Vlad-II

Hello Everybody!

Long time no see its been such a while! That's because my car (2002 C240 W203) has been running phenomenally well for the past year aside from minor issues, for the most part, not a single warning light appears on my console *knocks on wood* haha, in fact the last service I did was back in March and that was Service A. (85,000 Miles) Now that I'm nearing 95,000 miles, I would like to have some sort of insight as to what needs to be changed in the car and what type of maintenance I should do to maintain my car. Here are a few issues I've noticed this past year with the car. In fact the last major issue the car had was with the Radio which trey sent me from his car and since then has been working well, can't thank Trey enough for that radio. But anyways, my guesstimate is that I will reach 100,000 Miles by early Spring next year. (April - May 2013). So that gives me roughly 6 months to do the century mark maintenance.

MINOR ISSUES THAT I WOULD LIKE TO FIX PRIOR TO REACHING 100K

1. Squeaking while Braking. (Pads & Rotors Were Changed in 2010) Brakes are probably wearing away.

2. Groaning, Squeaking, and Creaking noises (like an old door) when turning the steering wheel, progressively worse during the colder months. Also when driving over small bumps the creaking noises are generally present. My guess is that the castors and the control arms are wearing away. I did change the Front Lower Control Arms in Late 2010 due to the violent shaking that would occur when braking at high speeds.

3. A bit rough on the steering, I have plans to change the shocks soon.

HERE ARE SOME ADDITIONAL THINGS THAT HAVE YET TO BE DONE OR CHANGED TO MY KNOWLEDGE:
4. Transmission Fluid, never been changed. Spark Plugs have never been changed, Engine Mounts have never been replaced, Fuel Pump has never been replaced, O2 sensor has never been replaced, Alternator has never been replaced.

So what should I do as I near the 100,000 Mile Mark? So do you guys have any suggestions as to what I should be doing at this point? I mean I'm a noob, when it comes to vehicle maintenance, lol. But I don't want to wait until the last minute to fix something and then more damage is done.

jkowtko

In addition to what you've already covered I can think of:

* Replace Fuel Filter (not necessarily fuel pump)
* Engine air filter and cabin filters (replace every 1-2 years)
* Check Flex Disks (in place of U-joints on driveshaft)
* On the suspension I would suggest renewing the following:
- rear shocks
- front struts, strut mounts/bearings, upper and lower control arms, sway bar links
* check tie rod ends and steering rack for play.
* differental gear fluid

Since you have a different engine from mine I don't know what on your engine is prone to failure. On the M271 engine there was a vacuum pump in the rear top of the engine that would leak and need replacement.

The grinding when turning could be your strut bearings ... there's not much other the ball joints that move a lot when you turn. I would suggest raising the car off the front wheels, turn them and see how it sounds and try to pinpoint the noise. Pull the front wheels off to get better access to the strut assembly.

For the brakes, if you can do it yourself I suggest pulling the pads, cleaning the pads, calipers and rotors with brake cleaner, and use Mercedes brake paste on the pads when you reinstall them. There are other threads that go over all of this ... lack of brake paste could be a cause of squealing.

Vlad-II

Great suggestions! Jkowto, another thing I forgot to mention was about the braking. When braking I would hear a thump like a light thump at lower speeds it's as if something is loose not sure what that could be but the first thing on the list is probably getting those front pads changed. I'll probably order the dust free ones once again. Because the noise is kinda a nuisance.

Any ideas on how I can do this as cheap as possible? Because if I were to get this done at a dealer (stealership) it would probably be the price of a down payment towards a new C300 haha. What is the best economical way to tackle all of these issues?

FraKctured

Spark plugs for sure at 100K (I think they recommend at 80K?)

Tranny fluid for sure as well.

jkowtko

Try braking when backing up ... see if you get the same clunk but in the other direction.

There are a few things I can think of:

- control arm bushing bolts are loose, allowing the bushing to shift back and forth around the bolt. These bolts should have their nuts torqued to 110 ft-lbs ... using a couple of 21mm wrenches try to tighten the nut while holding the bolt head steady (do not let it turn, just in case you have fluted bolts in one of the side positions). If you can budge the nut at all then then it's too loose.

- control arm bushings are worn, allowing the control arm to move excessively in the mount. However if this were the case I think you would notice repeated knocking while braking, and squirely behavior in general.

- control arm ball joints are worn, allowing shifting. I don't know how else to check this other than pushing or prying hard on the control arm in one direction then another.

- with car on the ground have someone move steering wheel back and forth. This will allow you to look at the tie rod ends for looseness, but also will put some pressure on the control arm ball joints and expose wear.

- check the nuts on the ball joints. They torque to 59 ft-lbs ... should be reasonably tight by hand with a 21mm wrench.

- check top of strut mounts, the portion you can see from the engine compartment underneath those straight bumper brackets. Jack up the car to take the weight off the wheels, and see if you can spot any cracking or separation on the rubber inside the hole underneath the bracket.

- check the bolts at the middle and bottom of the strut , that hold the strut casing to the steering knuckle. Those bottom bolts (17mm?) should be tight to 81 ft-lbs, and the bolt-nut on top of the knuckle should be ridiculously tight, somewhere over 100 ft-lbs.

- check springs for damage. Hard to imagine springs breaking but it's been mentioned on the forums. Jack up the car, weight off the wheels, and check the spring in the strut assembly over the tire. The entire spring is above tire level so you should be able to do this with the tire on.

- also try turning the wheels left and right while the car is raised. It should be quiet other than maybe some rubber squeaking/shifting sounds coming from the top strut mounts.

* the front suspension is on a three point mount (2 control arms, top strut mount) and the two main sections (strut, knuckle) fastened together by 3 bolts -- so if all above seems good then the core suspension shouldn't be shifting.

Brakes:

- Brake calipers .. the front mounting bolts should be 80 ft-lbs, pretty tight. If they are loose, or one bolt is missing, that's an issue.

- the brake pads should be held securely by a spring clip in addition to the pins. Make sure that spring clip is there ... however if this was missing I'm guessing you would hear a lot more noise than just a single clunk.



I wrote a laundry list for the suspension components on other forum threads ... not sure where it is right now but search for "Bilstein TC", "Lemfoerder" and "Corteco" on both mbworld and benzworld and you should find them.

The brakes I did much earlier, about 5 months ago. I spent around $450 for Pagid pads and Zimmerman coated and cross-drilled rotors all around, one brake sensor, a couple of rotor set nuts for spares, brake paste, and supplies. If I were to purchase the rotors that would have been used by the dealership for their $1250 price tag, my parts cost would have been closer to $350. The Indy wasn't much cheaper than the dealership. I guess the assumption is that if you can afford one of these cars then you can also afford to pay someone $130-150 and hour to work on them at a liesurely pace

cats320

Noise when braking on my C320 was caused by the control arm bushings. The rubber is hard to diagnose as a problem. My shop told me they were shot at 130k.
When you step on the brakes the whole wheel was moving rearward in the wheel well opening and could be seen by standing alongside as someone drove by and applied the brakes!
This is mostly the front arms that control that motion. The rear arms with their worn ball joints give you the shimmy at certain speeds.
Not hard to put in, I did check my prices on amazon and that was where I had the best deal.

Stevenizzle

Agreed on the bushings bit. My car was creaking and squeaking under braking pretty bad. New bushings fixed that right up. Mine went out 10k miles ago though at 180k, so maybe you can still squeeze some life out of those suckers (assuming they're not already shot).

brianmullanl

Tranny fluid for sure as well.

Phileros

I'm a noob.. Just bought a 2001 c320 with 93k on the clock.. Service history is good.. last one done was a B at 84k... Next service is due in 15k, so I was told.. Thanks for the info on what needs to be done at 100k.. I'm planning on enjoying this car and need all the info I can get my hands on... Great forum.. I'm learning a lot here..

Vlad-II

I figured i'd simply, this thread here to determine the best course of action. Not to mention that there are several topics already on this subject with the car shaking during idle.

As you guys already know my car has about 101,000 miles on it. I would do a post, but I figured, I'd save the time and just cut to the chase haha.

Anyway I noticed that the engine is shaking pretty noticeably when I start the car and it is Idling, and also when its on Park or Neutral. The car vibrates pretty severely and its to the point where the sound resonates through the car radio. I use an FM transmitter and I could hear the vibration resonating through the car audio during audio playback. The resonation increases at higher RPMs but the vibration goes away. Only during low RPMs the vibration occurs.

When I listen closely to the car, I could hear some sort abnormal pumping sound its kinda weird haha. I don't know if that has to do with the motor mounts or anything else. The car needs to have the 100K tuneup as you all suggested in the earlier posts.

I did read on several different forums that it could be a myriad of different issues like the Fuel Pump, the Mass Airflow Sensor, the Injectors, the Cylinders misfiring due to old Spark Plugs and even the Vacuum. These are among the different conditions that could arise to cause the nuisance vibration.

The car is at 101,600 miles, close to 102,000 actually. The Check Engine light is NOT on and the car's computer reports NO MALFUNCTION. However I did have to add a quart of Oil recently. The last Oil Change and Service B was done back in December 2012.

I plan on doing the oil change with the Tuneup, but I must first figure out how to diagnose this shaking problem because it is really annoying. Any suggestions? The car has other issues to like the Rear Window Regulator, and the Upper Control Arms needing replacements, however these are not my priority right now, I'm more focused on figuring out what is causing this shaking.

I'm coming to the conclusion that since the CEL light is NOT on, it is the transmission mount and the Engine Mounts, but it would be great to have second opinions.

Thanks!
Vlad

jkowtko

If you are planning to DIY, I suggest starting with some of the low-hanging fruit:

* the rear transmission mount is an inexpensive part ($40) and relatively easy to replace provided you have a floor jack. You will hear a collapsed mount rumble through the car's body. I can't speak to the front engine mounts but I suspect their replacement is a lot more involved.

* check the engine air filter to make sure it is not obstructed. It should have been replaced during Service B. Did they put in a good one? Did they vacuum the chamber of debris?

* If the fuel filter has never been replaced, maybe time to replace it. It is a bit more involved than the tranny mount but still very doable ... you need a slightly different set of tools. Also a relatively inexpensive part at around $40.

* I don't know that this would contribute to a vibration, but maybe pull the throttle body and give it a good cleaning?

I would think ignition problems would trigger the CEL. If you have an OBD tool, you might want to make sure the computer is throwing codes properly ... try disconnecting the wire for one of the sensors (intake manifold temp?), start the car momentarily, and the CEL should come on.

Also, what type of gas do you use? a name brand like 76 or Chevron ... or cheap aftermarket gas?

YuVorona

Hi Vlad,
Did you figure out the cause of the shaking during idle?
I have identical problem on my C240 '02: engine shakes on idling and I keep adding 1 L of oil every 7-8' 000 km