Diplomatic/Dictator/Mafia

[vaughant]

8 hours ago, Volksy said:

I've not been doing many miles in this, as my daily commute is about a mile and a half to the local train station and back.

I took it for a run on Saturday and noticed that the oil pressure wasn't quite right. 

These (and most Mercs of this era) have a gauge which in general will go to 3 bar (Max) on cold start idle, then slowly drop to around 1.5 bar when warm. Mine on cold start is going only to about 2.7bar, and hot idle it's around 0.9 Bar.

It's done 137k and had an oil and filter within the last 2500 miles. It's not making any untoward noises or using any more oil than it has done for the last couple of year. 

I now have the fear, so I ordered a oil pressure tester to see if it's possibly a failing sender or gauge which would certainly be the preferred issue! 

 

It arrived today, so provided it actually stops pouring down at some point in the next few days, I'll have to investigate. Fingers crossed!

 

Sure it will be fine, you've looked after it well.

Only just stumbled on the thread but a lovely looking motor.

[Volksy]

Still not got around to testing the oil pressure on the old boat. 

Had to drive into work this morning, as Leeds City Council decided to create complete and utter chaos this morning by putting temporary lights on the main route to my local station. Which resulted in complete gridlock in my neighbourhood and subsequently missed three trains whilst sat in it. 

It was stop start/crawling traffic all the way into the city and took nearly two hours. With a eager eye on the oil pressure gauge, it seems that the gauge is reading 0.5bar lower than it used to. This is across the board, so under acceleration where it used to read 3.0 bar, it now reads 2.5 bar. At a hot idle, it reads about 0.6bar where it used to read 1.1 bar, so I am pretty convinced that the sensor is to blame. I ordered one of Autodoc which arrived the other day, so will swap it out asap and see what, if anything changes. The test gauge I bought screws in to the same port where the sensor goes so will test it at the same time. 

It was a freezing foggy morning, and my god does it kick out a huge amount of condensation from the exhaust. The devil on my shoulder was whispering OMGHGF in my ear, as the M103 6 pot is pretty well known for suffering HGF after 100k. Although they tend just to leak oil from the head joint rather than go full kettle. Either way, it idled fine, temp was solid at 82 degrees. Checking when I got to work, all levels are normal and there's no fluids in areas where they shouldn't be. I think it was just the cold ambient temperature and the fact that I don't have a CAT causing it to kick out so much steam. Hopefully!

[Volksy]

I tested the oil pressure, both cold and hot, and it mirrored what the dash gauge was saying. 

As I'd already bought a new sensor I installed it, and as expected there was no change. 

I booked it in for an oil and filter change so dropped it at the tame garage the other day. They gave it a once over also and couldn't see anything wrong. However with a new filter an a sump full of fresh oil. Pressure is back to normal. 

Seems as it's daily use now is generally only to and from the local station, with and occasional longer run on a weekend, its running basically 'on choke' most of the time. I think it's suffering from a bit of bore wash which over time is diluting the engine oil, hence causing the issue. 

The last oil change (5w30) lasted about 3000 miles. So I've put 10w40 in it this time. I normally do about 5000 miles a year, and get the oil changed annually. May have to do it twice a year if the usage continues. 

I may also have to look at getting a 'Station Mule'. Although with one parking space at home, can I justify having two cars?

[MrBig]

Unless the old filter was junk? You'd be surprised how bad some household name brand filters can be!

If purchasing a station mule, surely it's acceptable for it to live down the street or round the corner, so the 2nd parking space is not required?

[Volksy]

29 minutes ago, MrBig said:

Unless the old filter was junk? You'd be surprised how bad some household name brand filters can be!

I'd not really considered that! Looking back at the order from Autodoc, it was a Bosch filter installed last time. 

They had no stock this time so went with a Ridex one. Be interesting to see if a similar situation occurs in 3k miles!

[Jack D]

If a hydraulic valve lifter is passing or leaking even slightly, it’ll give you low oil pressure.  It happened to mine.  

[Split_Pin]

I change the oil in all my cars every 6 months as I work from home and I only do a couple of 15 mile round trips a week to take my son to basketball training. Plus a few longer trips at the weekend if they're playing an away game. During the summer, off-season, I do hardly any miles at all.

I think my annual mileage between my 3 is about 5k, my wife's A4 does about 3-4k alone.

So I definitely agree with your proposed oil change schedule!

[Volksy]

 

Whoop! Good for another year!

[Volksy]

Given the good weather, and the fact that I couldn't find a garage willing to take on the job, I decided to tackle the front guide rod bushes on this today. 

They were clonking like hell, and felt like the suspension was trying to enter the footwell. They don't show up on the MOT as when the car is jacked up they are under tension so the tester can't detect any play. 

They are a hefty rubberised balljoint pressed into separate subframes on each side that bolt into the chassis. A tie rod then links to the bottom arm and controls the fore/aft adjustment. They are often overlooked and ignored as they can be a massive PIA to change. The area of the chassis where they attach to is known for rotting out, and the subframes bolt into a weird replacable 'captive' nut which are known to seize, meaning you have to cut a hole in the chassis to be able to undo them. 

With this in mind, I had low expectations of success, half expecting having to call @HillmanImp to bring a grinder/MIG round to sort the car out after it all went horribly wrong. 

 

i took a brave pill, got it up on some stands and set to work!

I'd watched a couple of youtube videos (where would we be without that!), so had picked up a couple of tips, such as ratchet strapping the bottom arm to the front crossmember to maintain the position and tension before undoing the subframes. 

You can see the subfames above. I need to clean up the chassis legs as they are solid but starting to go. 

Amazingly everything came undone without a fight. even the notorious 'captive' nuts, you can see the locating tag sticking out. Another tip I learnt was not to use a rattle gun on these.

Once off you could see the state of the balljoints. 

The mounting bushes are pretty knarly also, but I didn't have any of those. My have to revisit those at a later date. 

I'd bought a cheapo six tonne press off Bezos a while back to do a wheel bearing on my mates PT Cruiser, so this was employed to press out the old joints. For a cheap POS it's managed both jobs and has paid for itself just on that and this!

I cleaned all the corrosion off the subframes and pressed the new ones in. Again without drama! 

Getting the subframe back on and threaded into the tie rod was a major ballache, as you need at least four arms. Ideally you would take the tie rod off the bottom arm, but the bolt for this is only accessable once you have removed/compressed the main suspension spring. Now, those that know old Mercs, will know to avoid dealing with suspension springs if at all possible, and then under extreme caution. I quite like my head attached to my neck, so opted to struggle for thirty mins recounting my dictionary of swear words. Loudly. 

Everything amazingly went to plan and it was back on its wheels having replaced both sides in a total of four hours. I don't know whether its the enginnering that Mercedes do, or the fact despite it's appearance, this car hasn't been that* abused. But I've tried to do jobs on cars a quarter of this ones age with things seizing/rounding/snapping etc. at every turn.

On the test drive, it was like a different car. i can drive on the shit roads around here without wincing every 100 meters. 

The issue now is that I can hear every other rattle and squeak, of which there are many, but thankfully mostly trim. I can live with that for now!

 

 

[Volksy]

I picked this up the other day..

A bit twee I know, but I kinda want to put it on the front of the car. 

Those in the know with US imports (although this car is not). What's the legalities of running a smaller plate? Seems I can buy a 12" x 6" plate which conforms to UK spec apparently?

The frame is from 1988 according to the date stamp on the rear. 

I don't want to be pulled over all the time, so it may just become wall art in the house if I'm gonna attract too much attention. 

 

[Tayne]

DO IT!

 

Just so you can be every rich 80s American movie villain.

 

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, Volksy said:

I picked this up the other day..

A bit twee I know, but I kinda want to put it on the front of the car. 

Those in the know with US imports (although this car is not). What's the legalities of running a smaller plate? Seems I can buy a 12" x 6" plate which conforms to UK spec apparently?

The frame is from 1988 according to the date stamp on the rear. 

I don't want to be pulled over all the time, so it may just become wall art in the house if I'm gonna attract too much attention. 

 

12x6 should be fine, I'm not sure if there's actually a legally mandated reg plate size in the UK as long as the character spacing is correct?

[cort1977]

I think strictly that would only be legal on a car without an EU type approval, see below. However, in practice it would probably not be an issue, hardly crime of the century,

 

UK Regulations

From 1 September 2001, it was agreed that number plate characters must comply with the following spacing rules: Excepting the letter I and the number 1, characters must be 79mm high and 50mm wide. The width of each character stroke must be 14mm and one must be able to measure 11mm between each character in the same grouping. Additionally, character groups must also be 33mm apart.

However, there is one concession for imported cars, which was announced in 2001:

Fortunately for drivers of American cars in the UK, the regulations now state that imported cars may display number plates with smaller characters if: a) The vehicle does not have European Community Whole Vehicle Type Approval and b) The construction/design of the vehicle cannot accommodate standard size number plates. Therefore, the following specifications, which are identical to those given to motorbikes and tricycles, may be applied:

• Character height: 64mm
• Character width: 44mm
• Character stroke: 10mm
• Space between characters: 10mm

 

[Volksy]

Thanks for that!

I've ordered this. So will try it out!