Ronnie's New Toy - off topic (Mercedes)

[DAVES89]

My wife's 2018 Chrysler Town and Country mini van has a whole body panel under the car. Their is a circular access panel for the oil plug. The cannister in a housing on the top of the engine is also on her car. That seems to become more popular in later year cars. On her car it's really quite quick an easy. Her car uses 0x20 synthetic oil.

[Top Down]

Hats off to Mercedes for using a cover under the engine............so tired of seeing fluid stains on the garage floor or driveway.

[ship]

I had two Chevy impalas with the 283ci engine in the late sixties.  They had canister oil filter housings at the bottom near the oil pan.  Twice during my ownership when changing oil and filter, not knowingly I miss-thread the filter canister, put in 5 quarts of oil, and started the car.  Five quarts of oil gushed onto my dad's driveway...what a freakin' mess!

[Ronnie]

Just when I thought I had most of the Mercedes problems solved and I felt comfortable about driving it, I turned on the headlights last night and the switch made a crunching noise and then the lights stopped working. Glad I was home and not going down the highway. A little searching showed it is a common problem with these cars. Thankfully the switches are still available new and not too expensive. I should get a new one Saturday. I hope it will be as easy as a Reatta headlight switch to install.

 

I think I might have caused the switch to fail by playing with it yesterday. The switch has some weird positions on it that I doubt had been ever used before and I was testing them out.

 

The Off position is straight up. Parking and Headlights are to the right as usual on some American cars. Here is where it gets crazy.  From the Off position, if you turn one click to the left, the Right side parking lights come on. If you turn two clicks to the left the Right side parking lights go off and the Left side parking lights come on. I have no idea what that would be used for. It must be a European car thing. 

[Ohjai]

Parking lights.

[Ronnie]

41 minutes ago, Ohjai said:

Parking lights.

Yeah, but is a choice between Left Parking Lights, OR Right Parking Lights, OR Both Parking Lights, really needed? Seems like just the position where all the parking lights coming on at the same time covers all the bases.

[Ohjai]

It depends on what country you are driving in, and what side of the road you are parking.  In England the car is always parked with the eft side to the curb, In Belgium when I drove over there, I believe it was always park with the right side to the curb.  If I remember correctly there are time over there you need all 4 lights, just like we do here in the US.

 

[Ronnie]

On 7/18/2023 at 7:40 PM, Ronnie said:

The Off position is straight up. Parking and Headlights are to the right as usual on some American cars. Here is where it gets crazy.  From the Off position, if you turn one click to the left, the Right side parking lights come on. If you turn two clicks to the left the Right side parking lights go off and the Left side parking lights come on. I have no idea what that would be used for. It must be a European car thing. 

After installing the new headlight switch today I discovered more features I didn't know the switch had. If you turn on parking lights or headlights you can pull the rotary knob out one click and it will turn on front fog lights built into the headlights. If you pull the knob out two clicks it will turn on the front fog lights plus amber colored REAR fog lights built into the taillights. All this is done by a switch about the size of a golfball. The MB electrical engineers must have been trying to see how much the could cram into one switch.  🙂 Harder than a Reatta headlight switch to change but not too bad.

 

 

[ship]

Ronnie, one of the first things we back yard mechanics always ask, "do you own a factory service manual for your car?".  Well, do ya?🤪

Edited July 22, 2023 by ship

[Ronnie]

I bought an electronic version of the service manual off eBay. Never did get it to work on my computer. Now I'm looking for a used paper copy.

[Ohjai]

Ronnie, on some electronic manuals you have to back date the clock of your computer to match the date of your manual.

[Ronnie]

5 minutes ago, Ohjai said:

Ronnie, on some electronic manuals you have to back date the clock of your computer to match the date of your manual.

The problem was the software for the manuals was written to be run on OS2 machines. In order to get Windows to run it you had to install virtual machine software (VMWare)  to run the OS2 operating system. My computer would not run the VMWare software in order to run OS2 as a virtual machine. To me it wasn't worth all the hassle of trying to get it to run. I would like to find a repair manual in .pdf format but it doesn't seem to be available. A paper manual would do but they are expensive.

[Ronnie]

After installing the new headlight switch yesterday, I took the MB out for a drive after dark tonight. I've had several American cars with fog lights under the bumper, S-10 pickup, S-10 Blazer, Equinox, and Reatta to name a few.  There just isn't any comparison between them and the fog lights built into the MB headlight assemblies.  With the American cars I've had you don't hardly notice the fog lights when you turn them on. When you turn the MB fog lights on you feel like you are submerged in a white light that surrounds the front of the car and about 8-10 feet on each side. Some of the things the MB engineers did were kind of silly, like brake pad sensors and powered headrests on the seats, but they did a great job on designing the fog lights.

[Ronnie]

On 6/18/2023 at 2:08 PM, Ohjai said:

Yes Ronnie, that's what they are called flex couplers, I have always had difficulty recalling the name of parts, but I have managed.

 

We were on a Rolls tour in Florida a few years ago.  A couple from Virginia had a vibration when they arrived in At. Augustine. About five miles from the hotel on the first day, he is pulled along side of the road.  The flex coupling had failed, resulting in the transmission being driven up through the floorboard tunnel.  Needless to say his tour ended, and his car towed back home.

 

When you replace them, use new grade 9 bolts (the black ones).  Also, the bolts go in a certain direction, there are arrows indicating the direction. But those buggers are tight.  Using softer bolts will not stand up to the torque over time.  Keep in mind they are made of material that degrades with age, NOS probably is not a good idea. 

Thank you for alerting me to this problem and for the tip about the bolts.  I checked my flex discs and the front one is needing to be replaced. Although I couldn't see any cracks in the rubber, the front one has rust showing around the steel inserts where the bolts go through. I've read on the MB forums that's one of the first signs (besides obvious cracks) that the flex disc is going bad. The rear one looks good. I think it might have been replaced at the MB dealership. I believe I saw something about it in the service records I got with the car.

 

I will be changing both, front and rear flex discs, as well as the transmission mount, while I have the car off the ground. All are relatively inexpensive and fairly easy to replace. I don't want to take a chance on the same thing happening to me that happened to the coupe from Virginia. If the front one goes out on a MB like mine it can take out the the transmission tail shaft housing, the transmission mount and crossmember, all the shifter linkage, warp the driveshaft, and beat the sheetmetal under the car all to hell.  All of that over a part that costs less than $100 going bad.

 

As far as I can tell, the center support of the two piece driveshaft is in good condition. That's good because the exhaust system has to come off to get at it. Even though the exhaust doesn't have any rust on it, I don't like dealing with exhaust systems unless it's absolutely necessary. Seems like exhaust system bolts like to seize and break for no reason.

[DAVES89]

Any updates on the Mercedes? Any new projects or is everything completed?

[Ronnie]

Thanks for asking Dave. I didn't think anyone here would care about my new toy.

 

Mechanically there are no issues. I checked the rubber flex disks on each end the driveshaft that I was worried about and they were good. I think they must have been replaced by the Mercedes dealer at some point because they are known for the rubber cracking when they get old. Mine has no cracks at all.

 

The engine starts and runs perfect. Even though I just use it for evening drives and short trips on the weekend like I did the Reatta, I wouldn't be afraid to drive it anywhere. Power delivery is surprisingly good considering it's a 2.2 litre four cylinder engine. Like the Reatta, it has plenty of low end torque, but it also likes to turn a lot of rpm if you want it to. It's a lot of fun to drive but it's not a hotrod. Fuel mileage is good, 30-33 MPG is normal driving around town and the backroads (Reatta got about 22), but that is offset somewhat by having to use Premium fuel that costs 60-80 cents more per gallon than regular. Last time I filled up I paid $4.01 per gallon for Shell. Regular would have been $3.22.

 

Outside it looks really good when it's clean (black paint is hard to keep looking that way). I spent a lot of time using a clay bar on the paint. Now the paint is as smooth as a baby's butt. There are still some rock chips and scratches that I wish weren't there. I touched them up and they look pretty good. When talking with a friend on the phone, who built and painted his Shelby Cobra replica, I told him I thought it would pass the 10 foot rule when looking at it. When he saw it at a local car show he said he thought it would pass the 2 foot rule. That made me feel good about it.

 

Everything inside the car works as it should except the fuel gauge. It's very erratic and can't be relied on. For the most part the interior looks almost like new, with the exception of the drooping headliner that I have pinned up for now. No one notices it unless I point it out. I might take it out and have it recovered this winter. Not decide for sure yet about that. It's like a Reatta. when you start removing plastic trim parts to get the headliner out you run the risk of breaking a lot of stuff that might be hard to find and replace. Not many Mercedes in the junk yards around here.

 

 

 

 

[ship]

Sounds like a real keeper.  I like the body style.

Edited October 6, 2023 by ship

[Ronnie]

1 hour ago, ship said:

Sounds like a real keeper.  I like the body stile.

It certainly is a unique little car. It is amazing how different a German car is from a Reatta. I'm enjoying it a lot but I've still not decided if it's a keeper. 

 

 

[Ronnie]

On 10/5/2023 at 6:38 PM, Ronnie said:

I'm enjoying it a lot but I've still not decided if it's a keeper. 

Well, I made up my mind. I sold it last week. I decided it wasn't a good Reatta replacement.

Below is the last photo I took of it. I hope the land behind it never sells. Over the last 20 years I have sold 7 cars from that spot on the side of the road.

 

[Ohjai]

😄🙃😇