1999 E300TD any good?

Question

Hi All,

I'm about to go look at one of these. Love the idea of the car still having a inline engine... turbo is nice. Any caveats that I'm not aware of? What should I be paying for this car roughly??

cheers, guenter

ps I imagine it's a far car from the new CDI engine, but should be a lot cheaper though.

JD · Accepted Answer

I considered one myself but a MB diesel fanatic friend convinced me to go for an older one. I just bought a '92 300E turbo diesel. So far so good. Haven't gathered enough data for actual fuel economy but with diesel running $0.45 less than regular unleaded I figure I'm already way ahead of the game.

JD

Tiger · Answer

That's the car I would buy... either 99 or 98. I want that turbo!

Guenter Scholz · Answer

.... so, what were they asking for the one you were looking at?  What was theballpark on the '92 you bought if I may be so bold?

Guenter Scholz · Answer

Yes, I hope that I'll get it.... it'll be a far cry from my 240D.Any idea what the ballpark price should be with about 80k miles on it???cheers, guenter

a2zebayplrod · Answer

We have two of them, both 98's; they have their quirks but IMO offer a newer car look, good fuel mileage, and good safety rating, we run ours on SVO or WVO and they love it. I also have a 91 300TD... With that mileage, depending on where you're buying it, expect to pay in the mid to upper teens, which, if the car is very clean and everything checks out is not too bad. Ours both have higher miles and I paid right at

11K for each one.

JD · Answer

A pittance in comparison to a '98-'99; $4200JDGuenter Scholz wrote:

JD · Answer

I should qualify that a little. That year and model Merc could command $10,000 in the Seattle area where I live. I bought mine from the Philly area.JD

Tiger · Answer

Sounds about right on price range. Check with edmudns.com...nadaguides.com and look at autotraders.com for some listing to get some comparison in prices.

SVO or WVO... what kit did you install? I guess you got a second tank too... Who does the treatment of the oil? How easy is it? Any direct source of information is greatly appreciated as I want to plan for my 95 E300D diesel.

a2zebayplrod · Answer

just made a kit for me with a custom 5gallon tank for diesel which mounts in the trunk on the passenger sidebehind the wheel well.  This was his first W210 kit I believe but thisguy is a craftsman.  I'm running single tank blends in both cars, thatis, I put the veggie oil once filtered and settled and dewateredstraight into my car's fuel tank and heat the oil in the enginecompartment before the injection pump.  I collect and process all ofmy own oil from one restaurant.  To learn more about this go to theinfopop forum at  and read away.  Usblenders were given our own section it's called "solvent thinning" gothere and read, lots of knowledgeable people there who have been doingthis for awhile.  I read for 2 years before I took the plunge.  I'venever looked back, I've got my whole family on veggie and now lookingto replace the familiy vacation hauler with a big diesel SUV to do thesame.

Tiger · Answer

How long have you been running with this Vege Terranian? Who installed it? Sorry for asking alot of questions... but I'd like to learn more...

Tom Plunket · Answer

Did my '79 300TD at  last  trick setup, very clean install.  $450 for the parts, $250 forthe labor that I didn't want to deal with.There's a huge new (primary) fuel filter that goes before the prefilter.This filter mount also taps the coolant lines, to heat the fuel as itenters.  From there, the fuel travels into the prefilter, through thepump, and into the place where the primary fuel filter used to be, butthere's another heater there.  That part wigs me out a bit, but a lot ofpeople have this setup and I suppose if you're cleaning your own oil youknow it's not going to have crap in it in the first place.  So thatheater takes the coolant out from the primary filter, and coolant goesback to a tap near the firewall.  Oh yeah, there's another electric fuelpump installed just before the primary filter now too.I live in Southern California.  The temperature ranges from 70 to 70, sorunning pure veggie oil in the tank year-round isn't a problem.  I'malready planning an engine teardown, which...

1999 E300TD any good?

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