'04 Mercedes C209 CLK 270 CDI Avantgarde ; Sold!

[ChasR]

I never pictured putting this up on RR, as it didn't seem to suit the vibe. With this section however, and the CLK now being a dead model, I think maybe it has earned its place.

This is going to be a retrospective look-back on how the car came along. It may also serve as a means of diagnosis for some here too. Furthermore, it may give an idea of what these are like to live with, and how they are inside. Until recently these were sub £2k cars quite comfortably. Now, it seems a good one is above that, with facelifted cars being double now! But we'll get to that soon enough.

Despite owning it for 4.5 months, it still kept me quite busy! Then again, I did buy this as a going concern, so maybe part of that was self-inflicted!

But on that note, here's a shot of when I bought it. Considering the M3 is a similar generation car, you can tell that the E46 was older and a '98 based designed. But I'll spill more later on. For now, here are some shots of the car.

[ChasR]

So, what's the story with the car?

Back in '97, it seems Mercedes wanted to change how the E-Class Coupe was done. Of course at this point, this had been around for years in the form of:

-C114
-C123
-C124. ; The final facelift of this becoming the E-Class.



Obviously the estate versions of these cars were S1xx, only made in the 124 series previously.

However, the E-Class Coupe would soon change its strategy and be changed for many years. It seems the idea of the CLK was to have the E-Class looks, but with C-Class underpinnings. In the case of this car's predecessor, the C208, would use the W202 underpinnings, with this car, the C209, using the W203 underpinnings. Quite a change from its forebearers.

Why a new name? Maybe this was done to time in with the then innovative SLK, which was a coupe-convertible. Maybe they wanted a way to reduce the engineering costs? It could be that they wanted the CLK to become a smaller car than its forebearers. It could also that they wanted a the pretense of a 'newer model' to bring in more sales. I.e they were repackaging the car, and not re-inventing the wheel.



The CLK however was short lived. It lasted 13 years in production, where the E-Class Coupe was re-introduced, but with the CLK engineering philosophy.

The CLK would also represent to me the last of a number of things for Mercedes

-The last of the vast array of naming conventions. After all, this car went back to being an E-Class
-One of the last Mercs to have a 5 cylinder diesel engine ; This is after all, partially how Mercedes got their reputation.
-One of the last Merces to also have a dashboard unique to a non-mainstream, but affordable car ; I suppose the SLK now has that title, albeit with a similar dash to the rest of the range now.

Anyway, I digress. How did I come to get this? It was chance and circumstances.

Many will remember that I had probably one of the rarest Mondeos made. A MkIV Titanium but with the Volvo 2.5 Turbo 5 pot. I did adore that, and it was in the family for years. With a nice cabin, but a lusty 5 pot, it was a classic example of a mundane car being transformed into something a little better. I say rare, as Ford appear to have only made 1,000 examples of these while the Mk4 Mondeo was made. I know many don't turn up for sale, and generally, they sell quickly. I guess big petrols weren't a thing back in the late 00s, where diesel was king.









However, there were a number of things putting me off about it in its months prior to me selling it.

-MPG : It was getting worse IMHO. This may have been related to the shot front tyres on it in addition to the very poor dampers
-Gearbox : The gearbox was lovely to use, as with Ford cars, albeit it was a Volvo M66 gearbox. However, going to Wolverhampton and back from Warwick was not fun with a manual. I know the purists here will be criticising me, but in traffic, you just want a car that's easy to get along with
-Spares ; Most of them were available, but quite a few were Mondeo 2.5T specific, which meant expensive. A clutch for example is no difference in price to my M3! Focus RS ones are half the price, but I also didn't want a heavier clutch in a car I drove in traffic alot, which is what happened to my friend's Focus ST.
-Working on it : I'm used to working on awkward cars. After all, I had a Stag, a 944 and a Mondeo V6 before this to show that I was a glutton for punishment. However, with me becoming a homeowner, with the bonus of a garage, this started eating into my time. I wanted a simple car, which Mechanics wouldn't moan about or break 'because it's a Ford" or "It's a curse word to work on, I don't care about breaking it because I'm being paid", which is a mentality that affects a number of mechanics I've seen IME. I do know a great one, but booking him in at short notice is hard, with me often waiting weeks.
-Prioritisation ; I want to work on the M3 more, but working on another car that's more awkward to work on wasn't going to solve that.
-A change ; I had driven it for 7 years, and owned it for 3. I had also maintained it for those 7 years.

When I went to Wolverhampton twice and had a fuel and food bill for £70 for those two days, along with horrendous traffic on the Friday, that was the final straw. It had to go!

Upon putting it up for sale, I had alot more interest than I thought for a rare petrol Mondeo with 190,000 miles on it, even at £2,000! However, a friend made me an offer and bought it off me. Was I really too hasty in getting rid of it? It was a good car! I even changed the dampers all round on it!

However, what I wanted instead was a diesel automatic. Odd when everyone is going away from diesel! But I rarely drive into Birmingham, and an automatic was going to help with city driving where I am now, and those tedious motorway trips. So I narrowed it down to:

-120d 5 door but an M47 engine. This did rule out the 123d as a result
-320d or 325/330d Touring, as above, but I was happy to try an N57 in the 6 pot flavours.

I wanted an M engine to escape the timing chain woes. I also fancied a BMW as despite being riddled with faults like most teenagers, sorry, teen cars are, they are easy to work on, have documented fixes, and a great spares backup.

With that the Mondeo went, but I was carless. However, my friend had the CLK at the time, which while not fitting the brand type or body shape, did fit the rest of the bill. It was also cheap. Quite cheap TBH. It did have its share of issues, but these were declared to me.

With that done, I went from 1 5 pot car, to another! It was also be my second 5 cylinder diesel Mercedes, the first being the W124 250D which I owned.

But, as I said, this car had problems. These included

-The badly cracked windscreen ; my friend sold it for this reason, since, as a trader, he'd need to pay full price. Around £400. Ouch!
-Glow plug fault : It generally started fine however.
-Glitchy headunit, albeit a Chinese one
-Knocks from the front suspension, suspected as being the ARB bushes or the lower arms.
-Vibrations, albeit mild into the cabin at idle.
-Leaking diesel whenever the fuel tank was brimmed. This one he didn't know about.
-Keyless-go switches not working on the driver's door handle.
-Warped rear brake disks, causing a vibration.

So, I would soon get stuck in. It was more work than I wanted to do on a car, but it was what it was. I guess it was the price for me going cheap

More will come later on with this.

[ChasR]

I've neglected this, mainly as I've been busy on the replacement for this car, which I'll discuss later on. After all, this CLK has an end point in sight.

As I said, I never banked on getting a CLK, but I did fancy trying at some point the last 5 pot made by Mercedes for a car. I could see why folks never picked this engine. If we start off about the negatives:

• It's very noisy. Compared to (albeit the last generation) the M57 TU2 in my 325d and the DW10J4 twin cam unit in my dad's Mondeo Mk4, you know for definite when this engine is running. It vibrates through the car, and you can hear it outside of the car. It's rattly, knocky, and generally, below 1.5kRPM quite un refined. I recall the OM602 in my W124 not being great, but I'm sure it was better than this. The previous owner (a friend) did warn about this, and he tried to get around this issue, with new engine mounts from Febi Bilstein in addition to new gearbox mounts ; This would also be the 3rd 5 pot he owned, after 2 W211 E270 CDIs.
• Some specific spares require some thought. It seems alot is shared with other Merc diesel engines of the time, the OM612. However, some sensors need ideally to be a good brand or genuine only.
  
  As an example, this car once had an EML come on for a cam sensor when my friend had it. An Intermotor one was fitted. Not my favourite, but to be fair, they are cheap. It fixed the problem for a year. Then the light came on again, and then the car refused to start. A Bosch one was 3 times the price from the motorfactors, and not much different to a factory unit. But, it would save on needing to wait for a breakdown truck. 30 minutes later, the car was running and came to me 2 years later with the Bosch sensor still working.
  
  To be fair, a few cars from the 80s and 00s can be this fussy, all of the way from spark plugs. I guess it's about knowing them. It's part of the fun right?
• Feeling of electrical maladies. This car had its share of electrics. Seats, climate, mirror function (folding on this car). You just didn't trust it. One would bite me later, which I'll get to.
• Rust : It's a 90s-00s Mercedes, so this would be inevitable!

There was plenty to like however:

• Looks : The rear of the car I never was a fan of. It looked too old man. The front however I do quite like. It's also a pillar-less Coupe, which looks amazing with the windows fully dropped down
• The little things that make it a Mercedes: These were criticised for being expensive when new, especially when these cars were basically a parts bin special ; Bodywork and interior were either bespoke like the dashboard is, or W211 (E-Class) based. The powertrain and running gear like the suspension etc.? W203 (C-Class) based. But it did feel special to warrant that cost when new IMHO.
  
  The dashboard is a lovely bit of design, and carrying over the folding mirrors complete with from the W208 CLK was a lovely touch. The Multi-Function-Display (MFD) was, at least in my eyes, very cool looking, and intuitive once you got used to it; It also had alot of settings which were handy to play with. It seems Merc thought this was good too, with this being carried over into the W204 series of C-Class some years later.
  
  Having Keyless-Starting was also a nice bonus. I think it's one of the earliest cars I've seen it where it was an option. The first BMW to get keyless starting would be the E90 generation, and Ford didn't join the game from memory until around 2008. So it definitely had the Mercedes innovation about it.
  
  Couple that with some practicality touches, nice touches via an assisted tailgate release, cruise control as Mercedes do it (along with a handy speed limiter), I can see why Mercedes sold these relatively well out of the C-Class stable.
  
  Despite the rear seats generally not having pre-tensioners, it seemed these ones did bizarrely! You could tell this had some serious thoughts put into the design!
• The driving dynamics may not had felt like they had the Ford agility, especially coming from the Mk4 Mondeo and the Mk3 ST220, the latter feeling like an enlargened pocket rocket, with a sprinkling of refinement via the engine. Compared to the M3, it didn't feel anywhere near as agile, but that probably is an unfair comparison; A 330Ci Clubsport probably is fairer. I'd say the ClubSport feels more agile, but not by as much as you'd think. But this did have refinement, and the feeling of being competent on country lanes, in addition to being a lovely cruiser on the motorway. I'll touch on this later. I wanted more grip, and almost splashed the car on pricier tyres, but I kept my nerve and made do with the Rapid front tyres, with Generals on the rear
• The engine. Sure, it was noisy at low RPM, and made its presence known. But when it made its move, it really did go! It was a little smokey at times initially on throttle, but it was responsive for a diesel and swift. Maybe this was remapped, who knows?
  
  Also, being a 5 pot, it did make a characterful sound when making progress
• Practical. This car was unusually practical for a coupe! Really! Were the engineers of Mercedes bored when they made this, or going with a design brief for making in their eyes a 'perfect luxury coupe for the price point'?
  
  The rear seats fold. That's not a big deal. The rear bench folding up, allowing for a flat boot floor with the seats down is. I've never seen a 3 box designed Coupe with this feature. The E36 and E46 BMWs didn't, always having a raised angle with the seats down. While the 944 did, the rear seats were tiny, and that was hatchback based, with a very high boot floor. This made this car spacious for a Coupe and meaning it really could almost compete with a hatchback for load lugging.
  
  While the rear seats aren't Mondeo or 5 series big, they are large enough for short to medium car journeys
  
  [li]Parts availability : It's a Mercedes. Most things can be bought via the aftermarket, and if not, the dealer still stock alot of parts for these. This IMHO is crucial for a daily driver, and is something which affects using an 80s- late00s car now. BMW and Mercedes seem to keep a good stock of bits for their older cars, compared to VAG and Ford ; my ST220 was gaining a list of bits which were NLA.
  
  

So it seemed this was an unlikely car for me to appreciate. Maybe it's just because I like cars!

It did have a few issues when I got the car, which I alluded to. Upon driving it back, I liked how it seemed it could just eat up the miles on a long journey, and how that torquey 5 pot engine just made swift progress. OK, I didn't get the car I set out of, but I enjoyed this adventure.

But there were two issues I had almost straight away

-Quite a strong smell of diesel fumes. At traffic, it was almost unbearable. I don't know how my friend managed!

-It was leaking diesel! I could smell it, and I was greeted with a puddle on the driveway. Obviously, this was a safety concern!

On one evening, I put it on my friend's ramp, and we noticed the fuel tank was very well. There was no obvious source of the leak. With everything cleaned up, from the undertray to around the fuel tank, I carried on, and noticed the leak reduced. Obviously, this couldn't have been a pipe issue.

The issue was swiftly found however, once I discovered that the rear seats folded flat.




The sealing ring was loose! A very odd issue. The nuts didn't appear to be disturbed before either! With a few cold blows, and me monitoring the area for leaks, that was the first issue fixed.

The main issue, the windscreen, is the main reason why my friend sold it. Being a trader, it was going to set him back £400 for a windscreen. Ouch! Not really an issue for me. Downside was, I'd be driving around with a bad windscreen for about a month of two. I know I know. He lived with it for alot longer!

The day then came to change it. I would soon see why it was expensive.
-It was blue tinted ; apparently this is rare on cars now
-It had a sensor built into the windscreen. Another cost!




So, that was one problem fixed.

The other issue around the fumes? That would take a little more investigation.

[ChasR]

After some investigation, something became quickly apparent. This thing could move! Just not as I expected

I didn't like how it was either slow to take off, or completely overwhelmed the tyres or how the gearbox seemed slow to shift! I await to hear the two pedal haters saying "it's an auto, they all do that sir".

However, considering my E320 in working order was not like this and with a 'weaker' and older gearbox, I thought I'd try and investigate. After some time later, I realised something about the gearbox.

The 722.6 gearbox in this Merc has two gearbox modes.

-C for Comfort
-S for Standard

The idea of Comfort is that the gearshifts were smoother and it was like more of a winter mode. My friend had driven this car alot in Comfort, as he didn't like how high the engine revved at times in Standard Mode, and preferred the smoother shifts.

I know OFG, who do the standalone controllers for retrofitting the 722.6 into older cars, recommend firmer shifts for longevity, albeit that is from memory. So I tried it in S.

Suddenly, from me finding it tricky to leave junctions due to either too little go or too much go, I could now dial it in far better. Sure, it revved a little higher at times, but it upshifted earlier too! This is more like the car I wanted

After all, part of the reason I fancied an auto daily driver was to:

-deal with City traffic
-also deal with the tedious journey going to Wolverhampton and back at the time.
-have a relaxing place to be if I came from climbing/mountain biking or something akin to this (DIY work on the house?)
-ensure I had a car I could drive more often if I ever injured myself from one of the above, as well as from working on cars.

If the 'box wasn't going to deliver however, this would cause problems with the above!

However, there were two issues this car still had.

-The exhaust fumes
-A rattle from behind somewhere, suspected of being the exhaust.

This would need more investigation

[pow]

The 766.2 in C also pulls away in second instead of first, in S (which I always thought was Sport in my SLK) it'll pull away in first meaning it gets out of a junction much quicker.

[ChasR]

Apr 4, 2022 14:35:02 GMT pow said:

The 766.2 in C also pulls away in second instead of first, in S (which I always thought was Sport in my SLK) it'll pull away in first meaning it gets out of a junction much quicker.

I thought it was for Sport too initially.

What peaked my interest was remembering the 722.5 'box modes in my S124 E320. That had two modes

-E for Economy
-S for Standard

I wondered if they carried over the meanings of the letters. It seems like they did.

However, the stench of diesel fumes inside of the car were getting too much for me. Maybe I'm not a seasoned warrior, but it was just a little too much in reality.

I kept on smoking this thing around, until one day I investigated what the sound. It was hard to hear with the engine cover on. They can be pesky things. I thought I could hear a whiff of it. My friend, who is a seasoned spanner monkey, could not hear a thing.

However, as soon as I got the engine cover off, I knew the news probably wasn't good.



Yup, an injector seal was leaking. The OM61x engines are no stranger to this issue, which as some of you will know, is called 'Black Death', since the fumes and diesel escaping eventually turn into a tar like mixture. Great.

From a cheap smoker, this suddenly changed the landscape a little. This issue is something the OM61x engines suffer from. That is

-OM611 :4 Cylinder
-OM612 :5 Cylinder
-OM613 :6 Cylinder

But I didn't really want to spend any cash on this. After all, it was a cheap car for me. I figured I would leave it a month before I plucked up the courage to get the injector out. Would this be wise? Time would tell here.

In the meantime, I cracked on with other jobs on the car.

One reason for why the car had diesel fumes coming in was because the bulkhead was not sealed from the cabin. It seems Mercedes didn't think much to sealing the bulkhead as well as some other OEMs.




Spot something missing.

To be honest, I almost didn't either. EPC was not much help here, with it providing a very vague image of what the part could be. 20 mins of Googling the part number however soon yielded a result. There was a foam part missing from the engine bay.

This is one thing I like about German stuff and it is something folks IMHO underestimate in getting cars. The parts diagrams tend to be out there and the stuff seems to be available in a good quality. I've not had them with the following cars

-'08 Saab ; Pattern stuff, some of which is expensive rubbish frankly.
-'03 Ford ; Many parts are now NLA. Some suspension bits are aftermarket only, where they are made. ST220 bits are drying up to some degree. Snap a steering knuckle or crack one? You'll need a breaker of a car, of which there are now less
-'08 Ford ; Ford have streamlined down their stock for these. Dampers are reduced in stock and some things are now NLA from the dealer. Snap the antenna base on a GPS equipped car? Secondhand will be your only choice. Oh, they tend to snap upon removal of the aerial, as they did when they were 6 year old cars.

So yes, it's pleasant have the bits arrive.

Speaking of which, I got the part and then did not hesitate in fitting it:







Did it fix the smell issue? No, but it did help in reducing the stench of diesel.

I then felt like doing some comparison shots in the wild near a friend's place. It seemed handy with the Mondeo ST220 after all. It's interesting that both cars were made alongside each other over the years, yet they both look quite different in style. The Mercedes is clearly a nod to the past, but with some modern touches.




Then again, that changes somewhat against a Volvo S60!


Against the M3, I would almost argue the M3 looks like an older design, even if it wasn't on the ambers.




After I stopped procrastinating with car comparisons, I decided to tackle the rear brakes vibrating. The downside? The pad retaining pin was seized in! I would need to come back to this another day, but in the meantime, I decided to venture down South, Falmouth in this case.











At least I could procrastinate with views and good beer! I think the car suited the area and blended in well. Surprising, given it was one of the older cars about!

But that's it for now. The car would leave me with a surprise before I left Cornwall, but that is for next time .

[skodacious]

Great write up 🙂 Will tune in for more!

[ChasR]

So, I would go to Lands End in this beast. Truth be told it was comfortably, and it soaked up the miles. I didn't push the car in the corners like I would, mainly as I'd had slidey moments in it closer to home. From being a man who had premium tyres on his cars, this was a mid-range/budget extraodanaire mix! It had

-Rapid Pxxx Tyres up front
-General Altimaxs on the rear.

The Generals didn't grip much but they were progressive, while the Rapids randomly gave way in the wet when pushing on. Lovely!

This would pale into significance. I would come to get into the car one day, and the windows on the driver's side wouldn't fully go up. If I am honest, they wouldn't even operate on the switches. Fantastic. This was just what I needed in a windy Cornwall. It seems Mercedes reliability had caught up with me. But at least I had some lovely sights. On top of this, the driver's side windows were slightly ajar. Remember, it's a pillarless coupe, so the windows drop to allow the doors to open.

It was annoying to say the least, especially as it just began to rain. But at least the windows weren't fully open, only slightly ajar. It was annoying having only the indicator and central locking working on the door to say the least.

But at least I could take in the sights.



However, it's fair to say that with the journey back, I did have some wind noise. This was a bit joyous. Not!

But at least the MPG looked good eh?



However, once back at home, I started to strip down the driver's side door, noting the tricky to remove door seal which attaches to the doorcard. Mercedes clearly went to town with making the pillarless system seal right.



But why was I removing the doorcard? To access this thing.



A door control module. Despite it looking quite buried, removing it was quite simple.




I decided to take a chance on this. Risky I know, but it was £50 for a replacement module from a Mercedes breaker. New they are £350, with Mercedes still carrying stock, surprising given there is a chip crisis in play. But then again, it's most likely older stock they have. But at least I managed to save some cash.

How did I figure out it was the module? Luck basically. The only two things which worked on the door were

-the Central Locking
-the indicator on the mirror

Everything else was dead. Mirror adjustment? No chance. Window lowering? Think again. Want to put a window down in the car from the driver's door? No chance. The boot opening also didn't work.

However, after a couple of hours of being careful with the door, the car was back in business.



All I had to do at this point was to do the classic thing of engaging in the following activity. Refitting is the reversal of removal.



At the same time, I decided I had enough of the warped rear disks. So I went on to change them. However, being a Mercedes with 2 pot calipers on the rear, one of the pins had seized, and I bent one punch set. Being me, I went and got some Laser punches. These got the nearside pad retaining pin to move, but not the driver's side. As a result, I went in, cut the pin, and then drifted out the remains with a thicker punch. Eventually, I could get it out.

On the other side, I cut down one of the thinner punches to prevent it bending so much. This seemed to do the trick and that side went more smoothly.



It was fair to say that the old pads were quite worn. It was also interesting to see that the new pads had stainless steel pads, possibly fitted not only to quieten things down, but more likely added as a means of removing heat transfer from the brake pad to the brake piston, and thus in turn the brake fluid. Some neat touches indeed.







The car then went and made a few friends. Firstly, there was my Mondeo ST220. While I did adore the ST220, there was no doubting that the Merc looked far more modern to me, despite the car model only being 2 years newer.




Then it was time to compare it to some Swedes. One at Caffeine and Machine, the other at my parents place.

I think it's fair to say that the Volvo may be the better looking car of the two. Not quite as old man, and with more of a modern touch. Driving both, I'd say the Volvo has the more refined engine over the Merc. Being a DPF'd Volvo, it was also less smokey than a remapped Merc too!

The seats were comfier too in the Volvo. Instead of the firm German seats, the softer seats of the Volvo just swallow you up! However, the interior of the Merc I'd say was leagues ahead. Right from my W108 280SE, and the simplicity of my W124 dash, there is just something about Merc dashboards. They just seem well put together and ahead of their time to me. That said, I'm aware the Volvo setup was quite something when it was released. I used to like the S60s back in the day, but I've always been an estate man at heart, so one of those was never to be. It would also be one reason why this CLK would be moved on later on.




Finally, this was compared to the Saab. Some folks like the Saabs and compare them to premium brands like the Merc. Comparing the two for me however is a no contest situation. They are like chalk and cheese. The Saab just looks more dated to me all round, despite the family one being an '07 Crossover car. That's to say, it has the earlier exterior but with the much improved exterior. I can see why the CLK was a success. Maybe I'll do a thread on the Saab one day, in a similar vain to the CLK one. That Saab however, I've maintained between a friend and my dad's ownership, so that thread would have quite a bit to unpack. Anyway, I digress. It's pic comparison time.




However, this takes us now into around the 3rd month of ownership. The final chapters will come soon.

[squonk]

Your lucky that the back plates on the rear brakes hadn't turned to rust (very common). When this happens the parking brake shoe retaining pins can drop out causing the parking brake to fall appart and, worst case, lock up a back wheel (guess how I know). Back plates are cheap enough but the rear wheel bearings should be removed to fit them. They usually fail shortly after. However, a common work around is to cut a slot into the back plate so that it can be twisted and fitted in place without removing the bearing. They still bolt on completely securely but a smear of RTV along the slot keeps muck and water out.

I had the door module failure problem on a C Class I owned a few years ago. It's usually either a dry joint on the PCB or corrosion on one of the connectors from water ingress into the door. They are easily stripped and fixed.

So far my CLK has had no electronic issues at all after three years of ownership. Not the same for some of the mechanics though. I had a front coil spring seat disintegrate causing the suspension to collapse on the drivers side. The seat is alloy and had corroded enough to weaken it and break. Luckily it happened while the car was in the drive or it could have been rather nasty. New strut(s), top mount bearings, gaiters and drop links fitted. Of course this happened in a January and had to be done outside in the cold!!

A rear brake pipe burst right above the fuel tank. No way was the tank coming out without cutting the straps off so a new pipe was re-routed along the inner sill. Fiited new flexis at the same time to the rear.

Earlier this year the power hood refused to go all the way up. Managed to manually close it thankfully but it was a curse word of a job to do and took two of us!!. Luckily it didn't have a fault and was just a little low on hydraulic fluid.

Latest issue was an ABS/ESP fault. Traced back to an erratic speed sinal from the O/S front wheel. A new sensor made no difference so I replaced the reluctor ring (Built in to the bearing seal). Problem solved. At the same time I fitted new brake back plates to both front hubs as they had completely disintegrated.

Mines a 320 (3.2 Petrol M112). Regarded as one of the best V6 engines Mercedes has made. I can't complain about the economy and last summer was getting 32 mpg on a run with the roof down. Around town it drops to about 25 mpg.

The engine and transmission have been faultless. Although I should add that according to my owners manual the two transmission modes are 'Sport' and 'Comfort', Not 'Standard'. Apparently the transmission is adaptive and will program itself based on your driving style in either mode. I tend to just leave mine in 'Comfort' mode as its performance is more than adequate.

Much as I like the car I'm probably going to move it on in the near future. It doesn't get used enough and I can't justify keeping it because it's 'interesting' - it isn't!! I could do with a large pickup to help with the house renovation I am doing and to stop our Voyager being used as a builders van. Looking around there are none of the J/UK/German etc ones that fit the bill (four seat cab, capable of towing 2000kg at motorway speeds and not slowing down on an incline, capable of carrying six foot fence panels, petrol engine) so it looks like it will be something like a Dodge Ram 1500 or a Ford F150. I quite like the idea of the F150 Harly Davidson edition with its supercharged V8!!!

[ChasR]

May 9, 2022 23:06:36 GMT squonk said:

I had the door module failure problem on a C Class I owned a few years ago. It's usually either a dry joint on the PCB or corrosion on one of the connectors from water ingress into the door. They are easily stripped and fixed.


The engine and transmission have been faultless. Although I should add that according to my owners manual the two transmission modes are 'Sport' and 'Comfort', Not 'Standard'. Apparently the transmission is adaptive and will program itself based on your driving style in either mode. I tend to just leave mine in 'Comfort' mode as its performance is more than adequate.

Much as I like the car I'm probably going to move it on in the near future. It doesn't get used enough and I can't justify keeping it because it's 'interesting' - it isn't!! I could do with a large pickup to help with the house renovation I am doing and to stop our Voyager being used as a builders van. Looking around there are none of the J/UK/German etc ones that fit the bill (four seat cab, capable of towing 2000kg at motorway speeds and not slowing down on an incline, capable of carrying six foot fence panels, petrol engine) so it looks like it will be something like a Dodge Ram 1500 or a Ford F150. I quite like the idea of the F150 Harly Davidson edition with its supercharged V8!!!

I am indeed a little lucky with the rear brake swap. The problem sounds as bad as E46s of the same vintage, regarding the backing plates falling apart.

Mine was defintitely standard regarding the gearbox settings, which the handbook shows below. That said, my sister's S204 C250 CDI has S as Sport. I wonder with yours being a facelift, whether that changes things. Comfort probably works better with a smoother V6 as well, compared to a 5 pot diesel, which just delivers the power in lumps.



But, I digress. I am trying to do the final push to show what happened with this car towards the end.

With the months getting colder, I noticed that this wasn't a great starter. When I bought the car I was told a glow plug was going. I was also sent over a screenshot of these codes



At this time, I thought this related to just one glow plug. But things would transpire later on.

I also, when I first got the car, changed the number plate. It came with a stick on plate of sorts when I got the car, mainly as it had a private plate on the car. The no. plate I would fit however, would have the letters fading fairly quickly. Quite dissapointing, given that the plate itself was £12 online. I would love to see where folks get these cheap plates from. It seems the dealer plates do last, but then again, they do have a 2 year warranty on them, and an easier means of acting on that warranty, compared to say a random seller on eBay. On my S124, some old Charles Wright font plates had the font being too small. In hindsight, I should have returned them, but I didn't, as the plate on that car could not be salvaged. Ah well. Lesson learnt.

I did however, refit the plinth back onto the car, which the private plate, being a shorter plate on the car, didn't need.




I would then come to change the glow plug in the car. However, I had two problems.

-Despite chucking penetrating oil down the glow plug , it didn't want to budge. I didn't go crazy at it, knowing that these can snap in the head. With the torque wrench clicking at 35Nm, I decided that it wouldn't be me who changed it.

-I wouldn't be changing the glow plug anyway, as I had a bigger problem. The injector that was leaking before? It had tar forming around it. Yup, I had the black death these OM61x engines are known for. I didn't even have the heart to take a photo of it. It wasn't bad, but there was also a smooth layer of black gunk pooling around the injector.

I felt like an idiot. Why did I leave it this long? Part of me says that I listened to folks who said I could change it within a year, since it wasn't really that audible before. The other part says despite me knowing I needed to change the injector seal sooner, I also didn't know how much of a pain it would be. The other part? The latter had me knowing that I'd spend probably over £100 on tools, which I may or may not need.

So, what would I do here? I'd give it to a mechanic I use more often now. He's often a tricky guy to book things in with, but my friend and I have used him before. Things from here wouldn't go as smoothly as I thought, but better than what the job could have turned into.

Stay tuned for next time.

[ChasR]

So, I left this with it sounding like the car had its problems. It did! In true bullet point form

• Its honking of diesel was bad! It used to give me headaches if I was sat in traffic
• It started like a tank! OK, it only ran rough for about 2 seconds, but it was long enough. It also had the smoke clouds to accompany it! No, it was not tactical warfare machine, but it was trying!
• It also had been smoking more in general driving
• The injector had the black goo beginning to form around it, looking quite akin to a species almost just beginning to take over a new lifeform. I should have taken a pic but I didn't have the heart to. I did managed to clear most of it up. The trick was to warm the engine
• With 30Nm applied to the glow plug, it was refusing to budge, despite lashings of Plus Gas, and trying on a red hot engine several times. I did with trepidation, try an impact driver at a low(ish) speed, hoping the vibrations would hopefully loosen it. I did ensure it couldn't put on more than 30Nm before I did this as well. Silly? Probably, and I may be doing with being told that! I'm intrigued to see how other folks deal with these.

Clearly, something had to be done. What did I do? I gave it to my long suffering mechanic.

The good news? He got everything done.

The bad news? The bill was £165 at a cheaper labour rate than most garages, the injector basically had to be stripped down to its core contents, and then pulled out, as it was stuck in quite badly. The glow plug he struggled with, but he didn't manage it. He would then have to get the injector pulled out, the well cleaned up, the seat re-cut and a new seal fitted.

There was another bit of bad news. I still had this light coming up on the dash.



NOTE : That isn't my car, just a picture of a CLK with the glow plug light on.

Yup, it still had problems. With it being 3 degrees outside, it was hard to tell if it was working better. It seemed to be. There was still a slight cough, but not quite as bad as before. Apparently, I am told this now had a Glow Plug module error as well. Great!

With this work done in early January, I drove it around, soaking up the scenery while I was at it. However, in the background, for months, even before I bought this, I had a friend offering me BMW E91 6 pot diesels. I never considered myself to be an E9x guy, having owned the E36 and E46. This was from my friend, who also had this beast.



This chap is a big E36 fan, having had,
-Several flavours
-An M54 3.0 Compact, so basically a 330ti?
-His own Amethyst car having been a 318iS to a 328i, and then almost an M3 in its latest iteration.
-He's repaired alot of them, and manual swapped a large number, including a friend's Cosmos Black car with alot of kit.

Yet, he adores his E91s. I can hear folks here claiming why! Truth be told, I could kind of see why. They seem to get good MPG, and at least as a passenger, they are comfortable and refined.

One day, when I went out with him to pick one up, I decided to buy it from him. He always offered me one, and this car was no exception. I normally wouldn't spend that much cash on a daily. But with the CLK needing more work than I wanted, and me not gelling with the CLK quite as much as I wanted to, it didn't help.

But why didn't I gel with the CLK?

• The OM612 engine. As I was saying to HARDCORE on the Sunday at RRW, the engine is a torquey beast, especially with a mild remap. But Jesus, it used to vibrate a bit! We both agreed it was unrefined. I know my mate who sold it to me thought so too. He's had 3 OM612 Mercs and feels they have always been the same. With this one, he's tried changing the engine mounts etc. to Febi Bilstein OE replacements, and found that it made no difference. Once moving you were fine. In traffic however, along with the previous fumes, it could get a bit much!
• The cheap tyres were annoying. It had Rapids up front, and Generals on the back. Folks say the Generals are basically Continentals on a cheaper badge, but I beg to differ. Maybe they are a Dacia Sandero to a modern day Clio is probably more accurate. The rear was progressive to be fair, but it would happily kick its out even at lowish seeds. Maybe the map didn't help matters here. I should want to keep this right? Well, no. The Rapids would suddenly understeer with little warning, and then this could at times unsettle the rear, which probably didn't help matters
• The Chinesium headunit (A-Sure for those wondering) was a great bit of kit, but also had more glitches than development car. If you came to change track, it didn't always change, so you'd have to press it twice. Once to wake it up, and then another time to change track. However, this could mean you could change track twice. I did have the Command Pro to put back in but I never got the chance, mainly as I saw no means of how to add Bluetooth to the factory setup. I also had no steering controls. Silly I know, but it's nice to keep your eyes on the road, and not a screen .
• The rear arches were rusty. I did plan on getting these done and I bought the car with these
• While the car had great styling touches, and quick a slick looking interior, even today, the outside was an odd one. I loved the pillarless windows, but not the rear lights as much

So, what BMW could take me away from this?

This one.







Despite it only using 7 litres of coolant from Gillingham back to Warwick, I still wanted it. I've never liked the E91 styling, but they do suit the estate form better, but then every car does! Mad? Maybe? Had my friend talked me into it, not quite.

The way I saw it, used cars weren't getting any cheaper. Unless I wanted to throw cash at metalwork, tyres, A Bluetooth option of sorts, possibly alternative engine mounts, and some nicer wheels, the CLK would quickly become an expensive car. Not for what they go for, but certainly for a car which I was unsure if I would actually ever gel with more. If I wanted a 3 series touring, this may be one of the last chances to enjoy something of the ilk with increasing demand for pricier and cleaner cars. While I may not be made of mine, life is too short to have cars which don't quite fit what you want to do with them.

I also had sold the ST220 a week before this too, so maybe I needed to re-evaluate what cars I actually wanted and needed. Maybe this 325d was a better compromise.

This however, would come to a crashing halt three days later.




I wouldn't be going anywhere. Until I saw one line again, and felt better, I'd be stuck in one place, and that wouldn't be a car. That would be home. It was annoying to catch it after 2 years, but c'est la vie.

More to come later.

[ChasR]

So, I had Covid. It's not the worst I've been but it wasn't great.

Once the random aches, coughing which felt like I was being stabbed in the cash, and vinegar smelling like Turpentine subsidided (OK, the taste took a while to come back!).

However,

-I had my dad's Saab to fix. The separate thread for that will detail this.
-The Mercedes needed fixing

So I went to work.

The Glow plug errors I showed you before?



I thought that with a new Glow Plug relay, I'd be home in a boat. However, we all know it's never that easy.

I thought I would repair the existing one. Being an old style relay, I figured a fuseable link had blown. Wanting to prepare to fix this the night before I went to work, I picked up some fuseable wire from B&Q, and was driven to fix it.

Upon opening up the relay box however, I was in for a surprise.






None of the links were broken. Damn!

This left pricier options. I wanted to do some diagnosis before I went buying things.

The Glow Plug relay error was present, so the car clearly wasn't happy with it. Thus I took a look over the board. It looked all OK in there. However, as I was looking for a replacement relay, I did notice one thing. This Glow Plug relay had no Mercedes markings or numbers. This clearly was an unbranded pattern part fitted at some point. However, branding can be a red herring as well.



Thus I would do some checks on the car, with my dad to help. We ascertained the following:

-It had a 12V feed to the relay
-It had a signal of a form coming to the relay, most likely a CAN signal
-The relay was working, but something on the board was stopping it from doing so.

So it was clear. The relay assembly was most likely bad. Damn, more cash!

Given that there is a chip shortage globally, it seems chip-based products are now pricier, and in some cases, brands are far reduced. I wanted a Meyle relay, as a balance between cost and quality, but there were none above. I also wanted the later design. The changes are as follows:

-Old Design : Fuseable links blow in order to protect the outcome of a short circuit
-New Design : They act more like an RCB, due to a different design

But as I said, finding a relay was tricky. Secondhand genuine replacements weren't cheap, and I didn't want a fuseable link one, as once the links blow, they will need repairing. I wanted a later version. I had a few issues however

-Autodoc went up from £80 to £110, with only one brand offering one : Hitachi I think
-ECP wanted £310!

Yikes, no way was I going to pay the ECP price! However, salvation would come via eBay. Locally, a chap was selling a Meyle item, to the later resettable design for £60. That's a price I found pallatable. It had an open box, but it was new.

You can see that the relays look quite different.







So, in the words of Les Dennis, what did our survey say?




C'mon, you know that was going to be too easy! Yup, I still had the light on. It was coming on differently however. It would pause, and then come on.

It was back to the drawing board and back to code scanning. Carly for some reason wouldn't connect, and my £10 code reader wouldn't see that there was anything wrong. Borrowing a friend's Snap On Solus however, I soon found out that it still had a glow plug relay fault. But there was no number. I had to start thinking again, as I couldn't just keep throwing parts at the car. After doing some tests on the glow plugs from the relay harness end, I discovered basically, how these cars register errors for the glow plugs.

The non-number glow plug error was for Glow Plug no. 5 being bad. I think that the same glow plug relay is used from the 4 to the 6 cylinder cars. It can number the fault for the first 4 glow plugs but it becomes generic for nos. 5 and 6.

In my case, it looked like the 5th Glow Plug was bad as well. Damn! I had to pay my man to remove the last one, as I was worried it would snap. I would decide to give this one a go myself, but how would it go?

It's funny, this glow plug fault started out as wanting to be a simple fix.

[ChasR]

Balls, the glow plug was gone! I really wasn't looking forward to fixing this! I had visions of snapping glow plugs, and more! But I had to do something.

It will be interesting to see what techniques folks use here to remove stubborn Glow Plugs, but this method didn't work on the first glow plug which I got my mechanic to change. But sometimes, you have to just go for it.

I went in armed, ready to deploy this method for doing them.



Some may say it's too soft, others too much. The fact that my mate snapped 2 out of the 6 glow plugs in his BMW E61 530d, was also at the back of my mind.

The result? Oh come on, you know how it is? So much drama, anxiety and anguish over a glow plug! And then...











It came out. It didn't even come close to setting off the torque wrench at the breakaway torque.




I will admit the engine was red hot when I undid it, but so was no.2 and that wouldn't budge. Something was interesting though. An NGK plug came out. I was under the impression these should be either Beru or Bosch. I now wondered if these had been changed before. This might explain why

-The Glow plug relay was a pattern one, which had failed
-The 2nd Glow plug was too tight. Maybe it was over-torqued by someone rushing the job. Who knows?

After this, I went to try the car again. My £12 code reader showed no error codes, but it didn't show the Glow Plug no. 5 code before anyway, so that was useless. It was time to see if the proof was indeed in the pudding!



Halleluyah! It was fixed! It's a problem I lived with for an age!

I also had other good news:





I was becoming negative. OK, it was day 7 that this test was done, but 8 and 9 would be clear .

It was time to get the car out of the garage. It was also time to deal with another issue. The TREs and inner tie rods. They were not great. So I would change them, and track them up with the Track Ace kit, lent from a friend. It did the job quite well I must say. The steering wheel was straight as an added bonus! Since I was on a roll, it was time to tackle another issue directly adter. The headlights.



Now here, I wasn't going to go the full 9 yards on them, but I was going to try a couple of techniques, all with Autoglym SRP. What would the results be? I'll feedback when I'm back from my walk.

You'll be seeing a theme however with these posts, and how and when the work is done.

[Davey]

Its been a long walk!

Hows it all going?

[ChasR]

Nov 4, 2022 13:35:21 GMT Davey said:

Its been a long walk!

Hows it all going?

It has!

Since this, alot has gone on! Without unveiling what's happened with the Merc.

-Several family events, with me becoming an uncle, and doing uncle(ish) things, in addition to folks playing catchups on weddings
-Quite a few car events, which I've done with a few friends
-Catching Covid again
-Detailing the 325d
-Sorting out things on the 325d
-Doing RRW and RRG .
-Going to Finland to see an old friend, as the UK weren't welcome earlier on during Covid
-Getting my big bike licence, and selling up my 125, to go to a bigger bike.
-Losing my uncle recently and suddenly, which was quite a shock to all

I'll play catchup soon, as I have the update for this, and the bike thread, which can continue on one of the points above.

[ChasR]

So, playing catchup, and for theme spotting.

After this was done, I would change the track rod ends and tie rods too. The car had advisories for

-Nearside and offside tie rod play
-Offside track rod end play.

When my friend and I check, we couldn't see any play in the TRE. However, there was certainly quite a bit of play in the offside tie rod. If I am being honest, the nearside had a little more than I was expecting.

But we could chat away all day. It was time to get stuck in.




The offside item came off OK. The nearside took more persuasion.

My tie rod splitter was tightened up aplenty. However, it still wouldn't split. I then got silly and tried my rattle gun on a medium setting. I still couldn't split it. I did try with a hammer before, and it was not having it. But, with the load of the splitter on, maybe now I stood a chance.

With a ballpen hammer and around 10 blows, the TRE separated with quite a bang. It didn't want to leave the the car. It was then a case of removing them, chopping off the TRE as it had seized onto the tie rod, and I needed to recycle the old boots from the car.




While I took this photo in the day, all of the work was done in one night.


With this done, we then worked with the venerable Track Ace alignment kit to align the car up. It's the first time I used one of these.





What were the results on the road? It drove the best it ever did. The nose felt lighter in the corners, it steered that bit straighter, and it stopped a knock this car had with a friend of mine as well. Yes, this fix was almost like the silver bullet we thought it would be.

All that was left to do now, was to titivate the headlights. I am always open to easier ways of maintaining cars, especially cars like these, where the value is low, so I thought I'd try something else. Someone told me that Autoglym SRP worked very well on headlights by hand. I had my doubts, but I did have other tools which could be brought to the part to help.

It's time now to show that comparison. I basically did two ways

-Autoglym by hand
-The above but with a cutting pad, and a drill, a recent cheap detailing hack I've bought, as I already had the drill

Before:



With the Autoglym by hand:










It's better, but not quite there.

Now with the drill:








Now we are getting there. Sure, it could be better. But is that a good result for minimal effort? You bet! Next time, I'll try the Ultimate Compound by Meguiars and see how that does.

Then it was time to do both, and seal them both up afterwards with Sonax lens sealant.










This comparison may be useless, or handy for those wanting to see how having products around the garage (and buying a cheap polishing set for a drill) can have an impact on your car, with regards to the lights.

By now, some of you will be seeing a pattern with what I do with cars when I fix them this much!

[ChasR]

After all of this, it was time to clean the outside, and grab some shots. Not a great clean by any means, but just something to grab photos of the car.




With the headlamp polish, it was time to grab some shots of the car.






















With that, it was a wrap. Yup, those would be the last shots I grabbed of the car. It was a bit of a bittersweet feeling at this point. I hadn't owned it long, and it was ready to go to a new owner, a friend's brother-in-law.

While I objectively preferred the interior touches to the E46, and possibly the E91, I suppose I am a Ford and BMW man for when it coms to driving dynamics, which is probably why it went down this way. That said, it was a car which I managed to help along the way a bit, and help a friend out at the same time, which can't be a bad thing .

This was back in February, where alot has changed since