240D with 4.6 million kilometres on the clock
 

A Greek taxi driver, Gregorios Sachinides, presented the Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart with his trusty cab - a 1976 Mercedes 240D diesel with 4.6 million kilometres on the clock. It took only three motors for it to get to that millage

http://www.worldcarfans.com/classics.cfm/classicID/5040929.001/country/gcf/mercedes/proverbial-longevity-in-4.6-million-kilometers

There is plenty more sources just do a search for the guys name

We all saw it coming :D
Benz sets new world record

Damn, now all those eBay sellers are going to exaggerate their W123s even more. But, damn, that is impressive. The original engine in my 240D only lasted 240k miles.

Startup is when these motors get nearly all of their damage.
 

If you look at any diesel that runs a long time, they are not started up and shutdown a lot. If you look at the traveling this guy did in this world record setting Benz you can see that it did some long runs. These motors are very high compression and very tight even more than most diesels and upon startup when cold they go through a tremendous amount of damage through the expansion and increased friction of cold non-lubricated parts. So probably the reason your diesel gave out early was its lifestyle.

I have this paperback titled "How to make your car last a million miles" by this automotive engineer and he concurs with what you posted above, he stated" 85% of your engine wear occurs on start up--15% of wear after the engine is warm and running down the highway". I have always used those good oil filters with the anti-drainback valves to prevent these dry starts as much as possible. ANymore, if I have to go to a neighborhood store for something, I walk instead of firing up the diesel. Better for me and the motor. :)

I read somewhere on another site (which I cannot find) that the car had 4 engines used in rotation through 11 engine rebuilds which would help explain 2,852,000 miles and 259,300 miles per engine rebuild if my memory is correct :) It's even more amazing that the car seems to not have suffered severe accidents in that time!

It's even more amazing that the car seems to not have suffered severe accidents in that time![/QUOTE]

would you want to hit a 240d with a fiat uno or panda?

What is really amazing is to consider the number of pot holes this car ran through on roads that aren't as good as those here in America. Body integrity is really something on these autos.

DS
87 300D
01 Dakota
Northern Iowa

I'm fairly confident i'm onto something.....
 

iv driven my car now 40,000 miles since i got her......her mileage is today 240,149....

most of the use has been doing pizza deliveries, also a few long cross-country trips.......all since last dec......(a year ago)......

i had been using amsoil in my other cars i had, and my brothers use it in their bikes, so i switched all the fluids......anywas, i just wanted to mention that my motor runs like hell, and the turbo screams loud.......the 70-100 acceleration is sweet......

i am gradually "phasing out" changing it completely, and only doing a quart every 10k miles, and changing the filters then too......as she consumes no oil at all basicly, i think the little bit that escapes around my breather is all thats missing............im going to have an oil analyisis done at 20 k miles on this fill, with one filter change, and see......if its ok, i will continue not changing, under warranty from amsoil, who is confident in their analyis lab......i just read about a mc-cormick diesel tractor in their quarterly magazine, that they send to customers......its been 25 years since an oil change, looked brand new inside, and he added 1 quart per year, and apparently had been using it the whole time.......

i just wanted to throw this into the whole wear discussion......when u take my valve cover off, shes SHINY inside, and clean, other than a little oilyness from the residual amsoil........not a speck of dirty old gunky diesel-ness anymore.....shes recovered from years of oxidizing petroleum gunk, 200,097 miles was on her already, and she'd stood for 2 years when i got this car..........im fairly confident in reaching the million mile zero rollover in this car, with the original turbocharger, cams, and valves......i may change the timing chain sometime, for good measure, but it isnt a priority for me now.......and DEFINATELY, other than going to the Daimler-Benz Museum, this Coupe Diesel Turbo is never leaving my possessioinisn, EVER!

oh yeah, i use their Series 3000 100% Synthetic Heavy Duty Diesel Oil, which has the SAE 5w-30 ratings, winter cold temmperature flow index, and SAE Viscosity, respectively.....this means that the fluids properties are within the performance specs of the motors oiling system......as in the manual, u could'v used lightweight petro oil in super cold, due to the temps staying cooler.....of course, it cant protect it at all in higher temps, because it thins, and the film strength goes to nothing, etc.......so u make up for it with super thick oils......

this fluid is protecting already twice better in wear protection, film strength, and heat transfer, so everything stays cool also, even after racing all over town on delivery, or down the highway, the oil cooler always remains cool now, meaning that the engines parts are getting well lubricated (no heat causing friction) and that shes being constantly kept cool by the cool returning oil, so the oil cooler is actually efficient now........and the engine has much less oil drag now, and the turbo spins up faster, and on the highway really wails, like never at all when i first got her.......also, because of how she fires up instantly, even when its cold out, i know the compression is high.......and thats a given, as amsoil also ends up letting the rings seal better, reducing or eliminating the nasty blow-by.......

what do you guys think.....:huh2:

Wow 11 rewbuilds?? We need to find out who he mechanic is and get him to rebuild all of our engines.

It certainly proves these /8s are durable, but i don't think its a world record. I think the current high-mileage belongs to a guy with a p-18 volvo who has 2 million+ on the same engine with the same bottom end. Not to take anything away from his achievment, but if the guy is only getting 260k miles per rebuild, then Larry Bible could give him some pointers ;) Obviously a durable car and driver, regardless.

Wait, MB exchanged this guys /8 240 for a new benz?!? Poor guy got swindled....:(

cheers,
dan r.

EDIT: Just to tweak ya'll, the p-1800 has a four-banger gas engine!

http://www.germancarfans.com/classics.cfm/classicid/5040929.001/mercedes/1.html

There are some pics, the guy did indeed rotate 3 engines a total of 11 times during the 4.6 million km (2.85 million miles). Thats still about 260k miles per rebuild!

cheers,
dan

Sounds just like the inside of my 617.952 that gets a regular dose of plain 'ol Rotella T.

My W115 does however, get Amsoil. It frequently sits unused and does not accumulate many miles.

Dang, if you ain't gonna drive that thing, you need to sell it back to me.:rolleyes:

I just sent you an E-Mail to egapp on that 190D.

Cheers

To end an argument...
 

Diesel Mercedes Benz cars can last an incredible number of miles, with proper maintenance, and repair.

260k miles for a taxi engine is extremely impressive, I'll bet 90% of those miles are 'in-town' driving... lugging around 4 fat american tourists w/ 12 suitcases, punctuated by extended idling and topped off w/ the cheapest fuel they can find.

"Mr. Sachinidis bought his car in Germany in 1981 with around 220,000 km on the clock, before driving it back to Thessalonica. Here it was in service as a taxi 24 hours a day until July 2004"

thats 23 years divided by 11 engines is approximately 2 years per engine. Figger 8000 hours per year and you get an astonishing 16000 hours per rebuild... that is an insane amount of hours.

i got into an SD taxi in germany that had over 500000 k on the clock. it did have vacuum problems though as the driver had to let off the acc. pedal to shift.
i gave a knowing smile at that, lol.
;)

from what i understand a lot of taxis in germany never get turned off.. when one driver's shift is finished the next driver just jumps in the running vehicle...

I have 385K miles on mine. I wish I knew the total service history, but I don't even have one receipt from the PO.

These cars are the best. I don't know about the /8 but you can still get just about every part for the W123 not including trim so I can see many OM616/617 engines getting 1 mil. plus mileage.

If it was dealer maintained they will have all recpt. Register your vehicle maybe its even avail online? Us germans are always anal about our paperwork.

That is probably why they can get so many kms out of them. No startup wear.

i personally was to the last day of the original MB museum in Untertuerkheim, and saw this car personally, and photographed it........

i will upload the photos.......

damm, i cant upload them, without having to re-size every single one.....

as i already have them uploaded at my "home forum" i will simply post a link (i hope u forum mods dont mind)........

The Last Day of the Original MB Museum -

http://www.pointedthree.com/disc/forums/showthread.php?tid=1563&start=1

Enjoy Guys !!!!

Nice avatar. :rolleyes:

i know right, its perfekt for me......:scholar:

When was this and where is the new museum? My wife and I visited the Unterturkheim [where's the umlaut key on this keyboard???] museum in 1986 and had a great time. All that hand-worked aluminum! The museum was actually closed because of some terrorist threat but they let us in when they learned we were foreigners -- I thought that was nice, and we had the place mostly to ourselves.

We also went for a boat ride on the Neckar, by the way, somehere in the Heidelberg area, I think (it was 20 years ago). Gorgeous scenery.

http://www.pointedthree.com/disc/forums/showthread.php?tid=1563&start=1

the day was March 18 2006

the new one is that looming Silver building shown in my pics, seen at above.....

We had a blurb come out on our MB news e-mail when this car went to Germany. It said the 3 engines were rotated 11 times, but never opened up. Hmmm.. Lost in translation? Seems possible. 1.5m km per motor.
I wonder.
Makes me sad I sold my 76 240D. If I switched jobs and drove for 30years, I might have beat him!
:wacko:

Yep, here's the car and looks like a real beater. Probly seen a few fender benders. Cheap seat covers, crummy paint job and rusty sheet metal. I like how the taxi driver originally bought it used in '81 with already more then 100k miles on the clock. And then drove it from Germany to Greece. Now reclaimed by the Germans and brought back.

Have heard of this before where German buyers are scarfing up lots of Vintage MB's from places like California and then shipping em back to the homeland. Mostly high dollar luxury cars in near perfect condition like 280SE Cabriolets.

http://www.germancarfans.com/classic...001.mini6L.jpg


(edit: banner on the windshield reads "4,600,000 Kilometers" and thats a wreath they've placed on the hood.

Makes us all want to keep these pigs and drive them!/Tom

That's funny you mentioned that. I know two guys who visits my mechanic here in LA every so often and shops around for pre 81 cars and ships them back. A beautiful 220SE cabrio was found in a warehouse was brought into the shop for inspection, repaired and was shipped in time for Christmas last year back "home". The other guy is from the Netherlands....which is where he got the OM616 Unimog in my sig which was there for some fix it stuff.

As for the taxi, I have no idea how many REAL miles are on my W115 so i guess I have only 4,6 million KM to go to be certain :D

DB, we've had europeans in the vintage forum looking for american agents to buy and ship cars to them from here. One guy in Norway bought an american version 1972 108 sedan with the 450 V-8, shipped it to his home sight unseen, said there was nothing like it in europe.

For an OM616/617 its no surprise, out here, in severely abused commercial applications like LCV, people carriers, vans, these engines easily last over 400,000KM, that too with infrequent oil changes of poor quality CD rated Castrol cheapo or worse, air filters are neglected, so is valve adjustment. The light trucks are loaded to 6 tons when their actual capacity is around 3.5tons, the MB tranny and diff still last to 3-40000 KM and that too on potholed roads. No wonder these engines from MB are true legends.

That is interesting. It seems as if 108's around LA can barely sell for $2k and I see many at the junkyards because it doesn't fit anyone's needs. It's sad but I would rather see them shipped overseas, and taken care of rather than be crushed. :(

300D working oon the mileage
 

Just bought my first MB diesel, a 300D (non turbo) had a 260E last year but it got rearended and repair was way more than the value, (cost €600 at the auctions). So back to the 300D, she is a 1995 model with 245000 miles on the clock, and everything works as it should. :D :D Almost silent when running at seventy. Can you imagine a Ford with this milage? would be hanging apart. Now need some alloys to replace the standard steels. Nigel in Ireland.

I guess products like lucas are worth their weight in gold now aren't they.

My old 300D did 800k miles without a rebuild. It was using oil & had a ton of blowby whan it was retired. It only did long trips, >50 miles. Needed a new sump pan & oil pump pick up once ~ hit a rock. In the end it wouldnt start on a cool day.

Chuckle
 

As a 240D owner, I see how addictive they are (if you don't need massive power).

.