Champagne car , Lemonade priced Merc - Thank you MB for this bit of clever design

[Rusty Pelican]

Back after a lengthy break  
Well the E30 finally got eaten alive with tin worm but it did go to a loving home who is going to do a LOT of welding on her and sort it out .

So a new daily was required , had to have 4 doors this time to assist with carting my aged parents about if required .

So i spotted an 06 Merc in nice " cant ever keep clean " black ,
Its a   W203  C180K with 127,000 miles on the clock , apparently  only available with very fragile timing chains  ,  bucket loads of computer and SAM electricery issues  and  a thirst for fuel , road tax , tyres and every suspension bush  fitted .
Being an 06 its galvanised so theres no rot at all.

So are ive fixed the busted fog lamp , the busted centre heater vent , the leaky boot , the borked wipers , changed both cam magnets , fixed the alarm ( didnt even know it had one until the Star test picked it up ) , Star test also picked up the Crank sensor " out of range " , that did at least sort out it perplexity to suddenly splutter and flash every dash light at me in blind panic .

Basically ive swapped a very rusty but reliable motor for a very unrusty but temperamental gremlin ridden nightmare .

WCPGW 

[loserone]

That looks surprisingly fit, well done and welcome back

[bangernomics]

2 randoms please

[stuboy]

looks nice that

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Firmly into timing chain mileage there. Mine went at 100k, my mate has just lost his at 130k

Otherwise one of my favourite cars I've owned. Lovely to drive. Mine was a c200k so a tad more shove but the pre-facelift so was starting to rust in the usual places.

Definitely feel a lot more "hewn from granite" than the w204 that followed

Sent from my TA-1012 using Tapatalk

[Wingz123]

I love these especially in that spec with those wheels!!! Avantgarde for the win!

[Six-cylinder]

Congratulations on a good looking car.

2 years ago I ran round in this C320 CDi and it was lovely. When it arrived it had a couple of rust bubbles on the arches, but over the next 3 winter months they developed horribly, particularly the n-s rear wheel arch. My tip is therefore if you see rust, deal with it early.

Meanwhile I continue to battle rust with my E30, this year I have SORNed it for the winter to keep it going a bit longer. 

 

[Wingz123]

Which year was it they started galvanising them again.....?? 2003 wasn't it from memory....

[Rusty Pelican]

7 hours ago, Wingz123 said:

Which year was it they started galvanising them again.....?? 2003 wasn't it from memory....

I think they were part galvanised from 03 then fully from late 04 til the end 

[Rusty Pelican]

8 hours ago, They_all_do_that_sir said:

Firmly into timing chain mileage there. Mine went at 100k, my mate has just lost his at 130k

In usual Autoshite style ive no history whatsoever so ive no idea if its been done at all or if so when , it runs smooth and quiet with no rattle on start up so thats a plus at least 

Sent from my TA-1012 using Tapatalk
 

 

[Rusty Pelican]

9 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

Congratulations on a good looking car.

 My tip is therefore if you see rust, deal with it early.

Meanwhile I continue to battle rust with my E30, this year I have SORNed it for the winter to keep it going a bit longer. 

 

 

Thanks , ive checked everywhere and theres no rot i can see , pulled the rear inner arch liners out , gave it all a good clean behind and buried it in waxoil , most of the underneath is covered in plastic sheets - even the entire floor FFS  , job to see half the metalwork , great for MOTS though , could have no outer sills whatsoever but as you cant see them they cant be checked , in fact ive never seen so much random shaped bits of plastic on any car in my life . 

As for the E30 - God they know how to rust , mine needed two outer sills , two front wings , N/S rear outer arch , real valance , front valance , bits of jacking point and the bottom of both doors and even after that a full respray , ran sweet as though - such a shame 

[bigfella2]

14 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

Congratulations on a good looking car.

2 years ago I ran round in this C320 CDi and it was lovely. When it arrived it had a couple of rust bubbles on the arches, but over the next 3 winter months they developed horribly, particularly the n-s rear wheel arch. My tip is therefore if you see rust, deal with it early.

Meanwhile I continue to battle rust with my E30, this year I have SORNed it for the winter to keep it going a bit longer. 

 

How on earth did that go rusty with it being an 07? Did they forget to dip it.

[Rusty Pelican]

After a month of being stuck on 0.09 AM the clock burst into life today - it was 1  1/2 hours behind and the date showed 2003 which is 3 years before it was built , 

Still il take a self fixing clock any day , maybe it will  get itself ready for the impending MOT , Wash itself and pay for the fuel it drinks ?

[richardmorris]

What happens with the chain, or is it a tensioner issue? I always thought chains were for life.

[Rusty Pelican]

44 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

What happens with the chain, or is it a tensioner issue? I always thought chains were for life.

They stretch a bit and wear the  cam sprockets which are made of cheese substitute , tensioner copes for a bit then its all over 

[richardmorris]

5 minutes ago, Rusty Pelican said:

They stretch a bit and wear the  cam sprockets which are made of cheese substitute , tensioner copes for a bit then its all over 

Is there a year that’s affected? My 1994 w124 passed 124124miles up to The sixcylinders this Saturday.

[Rusty Pelican]

2 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Is there a year that’s affected? My 1994 w124 passed 124124miles up to The sixcylinders this Saturday.

Wont effect yours at all , its only the M271 engines that had this issue , you have the better car by miles

Merc built these between 2002 and 2015 in various guises , outputs in supercharged and later turbocharged flavours , post 05 engines were better apparently 

 

[Rusty Pelican]

5 hours ago, The Mighty Quinn said:

I once had the joyous task of fixing an M271. Thankfully before the chain went but it had jumped. You can do it with the head on but the sump needs to be dropped. The chain was actually fine but the cam pulleys (weird vanos type things) can go funny and the chain can jump on a cold start.

Mercedes rust? Yeah, they were 'safe' from 53 plate on but watch the rear subframe on later ones as they rust and break. German quality apparently, whatever that is. I've seen little evidence!

Its better than some makes but its not prestige , things hewn from plastic would be a more realistic quote , no granite in this thing  

[Rusty Pelican]

Well the joy was short lived , after only 4 months it decided to shit the belt tensioner pulley in a mighty grand way , bearing seized and the plastic pulley span on it until it melted  , flew off and buried itself into the supercharger inlet , belts royally fucked as well , now abandoned at work until i can sort the mess out 

[spartacus]

That's bad luck, I hoped it's not done any permanent damage and it's fairly easily fixed.

[Fat_Pirate]

I wasn't aware of this chain issue with the M271 engine before now, bit worrying as Mrs Pirate's CLK is approaching 100K.  Good job we've got a Vel Satis as the reliable backbone of the fleet.

[Rusty Pelican]

1 hour ago, Fat_Pirate said:

I wasn't aware of this chain issue with the M271 engine before now, bit worrying as Mrs Pirate's CLK is approaching 100K.  Good job we've got a Vel Satis as the reliable backbone of the fleet.

Common problem , more so pre 2005 apparently

 

[xtriple]

Also more prevalent at lower mileages. Normally if it's passed 75000 then it's fine and not one of the 1.33% of 577000 that are possibly affected  

[Rusty Pelican]

40 minutes ago, xtriple said:

Also more prevalent at lower mileages. Normally if it's passed 75000 then it's fine and not one of the 1.33% of 577000 that are possibly affected  

128,000 miles so far , it was still running fine until the tensioner pulley melted 

[Rusty Pelican]

£115 and 1   1/2 hours of cussing later its alive again 

[The Moog]

Reminded me of this....

[Rusty Pelican]

Clocks stopped yet again and its MOT time Monday , not that it will fail because its stuck in one time however the  Feckin thing likes eating my money so naturally im shitting it 

[Rusty Pelican]

Well Ingrid failed the MOT on a squiffy O/S headlight bulb ( working but fitted wrong and not by me ) Then passed the MOT after said bulb was fitted correctly.
However it was a bit tight on the emissions to say the least.

As Basil Faulty  said in Flowery twats i think it needs a right good thrashing ?

[Rusty Pelican]

Well this is actually behaving itself - so much so the clock has worked continually since 29th Dec .

Im now certain it was damp , when i got it the boot leaked and it was often misted up. anyway on the 29th i did 140 miles with the heater on boil me / sweaty driver setting and the air con on , clock started working half way in the trip and its not misted up since , i recon the air con and heat has dried the thing out ?

[Tamworthbay]

Moisture could well be the problem. I have the same with the CD player in the Volvo, it never works for the first twenty miles of any trip in winter.