You have a fuel strainer as do most all of the bottom-siphoning Mercedes models, see pic below. It's a bit of a pain to change, only because you have to drain most all of the fuel out of the tank prior to removing it, or just be doused with several gallons of carcinogens. I've changed two of these in my 25+ years of maintaining my Benzes. Neither of them really needed to be changed.
I changed the tank strainer in a '91 300D I owned. The screen was pretty plugged up with yuk. But I suspect that was due to the "bio" properties of diesel. The solvent nature of gasoline would keep the screen pretty clean on a gasser.
Fuels in last decade got much cleaner, since the requirement that gas station tanks will be double-walled.
That cut condensation in those tanks and following corrosion, what was big issue generation ago.
Also addition of bio seems to dilute natural heavy fraction in diesel fuel.
On Ford Powerstroke fuel filters are 30k rated, yet I made 89,000 on my F450 what was heavy used for hauling, meaning it burned lot of fuel in the period.
I think Deplore replaced the strainer on MB diesel close to 300,000 miles. .... as a precaution.
Yeah I did, and while it was full of gunk, it still performed the function and I perceived no difference in driving or power after the change. I estimate I could've held on for another 20k and it would have made no difference.
But here's the thing guys -- the strainer is, AFAIK, a diesel thing. He has a 1997 E320 (my favorite!) which has a filter that is outside the fuel tank.
EDIT: I just checked EPC. Whelp, even the gasser has a strainer. My bad. I stand corrected.
On the older gasoline MB models, it's not uncommon to see the tank strainer gunked up, from having gasoline sit and age in the tank.
The diesels have a tendency to have algal growth in the fuel tank, as diesel fuel is their feedstock given any water in the mix at all.
In the case of both gasoline & diesel, the tank strainer seems to become a problem more often from sitting than from campaigning the vehicle on a regular basis.
When you get the new strainer double check to make sure you get the right one. There are two different ones based on the application - gas or diesel. The two strainers are interchangeable based on the thread size, but the mesh is dramatically different between the gas and diesel, and I found that some vendors show the same part number for both applications.
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