2004 Mercedes C180K: Winter/ULEZ Beater of Distinction

[wesacosa]

8 minutes ago, Stanky said:

Mannol 5w30 fully synthetic in the blue container is 229.5 rated, but for what it's worth, I found you got about 0.3 seconds of cam chain chatter with it from a cold start.

I've now swapped to use semi synthetic 10w40 Mannol which is only 229.3 rated, but zero cam chain noise even on a cold startup after days sitting unused.

No noticeable difference otherwise.

This is on a M111.951 engine though, I assume yours is an M271? 

I plan to monitor, but I tend to only do 5-8k between oil changes

cheers yeah its a M271

[wesacosa]

Managed to find some time to take a look at the rough idle/MILF light issue. It was suspect by previous owner @Volksyto be the infamous $12 hose (crank breather hose) buried under the air filter housing

air filter housing was a bit of a pig to get off. Something was catching at the back which I couldn't see for ages. Buying a set of remote hose clip pliers did at least make it a one man job and not two. Whilst disconnecting the ecu hose I did notice some small drops of oil. There is a well known issue of VCT leaks causing oil to travel down the harness into various parts of the electrical control circuit so will given them a clean and fit the blocker harness to prevent further oil potentially causing damage 

The vac hose is absolutely mullered.  Seems MB used too soft a rubber compound and it just breaks down with heat. This one is totally fucked

unfortunately the end onto the block has broken down so much its bunged the hole so some careful cleaning is required

Was hoping to have it done this afternoon but lost 45 mins as butter fingers t**t dropped his phone down into the bowls of the engine bay whilst using it as a torch

 

[Stanky]

Do you want one of the loom adaptor things?I bought one only to discover mine had already been fitted with the revised part so it's lived in the glovebox ever since. It's still in its packaging I think?

£10 incl postage?

[wesacosa]

9 minutes ago, Stanky said:

Do you want one of the loom adaptor things?I bought one only to discover mine had already been fitted with the revised part so it's lived in the glovebox ever since. It's still in its packaging I think?

£10 incl postage?

If you don't need it yeah that would be great. cheers Haven't looked into them too much yet. Do I need two of them or does one side fit both?

[Stanky]

4 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

If you don't need it yeah that would be great. cheers Haven't looked into them too much yet. Do I need two of them or does one side fit both?

Oh yeah, the m271 has two doesn't it? Yeah you need two I'm afraid. I've got one, but your welcome to it

[wesacosa]

well this is turning into one of the most unpleasant jobs I've had to do.  Lost all tinkering time yesterday because you just can't get enough purchase on the pipe to slip it over the spigot on the block

you can only get hands around it to push downward but not twist and wiggle it on. With long nose pliers your hands get in the way as the pipe is bendy and zig zag shape.  So had to order some long handle needle pliers which only arrived today

managed to get it on reasonably quickly after work but the jubilee is another story. You just can't wiggle the back side down. That said, fucking knob head dropped his phone down the bowels of the engine bay for a second time and wedged it even better this time so any last bit of daylight was spent lying on a wet road with cars whistling inches from my head trying to retrieve it

I have to say the access on this pipe is worse than anything I saw on the XM.  

 

[SiC]

Bit late now but silicon spray is excellent in making rubber slippy enough to just slide on without too much of a fight. 

[wesacosa]

7 minutes ago, SiC said:

Bit late now but silicon spray is excellent in making rubber slippy enough to just slide on without too much of a fight. 

I had tried that, and heating it in boiling water. It was just too squishy to push over the spigot with the angle you push with your hands.  The silicone spray and the long handled pliers made light work of it though..I will try swapping the jubilee for a thinner one tomorrow and use some more silicone or red rubber grease and see if it will pop on

[wesacosa]

well one step forward, two back

got the clamp on pretty easy this morning, amazing what a difference daylight and dry weather makes

however the airbox is the most pathetic miserable lazy excuse for engineering I think I have seen a bit of a challenge You have to push the back plastic hose onto a soft rubber bellows but you can't see most of it never mind get your hands or tools around it so of course it just squashes the bellows and doesn't seat properly

will try again tomorrow but its so frustrating that a 1 hour job is turning into a massive epic due to just simple bad packaging design 

[Rust Collector]

I've joked about it in my thread but I find a dab of KY jelly on hose barbs/slip joints etc. makes these things just slide together when before they were snagging. I keep some in the garage for wanking reassembly purposes.

[wesacosa]

Ha ,yeah I did use silicone spray but the problem is you can't see if you are lined up correctly or if you are pushing on the bellows.  You have to manipulate the back part of the airbox passed a load of other bits at a funny angle and then kind of drop it down and back at the same time. It will likely slip over easily if its lined up properly but you just can't tell what you are doing..  When the airbox is dropping down you can see maybe 100 deg of the circumference but once its almost in postion for the last drop you can see maybe 50 or 60 deg and the rest is obscured from view. Its really a bloody stupid design

 

[Rust Collector]

Also, you mentioned pulling codes from the car earlier in the thread - did you use a generic OBD scanner or a merc specific scanner that can access the individual control modules on the car and read directly from them?

I have a scanner that can access the control modules should you get stuck. I've found it essential for diagnostics on all of my similar age mercs, as the OBD standardised codes don't always seem to align neatly with what the control module is saying plus reading live data from things like the ABS or ESP ECUs is really helpful for diagnosing the ABS/ESP/SOMETHING ELSE THAT I CAN'T REMEMBER trio of warnings that this age of Merc likes to periodically spew out.

[wesacosa]

4 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

Also, you mentioned pulling codes from the car earlier in the thread - did you use a generic OBD scanner or a merc specific scanner that can access the individual control modules on the car and read directly from them?

I have a scanner that can access the control modules should you get stuck. I've found it essential for diagnostics on all of my similar age mercs, as the OBD standardised codes don't always seem to align neatly with what the control module is saying plus reading live data from things like the ABS or ESP ECUs is really helpful for diagnosing the ABS/ESP/SOMETHING ELSE THAT I CAN'T REMEMBER trio of warnings that this age of Merc likes to periodically spew out.

Cheers.  My mate probed it with some Autel scanner he has which pulled the previous codes I read , but I have since bought but not used a Icarsoft MB2.0 from here which I will use if this bloody pipe is ever fixed ! 

[Stanky]

1 hour ago, Rust Collector said:

diagnosing the ABS/ESP/SOMETHING ELSE THAT I CAN'T REMEMBER trio of warnings that this age of Merc likes to periodically spew out

BAS. BAS is the third one.

Do not read up on what BAS is. BAS will keep you awake at night. BAS will traumatise you on every subsequent drive in your 00s Mercedes, because what if it goes wrong 

There are 2 distinct chapters in a person's life - Pre BAS, when you are ignorant and blissful, and flowers grow from your footsteps and bunnies and squirrels gently approach you and then smile at your passing as you walk through vibrantly coloured woodlands; and post-BAS, when its like you're seeing the world through a smoked camera lens, with everything grey and tinged with misery and the potential of BAS triggering suddenly and without prior warning.

Let us never mention BAS again...

[SiC]

7 hours ago, Stanky said:

Let us never mention BAS again...

I saw a c180k that had BAS failure go cheap the other month. Was tempted to bid but missed it end. Thought how hard could it be to fix?

Did I dodge a bullet?

[SiC]

For working in the dark, I have a pair of these and really swear by them:

Sealey LED700P 360° 7W COB LED Rechargeable Pocket Floodlight with Magnet https://amzn.eu/d/0Z0zZV3

You often can see them on eBay offer codes from sellers. I've had cheaper ones but the batteries don't last as long as those. USB-C means less faff trying to get a charge cable in the right way too. 

The only issue on Mercedes is that the engine block and bonnet are aluminium! Usually something metal to stick it to or use the base as a stand to aim it. Small enough to wedge into tight areas too. 

[Stanky]

5 minutes ago, SiC said:

I saw a c180k that had BAS failure go cheap the other month. Was tempted to bid but missed it end. Thought how hard could it be to fix?

Did I dodge a bullet?

I think it's generally reliable, though if it was only the BAS fault it might have been trickier than if you have all three errors.

It's the car deciding when IT thinks you need ALL THE BRAKING applied that slightly worries me, especially since planting the middle pedal pulls the car up pretty abruptly anyway, if I ever managed to trigger the BAS I could definitely see me ending up with the star logo from the steering wheel embedded in my forehead!

[SiC]

54 minutes ago, Stanky said:

It's the car deciding when IT thinks you need ALL THE BRAKING applied that slightly worries me, especially since planting the middle pedal pulls the car up pretty abruptly anyway, if I ever managed to trigger the BAS I could definitely see me ending up with the star logo from the steering wheel embedded in my forehead!

Pah!

You wussy C class owners worrying about a BAS brake system failure where you HAVE ALL OF THE BRAKES.

Us E class owners worry about a SBC brake system failure where you HAVE NONE OF THE BRAKES!

🫣🫠

[wesacosa]

one step forward, two back again today

think I got the air filter box on properly. I say think because as per the previous post you cant actually see or feel the whole circumference of the pipe. what the absolute fuck were Mercedes thinking

however in the process of getting it into position I have snapped the connector for the brake servo vac hose

 

[N Dentressangle]

A really good clean and a few winds of very sticky tape will sort that out.

New one is only £10 or so if you can be bothered.

[wesacosa]

21 minutes ago, N Dentressangle said:

A really good clean and a few winds of very sticky tape will sort that out.

New one is only £10 or so if you can be bothered.

is that from the dealer? I couldn't find a replacement part with a quick Google search just second hand ones

[N Dentressangle]

No idea, sorry - the one I was looking at is for a Sprinter, but looks v similar to yours. Need a part nr really, and I can't see an equivalent to RealOEM for MB.

[wesacosa]

20 minutes ago, N Dentressangle said:

No idea, sorry - the one I was looking at is for a Sprinter, but looks v similar to yours. Need a part nr really, and I can't see an equivalent to RealOEM for MB.

there doesn't seem to be a part number, only the one printed on the hose which looks to be the generic number for the hose as it appears on other hoses

[SiC]

I think I'd glue and tape that back together too myself. Then if possible when fitted, stick a zip tie around the whole thing when mounted. 

[wesacosa]

one step forward, two back (a familiar tale)

bodged the pipe back on and started up engine but noticed coolant pooling under headed tank. this plastic pipe has somehow shared off but so close to the tank I cant just push the rubber hose up closer

I had hoped this car would be a low maintenance winter beater whilst I tried to get my mojo back and sort out the rest of the fleet but its proving to be a bit of a pain in the arse

as nice as it is to drive I'm starting to feel one step away from being done with it, although that's probably just my bad mood talking. It does now look like I'm going to be car-less for the festive period though as can't imagine im going to be able to source and fit a replacement header in a hurry

[N Dentressangle]

Something like a small piece of microbore central heating pipe tapped in there, plus maybe a bit of JBWeld?

It shouldn't run at massive pressures, so might work OK.

[Stanky]

1 minute ago, N Dentressangle said:

Something like a small piece of microbore central heating pipe tapped in there, plus maybe a bit of JBWeld?

It shouldn't run at massive pressures, so might work OK.

Yeah +1 to this. Measure the inner bore and then gently push a short section of metal pipe into the two split plastic pipes to join them as an inner sleeve? Or if you could find a metal threaded pipe joiner you might be able to wind it into the two parts of the plastic extruded pipe to join them that way?

[SiC]

Part of the problem is that plastic goes brittle with age and these cars are past their original design life (probably double really!). The other part is that plastic goes more brittle with cold. So winter working on a 90s/00s era car is a careful balance of getting a job done quickly when you're cold and being awfully careful to not snap the many plastic parts in the engine bay!

[SiC]

Is this the tank?

febi bilstein 38807 Coolant Expansion Tank with sensor, pack of one https://amzn.eu/d/9XiYV3x

Amazon Prime for me around here is saying delivered tomorrow if I order in the next 4 hours. 

Febi parts finder for reference: https://partsfinder.bilsteingroup.com/en/article/febi/38807

[wesacosa]

15 minutes ago, SiC said:

Is this the tank?

febi bilstein 38807 Coolant Expansion Tank with sensor, pack of one https://amzn.eu/d/9XiYV3x

Amazon Prime for me around here is saying delivered tomorrow if I order in the next 4 hours. 

Febi parts finder for reference: https://partsfinder.bilsteingroup.com/en/article/febi/38807

ooh it could be thanks will check the PN

interestingly the metal sleeve is sticking out the front of mine, I wonder if it can be pushed back in to form a temporary repair