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.