'90s Mercedes Gurus? Any here?
 

I bought a 1992ish Mercedes 300TE wagon hanging off the back of a tow truck. 135k KMs (85k miles). It apparently drove in under it's own power, but then it wouldn't start. It turns over and will run for a second or two but that's it. So I am guessing it's fuel related, but I am wondering where to start looking for problems. Is there a common issue on these cars? Thanks! :snail:

PS there is a big dent in the bottom of the fuel tank, I want to think that maybe that has something to do with the pump no being able to pull fuel out of the tank, but if it drove in like that then it seems unlikely that that would do it.

No idea about mercedes specific.

But my troubleshooting side says to get a fuel pressure reading before you try repairs. It is possible that a dent damaged the pump. Also possible that a pissed off ex put sugar in the tank.

People still do that? Pffft, that's so cliché, I mean if you are going to do it, do it right - use creosote. Car runs great until you shut it off and it cools down. Then you need a new car as the pistons are pretty much welded to the cylinders. Or so I have heard ha ha :snail:

Whats the fuel psi? Could be part of the anti theft system. Id rather work on the NA 4 cylinder diesels of the 70s and 80s.:eek:

I'd rather an older Merc diesel as well, but it was $250 so I wasn't going to say no ha ha. :snail:

Id given you 200 bucks to keep it. :eek:

Pop the tank dent out with compressed air, VERY CAREFULLY. Smell the gas in the tank. It will give you an idea of how old it is. My Mercedes experience ended in the mid 80s and the EFI systems are probably totally different.

regards
Mech

Uh oh, are these things bad news or something? I really don't know anything about them, except that the one other one I have owned was the twin of this thing, I paid $1400 and sold it for $3300 - that's all I really needed to know about it ha ha.