I am so lucky to work near a mechanic who specializes in old Mercedes cars, both diesel and gas.
Doug the mechanic is an ex-corporate warrior- - did he say he'd worked for the B and O Railroad?-- who regularly rolls up his sleeves in his venerable auto repair space on South Central Ave in Baltimore. The shop is about 10 blocks from the water front, on a wide but neglected thoroughfare that shoots from the ghetto to the financial highrises of Harbor East. He says he hears me gun my engine past his shop in the mornings, and that the Mercedes 240 D is "about a perfect car."
Today's trip to the shop was necessitated by a strange smell that happened after I'd been driving for about 15 min-- my car was smoking, but none of the gauges showed anything wrong. Turned out my air conditioning condenser had "seized" and metal shards were shearing off on one of the belts. Doug removed a belt that was causing the condenser to spin needlessly. Needlessly, in that it is November and I don't need air conditioning.
I ended up paying $140.00 and some change for the belt removal and an oil change.
He pointed out that my fuel filters were looking a little brown and I mentioned my intention to get on the Co op biodiesel 50% mix for the winter.
