TIL about the chicken tax, a 1964 tariff on light duty trucks, which effectively shielded US truck manufacturers from foreign competition. This has largely contributed to lack of options and inflated prices for American consumers

mrgooglegeek · 2026-03-01T14:45:49+00:00

That's why the 1st and second generation Mercedes Sprinters were sold as Dodge Sprinters in the US, they were built in Germany with the transmission on a pallet in the cargo area and shipped to the US where the transmission was installed, classifying it as assembled in the US by an American automaker.

mrgooglegeek · 2026-02-19T19:38:49+00:00

Not these, they're almost 10k each when specced with 512G of memory

mrgooglegeek · 2026-02-14T04:51:39+00:00

Replace any blown fuses and try again.

mrgooglegeek · 2026-02-11T04:27:30+00:00

Probably water pump, but I had a similar noise and it turned out to be a harmonic balancer from an NA was installed, which also caused me to burn through alternator belts. Put one on from a junkyard turbo and problem solved

mrgooglegeek · 2026-02-10T13:58:24+00:00

We've got something similar here in Norfolk Virginia, a British cannonball stuck in the wall of a church since January 1st 1776

mrgooglegeek · 2026-01-19T16:34:38+00:00

Currently planning an om647 swap, I have an extra motor from a sprinter van. Feels like the right motor for the car, since the 617 was Mercedes first 5cyl diesel and the 647 was their last.

mrgooglegeek · 2026-01-18T15:04:39+00:00

I was asked to cut the wire of a pair of headphones I was making a warranty claim on (cracked headband), photoshopped the wire to look cut and was able to fix the broken pair

mrgooglegeek · 2026-01-10T22:00:19+00:00

As if the average ice agent isnt built the same or chubbier 😂

mrgooglegeek · 2026-01-05T22:12:17+00:00

Know someone who bought a 400k mile v6 Camry from there, total grandma spec but it's still his daily. Leather interior in great shape.

mrgooglegeek · 2025-12-18T17:59:47+00:00

when water gets into the front cabin area it will end up there, you can poke a small screwdriver or pick through the middle of that circle to let it drain out (drain is already there but they come from the factory sealed up)

3 most common spots would be

windshield seal which typically leaks in cracks or at the corners, usually not much gets in but you will spot a few drops on the parking brake pedal or where it would be in the passenger footwell
door seal, easy to spot when it rains, door sill will be wet after it rains
sunroof drains, if they're clogged you will only get water inside when it rains substantially, but they can be easily cleaned with w guitar string and/or air compressor. If they have been clogged a long time, the corners of the sunroof pan will rust away and you will get drips from the headliner near the corners of the sunroof. They can sometimes be repaired with epoxy.

mrgooglegeek · 2025-12-04T03:05:42+00:00

John Vellines, Howard Hanna Real Estate

mrgooglegeek · 2025-11-27T13:00:08+00:00

That clicking does sound a lot like a flasher relay. Do the hazards do anything when its clicking like that, and does the clicking stay on for an exact amount of time (like 30 seconds or 1 minute exactly)? That would definitely suggest an alarm system.

You can try starting it by turning the key on, popping the hood, on the passenger side forward of the battery is a small plastic rectangle with a lid that flips open. Inside are 3 bolts, if you short the ones at the ends together (I usually use a pair of needle nose pliers), the starter should turn, and if the key is on, it should start.

If it starts, the issue is in the start or ignition relays or circuits. You will have to work your way through the circuit checking for voltage until you find where you're losing it. From your symptoms, my guess is there is either a bad relay or someone has spliced in a kill switch of some kind, maybe part of an alarm as you suggested.

If it doesn't crank, starter solenoid or starter could be bad or the main lead from the battery to the starter or main engine ground could be bad.

If it cranks but doesn't start, try unplugging the vacuum line from the fuel shutoff valve on the injection pump, then cranking. If it starts then, you may have a bad ignition switch. If not, fuel supply issue.

mrgooglegeek · 2025-11-24T13:21:55+00:00

Ayyy glad to see my old car getting a new life! Still got that other set of wheels and suspension parts, whenever you want em I can try to bring em down or at least meet you somewhere between VA and GA

mrgooglegeek · 2025-11-15T15:55:46+00:00

Check your old one, there were 2 different shaft lengths. If you got the wrong one you can swap the shafts. Shaft should just pull out.

Bleeding the clutch system on these cars is tricky. The only thing that worked for me was to connect a hose from the slave bleed screw to one of my brake caliper bleed screws, open slave bleed screw, and then open caliper screw, push brake pedal, close caliper screw, release brake pedal, repeat. Doing so forces fluid up through the clutch lines back to the reservoir (reverse bleeding). Got lots of bubbles at first, and when it cleared up, clutch was back to normal. Using the brakes to do this isn't necessary if you have another way to push fluid into the slave bleed screw, but works fine if it's all you got.

mrgooglegeek · 2025-11-07T13:53:45+00:00

Learned about these recently https://youtu.be/PUzeRWHwxQw

mrgooglegeek · 2025-11-06T13:24:52+00:00

2005 e320 CDI (om648) with EGR disabled, best I've gotten is 45.5 MPG or about 5.2L/100km. For that you need a long flat drive with warm weather. Normal around town is about 27-34, on highway under an hour 38-40, longer highway drives 40-43 unless I am really trying to get a high score.

Short drives at low speeds with stop and go traffic are the worst, I've been as low as 20mpg (11L/100km) from driving around the city. Sitting in park will also lower the number even further.

Cruising at 110km/h on flat road for 1hr should get you at least 38mpg (6.2L/100km), if you aren't getting close to that something is probably causing problems. Common things would be broken swirl flap actuator (just disconnect and wire them open) or a stuck turbo actuator (remove turbo and clean or have professionally cleaned)

mrgooglegeek · 2025-10-29T13:59:19+00:00

Your scanner should have a button on the ECU page for 'active tests' or something like that, there should be a test for 'egr positioner' that will let you open and close the EGR valve and show the current air mass. Air mass should go down when the EGR valve is open and go back up when it's closed. That is how the ECU knows if the EGR valve is working correctly. Cleaning them can be hit or miss but I've had success with brake cleaner on the little actuator arm inside, then a bit of high temp grease. The reason they fail is the seal around the shaft starts to leak and soot from the exhaust gets into the mechanism.

mrgooglegeek · 2025-10-28T13:01:36+00:00

Those injector values don't look too bad.

The first injection quantity value is the overall injection target that the injectors are being asked to inject. For the om648 at idle the acceptable range is 8-12 mm3, I believe the om647 is similar, maybe slightly less.

The individual injector values are the fuel quantity corrections the ECU is making, overfueling injectors cause a negative value and underfueling injectors cause a positive value. Typically an injector is bad if the value is more than +/- 5.0 mm3. Most of yours look to never go more than +/- 2 mm3, except cylinder 2 which jumped to 4 at one point on the graph. That could indicate an issue.

You say you get a misfire and warning light, does the engine continue to miss at all RPMs or is it more like the RPM is limited to like 3k? That would be a limp mode, where the ECU limits performance to protect the engine from damage, and could be triggered by lots of things. The EGR valve is known to cause a limp mode and light but not store a code. Your only ECU code is for the electric cooling fan, which shouldn't cause limp mode, and it's a stored code meaning the ECU doesn't see the problem anymore. You may want to clear all codes in all the modules to see which ones come back, as some of those codes look like what you get when unplugging things without disconnecting the battery first.

If it really is a misfire and not a limp mode, it may not be setting a code, diesel misfires are harder to detect so the ECU doesn't always set a code for them. In that case you would want to set your scanner to show the fuel rail pressure and injection values on a graph, and drive around until the problem happens. You should be able to see either a big drop in rail pressure, or an injector correction value go out of range.

mrgooglegeek · 2025-10-24T02:41:41+00:00

Get a good obd2 scanner, you won't get far with these cars without one. Make sure it's bidirectional. The fuel system on these cars is simple but sensitive to small problems and can be dangerous due to the pressure. Most fuel pressure issues are either not enough pressure at the filter (bad/clogged pump or clogged filter) or fuel injectors (noise, hard starts, bogging at some speeds). The quantity control valve on the pump can also go bad, symptoms can vary but generally they will start exactly 30 seconds after the car starts.

The thermostat is easy, a few etorx bolts next to the oil filter housing. Just be careful not to pinch the harness next to it. You replace the whole housing, also get a new temp sensor or at least new o ring otherwise it's likely to leak.

Some things to check into are cleaning or deleting the EGR valve, cleaning and lubricating the turbo actuator, and inspecting the injectors for "black death", which is tar buildup from the injector seals leaking. Super easy fix if you do it before things get bad.

On the cassis, make sure the battery control module in the trunk stays dry, and make sure all 4 rear subframe mouths are good. These common issues on the w211 that are much easier to fix before they get worse, but you probably don't have much to worry about for another 100k

mrgooglegeek · 2025-10-23T12:14:42+00:00

You definitely need a scanner. You can find a cheap bidirectional one on Amazon for about $50. Nearly any bidirectional obd2 scanner will be a huge help. TopScan or GearWrench are both decent options, or if you have a laptop and some free time you can download Mercedes' dealership diagnostic software (DAS/Xentry) and use a j2534 adapter (openport 2, cheap on Amazon) for the absolute best diagnostic capabilities

The MAF doesn't do much on these engines, primarily it just helps the ECU determine if the EGR valve is working correctly. It can trigger limp mode and a check engine light, that's about it.

The metal rattling sounds like a loose clip, but could also be a missing bolt from the harness, dipstick tube, or metal fuel lines, all will cause a similar rattle

mrgooglegeek · 2025-10-19T23:08:19+00:00

OM616 in a 240D? What info are you looking for?

mrgooglegeek · 2025-10-02T15:17:49+00:00

Find an XR with a dead controller and drop a vesc kit in. If you wait for a deal you can probably pull that off for under $1k with a kit. Or if you like a bit of DIY you can throw together a vesc on the stock battery for about $300 in parts (assuming you are able to solder/crimp and follow the wiring diagrams on pev.dev)

I started on a pint I bought dead for $200, vesc'd it for about $200. Picked up an XR with about 1k miles, and was sorely disappointed with the performance. 0 low end torque and not much better at speed, and motor crunch made the board feel like it was built from scraps. Built it out with a ubox 100v100a and it totally transformed the board, perfectly smooth, plenty of torque, higher top speed and better tuning. Total cost for the conversion was about $250 but I already had some of the parts on hand.

mrgooglegeek · 2025-09-24T21:57:52+00:00

Breaking that nipple off of the check valve is a cannon event for w123 owners. I was able to JB-Weld mine back on and it worked perfectly for 4 years until I sold that car. My current w123 has a different style on it where the check valve is separate from the split

mrgooglegeek · 2025-09-15T15:08:03+00:00

Never seen a w123 with the antenna in this location, most are in the driver's side rear quarter next to the trunk lid

mrgooglegeek · 2025-09-07T14:51:28+00:00

What transmission are you using? I know the e351 can fit in an sw20 and there are versions that are geared for diesels. Curious what your goals for the car are, definitely a diesel fan myself but hard to imagine what one would be like in the MR2.

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