1981 300SD - Primer Pump Stupidity?

Feb 16, 2004 3 Replies

Aloha:


A few weeks ago my car slowly stalled on the road, I took it to a Mercedes mechanic, and he told me that there was air in the fuel line because my primer pump was leaking. I then promptly ran out of gas a few weeks later (I did not realize the gas gauge was faulty...last time the car was super low on gas when I was in it was around 7 years ago). I was not aware of the fact that after such an incident, the fuel line needs to be primed. So, my car stalled again, and I discovered in the manual that I needed to prime it, which I did, and the car ran again.



However, now I seem to be stalling and having to prime the car at random and unsafe (i.e. Freeway shoulders) intervals for reasons I can't quite seem to figure out.



I've only recently started to take an interest in major self-maintenance of cars, so please excuse my ignorance.


Many thanks in advance.


-Punani


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And your question is? Did you get the leaking primer pump fixed?

As the other respondent asked: Did you replace the hand primer pump? If not, do.

I also suspect the fuel supply is marginal. Is the clear plastic filter near the hand primer pump clean or black? If black, change it and the metal spin on filter above.

The fuel pick up screen may also be clogged. I suggest this because the engine quits when you're driving at speed which demands more fuel than slow speed driving. And if all the problems occur during driving rather than at cold start then added credence is given to this fuel starvation hypothesis.

I don't have any gas in my 300SD - they make this stuff called "diesel fuel"... ;O)

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