My 1978 240D diesel has been giving me some acceleration problems. I
recently had the two fuel filters replaced. Last night on the way
home from work, every time I stopped for a red light, the car would
accelerate slower and slower. I’m able to shift okay, but there is
just no pick up. Any suggestions? The car has a little over 200,000
miles on it.

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If the engine starts without difficulty in the cold it's probably OK so
the fuel system is the prime suspect. The fuel filters may be OK but
there's a screen inside the tank and after almost 30 years .....

Ever have an algae problem - it grows in the condensation inside the
fuel tank and no, #2 diesel doesn't kill it, an algaecide kills it. But
that's the next step, first consider the tank's screen.

Anyone put gasoline into the fuel tank? Or if this is a sudden event the
#2 diesel may just be lousy.

Finally, the ultra low sulfur #2 diesel may be causing the old fuel
hoses to swell and close up - a possibility to consider for they'll
eventually start leaking (sweating first).
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pespejo427 wrote:



Once the filling station put gas in the diesel tank.

The fuel system was cleaned out, all filters replaced, It was quite
peppy, relatively speaking.


all courtesy of the ins co.

j.

Thanks for the reply. It starts up fine, just doesn’t want to
accelerate. I never thought of algae in there. I had the fuel
filters replaced a month ago, and it ran fine for a while, but it’s
slowing down again. I plan on bringing it to my mechanic next week.

Thanks again.

""-->> T.G. Lambach" wrote:
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On Mar 5, 12:02 pm, cognite tute <nos... (AT) nospam (DOT) net> wrote:

I had a problem years ago where there was an intermittent loss of
acceleration in my 300SD and it was the fuel tank screen clogging that
TG pointed out. In my case, I think it came from the car being used
so little at that time, that it took many months to go through a tank
of fuel.

On Mar 4, 11:29 pm, pespejo427 <n... (AT) 000 (DOT) com> wrote:
fuel tank could have a algae problem

That’s interesting as I haven’t used my car much this winter. With
the fuel just standing around, I guess it would tend to clog things.
Thanks for all your help.

"trader4" wrote:
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I like to cut open replaced fuel filters to determine how bad they were, as
the tank can be loaded with junk. A lot of Benz techs remove the tank
filter, so it may not even be there. We used to add one gallon of leaded gas
to a tank of diesel to kill algae, but unleaded fuel wont do that so a
product like Redline or lubro-Moly should be used a couple of times a year.
If the tank is loaded with algea or dirt, treatments wont remove it so the
tank needs to be removed and cleaned .