Mercedes 190e omfaghgf

[BorniteIdentity]

Foxhake.

 

So I bought a Mercedes 190e in the summer after 18 months of hankering. Held out for a nice one with good history and nice spec.

 

Truth be told I never really bonded with it. I could never truly get comfortable, and whilst they're a work of art to look at, I started thinking about swapping it for something else.

 

Then, this morning, I notice oil in the coolant. Fml. My last experience of HGF was on a Rover 75 which was promptly fixed with stopleak.

 

Apparently this won't work on an "oil in water" scenario... and a proper repair us likely to push £650.

 

Thoughts? The problem is whilst it's a nice car, it's never going to be a 5 grand one with previous welding and a noisy gearbox.

 

Are there any other fudges worth trying?

[Rocket88]

Any other signs of OMGHEDGASKETKAOS ?

[sierraman]

Steel seal or K seal. I wouldn't bother with Radweld, the powdered stuff is a product of a bygone age. You've nothing to lose really as i see it. If that doesn't sort it and you aren't a fan I'd chuck it through EBay.

[BorniteIdentity]

Any other signs of OMGHEDGASKETKAOS ?

 

Really it's just that gravy there coming out of the pressure release on the cap and out of the tube.

 

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[gordonbennet]

Suggest you get an old skool MB indy to check its definately the OMGHGF, cos some Benz's (maybe all?) have a water jacket under the oil filter housing and these can fail too, cheaper fix...i had one fail completely on a 6 pot petrol so had it replaced last year on the present one when the CHG got worse enough to fix.

 

Sudden oil in water i'd be thinking oil cooler a possible.

 

Confess the present coupe will be our last Merc, not been a patch on our Toyota and more recently Subaru experiences for (touching wood) bomb proof mechanicals.

[BorniteIdentity]

I hear what you're saying on the Toyota front. I've got a MK1 Avensis that just clicked around to 169k this morning with zero expenditure apart from oil and filters.

 

I bought this as something a little more special and as a treat to myself, and it's bitten me on the bottom.

[mercrocker]

These can (as I suspect mine currently is) survive, thermostatically, a HGF that allows this to happen without kettle-ing on the high street. Mine is stumbling slightly on warm re-starts but no other symptoms. There is, as I am sure you know, loads of help on this subject on the 190E Forum - seems 100K on either of the four-pots is biological clock tick for HGF....

 

Sorry to hear you haven't found 190E love - they aren't for everyone, I admit. My mate calls mine "That Merc that drives like a Cortina" which is actually a compliment in my book. If it were me I wouldn't be chucking anything in it unless you need to use it to death.

 

My specialist blokey has quoted me a little bit less for the job including a head skim (but probably not enough less to make it worth the petrol down to the last bit of South before the sea begins...

[BorniteIdentity]

I love everything about the car apart from the fact you need long arms and short legs to drive it. It may be the case that das automatisch is a better fit as you've less straddling of the wheel to do.

 

Any amount of steering adjustment would make it infinitely better. Alas...

[dome]

They aren't the worst things to work on. If you're fairly competent you should be able to tackle it yourself, assuming it is HGF. I'd get it checked out first.

 

I had a 205 xs that did a similar thing-all I had to do was empty the layer of oil out of the coolant bottle every couple of months, there was no other symptoms. 

[hauserplenty]

Pressure test cooling system, then leakdown test it with dye in the coolant tank. Exhaust gases in the coolant will confirm HGF. A compression test is a good idea too.

MBHGF is not too bad of a job; consult www.benzworld.com and you can find links to service manuals and helpful advice. Works for me!

There's a stop-leak called Blue Devil which I've heard good things about.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

Repairing it yourself must be worth considering - I imagine the 190 isn't difficult to work on, particularly since the engine is fairly small so the cylinder head should be comparatively light. The actual parts used in a head gasket replacement are not expensive - it is the labour which makes up most of the  cost.

[nacho man]

It would be worth doing though hey if it's a nice one?

[gordonbennet]

I hear what you're saying on the Toyota front. I've got a MK1 Avensis that just clicked around to 169k this morning with zero expenditure apart from oil and filters.

 

I bought this as something a little more special and as a treat to myself, and it's bitten me on the bottom.

 

I had a Diesel Mk1 Avensis too, wish i'd never sold the sod, it was standard not the facelift D4D so lacked guts when warm, should have got a tuning box for it instead of flogging the bugger.

 

Was only thinking t'other day i hadn't seen a mk1 for ages, assumed they'd all been mini cabbed (thats where mine went) and were now either smashed or buggered, then i saw two really nice ones on the M6 yesterday.

[Peter C]

My W123 has the same engine as your 190 (M102), albeit mine has slightly larger capacity.

 

When I pulled the car out of the garage yesterday I noticed three small spots of oil on the garage floor. Further investigation today revealed that the back of the engine, above the bellhousing, is oily. Either the rocker cover gasket is leaking or I also have an OMGHGF issue.

 

Plan is to investigate further, clean up the oily deposits and keep an eye on the leak over the next few months. This car gets driven on dry days only and for the past couple of years it hasn't done more than 3-4k miles. A replacement HG may not be a priority.

[BorniteIdentity]

Check for rocker cover gasket and blocked breather pipes. I've also had this shit to deal with!!

[Peter C]

Check for rocker cover gasket and blocked breather pipes. I've also had this shit to deal with!!

See here:

 

http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/showthread.php?t=86218&highlight=W123+crankcase+pressure

 

That was me a few years ago.

[alfetta]

One of the most reliable cars I owned, cost me nothing in 4 years. Though the 1.8 is supposed to suffer HGF....

[BorniteIdentity]

Had a little play with it today.

 

Oil in the coolant, and there's so much in there that when I added the Kseal it just sat on the top of the header tank.

 

Being lazy and talentless, I simply used my pump to empty the coolant tank and chucked the other 90% of the seal in.

 

Ran the car for 15 minutes and all seems well. However the coolant coming out of the pipe was simply because there was so much fluid in the system. It could be that the sealant has fixed the hole, it could be that it's slowly just filling up again.

 

Will keep an eye on it and get everything cleaned up before it hits Gumtree.

[BorniteIdentity]

Right: update time.

 

Added K-Seal.  ran it for about an hour. Then parked up and left it for a few days because of time constraints.

 

Last night drained coolant gravy.  Flushed 4 times with hose, ran and still gravy.  It's obviously not worked and is still mixing.

 

I have a very shite friendly mechanic in the village who likes cash and isn't VAT registered anyway.  Whilst he's at it, is there anything else worth doing?  The coolant was quite thick, so unsure what impact there may have been on the water pump etc.

 

Thoughts?

[hauserplenty]

Water pump, new HG bolts, hoses and thermostat. Also backflush the heater core. Best of autoshite to you on this one, but it should be straightforward as M-B's are easy to work on.