday afternoon, so I'll wait until next week some time to talk to her about the car.

krystar · 05-09-2013, 12:23 PM

yea 1000 car.

but properly maintained, the 300d will go for 500k miles without a sweat. there are some on MB forums breaking 1mil and still going strong.

A930Rocket · 05-09-2013, 09:11 PM

This one looks nice but no idea if it's worth $7,500

1985 Mercedes 300d - Turbo diesel

Joeaksa · 05-10-2013, 07:08 AM

After they have been sitting for a while, run far away from them. Friend of mine has three of them and they all are money pits. They have a vacuum system that if not excercised can be very costly to repair and then there are the issues with special tools needed to work on them...

VincentVega · 05-10-2013, 07:11 AM

I grew up working on them and would like to find another one but they are pretty much rusted away on the east coast. Odds are all it needs are new fuel lines, door lock actuators, a valve adjustment and a few filters. They really are tanks.

Jferr006 · Jferr006's Garage

We had an '84 turbo diesel(in great condition/low miles/we were the second owners) and sold it quickly for $1800. No idea if we could have gotten more but, it was set up for veggie oil filtering.

widebody911 · widebody911's Garage

Thanks again guys. The service will be held on Saturday, so hopefully next week I can get some more pix and info. I did find that is has 201k on the clock.

legion · 05-10-2013, 03:14 PM

My (sold 13 years ago) 1985 300D is the only car that I frequently dream about. It had such an elegant stance. The engines are bullet proof.

They are tanks. IIRC, it weighed around 6,000 lbs..

Some stories:

When I was taking mine to Drago's for service, I met a woman with the same model. She had had the car for 14 years and loved it. She was so proud that when she was rear-ended in it, even though she broke both of her legs, the car only needed a new rubber bumper strip. (Seems to me that it didn't have "crumple zones".)

When taking my now-wife (girlfriend at the time) out to dinner, I noticed that it was pulling ever so slightly to the right. When we got back to my apartment, she exclaimed: "Chris, you've got to see this!" The right rear rotor was glowing red. I had it towed to Süd's. They later told me that the master cylinder had failed and they whole car was stopping on the right, rear rotor.

speeder · 05-10-2013, 06:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by legion

My (sold 13 years ago) 1985 300D is the only car that I frequently dream about. It had such an elegant stance. The engines are bullet proof.

They are tanks. IIRC, it weighed around 6,000 lbs..

Some stories:

When I was taking mine to Drago's for service, I met a woman with the same model. She had had the car for 14 years and loved it. She was so proud that when she was rear-ended in it, even though she broke both of her legs, the car only needed a new rubber bumper strip. (Seems to me that it didn't have "crumple zones".)

When taking my now-wife (girlfriend at the time) out to dinner, I noticed that it was pulling ever so slightly to the right. When we got back to my apartment, she exclaimed: "Chris, you've got to see this!" The right rear rotor was glowing red. I had it towed to Süd's. They later told me that the master cylinder had failed and they whole car was stopping on the right, rear rotor.

Actually about 3500 lbs., road ready. They definitely have crumple zones, we dismantle crashed w123s all the time. I could show you pictures that look like an aluminum soda can that a giant stepped on.

The failed MC is a serious thing, I've seen the cars burst into flames on the freeway, (once), when the owner did not realize that the brakes were being applied constantly from a defective MC that acted like a "check valve", only allowing hydraulic fluid to move in one direction. If your car was only cooking one rotor, it was a bad rubber brake hose at that wheel, not the MC. The hoses can also swell shut from old age and bad maintenance, (dirty fluid that's never changed and contaminated with moisture), causing the brake hose to act as a check valve. There is no way that a MC can only apply braking to one rear wheel, both are on one common line from MC.

Unless you had a rear line junction plugged with gunk and you only had one rear brake all along, either way it was terrible maintenance along the way somewhere. That's hardly an endorsement of the cars.

speeder · 05-10-2013, 06:25 PM

Here are a couple of mine, the Manilla Beige one just sold for a fair amount of money. They are worth some dough only if they are reeeeealy nice. And wagons are worth 2-3 times what sedans are.

VincentVega · 05-10-2013, 08:43 PM

Nice! Funny how it works, when I was younger and worked on them I thought they were slow and couldnt figure out the allure. ~15 yrs later I always keep an eye out for a wagon, great cars.

RANDY P · RANDY P's Garage

Threadjack. W123 280E under my care and feeding. It was my Mum's. and I roll this now and then. 74K original miles, Mom is original owner. Came on original hubcaps which I stored...

rjp

speeder · 05-11-2013, 12:12 AM

Randy, that's a nice one!

74k miles is truly nothing, I have my dad's 1980 450SL bought new with about 90k on it now and it drives almost as tight as new. Really well-built cars.

EarlyPorsche · 05-11-2013, 05:23 AM

A plus to ownership is that with a couple small fender flags you will look like small country royalty.

speeder · 05-11-2013, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by speeder

Actually about 3500 lbs., road ready.

For some perspective, these don't even weigh 6k lbs.: