Tuesday, August 13, 2013

200,000!

A big day for my 1984 190D last week:



200,000 miles. When I bought the car it had just over 165,000 and a "broken timing chain". It turns out the timing chain wasn't broken, the timing chain cover was broken. Fred gave me a new timing chain cover and we were on our way. I've found this car to have a lot of deferred maintenance, which is probably how the timing chain cover got broken. The serpentine belt tensioner lives on the timing chain cover and the bearing in the tensioner dries out and starts to make noise. Ignore that noise and it rips the cover apart like on my car.

I also found a dead rear shock and a missing rear shock. From the looks of things the passenger side rear shock broke loose from its lower mount and thrashed around in the wheel well. Rather than replacing it the previous owner just removed it. Fortunately for me he was kind enough to put the bolt back. The first time I drove the car the rear end literally hopped around corners, it was a harrowing way to drive. Lucky for me rear shocks are very easy to replace.

I've had this car for about 3 years now and its been an interesting time, including 3 alternators and now a battery. With any amount of luck we'll have another 3 years and many more miles together.