1979–85 Mercedes 300TD Wagons Have One Flaw, But There's a Fix
From the March/April 2025 issue of Car and Driver.
Mercedes-Benz's W123 Generation of mid-size models are a bit like Clark Kent before he dons the red cape: a tad dweeby but seemingly indestructible. But like the Man of Steel, the W123 has one weakness, and it's not a green mineral from Krypton but the unctuous and sophisticated self-leveling dampers fit to the rear of 1979–85 300TD wagons. The hydraulically operated setup eventually fails, leaving the W123 longroof's rear sagging worse than the poorly tailored khakis of the bespectacled Daily Planet reporter from Smallville.
Sadly, the necessary replacement parts are no longer in production, so reraising and retaining the wagon's hind dampers is a seemingly hopeless endeavor.
Fortunately for obsessive wagonistas, 38-year-old vintage-Benz fanatic Andrew Villaseñor has created a cottage industry in central California, where he rebuilds about 20 seeping dampers per month. Why bother pursuing such a repair when there's the option of replacing the complex system with the run-of-the-mill rear end of other W123 variants? Because doing so would run counter to Mercedes's 20th-century ethos of maniacal overengineering.
The self-leveling suspension "compensates for load and brings the ride height of the car to a safe level so you can drive at autobahn speeds," Villaseñor says. As if achieving triple-digit speeds in a 40-something-year-old turbo-diesel wagon is somehow requisite.
Perfecting the high-pressure rebuild required iteration. "We kept breaking tools," Villaseñor says. He also suffered initial quality issues when he commissioned an Indian company to supply remanufactured sets of the setup's archaic two-piece seals. Eventually, he switched to an American supplier capable of producing a bespoke and modern rubber one-piece seal.
Villaseñor is the rare W123-wagon self-leveling-suspension rebuilder (if not the only one) to offer his parts on an exchange program. When a customer orders a pair of remanufactured dampers for $1100, Villaseñor includes a prepaid return label. If the buyer sends back old, oozing parts, Villaseñor issues up to a $500 refund. He can then rebuild those worn components for future sale. "That keeps the whole cycle going," he says.
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