1999 Mercedes CLK - Back in one piece + new wheels

[rr69h]

Mar 8, 2018 15:12:43 GMT astranaut said:

A friend of mine bought one of these complete with AMG 18" Monoblocks for 400 2 years ago, lovely motor to be a passenger in but never drove it. He removed the wheels and sold it for the same amount a few weeks ago. Went to the local Scrapyard yesterday and guess what was sat in there... he was bit gutted when I showed him. Shame really, a lot of car for the money.

Ouch, that indeed hurts a bit. But I guess you cannot save them all sadly. There comes a point in time where all necessary repairs sum up to more money than the car is worth... at which point cars like these usually get broken for spares. Which is perfectly understandable - most people give me funny looks when I tell them that I actually enjoy fixing an old car.

Mar 8, 2018 15:12:43 GMT astranaut said:

Lovely job you've done on yours, it really doesn't look as old as it Is, and you cannot beat pillarless doors. Shame Mercedes skimped so much on the steel/rust protection.

Thank you! I'll do my best to keep this one going.


As for Saturday. The day started with new engine mounts - a job people speak about in not the most pleasant tongue. Access is rather limited, but it's not as bad as the internet wanted me to think it is. Both of them were well and truly shot, have a look at a 200.000 miles one vs. the 0 miles one:




The difference in height shows you even more why it needed replacement. The inner structure had simply disintegrated so that the whole mount was basically split in half.

Prop shaft flex discs where next and the car got a new set of brakes in the front:


So much better. The car now drives much more pleasant with the engine mounts making the biggest difference. It really is a night-and-day kind of difference: the slight vibration at idle is now gone, so are about 90% of all driveline noises. It's unbelievably quiet inside. All of this adds up to the car feeling 10 years younger giving me a slight indication what these CLKs must have felt like when they were new. Quite impressive.

So it's time for a bit of an update on that never ending to do list:

Mechanicals
- fine-adjust the gas pedal linkage / electric motor for better pedal feel. It's currently way too sensitive.
- fix two small oil leaks on the engine
- check timing chain tension
- do another oil change after 1000 miles since I could see a bit of crud inside the oil filler neck on first inspection Done. Nothing worth reporting about.
- find out if the fluid on the front of the gearbox means something serious (already cleaned that off, let's see if it returns...) Done. It was indeed an oil spill.
- Slap on new brakes before winter. There's much meat still left, but one disc is juddering Done.
- Check all crank case breathers for carbon buildup
- See if I can find a bit of extra smoothness on the engine idle. These engines should run virtually vibration-free. Mine isn't as smooth as it should be. Done, without even touching the engine itself.
- Fix one exhaust bracket Done.
- Find the reason I can't move the gear lever into the manual gate. The gearbox is fine, the previous owner reported of hearing a bit of plastic shatter in the centre console.
- Recharge the A/C-system and get rid of the wet-dog-smell every time you turn off the A/C

Electrical
- find out why the car indicates a blown bulb every time I switch on the main beams. All bulbs work as they should. The light switch is the most likely culprit. Done.
- have the 2nd key to the car fixed and maybe have the ignition lock restored / resoldered. These are reported to fail on high-mileage cars.
- fix one broken bulb in the instrument cluster Done. Twice actually.
- find out why the sunroof loses its memory from time to time and has to be retrained to properly open/close in one continuous motion instead of just moving 2 inches at a time
- polish the headlight lenses for better visibility Done. But probably needs redoing.

Body
- Clay, compound and polish the whole thing: I just can't stand how scratched and unloved it looks!
- Remove rust from the tailgate
- Remove rust from the rear arches
- Remove first hints of rust from the driver's side sill
- Remove rust from the passenger door
- Remove rust from the passenger side front wing
- Replace the front wing on the driver's side since it's probably too far gone
- Remove rust from the bonnet All done.
- Get rid of the dampness inside the driver's side indicator on the wing Done. New ones installed since they were dirt cheap from the main dealer.
- Repair crack in the front bumper or replace it alltogether
- Leave lots of €€€ at the painter's Done.
- Replace all seals on the driver's side window. These have shrunken badly and have started causing wind noises after I adjusted the window
- Take the driver's side door apart and find out what the mechanic who was in there before me left unbolted. The door makes noises untypical for a Mercedes on closing. Namely: rattling. Investigated, but not fixed yet. We're missing trim clips which will get rid of the rattling.
- Find out why there's a draft from the lower driver's door when the sunroof is open. The seal looks fine and is correctly in place so I'm a bit baffled as it stands.
- Replace sunroof seal and fine-adjust the mechanism for less wind noise
- Service and lubricate windscreen wiper mechanism
- Polish driver's side window and windshield to get rid of all those fine scratches
- Repaint exhaust tip Done.

Interior
- Give it all a blöödy good clean
- Restore the leather to good health. It has been conditioned regularly so it's nice and soft. It just looks unloved. Done.
- Restore pneumatic bolsters in the driver's seat since it's much slower in operation than the passenger side
- Replace one seat adjusting leaver since it's just gone AWOL
- Repair two rips in the plastics (one on the glove box and one on the centre console)
- Replace speaker grille on the passenger side door
- Replace driver's side door card (it's just shaggered)
- Replace broken cover on one vanity mirror Done.
- Polish all interior wood parts
- Get rid of a pretty intense air freshener smell Done.
- Repair cupholer for the rear seats
- Replace cup holder for the front seats (half of it is missing) Done.

Goodies and gadgets
- Find and install an original COMAND 2.0 navigation unit. I'm currently negotiating the price for a reconditioned one. These things were painfully expensive when new.
- Find and install the wheels I want. Done.
- Find and install an original auto-dipping rear view mirror with a yellow illumination-LED. DONE! I'm yet to figure out how I can take a picture of its effect for you. It bathes the whole interior in a warm, amber light at night. Already love this feature.
- Install an original PDC-system. The CLK is really hard to see out of and park. Especially after the trip to the painter's I don't want to immediately scuff up the bumpers!
- Find and install collapsible outside mirrors
- Find and install a switch panel including the one missing switch compared to mine: the switch for the alarm system. I just like the look of a switch panel with no blanks.

[rr69h]

Hello everyone!

When plants start growing from your winter hack you know that it's summer time.


The CLK is now in hibernation and it tackled the winter quite gracefully, I must say. A couple of fixes happened though, before it was time for its TÜV-inspection.

First and foremost was fixing the oil leak coming from the oil filter housing. This is a very common weak spot on the M112 and M113 engines and is pretty easy to fix. The only difficult bit is finding a 46mm socket to get the oil filter housing off. But armed with one of these it was a breeze. No more leaks:


I then had a go at preparing the A/C for a bigger operation. As stated on pg.2 the compresssor wouldn't engage and threw an error code. There are however multiple things that might cause this. I went through the diagnostics menu again and was quite surprised to see this:


Position no. 5 shows you the reading of the evaporator temperature sensor. And it apparently was under the impression that it's 72°C under my dashboard rather than the 20°C ambient temperature I've had that day. And here comes the best bit: the new sensor was only 7€ and it fixed the A/C which now blows ice cold when it's supposed to. Happy days!

Gave the car a clean and mounted a new rubber onto the antenna...


...before I handed the car over to the TÜV-test. It passed first time with no advisories!

So before tucking it away I've had some time to reflect. This car made driving through the winter quite enjoyable. It was totally relieable, comfortable, fast and it gave me plenty of opportunities to get the spanners out whenever I felt like it. Not that I essentially had to.






I've grown quite fond of it, I must admit. And a part of me is looking forward to November when it'll return to the road. Until then it's under the Unimog's watchful eyes.

[rr69h]

Hello and happy new year!

The CLK is back from the shed and has started serving its daily duties without any hassle at all.

It only took a brief moment though before it made mincemeat of its driver's side window regulator. An unpleasant crunching-noise resulted in me having to drive through the night at close to 0°C with the window open. Gah. This does keep you awake though - and the culprit was quickly found the next day after removing the door card:


What you see here is where four of the six rivets go that hold the regulator in place. Doing the math reveals: three are missing. And this then results in the rest of the mechanism to disintegrate and bend quite badly:


But hey. This part served the car well for almost 20 years and over 200.000 miles. Not too shabby. In its place is now a pattern part which seems to work perfectly. Let's see then if it makes it another 20 years or is done for after a measly 19...

I've had to do this in a bit of a rush, because I was almost running late for our very first road trip, hooray!


Christmas was looming and it was time to visit the relatives deep down in Bavaria. To avoid the heaviest of traffic I drove 400 miles right through the night which felt really special. I'm now trusting the car enough to serve as a TCCGH (=trans-continental Christmas gift hauler) and it rewarded me with a nice relaxing drive. We were storming down the A8 towards the Austrian border when all of a sudden the Alps came into view with their snow-covered mountain-tops... breathtaking.






All too soon it was time to head back home. The weather improved dramatically, too. This is us near Stuttgart...


...and back home after about 900 miles.


The car didn't miss a beat - after all the work we've put in it really starts to feel like the premium motor it once was. We've gained memories of happy relatives enjoying their presents, a few pounds from over-eating and... a few more oil leaks which were easy enough to fix in that relaxing time between Christmas and New Year's Eve.

So, culprit No 1 was this little cover which - I have been told - is quite common on the M112 engine. It's a service access to the main oil galleries where one can screw an external oil pressure gauge into:


It's that square cover with the screw in the middle held in by two bolts. Other than wondering if there's any oil gushing out when you remove said cover (spoiler alert: yes) replacing the rubber seal is a doddle.

Culprits 2 and 3 required a bit more spannering:


Changing the valve cover gaskets was on my list anyway to check the engine for oil sludge buildup and the crankcase breathers, too - further common problem areas of the M112 engine. I'm happy to report: all is well.


I'll end this post with a visual reminder why it's generally a good idea to keep an eye on rubber gaskets. On the left we have the new seal all soft and squishy - on the right you see the old one. It did well for 20 years, but it's not meant to go on forever.


So far so good - it looks like the majority of the leaks have gone, but there's still some work left to do. Watch this space.