Ruff's Merc Coupe Auto; searching for pastures new...

[ruffgeezer]

£10 on ebay the chiselling bastards! 

The door card is loose anyway and the actuator doesn't work. 

[Stanky]

Shudders.

I'll bite, what's wrong with the actuator? Does it rattle up and down and not properly lock or unlock?

I have just been through fixing this on my c180 and nearly cried several times.

Can you get a complete door car set for a bit more? The door card I now need after thoroughly b0rking my current one is £17 on ebay

[ruffgeezer]

It doesn't lock and the passenger one machine guns. 

[Stanky]

Sorry if you know this already, it can be fixed by replacing the tiny damping spring in the lock actuator, in isolation it's not hard, but getting the lock actuator out and back in again isn't fun.

I have a passenger side spring and a pair of tongs I can post you to do one of yours?

[SiC]

If it doesn't think the door is shut then possibly won't ever lock?

[ruffgeezer]

That's an excellent point on the lack of locking, the spring and tongs would be very handy though! 

[Stanky]

PM me your address and I'll whack it all in the post to you next week. There are a couple of nuts, bolts and washers to replace the rivets you need to drill out too so I'll include them.

Watch the youtube tutorials of the spring replacement, it makes it an awful lot clearer what you're actually supposed to be doing.

[SiC]

Would be hilarious* if all the faults it's got is from it not detecting the door being closed. 

Turning the ignition on should run the low pressure pump. Once it's fixed, if it struggles to start when cold, might be worth turning the ignition on and waiting for the low pressure pump to stop. Then turn off/on again waiting for pump to stop. Finally try starting. 

Given there is a low pressure pump, it should be able to prime itself even if there is an air leak on the low pressure side. However there of course could/probably is still be a leak making the problem worse ...apart from the ones that the ham-fisted garage mechanic have cocked up on. 

[ruffgeezer]

3 hours ago, SiC said:

If it doesn't think the door is shut then possibly won't ever lock?

 

Ding Ding Ding! 

10 points to @SiC! 

It hadn't even entered my head that the door open issue might also relate to the locking, well not fully. 

I got looking on ebay for the missing catch surround, and eventually a memory burrowed it's way to the surface, wasn't there an odd bit of plastic in the car when it arrived? 

A bit of digging around finds not only the trim, but also the machine screw that holds it on... 

Once fitted, it compresses the switch on the B-Pillar to let the car know the door is shut. 

It's just visible here below the catch. 

 

With the trim in place, I can now semi-reliably lock the car. 

 

Thanks for the input chaps! 

[SiC]

Is it pissing fuel out of the filter into the floor everytime you open the door now? 😆

[ruffgeezer]

Dunno, I ought to find out why it stinks so much of diesel though, that and replace those 2 pipes. 

[Isaac Hunt]

Kinell, the complexities of modern stuffs.   Car is hard to start because of but if trim is missing off the door card.

 Excellent cause and effect thinking going on here ref door opening triggering low pressure pump, I’ve never come across that before but it’s why reading threads like this expand knowledge.

The diesel pissin out on the floor is also not a good sign, but I can see work is underway.

GLWTF

[ruffgeezer]

According to what I can piece toge, the first documented cut out was before the door swap but after the first fuel filter change.

It's possible a disturbed O ring may have caused a route for air ingress into the fuel system. 

I hope to address that today with the new pipes. 

[OM646]

2 hours ago, Isaac Hunt said:

Kinell, the complexities of modern stuffs.   Car is hard to start because of but if trim is missing off the door card.

 Excellent cause and effect thinking going on here ref door opening triggering low pressure pump, I’ve never come across that before but it’s why reading threads like this expand knowledge.

The diesel pissin out on the floor is also not a good sign, but I can see work is underway.

GLWTF

A genuine wtf moment here for me too, mine starts in a fraction of a second even in very low temps. 

Tomorrow I might try to start it without touching the door, that is, opening the windows from the remote and starting the car, to see if the door opening has any influence

[ruffgeezer]

Well, one pipe changed without too much drama, battery is too soggy for post fuel interference starting, so will try again later. 

 

I also investigated the odd wire, which as it turns out used to go to glow plug number 2 only the plug has been broken off. 

There was mention of the loom being "past it's best" in Ken's thread, but I would upgrade that to "fucked" as it had been neatly tucked out of the way near the fuel bleed valve. 

[beko1987]

That's probably gonna affect starting then... An entire glow plug being disconnected! 

Is it too far gone for a session with the wire and crimps or are used decent looms not much money? It's not oil soaked and falling apart is it? Sure I've read over the years of some engines doing that to looms... 

[SiC]

I don't know for sure as this is complete speculation, but I love a good speculate. I reckon the following has happened:

First off assumptions. I'm going to assume that opening the door primes the fuel system with the LP pump. I don't know if Mercedes do this but I know VAG certainly do, so I think a fair assumption. Next assumption is that plunger piece is to purge air from the LP fuel side. I've never seen one before but I can't see any other reason why there is something teed-off on a fuel line with it going nowhere, unless it's for priming after a filter change. I know many fuel filters have a bleed screw on the top for bleeding, which I can't see on these. 

Car ran well to begin with but not full serviced in a while. Mucky air filter gives that suspicion.

So fuel filter was changed (along with other service parts). This disturbed the perished fittings on top of the filter that hadn't been removed in a long while (if ever?). First cut out from a lump of air from not using the plunger to bleed? Fuel run out of that section of tube and full of air, so a bubble from the teed section got into the main fuel line to the HP pump which caused the cut out. Restarted fine as the LP fuel pump would have forced fuel back through the HP pump which self bleeds. 

Perished fittings on the filter got worse and let more air in. Door changed which stopped the door sensor detecting it opening, so system wasn't priming as much. As air in the system, it became harder to start when left not helped by the lack of priming. Fitting still sealing enough though to not cause mass diesel leaking or lack of power. 

Garage in Coventry had a look at it. First looked at the fuel filter and decided it was worth a change. Is the new one a genuine Bosch/Mahle or similar? If so, might have suspected if the filter was dodgy. Many reports of diesel fuel filters being varying quality. Removing and refitting the fitting on top of the filter complete destroyed the sealing and fixing of it. Tbf to the garage, it could have been wearing out and they were unfortunate to be last to touch it when it completely failed. It didn't fix on properly, so they used a zip tie to hold it on. Permanently or was it for testing? Dunno. Do we know that the garage was calling it finished, or did they expect further diagnosis?

They also used the plunger to prime it. Again being old plastic, it snapped off. Maybe they tried pulling it too?

Other side stories. Central locking was missing the detection of door close switch. That appears fix now.

There is still the story of that wire loose. As said previously in this thread, I suspect that's a glow plug wire. Mostly from the fitting on the end and thick gauge wire. We also know that the glow plugs have been out previously and it's been disturbed. Again, disturbing it when the plugs were out possibly was the final thing for the fitting to not hold properly. 

As I said at the start, this is all pure speculation but that's the working theory I have in my mind when reading this thread. I don't think there is any malice here, just a series of events that have occurred in sequence to get the outcome where it is now. 

[SiC]

19 minutes ago, ruffgeezer said:

There was mention of the loom being "past it's best" in Ken's thread, but I would upgrade that to "fucked" as it had been neatly tucked out of the way near the fuel bleed valve. 

Ha your post came in before I finished writing mine. Is that definitely a bleed valve? 

If it was me, I'd be awfully tempted to not try replacing the plunger if it's not leaking! I'd fear it breaking off inside or the replacement not sealing, given how crap the existing plastic pipes seem to have held up on this. Also the way Mercedes have crimped the valve on, I don't think it could be replaced without damaging the plastic pipe. At least that's my experience when trying to change parts on similar types of pipes. 

[SiC]

Reading this, it appears Mercedes run the fuel pump when you unlock the car:

https://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/index.php?threads/clk-fuel-pump.154333/

[vaughant]

36 minutes ago, SiC said:

Reading this, it appears Mercedes run the fuel pump when you unlock the car:

https://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/index.php?threads/clk-fuel-pump.154333/

I've had a few merc/vag  from that era and genuinely never knew that, awesome example of German over engineering. 

[vaughant]

Also, as an aside from above info:

- if its ever had leaky injectors and left for any period, "black death" sets in. Often the cure is to literally hack away at the wiring above to get at the injectors, not hard to damage the glowplug loom at that point either. 

- I would go so far to suggest on these engines the glow plugs have little to no influence as regards starting unless we're taking - 20 degrees or colder, the starting fault is almost always air in the system. 

-ironically simply pointing the nose of the car downhill overnight seems to cure it

-as echoed above the correct merc 'o' rings and pipes are so cheap and easy to change is pointless going anywhere else, merc even printed me out a pdf and the master mechanic came out and marked out the most likely ones to fail, which in my case was correct and I never revisited it. 

A bit embarrassing to admit but I never replaced my fuel filter as I broke the little crappy plastic clips on the outside and shit out as I needed the next day.... 

 

The day to replace that never arrived and it did me proud for another 100k in truth so yes it can cause issues but I wouldn't get too hung up on it now its been replaced. 

Although this era mercedes come in for a lot of criticism, I personally feel its not always founded, mine aside from 2 self inflicted ftps it was a great bus to drive and felt solid, tough and did the task of being an car pretty well. I still, often, daily, hourly even hanker after a nice petrol ml merc, probably a runout 350 in black /black leather would do the trick....... 

 

 

Doesn't * skulk off to ebay /gumtree. 

[ruffgeezer]

I've had the broken nub out already, it might be worth me trying to bleed it through there later. 

[OM646]

1 hour ago, vaughant said:

Although this era mercedes come in for a lot of criticism, I personally feel its not always founded, mine aside from 2 self inflicted ftps it was a great bus to drive and felt solid, tough and did the task of being an car pretty well. I still, often, daily, hourly even hanker after a nice petrol ml merc, probably a runout 350 in black /black leather would do the trick.......

+1. I go as far as saying a non-rusty W203 is a genuine good, reliable car, and they're not really that expensive to maintain

[ruffgeezer]

Annnd it's pissing out of the pump on the front of the engine. 

 

FFS. 

[Isaac Hunt]

I would have said Arthur Foxhake.

Mechanical or Electric, Benzspensive or common and cheap off the bay ? 

[ruffgeezer]

I can get a rebuild kit, but as I've just had an op in a sensitive area, I fear I might have to fuck this one off as I don't know that I'll have the stamina to do the repair. 

[ruffgeezer]

Kit ordered, not sure why. I don't like this car one bit now. 

[Isaac Hunt]

1 hour ago, ruffgeezer said:

Kit ordered, not sure why. I don't like this car one bit now. 

1. "It is the lot of 'man' to strive no matter how content he is." -- Spock

[ruffgeezer]

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

[Jim Bell]

"Push it into the fucking sea"

            - Ghandi.