Body and Interior Specific Aid

Hi all. New member as of today, and today I also picked up my 2nd Benz. I have some experience with my 1971 280S, but today, I bought my first diesel. The cars rather amazing overall, for a black on black leather car with original paint. One owner. 200K miles. A few little problems that I already see answers and/or parts for. Here's my concern. The car is amazingly slow from a stop to 10 or 20 MPH. Then it's decent, much like a gas car. I see an unusual "part", seemingly disconnected in the engine compartment. It's like a little frame with heavy coils inside of it. What is that part??? It seems to perform much better once it's warmed. I know NOTHING of it's history aside from a clean VIN check, one owner, 400 miles in the last 2 years and it was probably garaged.

My 300D's blinkers and windows suddenly don't operate. There is an electrical shut down. The tachometer, gas gauge, blinkers, windows, emergency lights don't work. They all shut down at once while I was operating the vehicle. Other things like radio, wipers, clock, fan, a/c work fine. Any suggestions would be helpful. Has this happened to you?

I recently replaced the hydraulic suspension/leveling valve on my 1986 560 SEL. Other than opening the breeder on top of the valve, is there any other step necessary to finish the job and make the suspension operational i.e. loose the connection at the top of each strut to bleed the air between the valve and the strut??

Greetings! I posted here recently about not being able to open the trunk or fuel door on my son's 1987 190D. The other day I borrowed a hand vacuum pump and drove over to his college to try to fix it. I found the actuator under the rear seat, disconnected the yellow tube that runs to the back and pulled a vacuum on it--still couldn't get into either. I'm sorry to say I had to take a hacksaw blade to the little stob that locks the fuel door. But I DON'T want to mess up his trunk latch, so do you have any suggestions on how I can get in?