Monday this week, I left my house for a 3 day work trip. i drove my 87 300D to a park n ride to ride the work van to Rockford, Illinois.

At my hotel that night i couldn't find my car key. I searched the van the next day and came up blank.

I called my wife and asked her to go to the park n ride and see if i left the key in the car.

She called me the next morning, she said there was a note from the Greenfield Police department. I left the car running!

When i got back to Milwaukee, i picked up my key. I parked my car 10:30 AM Monday. At 5 PM Tuesday they got a call from a concerned commuter that a car was running all day. At 6:30 Pm a deputy arrived and shut off my car.

My car idled for 32 hours!!!

I am lucky on so many levels.
I still have a car.
My cooling system is in good working order.

When i got in it, it started right up, but when i first pushed the pedal down, you should have seen the black cloud behind it!

So how much fuel do you think I used?

I filled up the car on the way to work, after 32 hours of idling, just over half a tank left.

__________________
1959 Gravely LI, 1963 Gravely L8, 1973 Gravely C12
1982 380SL
1978 450 SEL 6.9 euro restoration at 63% and climbing
1987 300 D
2005 CDI European Delivery
2006 CDI Handed down to daughter
2007 GL CDI. Wifes

change your oil as soon as you can...

__________________
John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Crazy. You've got good people around there. Consider yourself lucky. Buy a lottery ticket. Take the vehicle out for a good hard drive and agree with changing the oil.

__________________
92 300D 2.5L OM602 OBK #59

An idling Mercedes is the devil's workshop.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Talk about lucky! You didn't even run out of gas and have to prime the fuel system.

__________________
'82 300SD - Somewhere over 220k - Becoming reliable...

Yes, change the oil and take it on an Italian tune-up. Also Id do a diesel purge and run adds regularly for the foreseeable future.

I would just go about changing all fluids for the sake of preventive care... Its just smart just in case.

__________________
Current Diesels:
1981 240D (73K)
1982 300CD (169k)
1985 190D (169k)
1991 350SD (116k)
1991 350SD (206k)
1991 300D (228k)
1996 Dodge Ram CTD (442k)
1996 Dodge Ram CTD (267k)

Past Diesels:
1983 300D (228K), 1985 300D (233K), 1993 300D 2.5T (338k), 1993 300SD (291k)

Don't worry to much, a few years back we lost power for 11 days and I kept the house powered with the 240D and the 300D. I think its was around 8 days of idling with the 240D and 3 for the 300D , and I've seen no adverse effects.

__________________
1998 Mercedes E300TD

1983 Mercedes 240D Turbo, 131bar injectors, Cosworth intercooler and 63' Ford Falcon radiator, Ardic Parking heater, Headlight wipers, Best 38.6mpg.

1973 Saab 96 Rally Car, 1.8l V4 with all the race bits

From just random info I've come across, a lot of the 123's are in use as taxi's, and that equals a lot of idling time. And didn't a taxi set the mileage record?

__________________
1985 300D-189k The 'UD', Ivory and Pinkamino
1979 300D-211k Dark Gray, Parchment
A 1980 Harley-~166k and
A 1994 Ford diesel pickup-349k and
A 1990 gasser Volvo wagon-145k

Oil change, there will be a lot of condensed fuel and moisture in the oil.

Other than that, give it a nice highway cruise, get it up to temp for a half hour if you can, and a couple of good full-throttle runs up the entrance ramp or "Italian Tune-Up".

It'll be fine.

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

I think before working on the car you need to get a normal 8 hours of sleep! How can you walk away from a running car and not realize it?

Your car probably used around 11-13 gallons of fuel roughly....

__________________
-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)