Current Statistics

CURRENT STATISTICS
MAY 6, 2006 THROUGH OCTOBER 30, 2006
Miles Driven to Date: 3,158 miles
Miles Driven per Day: 17.84
Average Distance per Tank: 287 miles
Total Fuel Cost to Date: $420.97
Average Fuel Cost: $3.009
Fuel Cost per Mile: $0.133
Total Maintenance Cost: $2,528.61
Maintenance Cost per Mile: $0.801
Average Miles per Gallon: 22.81

Diesel Fill-up October 10, 2006

OK, I filled up on diesel No. 2 fuel again. Every time I have a problem with Charlie 240, I make the sweeping and inaccurate assessment that biodiesel is to blame. Charlie was having starting problems. No, ordinary diesel fuel did not solve the problems. After a trip to Jim's Fine Car Service to replace the glow plugs (and all three belts as long as we were there), Charlie is running fine again. So . . . here are the latest statistics for the non-biodiesel fill-up.

Efficiency summary:
325 miles of in-town driving

General conditions: in-town with various passenger loads, mostly to and from work

October 10, 2006 Diesel No. 2 Fill-up in Albuquerque
15.28 Gallons @$2.459 per gallon = $37.57
325 miles @ 21.27 MPG - city driving

Maintenance
1. Replace (4) glow plugs
2. Replace (3) belts

New Mexico push for Biodiesel

New Mexico - Governor Richardson is set to unveil a new energy package to include a 6-cent-per-gallon tax credit to gas stations that distribute biodiesel, a one-time tax credit of 30 percent of the cost to install tanks and pumps necessary to distribute the biodiesel fuel, and a push to make every gallon of diesel fuel sold in New Mexico 20 percent soybean oil or ingredients from another crop by 2020.

The 240D has a name!

I have never been able to name a car. Something in me cringes at the concept. I have had a series of vehicles with lots of character, all of which deserved a name but none of which received one. Until now, that is. In the Mercedes 123 community there is a driving force (no pun intended) to name your 123 chassis.

For a while now my wife, Sue, has called our 240D the Grandpa Mobile. It was owned exclusively by the grandfather of the person who sold us the vehicle, it is light ivory in color, it is slow and deliberate, it has MANY miles on it, and it smokes a little. While this will sound trite, the name came to me in a daydream.

Why not name the car after my grandfather? Traditionally, vehicles of all kinds are named with female names, but this car is definitely male in character. My grandfather's full name is Charles Frank Haas, but the 240D will be known affectionately as Charlie. Here is one more similarity; the 240D has a great stereo (see previous posts) and my grandfather was musically inclined - he was a trombone player in the Hull House Boy's Band (along with Benny Goodman) in the early 1900's in Chicago!

Front View Modifications

Here is a photo of the front that shows the new diamond-cut headlights and the smoked corner lights - neater appearance and a little more modern without changing the essential character of the beast.

Radio Head Unit

Here is a photo of the radio head unit as promised in a previous entry.

Bio-diesel Fill-up September 25, 2006

Efficiency summary:
334 miles of in-town driving

General conditions: in-town with various passenger loads, mostly to and from work

September 25, 2006 B20 Bio-diesel Fill-up in Albuquerque
15.52 Gallons @$3.099 per gallon = $48.11
334 miles @ 21.51 MPG - city/highway driving

MAINTENANCE
During September, the speedometer cable started whining above 20 MPH; i.e., every time the car accelerated from idle. Of course, a trip to Jim's Fine Car Service took care of the problem. While there we fixed several additional problems.
1. Speedometer removal and repair
2. Driver door - replace check strap and door handle
3. Replace burned circuit board on secondary gauge cluster - idiot lights work now!
4. Replace single hole passenger washer nozzle with dual hole model - nice update
5. Replace shift bushing - no more buzzing from the shifter
6. Replace idle cable - now the idle can be adjusted in the cabin - manual control is great
I noticed that Mickey gave me over a 10% discount on both parts and labor again - thanks, Mickey!

Bio-diesel Fill-up August 21, 2006

Efficiency summary:
300 miles of in-town driving

General conditions: in-town with various passenger loads

August 21, 2006 B20 Bio-diesel Fill-up in Albuquerque
14.72 Gallons @$3.26 per gallon = $48.00
307 miles @ 20.86 MPG - city/highway driving

Bio-diesel Fill-up July 11, 2006

I received and installed the smoked corner lamps that help to unify the front end of the 240D. They look marvelous with the new h4 headlights, but fitting them proved problematic due to the not-quite-right lamp socket. I reused the socket from the original corner lamps and that worked great.

The ordinary diesel fuel experiment showed no improvement in fuel economy. I am glad about this because I can now run bio-diesel without worrying about reduced fuel consumption. I recently read that the 240D gets 32 MPG on the highway at 55 MPH and 23 MPG at 75 MPH (the speed limit all across New Mexico), so I am actually getting the appropriate fuel mileage. Since the engine is barely broken in, the mileage figure should improve as the engine ages.

Efficiency summary:
160 mile round-trip to Socorro to create the final punch list for Cramer Hall at New Mexico Tech plus a little less than 150 miles of in-town driving

General conditions: driver and three passengers, 75 MPH highway driving and in-town with various passenger loads

July 11, 2006 B20 Bio-diesel Fill-up in Albuquerque
13.58 Gallons @$3.19 per gallon = $43.45
306 miles @ 22.53 MPG - city/highway driving

The Return of the ML320

We have been driving the 240D as our only vehicle for the last month due to the absense of our other Mercedes, the ML320. The ML was in an unfortunate collision at a stoplight - we were stopped, but a truck in a lane to the left rear-ended another truck and side-swiped the ML. With the return of the ML, we still will use the 240D for almost all of our about-town errands, but Sue and I have concluded that the 240D would be torturous on a vacation since it will not maintain a steady 75 MPH on the highway in our mountainous part of the USA.

Diesel Fill Up June 27, 2006

I need to answer a question for myself before I continue to fill up on Bio-diesel. Please note - I will continue to fill up on Bio-diesel after this tank. Is Bio-diesel the cause of the decreased mileage I am achieving, or is there another factor? To answer this, I had to fill up on, sorry to say, regular grade diesel fuel for this tank. Is this a cop-out or an experiment? I'm not sure, to tell the truth.

Other items of note with the 240D:

I love the new stereo head unit and speakers - photos to follow. I can add up to 17 ablums on one CD using MP3 formatting. I currently have two CD's in the car with 32 albums between them! There are four 2-way speakers now in the car that sound great. I feel that, to play loud modern music, I will need a sub-woofer at some point. I miss the bass that the ML320 develops (it has a sub-woofer under the driver seat).

I just installed "diamond cut" headlights that fit right into the space vacated by the old yellow-cast 7" sealed beam units. Wow, the 85W H-4 lamps emit a white light that really illuminates the road.

Efficiency summary: 160 mile round-trip to Socorro to create the punch list for Cramer Hall at New Mexico Tech plus around 120 miles of in-town driving

General conditions: driver and two passengers, 75 MPH highway driving and in-town with various passenger loads

June 27, 2006 Diesel Fill-up in Albuquerque
13.45 Gallons @$2.93 per gallon = $39.40
286 miles @ 21.26 MPG - city/highway driving

Bio-diesel Fill-up June 19, 2006

Here are the latest stats for the 240D. The mileage figure is slowly climbing. I thought about buying regular diesel as bio-diesel is up to $3.09 per gallon, but stuck to my initial goal of running bio. Mickey at Jim's Fine Car Service finally received and installed my ignition lock (keyed to the serial number) along with the new glass insert for the passenger mirror housing that was installed at the end of the last visit.

General impressions:
The car is very slow with the air conditioning on, but less so with the A/C off. The new radio/CD is great and is keeping us entertained on our slow sojourn. The sunroof is a fabulous feature and provides lots of New Mexico sunshine without blowing the passenger cabin around. The brakes seem solid and the new pads and rotors provide great stopping, even without anti-lock.

We were almost hit on our return from Belen last Saturday at a poorly planned traffic merge on the Interstate. Luckily, the errent Ford Focus decided at the last minute to veer slightly away since I was boxed in at the front, rear and the side!

Efficiency summary:
60 mile round-trip to Belen to see the Mopar Club annual show at Auge's Chrysler Dodge Jeep dealership plus a little less than 300 miles of in-town driving

General conditions: driver and three passengers, 75 MPH highway driving and in-town with various passenger loads

June 19, 2006 B20 Bio-diesel Fill-up in Albuquerque
14.35 Gallons @$3.09 per gallon = $44.50
344 miles @ 23.34 MPG - city/highway driving

Bio-diesel Fill-up June 09, 2006

150 mile, bi-weekly trip to Socorro to visit the Cramer Hall job site at New Mexico Tech plus 55 miles of in-town driving

General conditions: driver and three passengers, 75 MPH highway driving

June 9, 2006 B20 Bio-diesel Fill-up in Albuquerque
9.533 Gallons @$2.97 per gallon = $28.40
205 miles @ 22.55 MPG - city/highway driving

First BioDiesel Tank!

Unitl I learn to make BioDiesel fuel, I have purchased my first tank from the Ever-Ready Oil Company.

Here is a Shameless Plug:
Ever-Ready Oil Company
1200 1st Street
Albuquerque, NM 87102
M-F 8-5pm Sat 9-2pm

Here are the fill-up statistics to date:

June 6, 2006 B20 Biodiesel Fill-up in Albuquerque
13.397 Gallons @$2.97 per gallon = $39.79
271 miles @ 20.23 MPG - all city driving

May 7, 2006 Diesel Fill-up in Albuquerque
11.272 Gallons @$2.79 per gallon = $31.55
305 miles @ 27.06 MPG - highway driving

May 7, 2006 Diesel Fill-up in Flagstaff
6.546 Gallons @$3.39 per gallon = $22.25
164 miles @ 25.05 MPG - highway driving

May 6, 2006 Diesel Fill-up in Phoenix
12.247 Gallons @$3.09 per gallon = $37.95
309 miles @ 25.23 MPG - city/highway driving

OK, I was expecting better mileage but, to be fair, our new baby was in the shop for two weeks during the duration of this tank-full, continuously being moved around every day and basically getting 0 MPG. I did get 25 MPG on the highway during the trip from Phoenix before the new tires, suspension, glow plugs, etc., so I think that this mileage figure should be closer to the expected norm.

In the Driveway

Poor quality photo of the 240D taken from the street with my new camera phone

Released to Drive!

Here is a photo of Mickey Hollingshead at his command post at the repair facility. Our "new" Benz is out of the shop. After being administered to by Mickey and his skilled cadre of assistants at Jim's Fine Car Service, she is rolling on the streets of Albuquerque. Last Friday was her release day and she has been driven every day since then. She took Adam, Sue and me to dinner at Yen Ching on Saturday evening. She took Siku, Sue and me around town on errands and to Christine's 20th birthday party on Monday. Here is a rough list of the improvements to the 240D:
01. New tires all around with the best old one becoming a spare
02. Replacement wheel for the one damaged by the dust devil
03. New front control arms
04. New brake pads and rotors all around
05. Replacement radiator, hoses and fluids
06. New ignition switch so that one key will fit all locks (previous replacement not by VIN)
07. Replacement rear dome light (was missing!)
08. Replacement sunroof switch (previous one was sticking)
09. Passenger side mirror (this 240D did not come with one standard)
10. New Potentiometer to reactivate dash lights
11. Thorough wash job and continued scrubbing of interior

Jim's Fine Car Service

Mickey Hollingshead owns Jim's Fine Car Service, which is located off of San Mateo in Albuquerque. He took the new car into his shop on May 9, and is diligently working to adjust the 240D to my requirements. Because of the dust devil that hit us in Arizona, the Mercedes needs a replacement wheel and a wheel alignment. Mickey recommended new tires all around, and I agreed.

The car came without a rear dome light, so Mickey ordered one. It needed new glow plugs. It needed new brake pads. There was a leak in the transmission that Mickey is chasing down. Finally, it needed a key issue solved; the previous owner had replaced the ignition switch with one that did not match the other locks and he did not provide me with a door key, so I could not lock the vehicle! Mickey has ordered a new ignition switch that is based on the VIN, so hopefully the new key that comes with it will provide me with locking capabilities.

I have spent the last week and this week without my new vehicle, a very difficult proposition for me since my other Mercedes was damaged in a collision last week; it is drivable, but looks rather bad on the driver side thanks to a Toyota pickup that slammed into another Toyota pickup and then slid into my driver side and burst into flame (I thought this only happened in the movies!). Mickey said that he may be done with the new Benz at the end of this week.

Out of Phoenix - the minor disaster

Rob and Frankie spent the night gallivanting around Scottsdale and Tempe with Niece Christine's friend Jen, who showed the young men all the sights. In the morning, around 8:00 Phoenix time, we left the hotel, Rob driving the 240D and me driving the ML320, and traveled the steep grade back up into Flagstaff. The poor 240D labored, sometimes only achieving 30 mph at very steep inclines. In Flagstaff, we ate at Coco's Restaurant and had a grand time. After the meal, we left for the four hour drive to Albuquerque.

Between Flagstaff and Gallup we ran into a series of dust devils, one of which had about twenty tumbleweeds in the cone. one tumbleweed left the passenger front wheel of the 240D bent! The photo here is not the actual dust devil (since I didn't bring my camera). We saw another dust devil around a trailer park development that was carrying a 4x8 sheet of plywood or a door within the cone. I am glad that we didn't run into that one!

We made it back home to Albuquerque around 6:15 pm Sunday evening and were very tired.

In Phoenix

I can't believe that I didn't take a camera with me on this trip! We arrived in Scottsdale and the Mercedes was exactly where the previous owner said it would be. The key was under the passenger mat. She started right up and I drove her around the shopping center parking lot to get a feel for the vehicle. After that, Rob took over driving the 240D and we headed for the Scottsdale Country Inn and Suites. After check-in, Sue, Siku and I relaxed in our suite while Rob and Frankie took off to explore the town in the ML320. I didn't want Rob to drive the 240D because if he were in a fender-bender the car would probably be totaled, and that would not be fair to him. I drove the 240D around Scottsdale later in the afternoon to enjoy the new ride. Now, 240D's are not the swiftest vehicles on the planet, but that is good in Scottsdale since they have cameras that catch speeders - even radar detectors are useless in that town!

The Journey to Phoenix

We left Albuquerque early on Saturday morning, about 6:15 am. The participants in our adventure included Nephew Rob, his friend Frankie, our American Eskimo dog Siku, Sue and myself in the ML320.

After a food stop in Gallup around 8:30, we travelled into Arizona. During the trip, Rob expressed an interest in visiting the Barringer Meteor Crater. The weather was beautiful, about 68° F, so we decided to stop on our way to Phoenix. I had not been there since I was in high school, so was equally excited. While "the boys" traversed the rim of the crater, Siku received admiring comments in the shade of the entry canopy, Sue at her side.

I had forgotten about the steep grade between Flagstaff and Phoenix. Basically, the two towns are about 5,000 feet different in elevation. Down we went to Phoenix with me fretting about whether the 240D would actually be where it was supposed to be and whether it would make it back up the slope on our return trip.

On picking up our Benz

We had a pleasant weekend in beautiful, if somewhat warm, Phoenix (Nephew Rob is in LOVE with the town).
We had arranged to pick up the new 240D on Saturday, May 6, 2006. We received a call from the current owner the week prior to pick-up saying that he would be out of town due to his step-fathers illness, but he would arrange for a friend to get the car to us. I could not believe the arrangements, but agreed to them anyway. His friend was to leave the car at the north side of a Mobil gas station at Tatum and Thunderbird Roads on Saturday morning, and we would find the keys under the passenger seat mat! Needless to say, there was some concern about reaching the car quickly.

BioDiesel Albuquerque Blog!

GOODBYE AUTO OBSESSION BLOG - HELLO BIODIESEL ALBUQUERQUE BLOG
A new era has arrived at this blog site that will serve as a major turn of events. The first post last July complained about gas prices, around $2.19 at that time. They are now at $2.99 per gallon! With the Patrol sold to a wonderful Nissan Tech in Georgia, we determined to purchase a fuel efficient vehicle.

We wanted to purchase a Mercedes vintage diesel. The great debate was whether to buy an early S-Class, a 300 TD wagon, or a lowly but miserly 240D. Lowly and miserly won out over style and size. Yes, here is our new old girl, a 1980 Mercedes Benz 240D as photographed by the previous owner. She won our hearts by being a Grandpa car from California with a new crate diesel engine. She was living in Phoenix with the grandson of the original owner. Light Ivory in color with a palomino interior, we drove her back from Phoenix on the weekend of May 6, 2006.

Patrol Sold

I have sold my beautiful old girl, the '67 Patrol. She will be missed.