While Driving my 1987 300TD today I noticed a rattling noise, it does not change pitch or tone on acceleration and it sounds very much like a piece of plastic tube rolling over a dowel, Later on this evening I traced the sound to the Transmission hump near where the Gear selection lever goes to the transmission. The thing that seems to make this noise less apparent or completely go away is to manually shift the car from the lowest gear until it hits drive. doing this makes the sound disappear or get softer, when it goes away it goes for some time usually most of the Drive. Any ideas on what could be rattling around? I've went and checked the Exhaust system, all the pipes are on the hangers, there is no holes that I could see in the pipes.. Is there anything on the top of the transmission that could rattle like this?

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1987 300TD 311,000M Stolen. Presumed destroyed

Could be item #17 has failed. I had a mind numbing rattle on the SD, replaced that, went away.

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83 SD

84 CD

Thanks! I'll look at that and See if it's loose, It's not a very loud Rattle to the point of being uncomfortable to drive, it's just there and it's repetitious enough to be annoying.

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1987 300TD 311,000M Stolen. Presumed destroyed

It's almost certain to be item #17, the plastic bushing which locates the shift rod in the base of the gearshift lever. Every 8 years or so they get brittle and fall out. The lever will then buzz & rattle at highway speeds.

Good news is the bushing is less than $2. Bad news is it's a surprising pain in the neck to install. Use the search feature to read up on installation techniques.

Get two bushings, there is one at either end of the horizontal shift rod.

there's actually no buzz to it, I think you are on the right track with the shifter mechanism though, It was louder today... It's a hard noise to describe, I'll try to take a Video of it.

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1987 300TD 311,000M Stolen. Presumed destroyed

I figured I would do an Update, I Drove up to the bank, and on the way out from home, I turned a corner and whatever Was rattling around Fell off, now here's the corkie thing.. When I put the car into park it immediately locked into park, Usually my car would roll forwards or backwards depending on how it sat. now it's instant.... Any ideas?

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hum.....
1987 300TD 311,000M Stolen. Presumed destroyed