My Dad is approaching retirement (in fact he is working for a funeral home to secure a discount some time in the distant future
) so I am working towards taking over the servicing of his 1999 C240.
The car has 156,xxx Km and is in brilliant cosmetic condition, dad is fanatical about keeping his cars clean, and has a full service history from Marshalls during the warranty period and independant MB specialist since.
To help reduce the running costs for him and because I enjoy working on cars I've taken on a few tasks over the last couple of weeks.
1. Electric windows became troublesome.
A quick search on the net suggested cleaning the contacts, obvious, so armed with a small mirror I had a peek under and around the console cover, saw the clips and to dads horror grabed the cover, pushed it forward a little and with a bit of force it just unclipped. The switches are easy to dismantle and with a few sprays of contact cleaner then 5 mins reassembly I had the switches back in the console and all 4 windows worked BUT without the auto up/down function, execpt the LHS rear, it worked in auto and normal mode.
Another quick search on the net and I discovered you need to sync the windows after you disconnect them. Wind them all up and hold the buttons for 5 sec, then down and the same.
End result is all 4 windows work as they should AND I have enabled a "Convenient Close" feature that opens or closes all windows and the sunroof with the key!
2. Engine Idle high on warm up and poor performance, stalling.
This was the best fun! Really it was.
The car would idle at 1100 rpm while cold but stall instantly if put into gear.
It also had no power, my folks live at the bottom of a steep hill and dad reported that some days he had to stop and wait while it warmed a bit to get up the hill.
The fix? Clean the MAF, mass airflow sensor.
Yet another net search, open the bonnet, grab the big black plastic engine cover that looks like it is moulded to the engine and lift the front and it unclips!!
Take a Torx driver and unscrew 2 selt tappers, undo a plug and a clip, remove MAF, spray with electronic parts cleaner, reassemble.
10 minutes is all it took. The car started instantly and idled at about 600 rpm.
Did not stall in gear and pulled like, well, a C240 I guess.
At first I felt it was low on torque and the transmission was flaring. A few more ks and I figured anything will feel low on torque compared to a 6.3 and the firm, positive shifts of the 6.3 tranny make the new cars feel so soft.
I have now purchased a OBD module so I can plug my laptop into his car and check the error codes, reset the service indicator and generally check out all the computers systems. I can even get some live data with the engine running, should be interesting. I'm looking forward to learning this new software and servicing procedures, it could open up a few options...
C36...
C43!!!
) so I am working towards taking over the servicing of his 1999 C240.The car has 156,xxx Km and is in brilliant cosmetic condition, dad is fanatical about keeping his cars clean, and has a full service history from Marshalls during the warranty period and independant MB specialist since.
To help reduce the running costs for him and because I enjoy working on cars I've taken on a few tasks over the last couple of weeks.
1. Electric windows became troublesome.
A quick search on the net suggested cleaning the contacts, obvious, so armed with a small mirror I had a peek under and around the console cover, saw the clips and to dads horror grabed the cover, pushed it forward a little and with a bit of force it just unclipped. The switches are easy to dismantle and with a few sprays of contact cleaner then 5 mins reassembly I had the switches back in the console and all 4 windows worked BUT without the auto up/down function, execpt the LHS rear, it worked in auto and normal mode.
Another quick search on the net and I discovered you need to sync the windows after you disconnect them. Wind them all up and hold the buttons for 5 sec, then down and the same.
End result is all 4 windows work as they should AND I have enabled a "Convenient Close" feature that opens or closes all windows and the sunroof with the key!
2. Engine Idle high on warm up and poor performance, stalling.
This was the best fun! Really it was.
The car would idle at 1100 rpm while cold but stall instantly if put into gear.
It also had no power, my folks live at the bottom of a steep hill and dad reported that some days he had to stop and wait while it warmed a bit to get up the hill.
The fix? Clean the MAF, mass airflow sensor.
Yet another net search, open the bonnet, grab the big black plastic engine cover that looks like it is moulded to the engine and lift the front and it unclips!!
Take a Torx driver and unscrew 2 selt tappers, undo a plug and a clip, remove MAF, spray with electronic parts cleaner, reassemble.
10 minutes is all it took. The car started instantly and idled at about 600 rpm.
Did not stall in gear and pulled like, well, a C240 I guess.
At first I felt it was low on torque and the transmission was flaring. A few more ks and I figured anything will feel low on torque compared to a 6.3 and the firm, positive shifts of the 6.3 tranny make the new cars feel so soft.
I have now purchased a OBD module so I can plug my laptop into his car and check the error codes, reset the service indicator and generally check out all the computers systems. I can even get some live data with the engine running, should be interesting. I'm looking forward to learning this new software and servicing procedures, it could open up a few options...
C36...
C43!!!
