MBDiesel.net - An Owner's Journey

It would appear I'm rather terrible about updating, but at least I'm still averaging about one new posting per month.

Let's see, what's happened recently...

• Oil changes
• Front pads and rotors on the 240D (complete with two broken tools)
• Fixed some other minor - but long-standing - issues
• The Mitty!

Donna and I went to this year's Mitty races at Road Atlanta, and it was a great time. We hung out with some old friends and made new ones, and generally had a great time.

Yup, that's Donna and her 240D running a couple parade laps around Road Atlanta. Thing is, with all the hills on that track, a parade lap in a 240D isn't much of a parade, but an all-out race to stay in position and not drag behind the car in front of you, or ruin the fun for the guy behind you!

Donna lucked out and was able to take laps on Saturday and Sunday. All the pictures I shot are from Saturday's laps and can be seen here. Our good friend Thomas also got some great shots from that run. They are uploaded here.

Moving backwards on the list, the 240D shed it's A/C belt a few months ago, and I resolved that when I replaced all the v-belts at it's last oil change. Donna is finally driving her car with a lighter foot, and has even managed to eke out a solid 27 miles per gallon. That's much better than her usual 22! She rolled over 300,000 miles a couple weeks ago.

On the wagon, I sorted out a few niggling electrical issues - backwards console window switch operation for left rear window was the big one. It's been that way since I've owned the car! And I can't believe that I didn't bother to fix it when I had the entire console apart for the manual transmission conversion...

Speaking of, I finally adjusted the shift rods to put the shifter in proper position. I had the lengths lined up perfectly so the gates were smooth, but the shifter throw was simply too far forward. An energetic shift into 1st gear often meant knuckles interfering with the ACC2 panel. I can't believe I waited that long to fix that, either.

I fired up the 280S at the shop this past Thursday and took her for a few runs up and down the street. As soon as she had fuel in the carb, she fired right up. No severe grumpiness from sitting was evident, but she does have a fuel line or two that needs to be cinched up a little tighter.

That's pretty much all the news that's fit to print around here!