1963 Mercedes Benz 190DC Fintail. First start of 2025.

[Dyslexic Viking]

After 5 hours, the tow truck arrived and the car was transported to their locked parking lot. And I was dropped off at a hotel. This has become one of the most frustrating days of my life and I have lost all want to drive cars on long trips now.

After thinking about it, I suspect that the Mercedes has a fuel problem. And the plan is to have it transported home.

[hairnet]

approval from tow truck guy or did he not care?

edit which bits of zetor will be stolen to fix merc (kidding)

ikke slå meg

håper det går bra i morgen

[Low Horatio gearbox]

Hold tight.  I remember the first car I bought that was 38 years old (I was 20)  which was then put straight to use going from Bristol to Cornwall  the next day. It was wonderfull till 15 miles from her parents it err broken down.. in roadworks.. late at night.  I had my very first mobile phone and duly called the number and a tow truck turned up within 10 minutes at 10.30 at night.  He duly towed me to the end of the roadworks and deposited me in a layby at 11pm when I made a very pleasing call to my GF  to ask... very, very nicely if her dad wouldnt mind  coming 12 miles in his Disco to give me a tow... please.  She was already utterly thrilled I was already 2 hours late.

 

Anyway he duly turned up half an hour later and  I was towed back to her parent s house.  Next day  cursory investigations revealed I'd  actually run  out of petrol  and that old gauges lie, quite a lot.

[ProgRocker]

Hope the rest of the journey home is as hassle free as it can be. Otherwise, what a fantastic car. Wunderbar! 😃

[Dyslexic Viking]

I am now waiting for a train to take me home and then we will have to organize the collection of the Mercedes and get it home.

[Mally]

It will all come good eventually.

Many of us have had the same problem. We just ring the AA or RAC and get it home for free*

Takes a while, but the saving on fuel often offsets the cost of membership.

Are there such organisations that could be used to your benefit?

I wouldn't want it hanging around in a compound for any length of time.

[Sham]

A shame, but what a car.

Fairly minor issues, you'll get it sorted and then be the envy of all.

[Jim Bell]

8 hours ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

After 5 hours, the tow truck arrived and the car was transported to their locked parking lot. And I was dropped off at a hotel. This has become one of the most frustrating days of my life and I have lost all want to drive cars on long trips now.

After thinking about it, I suspect that the Mercedes has a fuel problem. And the plan is to have it transported home.

Sorry that the day ended less gloriously than it began. It's a very old car that probably has not been driven too far in a while. I'm sure the new day will bring restored enthusiasm. With a little bit of love and tinkering I'm sure it can be made reliable. 

I agree that it's most likely a fuel issue. Id expect an old diesel engine to start on compression alone in high ambient temperatures even if the heat cycle isnt working. Charge the battery, change the filters check the pump etc and I'm sure you'll fall back in love with it once it's running smoothly. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

I'm home so now I just have to wait for Mercedes to do the same.

[Dyslexic Viking]

5 hours ago, Mally said:

It will all come good eventually.

Many of us have had the same problem. We just ring the AA or RAC and get it home for free*

Takes a while, but the saving on fuel often offsets the cost of membership.

Are there such organisations that could be used to your benefit?

I wouldn't want it hanging around in a compound for any length of time.

I have roadside assistance through a Norwegian car club membership and they seem to want to cover the transport of the Mercedes home also.

And I want to get it home as soon as possible as I'm terrified something will happen to it.

[Dyslexic Viking]

5 hours ago, Jim Bell said:

Sorry that the day ended less gloriously than it began. It's a very old car that probably has not been driven too far in a while. I'm sure the new day will bring restored enthusiasm. With a little bit of love and tinkering I'm sure it can be made reliable. 

I agree that it's most likely a fuel issue. Id expect an old diesel engine to start on compression alone in high ambient temperatures even if the heat cycle isnt working. Charge the battery, change the filters check the pump etc and I'm sure you'll fall back in love with it once it's running smoothly. 

I love this car already despite the issues. And I am sure that this will be reliable when I get to work on it fixing it and carry out maintenance and various things.

And I think most of the problems with the car are due to it not being well taken care of in recent years.

But one thing is certain the seller (used car dealer) of the car was not honest. We struggled a lot to get it started and according to him, this had not happened until now, which I immediately realized was a lie. And it was very clear that he didn't know much about cars either and one of the things he did before I bought it was washing it and it has bad gaskets so the boot was full of water. But the car seems solid and that was the main reason why I bought it, even though the seller was clearly lying and there were problems.

[PhilA]

Ok, so it's just cranky from neglect.

Gives it a little bit of love and should start to work properly again. 

Sleep on it, eventually you'll trust it to do a trip like that. That's what it was built for, it'll do it again.

Phil

[Nullzwei]

Some parts appear to be available on autodoc for your heckflosse 190d. Not expensive at all.

Might even be worth asking your local Mercedes Benz main dealer for prices for service items filters, hoses etc.

Wonder if your car has an in-tank metal guaze filter as well as the inline and main fuel filters?

https://www.autodoc.co.uk/spares/mercedes-benz/heckflosse/heckflosse-w110/45643-190-dc

[Jim Bell]

33 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

I love this car already despite the issues. And I am sure that this will be reliable when I get to work on it fixing it and carry out maintenance and various things.

And I think most of the problems with the car are due to it not being well taken care of in recent years.

But one thing is certain the seller (used car dealer) of the car was not honest. We struggled a lot to get it started and according to him, this had not happened until now, which I immediately realized was a lie. And it was very clear that he didn't know much about cars either and one of the things he did before I bought it was washing it and it has bad gaskets so the boot was full of water. But the car seems solid and that was the main reason why I bought it, even though the seller was clearly lying and there were problems.

 

Sounds like a used car dealer. 

[Nibbler]

Fantastic! You will have it up and running in no time! The starting issue can maybe be down to valve clearance. Not uncommon on the OM615 engine. I guess that you have the OM621 engine so i’m only guessing here, but it’s worth a try.

[Dyslexic Viking]

8 minutes ago, Nullzwei said:

Some parts appear to be available on autodoc for your heckflosse 190d. Not expensive at all.

Might even be worth asking your local Mercedes Benz main dealer for prices for service items filters, hoses etc.

Wonder if your car has an in-tank metal guaze filter as well as the inline and main fuel filters?

https://www.autodoc.co.uk/spares/mercedes-benz/heckflosse/heckflosse-w110/45643-190-dc

Yes, I've also have checked around a bit and some like Autodoc still have some parts for these. And have called my local Mercedes dealer and they were also still able to get some parts but also recommended this site to me  https://www.niemoeller.de/en

And according to this site it has no such in tank filter so hope so.

[Dyslexic Viking]

6 minutes ago, Nibbler said:

Fantastic! You will have it up and running in no time! The starting issue can maybe be down to valve clearance. Not uncommon on the OM615 engine. I guess that you have the OM621 engine so i’m only guessing here, but it’s worth a try.

I hope so. And yes this is a possibility so have to look at this as well if i cannot find out what is wrong. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

Have got a message from the tow truck company that has the Mercedes, it is on its way home now. They are 190 km away so it will take a few hours before they are here.

[Bear]

On 8/12/2022 at 5:25 PM, Dyslexic Viking said:

I'm now waiting for a tow truck as I can't get it to start and the battery is almost dead. I'm starting to wonder if the glow system is completely dead. But we'll see. If we get it to start, Than i wonder if I should try to drive all the way home tonight so I don't have to stop the engine anymore. Updates will come.

IME diesels being annoying but not obvious is often air leaks - most recently an A170 CDi which would just decide to misbehave - had bubbles in the line after the filter and it was a perished hose, so you'd prime, run, then get an airlock again.

Of course older diesel engines may be different - but perished flexible lines or pinholed metal lines would be my first points of call - and what a beautiful car to be checking all the bits on! Kjempe-something. søt was cute? I think skummel? was scary? Goths = limited vocab needed. But what fits for "cool"?

[AnnoyingPentium]

How did I miss this thread? What a beautiful big motor.

[Sham]

I'd imagine that much as mentioned above, changing the fuel lines, filters and checking valves and injectors will make a huge amount of difference.

Almost certainly just suffering from a little neglect.

But you had to try to drive it home, no one on here would have done anything differently. 

[Rocket88]

The fact that it got as far as it did is cause for optimism….

[Nullzwei]

Years ago after i had done a service on my w201 190d the engine would not go past a certain amount of revs. Turned out the fuel flow was restricted because i had over tightened the metal fuel filter and the filters rubber seal has distorted restricting the flow of fuel.

From what i can see online the OM621 uses a beautiful alloy fuel filter casting (left of IP in below pic?) with a filter element inside  but it may be worth paying attention to all the filter bodies unions and their torque values.

 

[captain_70s]

Excellent purchase.

It's likely merely grumpy due to lack of use, most cars of this age only get dragged out to the odd car show and suffer from not being driven more.

[Dyslexic Viking]

1 hour ago, RichardK said:

IME diesels being annoying but not obvious is often air leaks - most recently an A170 CDi which would just decide to misbehave - had bubbles in the line after the filter and it was a perished hose, so you'd prime, run, then get an airlock again.

Of course older diesel engines may be different - but perished flexible lines or pinholed metal lines would be my first points of call - and what a beautiful car to be checking all the bits on! Kjempe-something. søt was cute? I think skummel? was scary? Goths = limited vocab needed. But what fits for "cool"?

Thanks for the tip and this is what I also suspect that there are some bad fuel hoses that are letting in air. I've heard this happen before on a truck. My main suspicion is the 2 hoses from the fuel tank to the fuel pipes. As many forget to change these.

And your translation here into Norwegian words is correct but I am unsure about Goths and cool is kul or kult in Norwegian.

[Dyslexic Viking]

1 hour ago, Rocket88 said:

The fact that it got as far as it did is cause for optimism….

Yes it is and especially considering that this is probably the longest it has been driven in years. And it was a heatwave and it has issues so it did well i think.

[Dyslexic Viking]

1 hour ago, Nullzwei said:

From what i can see online the OM621 uses a beautiful alloy fuel filter casting (left of IP in below pic?) with a filter element inside  but it may be worth paying attention to all the filter bodies unions and their torque values.

Yes this is the diesel filter on the left. And there is a filter element inside. And I work a lot on old tractors, so I think I'll be fine, I hope. Just have to be very careful.

 

 

[Dyslexic Viking]

And the truck transporting the Mercedes is here within an hour. The driver has a bad GPS and no sense of direction, so I have struggled a lot with road explanations on the phone.

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, Nullzwei said:

Years ago after i had done a service on my w201 190d the engine would not go past a certain amount of revs. Turned out the fuel flow was restricted because i had over tightened the metal fuel filter and the filters rubber seal has distorted restricting the flow of fuel.

From what i can see online the OM621 uses a beautiful alloy fuel filter casting (left of IP in below pic?) with a filter element inside  but it may be worth paying attention to all the filter bodies unions and their torque values.

 

So is that the same as the engine in yours? It really does look like a mini version of the engine in my old bus which was of the same vintage. Except it never had glow plugs.

Started fine at anything down to about 5°C but less than that it took a lot of churning but would fire eventually one cylinder at a time. Until you got to freezing where I had a convoluted system of a cable attached to the starter switch, draped out of the cab window which I would pull whilst firing a blow torch in to air intake (it had no air filter) whilst operating the throttle with the same hand I was pulling the starter with. A bit complicated but it worked. This was never a problem for London Transport of course as most of their buses lived indoors and only stopped for about four or five hours overnight so never got completely cold. 

Glow plugs is definitely a better system though. 

[horriblemercedes]

47 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

And the truck transporting the Mercedes is here within an hour. The driver has a bad GPS and no sense of direction, so I have struggled a lot with road explanations on the phone.