W210 E300 Turbo Diesel Advice

[oligti6]

Hey, what's on, thought i would sign up on here and ask some opinions if I could, as the title suggests, i am considering a W210 E300 Turbo diesel, saloon i should imagine, but open to the possibly of estate. I would like any and all info or opinions/experience so i could get a good idea of the car, was thinking about a remap also, been quoted 212bhp and 300lb/ft from mapping company, also looked at evolutions map i think it was called, quite fancy beefing the torque up a bit, that's my reason for moving into a big diesel, want a nice auto box, leather seats and lots of torque!


From what i can work out, i am after an avantgarde model, as i want the leather and the black/blue looking wood trims rather than wallnut.

Does anyone have any experience from remaps or tuning these models? not looking for a rocket ship, but a nice bit of pull in gear sort of thing. I was considering also a 530d BMW, which is slightly more powerful and remaps to 245bhp, but the mercedes keeps appealing to me so i want to find more out about it.

All help much appreciated

 

[Brian WH]

Moved to Engine section to attract more replies.

 

[oligti6]

Ahh, i was unsure which section to post it in, thanks

 

[johnsco]

We have two E300TDs.
Had them for about 12 months.
They are a good solid reliable work-horse.
They can certainly be re-mapped and there's torque to spare.
BUT ...
Although they'll go a bit, they are no racing car.
I'm not sure that the auto-trans is up to getting a real hammering ... Both of ours work OK, but they always feel a bit "light-weight" to me.

There are issues with body corrosion and (even-worse) structural-corrosion problems with front-spring perches and rear sub-frames being particularly-vulnerable.

I like them.
You can pick them up at a good price.
They're not too bad to work on.
There's plenty of mileage in them.

If you want a muscle-car, I think that there are better options.

Cheers.
Johnsco

 

[flango]

As much as I love MB their diesels are not in the same league as the other prestige German car manufacturer. I'm not sure a W210 will live up to the reputation you are imagining and share Johnsco's concern about the transmission.

The W210 would be more of a carthorse than a racehorse.

P.S. You can remap a 530d to 285 bhp and 580 Nm torque and a 525d will map to 255 bhp and 510 Nm of torque depending on year and condition of engine.

 

[oligti6]

sounds good, thanks for that reply. i'm not looking for a muscle car, or a racing car to be honest, i want something well built, safe and comfortable, so can get everyone in the car comfortably, do some good distance in it without revving the balls off it etc.
just good useable in gear torque would be nice, and some leather heated seats and auto box, front arm rest is nice too!

Do they come with traction control??

 

[flango]

Do they come with traction control??

530 & 525 do not sure about W210 not had that much experience with them.

 

[oligti6]

As much as I love MB their diesels are not in the same league as the other prestige German car manufacturer. I'm not sure a W210 will live up to the reputation you are imagining and share Johnsco's concern about the transmission.

The W210 would be more of a carthorse than a racehorse.

P.S. You can remap a 530d to 285 bhp and 580 Nm torque and a 525d will map to 255 bhp and 510 Nm of torque depending on year and condition of engine.

i think the 530d you are thinking of is the E60, i would be looking into an E39, biggest remap performance gain i have found was 248bhp and 350lb/ft.
I know at the launch the merc was the quickest diesel but i think that the BMW wasn't around at that time, only the 525tds which was slow and thursty.
Having gone through parkers review on the car, they say the same as you, that the CDi units are more advanced, and the older 300DT would be more for commercial use. thats annoying as i really like the solid feel from mercs, had lots of BMW's, all 3 series, and not keen on them, my C280 Sport was a real beef cake in comparison to E36 328's and changed how i looked at mercs altogether, on the back of that my dad replaced his Z3 with a slk 230k also.
I have a feeling the 5series is a different cup of tea, may have to hold out for a bit longer, i just don't know!

 

[oligti6]

530 & 525 do not sure about W210 not had that much experience with them.

sorry i had posted that a bit late, it was meant for the first reply.
I know the 5series has T/C but wasn't sure about the merc

 

[flango]

i think the 530d you are thinking of is the E60, i would be looking into an E39, biggest remap performance gain i have found was 248bhp and 350lb/ft.
I know at the launch the merc was the quickest diesel but i think that the BMW wasn't around at that time, only the 525tds which was slow and thursty.
Having gone through parkers review on the car, they say the same as you, that the CDi units are more advanced, and the older 300DT would be more for commercial use. thats annoying as i really like the solid feel from mercs, had lots of BMW's, all 3 series, and not keen on them, my C280 Sport was a real beef cake in comparison to E36 328's and changed how i looked at mercs altogether, on the back of that my dad replaced his Z3 with a slk 230k also.
I have a feeling the 5series is a different cup of tea, may have to hold out for a bit longer, i just don't know!

AFAIK the 530d E39 uses the M57D30 engine which as standard produced 184 bhp and the E60 uses a modified version of this engine the M57TUD30 main differences are turbo, injection system and engine management. The engine management on the E60 being a lot more mappable.

My Nephew is the BMW officiado in our familly and him self runs a remapped 530d M SPort E60 running just shy of 300 bhp, wil have a chat to him but I think you will be able to map the E39 past 250 bhp without spending silly money.

 

[Dichtung]

Make sure Glow Plugs have been recently replaced. They have a tendency to seize in, then break when removing is attempted. Then it`s a head off job.

 

[lynall]

I remember servicing an r reg 300td for a mate taking it for a test drive from a standing start press throttle pedal and waiting

I alio changed glow plugs in this car and one was very very tight and i genuinly believed it was going to snap off, i was very lucky that day.




Lynall

 

[johnsco]

Both our E300TDs are slow off the mark from a standing start.
Annoying at roundabouts, etc.
There's that moment of hesitation ... Then ... Whoooooosh !!

Apparently the hesitation is pretty common to all of these cars.
No reason why it should be like this ... But it is.
The previous owner of mine had it from new and complained to MB about it.
The answer was that they all do it.
I wouldn't have thought it was rocket science for those clever MB engineers to sort it

As Flanaia 1 says ... More a cart-horse than a race-horse
I'm not complaining.
They are fine for what I want.

Cheers.
Johnsco

 

[Olivier]

If you do a bit the advance on the IP the car become more responsive. Still a wee lag but it kick in faster.

 

[renault12ts]

I have a 320CDI. It is not slow off the mark. If your reactions are as quick as the next man then you'll beat him. After all it's an auto. Doesn't feel light weight and has loads of torque. You'll get 0-magistrates court in the blink of an eye. Well serviced and hard driven makes for a reliable and enjoyable motor. Had the 300TD previously...loved it. Great fun... no one expects them to be that quick.

 

[oligti6]

thanks for replies, i think the mercedes is still an option definitely, i probably gave the wrong idea about what i meant by tuning, i'm not looking to tune the car for racing around in, just thought about a remap to increase the torque, i'm just looking for a powerful armchair to move about in, i drive relatively slowly due to previous experience with the idiots that are out on the roads, but would want stacks of torque for the auto box to use up as i'm surrounded by steep hills all around my area.
I had considered a CDI model as i ideally wanted a tiptronic gear box, i know the 530d has tiptronic/steptronic but i think the mercs only had that on tiptronic, is that right? cheers again for the replies!

 

[SilverSaloon]

only the facelifted (CDI) cars had tiptronic boxes.

the 606 engine in your car is an older generation diesel engine, so as far as i know tuning possibilities are limited.

 

[poisas]

you cannot compare bmw vs merce w210 and e39, bmw is always few years ahead in technology, do a test drive with bmw 530d even with 135kW engine, it so huge difference D: common rail does the job at low rpm, i find bmw always have more power/economy value, afcource merc has his spirit in the car chick magnet i think my avangarde w210 is sexy a little polish and girls love to fix their hair in reflection
But if i had to choose what car, i would go for 135kW manual BMW, most economical of 530d engines, and lots of extra power..

 

[oligti6]

i do like the BMW for style and increased options as far as power and torque are concerned, but all that matters at the end of the day is the arm chair experience, as long as the merc could pull its weight i would love one.
Couldn't do manual though, would ruin the whole idea of doing more or less nothing behind the wheel haha.

Its been mentioned that the mercedes gearbox (auto) feels like it wouldn't be up to hard work, do you think it would handle increased bhp of 215 and torque of 300lb/ft without giving up instantly? and torque converter etc up to the job?
If anyone knows about BMW automatic gearbox on E39, same question really, would it handle increase bhp of 245 and torque of 350lb/ft?

cheers again

 

[johnsco]

Regarding the auto-trans on the E300TD, it's a complex box which is matched carefully into the characteristics of the car as supplied.
We have two of these and have covered some 35000 miles in the last 12 months.
No problems.
It may be that I'm being unduly-pessimistic, but I just don't get that feeling of confidence that these auto-boxes would stand a real caning.

To put it into perspective, I ran a 1970s Chevy V8 for 7 years with a turbo-hydramatic 350 transmission.
I added a transmission separate oil cooler and I hit it hard for 7 years.
I never felt for one moment that it wouldn't take it.
I sold it on to be a rallye car, with every confidence that it was up to it.

I wish I felt the same about these boxes.
Maybe they'll take it, but "light-weight" is the feeling they give me.

Cheers.
Johnsco