Just recently purchased an 2004 C230
07-01-2015, 03:14 PM
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2004 C230 Kompressor Sport
Just recently purchased an 2004 C230
Hello everyone,
I am new to this site and to Mercedes Benz and I just want to say thank you to everyone who has contributed to this site. I just recently purchased a 2004 C230... Not sure if it was a great idea or not, but I bought it.
I wish I would have found this site first because I may or may not have bought the car, but what's done is done. I just didn't know that there were so many things that could become issues or other weird things like no oil or transmission dipsticks... Don't get me wrong - It's a cool little car, there are just a few things I have to fix on it that, after I started reading on this site, could become rather expensive. For instance, my heated seats do not turn on. I push the button to turn them on and the little lights do not light up. I have checked the fuses and they are good, so I guess I have to trace the wiring from the fuse box to the switches. Another (possibly major) thing is that I was going to change the spark plugs and when I pulled the coil off the front plug (I think that's plug #2?), there was water/antifreeze along with a bit of oil standing in the plug hole. I don't know exactly where it came from, and to be honest I'm a bit afraid to find out. It looked like the next plug behind it had moisture in it at one point (antifreeze I believe?), but it had dried up. So if anyone has any input on what could be the cause of that, I'm all ears. The alarm doesn't work (the lights flash but no sound - seems to be a common problem and replacing the alarm fixes the issue) and I have the dreaded "clicking" noises behind the dash when I first start the car which I'm guessing it is the actuator motor or the arm... I just haven't been able to tear the dash apart to get to it yet. Repair manuals are really hard to find online...
Some people here have said that when they have done the transmission learning reset that the back end of the car breaks loose when they hammer the gas... My car doesn't appear to have that much power even with the traction control turned off. The supercharger kicks in (I can hear it whine, although it isn't very loud at all) and seems to have good pickup, but I do see some oil on the pipe that runs down from the throttle body to the supercharger itself.
Can anyone share how many miles they have on their C230?
Again, if anyone has any advice for anything I mentioned above, please feel free to share.
Thanks again to everyone! This site is awesome.
I am new to this site and to Mercedes Benz and I just want to say thank you to everyone who has contributed to this site. I just recently purchased a 2004 C230... Not sure if it was a great idea or not, but I bought it.
I wish I would have found this site first because I may or may not have bought the car, but what's done is done. I just didn't know that there were so many things that could become issues or other weird things like no oil or transmission dipsticks... Don't get me wrong - It's a cool little car, there are just a few things I have to fix on it that, after I started reading on this site, could become rather expensive. For instance, my heated seats do not turn on. I push the button to turn them on and the little lights do not light up. I have checked the fuses and they are good, so I guess I have to trace the wiring from the fuse box to the switches. Another (possibly major) thing is that I was going to change the spark plugs and when I pulled the coil off the front plug (I think that's plug #2?), there was water/antifreeze along with a bit of oil standing in the plug hole. I don't know exactly where it came from, and to be honest I'm a bit afraid to find out. It looked like the next plug behind it had moisture in it at one point (antifreeze I believe?), but it had dried up. So if anyone has any input on what could be the cause of that, I'm all ears. The alarm doesn't work (the lights flash but no sound - seems to be a common problem and replacing the alarm fixes the issue) and I have the dreaded "clicking" noises behind the dash when I first start the car which I'm guessing it is the actuator motor or the arm... I just haven't been able to tear the dash apart to get to it yet. Repair manuals are really hard to find online...Some people here have said that when they have done the transmission learning reset that the back end of the car breaks loose when they hammer the gas... My car doesn't appear to have that much power even with the traction control turned off. The supercharger kicks in (I can hear it whine, although it isn't very loud at all) and seems to have good pickup, but I do see some oil on the pipe that runs down from the throttle body to the supercharger itself.
Can anyone share how many miles they have on their C230?
Again, if anyone has any advice for anything I mentioned above, please feel free to share.
Thanks again to everyone! This site is awesome.
07-01-2015, 05:56 PM
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Mercedes C230 Sport Sedan
Kazi,
The weak spot on the M-B C230 is the head gasket. If you have antifreeze in the cylinder, it could very well be a blown or leaking head gasket. You should do a compression test to see how much cylinder pressure is there and what the variance is between cylinders. It should not be much. If you have a leak-down tester, that will give you some good information as well.
When you lock the doors, the lights flash 3 times. It does not honk the horn in normal operation. Check the owners manual. You may be able to have the horn honk as well. I find the horn honking annoying, so don't do it.
Sorry I can't offer you anything on the other items. Just a thought, fix the engine issues first. If you don't, the other repairs may not be worth much if you blow the engine.
The weak spot on the M-B C230 is the head gasket. If you have antifreeze in the cylinder, it could very well be a blown or leaking head gasket. You should do a compression test to see how much cylinder pressure is there and what the variance is between cylinders. It should not be much. If you have a leak-down tester, that will give you some good information as well.
When you lock the doors, the lights flash 3 times. It does not honk the horn in normal operation. Check the owners manual. You may be able to have the horn honk as well. I find the horn honking annoying, so don't do it.
Sorry I can't offer you anything on the other items. Just a thought, fix the engine issues first. If you don't, the other repairs may not be worth much if you blow the engine.
Last edited by JKehler; 07-01-2015 at 05:57 PM. Reason: clarity
07-01-2015, 06:21 PM
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2004 C230 Kompressor Sport
Kazi,
The weak spot on the M-B C230 is the head gasket. If you have antifreeze in the cylinder, it could very well be a blown or leaking head gasket. You should do a compression test to see how much cylinder pressure is there and what the variance is between cylinders. It should not be much. If you have a leak-down tester, that will give you some good information as well.
When you lock the doors, the lights flash 3 times. It does not honk the horn in normal operation. Check the owners manual. You may be able to have the horn honk as well. I find the horn honking annoying, so don't do it.
Sorry I can't offer you anything on the other items. Just a thought, fix the engine issues first. If you don't, the other repairs may not be worth much if you blow the engine.
The weak spot on the M-B C230 is the head gasket. If you have antifreeze in the cylinder, it could very well be a blown or leaking head gasket. You should do a compression test to see how much cylinder pressure is there and what the variance is between cylinders. It should not be much. If you have a leak-down tester, that will give you some good information as well.
When you lock the doors, the lights flash 3 times. It does not honk the horn in normal operation. Check the owners manual. You may be able to have the horn honk as well. I find the horn honking annoying, so don't do it.
Sorry I can't offer you anything on the other items. Just a thought, fix the engine issues first. If you don't, the other repairs may not be worth much if you blow the engine.
Thanks for the information. Right now, the antifreeze and oil isn't inside of the cylinder that I can tell... It was outside of the cylinder in the spark plug hole. When I took the plug out, then the antifreeze and oil ran into the cylinder. I'm not sure if you are saying that the head gasket may be bad which might put antifreeze and/or oil into the spark plug hole, or maybe I didn't explain very well... The oil and antifreeze wasn't inside of the cylinder (that I could tell), it was all around the spark plug. I hope that makes sense.
I was reading some more on one of the other items I mentioned regarding the oil from the throttle body to the supercharger and it sounds like it may be the oil separator? So what I'm going to do tonight is look up how to remove that and clean it in hopes that I can get it cleaned and put back together.
07-02-2015, 12:28 PM
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2004 C230 Kompressor Sport
I decided I am going to purchase a repair manual for my 2004 C230. Can anyone give me recommendations as to which repair manual I should purchase? I just want to be sure I get a good manual.
07-02-2015, 11:16 PM
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MBWorld Fanatic!
You used to be able to buy a CD for ~$50. from Mercedes which was very complete. I'd look into one of those. I believe I called 1-800-for-Mercedes(?), or something like that. My CD doesn't work anymore, I assume they have a DVD out now...
