My "new" daily - 1987 Benz

[UtahUtes]

Outstanding. Keep the updates coming. Once you get the little wiggles sorted it should be a fine daily.

[cadillacdude1975]

another thing to be really careful with is the oil pan. the plug is more than an inch long and the pan will split if the plug is put in too tight.

[OldGreyBeast]

She is a diesel, and she does have oil everywhere lol. It looks like it's seeping more than leaking. The hardbody always has a wet spot underneath it. I took the splash guard off the bottom of this one for a few days and haven't seen a drop yet, but it's definitely got oil all over the engine.

Someone's right buggered the oilpan in the past. It's been welded up from damage. I'll keep that in mind about the plug though. Someone stripped the 13mm head and welded a 23mm nut to it, so there's definitely room to get way more leverage than someone needs. I tend to go pretty easy on drain plugs myself but I'll make a note of it just in case.

I've been fiddling with the transmission control systems a bit. 4th gear doesn't work very well. Tends to do what Benz owners call "flaring" where it sortof slips in and out of gear. 1,2,3 seem to work fine, but the shifting is really hard. From what I've read both of these problems are symptoms of either a vacuum leak or misadjustment of the vacuum modulator on the transmission.

The previous owner had taken it somewhere to have the transmission fiddled with. That guy's solution was to adjust the transmission so that it shifted at 4-5k (5k is redline). Doing this meant that generally only 1,2,3 would be used. I guess he did that to "fix" the 4th gear problem. I can see why they quit driving it though, as it was real annoying to have to floor it to get it to change gears. I've got it shifting at about 3k right now and generally just keep the shifter on 3 instead of D.

[OldGreyBeast]

Replaced some of the fuel hose (it was in bad shape) and both fuel filters today. She killed over on me Sunday because of the filter being clogged. I got it running and limped it home. Bought 2 extra of each type of filter so I can keep those in the car and replace them again if/when it re-clogs. I'm sure it's got all sorts of crap in it since it sat so long.

[OldGreyBeast]

[cadillacdude1975]

do yourself a favor......change the oil every 7500 miles. it wont kill a diesel. we run our in town tractors for 12000 miles, and every service they get a fuel filter. so yeah, id change the filter at least every 10k. be sure to use a fuel treatment every now and then.

[OldGreyBeast]

Thanks caddy. I was planning on 6k, have heard of people on the Benz forums going 9k+

I've been going through fuel filters like mad. I'll be glad when all the crud finally gets flushed out of the tank.

Progress video for anyone interested -

[jp2code]

A Benz can leak lots of oil. Saudi buys most of their cars.

But, why save a Yaris? That would be like someone saying years ago that they wanted to save a Hardbody! Lol

[OldGreyBeast]

Oh yes, it definitely leaks oil. Well, not leaks so much as seeps. The engine is basically just wet all the time, but it doesn't leak enough to actually drip. Eventually I'll replace all the seals and whatnot.

Well the Yaris is the first car I bought myself :P I've had it for 10 years now. It's the first car I ever really worked on as well. I've put so much time into it that I just don't think I could part with it. Plus it's been a good little car. In 102k miles I've replaced the MAF once and the water pump. I don't expect it to be worth anything, but I've just gotten attached to it and think I'd miss it if it died, so I'm gonna try to keep the usage down so I can prolong its life. I'm sure most people think it's weird to enjoy a cheap econobox, but hey it's what I like :P

[Green-meanie187]

That's a good solid find grey beast. If I'm correct, most of those that I came into contact with always had crappy valve cover gaskets. I would do a gasket job, and use some purple power under the hood to loosen everything up and rinse it down.

Tires are fairly cheap on those, but the wheel studs SUCK! 17MM wheel studs torqued at about 110 ft. lbs. The brakes on those aren't really fun either. But oh yes, they ride like you're on air, and they are very comfortable to drive.