E300 Diesel poor performance

[eugene.mcnally@tiscali.co]

Hi, I have recently purchased a 1996 E300D, W210. the car is very sluggish from a standing start and when accelerating but has a good top speed. Is this normal or is there anything that can be done to improve performance? The car has covered 116k miles. It is also a bit lumpy when changing up from 1st to 2nd, 3rd and 4th are fine and changing down the gears are fine { Auto box }

 

[bigshineybike]

Is there anything can be done?
My 300 deisel multivalve is slow to pick up speed My feeling is that its down to a lazy gearbox.
can these be adjusted?
I have only taken it to one garage so far, their opinion was that at 250,000 miles the gearbox needs a full rebuild anyway.
From the service history the tranmission oil is 100,000 miles old.
I have been told this is a dealer job.
How true is that?

 

[Bolide]

The OM 606 non-turbo engine is pretty sluggish - it doesn't have enough torque even when the engine is new. As the engine wears & loses compression the torque drops off even more. These engine have 24 valves so there are lots of opportunities to lose compression

The best ways to improve the car will be to replace the air filter, clean the EGR & inlet manifold and adjust the throttle & kickdown cables. Finally, make sure that when the accelerator is on the floor the throttle* is wide open

If it's a turbo car go looking for split hoses, leaks & etc

* There's no throttle in the petrol car sense so make sure the linkage on the IP reaches the end stop

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk