Can anyone help me with my 1989 300E

It may be a tming chain tensioner rattle, a sticky lifter, or a worn cam lobe. None of them terminal.

Bill Ditmire Ditmire Motorworks,Inc.

You clearly drive the car very little. If I leave my 300e parked for a while I also hear tapping noise before the oil has circulated sufficiently, usually less than a minute or so. My car now has been doing this for a long time and it has now 250k km on it

hope this helps to put your mind at ease

guenter

If this engine suffers from anything, its from not being driven. The noise will disappear after a 100 mile highway run, don't worry about it. These are robust engines and 120K miles is its half life. Your "friend" has given you poor advice, IMHO.

When an engine gets marginal it usually is burning oil, misfiring and has poor power. A compression test is used to confirm a mechanic's hypothesis of what may be wrong before any bolts, covers and manifolds are removed.

Drive it and be happy you own a nice car.

I have to agree with this...I just bought a 1986 300e of my mother's best friend. Her mother, who is elderly, purchased the car and 1986 and rarely drove it. I only has 24,000 miles on it. Fortunatley they were always careful in starting the car and running it so it did not sit for any long periods of time.

When I picked up the car, it idled rough and the engine vibrated alot. I think that my mom's friend, well intentioned, filled the car up regular unleaded thinking she was giving me a full tank of gas with my purchase. To be on the safe side I took the regular out and filled the car up with premium gas and had an oil change. I also drove it to my parents house which is about 60 miles away, all highway driving. The car idles as smooth as can be, you could probably balance a nickel on edge on the hood while it is in park.

Thank you for all the help!!! I really appreciate it! My dad said we will take the 300 up to my relatives for Christmas Day, about 80 miles each way.

-Thanks-Merry Christmas

Bill,

the last one *is*, if waited too long. I did wait and had to do the head job

- there were two bent valve stems. The reason was that the lifter got two strokes instead of one and got filled too much. So the valve(s) got pushed deeper and deeper into the cylinder until the piston started hammering the valve(s). As the hammering was quite light the sound got lost in the overall engine noise. The engine lost power at low revs and started to collect residue onto the spark plug. So the engine needed quite a lot in addition to the valve stems gaskets we started to replace at first - new camshaft etc.

Helar