Mercedes Benz Diesel Automotive Repair Manual: 123 Series, 1976 thru 1985 (Haynes Repair Manual)

Reasonably priced and a good basic manual for W123. Back in the 1970s and until the manufacturers stopped printing shop manuals, I would get the manufacturer manual and the Haynes for my car. Be aware that this was written when the car was in production! That means you have to be an old guy like me and trained in automotive work for a lot of the instructions to make sense. This is not a YouTube video. It is not complete for all repairs. That is why in the day I would get the manufacturer's manual and sometimes the wiring diagram. think of this as the 1st place to look. If it doesn't have it look on the internet. If you are going to attempt non-trivial repairs you should look at Mercedes Source for kits and instructions. You can then decide if you want to spent the money on tools and parts to do the job yourself.BTW the W123s, especially Diesel, are probably the best production cars ever built. Of course I still lust for a 300SDL because I like big and cannot afford a 600 Pullman!

Arrived on time! Will come in very handy for quick reference on the jobs that I am able to do

This is a great introduction to W123 300D's, but it is not complete in and of itself. I don't really find the pictures helpful in most cases. They tend to be displayed in awkward ways, blown up so that they don't show context.The real value of this book is in its diagnostic section, which will usually guide you to a probable cause. There are a few holes though. Most maintenance and repair is explained well enough to get at least a fair understanding. This is not the end-all-be-all of 300D maintenance, but it is a great place to start and will help you figure out what the question you ought to be asking is.

Bought it a couple of weeks ago and its nice to have. A lot of specs and helpful descriptions.

good maintence informationfor the owner /mechanicthis is good starter book for Mercedes dieselsits economical to buybut for more detailed information one needs a service manual ,to get on to more depth

need this, now i have this

This is a pretty good general guide for diesel 123 Mercedes, but is pretty light on details. It does include some coverage of the wagon model (300TD). But, in a lot of cases, it just says to take the car to the shop (for example, everything to do with the air conditioning). It's also overly optimistic in some cases. For example, it has a nice picture of somebody prying a seal out of the differential with a screwdriver. On both my cars, it took a 2-foot wrecking bar and a mallet, which is more consistent with Internet information on the matter. In all cases, it just gives the procedure to take some part off and replace it, so you won't find any tips on reinforcing the problematic turbo air cleaner bracket, for example. And, in other cases, it assumes a toolbox more complete than the average home mechanic is likely to have (one procedure recommends use of a socket about 3" in diameter, for example). The book is pretty thin overall. The wiring diagrams don't cover all models of all cars. I accidentally disabled the left turn signal on my '85 300TD by assuming it would be the same as the '81 model, which the book does have a wiring diagram for, but it turned out more similar to the '83 UK model.Despite the light coverage, I think the manual is well worth buying, and I've used it quite a bit. If attempting a more complex job, I'd recommend picking up the manual for that specific task from Mercedes Source if they have one. I'd also recommend supplementing the Haynes manual with "Diesel Performance Tuning and Repair" from Mercedes Source, and any other of their manuals that seem to address something that seems amiss on your car.

Great manual that has given me the insight I needed to teach my son complete maintenance on his "new to him" car.