Merc lickers.. om646. Talk to me.

[DaveDorson]

I've bought a red car with more lacquer peel than you can shake a stick at, a dinked bumper and a manual gearbox, but it's got an om646 evo engine apparently.

 

It's got a healthy MOT, a set of Goodyear's on some recently refurbished wheels (in anthracite.. can't win then all) and loads of history with a barely used 106k miles.

 

Delicious as this is, and lacking any signs of black death when I remove the sea of plastic and foam from under the bonnet, or any obvious leaks or issues, it's not really what I'd expect a manual box 170ps diesel to go like.

It pulls alright, doesn't chuck smoke out anywhere and it's smooth and quiet, for a 4 cylinder diesel anyway, but it's not "sporty" feeling.

Is that normal for these?

[Somerset Suffolk]

59 minutes ago, DaveDorson said:

om646 evo

Had to look up what an "om646 evo" engine was - googly AI said "highly reliable" 106k miles for diesel is in "just run in" territory - hopefully well bought sir .... for how much ? ... 

[horriblemercedes]

Sounds about right to me. I wouldn't think a four cylinder diesel would feel very sporty. Effective and efficient, sure. But not sporty

[DaveDorson]

21 minutes ago, Somerset Suffolk said:

Had to look up what an "om646 evo" engine was - googly AI said "highly reliable" 106k miles for diesel is in "just run in" territory - hopefully well bought sir .... for how much ? ... 

It's apparently better than the later ones according to what I've read.

I didn't pay as much as the fella was asking because it needs quite a lot of paint sorting out which will be an absolute pain in the Harris and because it's got a dinked bumper, being the AMG style trim and not in silver or black it'll be tricky to replace.  

I quite like it though 

[DaveDorson]

22 minutes ago, horriblemercedes said:

Sounds about right to me. I wouldn't think a four cylinder diesel would feel very sporty. Effective and efficient, sure. But not sporty

But it says sport on the V5 and has AMG stuff glued on 😂.  It's not horrible.  It's actually very pleasant.  I think I'm spoiled by a big bum Renaultsport Mégane and a Mk5 golf GTI with hooligan levels of power 

[Rightnider]

I’ve got a e200 cdi estate with the OM646 engine. 505,000 kms and running fine. Needs new engine mounts  

Sporty? 

 No. 
 

And they were far from sporty when new. I’ve never driven a manual one though. 

[DaveDorson]

I've procured a hot stapler to sort the bumper out.

I reckon with some heat and spoons it'll push mostly out, some hot staples will sort the split and then it'll be at least 4% better 

[vaughant]

I reckon that should go really well. My similar powered w205 certainly does.

Maybe a cheeky remap would help? 🤭🤭🤭

[beko1987]

Not got a claggy disgusting egr valve or blocked breather has it? Could be something simple*🤞

[EyesWeldedShut]

Two here - neither are the DPF versions - both are 147 BHP with the 5G auto. I'd not describe either as sporty but they do make reasonable forward progress and can get to illegal speeds reasonably well and quietly (ish). I guess it depends what you're used to?
I'd just keep an eye on the MPG and if it's running at 40 mpg plus then I'd be happy with that and the odd oil change.

[Cavcraft]

The handful of these engines I've tried have always left me feeling unimpressed.

[EyesWeldedShut]

Remind me of a slightly bigger version of the BMW 2.0 M47 - similar era, not the quietest things in the world but just keep going on and on. Don't set the world (or the wallet)on fire either.

[DaveDorson]

Threw a light at me this morning saying run flat sensor inoperable and I seemed to have no guts while driving.  

Limped it home and it's fine now.  Stored code for the throttle pedal potentiometer, which removed itself before I scanned as did the run flat sensor and the subsequent esp warnings.  It's all goes via CAN..

So I ran a deeper scan and found some more can warnings and cleared them, they haven't returned but I'll give it another thrashing tonight and see what happens, if it does it again I'll replace the pedal potentiometer and go from there.

Oddly, it didn't throw any issues last night when I took it out at dusk to give a damn good thrashing to see if I was throwing clag out when a mate followed me.  1800rpm to 3500rpm WOT throws a bit of smoke out but it's a Euro 4 diesel so I expect that.  I've not recorded the EGR function on a run yet but I'll check that later and see what happens, no MAF and MAP faults, which I'd expect with a gummed EGR.

I do however suspect my spirited driving last night may have upset the drive by wire gods and caused this morning's gremlin.. less shoe, more smooth Dave...

 

[DaveDorson]

5 hours ago, vaughant said:

I reckon that should go really well. My similar powered w205 certainly does.

Maybe a cheeky remap would help? 🤭🤭🤭

This will shock anyone who knows me.  I've no plans to modify it.  I might even try and get the wheels done silver and return it to a fairly not messed about with state.

 

It's a very reasonable usable car.

[DaveDorson]

5 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Two here - neither are the DPF versions - both are 147 BHP with the 5G auto. I'd not describe either as sporty but they do make reasonable forward progress and can get to illegal speeds reasonably well and quietly (ish). I guess it depends what you're used to?
I'd just keep an eye on the MPG and if it's running at 40 mpg plus then I'd be happy with that and the odd oil change.

It gets up to speed alright to be honest.  I gapped my mate a few times when testing for smoke, it's just far less urgent than the stuff I tend to tool around in.

[vaughant]

1 minute ago, DaveDorson said:

It gets up to speed alright to be honest.  I gapped my mate a few times when testing for smoke, it's just far less urgent than the stuff I tend to tool around in.

Yeah the power delivery is very smooth on them. 

Mine has a lot of settings on it but I tend to drive it by default in comfort mode. 

Sport makes it very responsive and sport plus is pretty mental for a 4cyl diesel engine 😬😬, using the paddles in that makes for very spirited driving.

I mean if you've always tooled around in 2.0 pez turbo's it probably will feel flat compared to those but any Merc I've had always seems to be not moving that fast until you look at the Speedo and say " oh, am I really doing that speed?".

 

[DaveDorson]

This one is a small Mexican man gearbox.  Getrag in these I think.

I drive all sorts to be honest.  But my two current daily drives are a modified golf 5 GTi and a Mégane 225.

[DaveDorson]

Yeah the throttle pedal is fucked.  Every time I floor it the ESP and engine lights come on. Only at full throttle though.

 

New throttle pedal procured.. and new mirror indicators which I'll fit when the paint arrives so I can sort that issue out.

Also the plastic hot stapler turned up earlier so I'll try and get the bumper less fucked at the weekend if I'm able.

[DaveDorson]

Well replacing the throttle pedal seems to have made it a lot more like 170ps and I don't get restricted performance and esp warnings when I pin it.  They're a bit light on the back these things 😳

[DaveDorson]

Way too cold, but @drewd popped by in his C class with the better engine so I went out for a drive with him.  He seemed to enjoy the passenger ride.

 

Throttle pedal change was a great success, that's for sure.

I also thought the boot release was not operating from the cabin but after Drew said he had to hold the button on his, I tried and it only went and worked!

Free fixes are the best.

I need to investigate why the washer jets don't seem right, I suspect the green algae on the mirror plastic and tree detritus in the scuttle are a big clue.

[DaveDorson]

[drewd]

Dave's W204 looks much more modern than my W203 to my eye. I can confirm his goes well too!

Both cars are a similar power output, but mines a 5 pot with a 5 speed slush box, Vs Dave's 4 pot with a 6 speed manual. I expect Dave's is a quicker car but I enjoyed the 320 mile journey I did in mine yesterday. They're nice cars to cover distance in, long lasting if well maintained and currently quite affordable.