sailorben

Hi there,

I'm new to the forum, this being my first post.

So a bit of background about me. I passed my test back in March last year aged 18, and bought myself a manual CLK270cdi avantgarde in black opal a week later.

I absolutely loved that car, I'd worked so hard for it in my gap year and enjoyed every moment.
The engine was lovely and had excellent torque, and the manual shift was nice and precise.
I bought the car when I probably shouldn't have. I had to do a lot of work to it myself and id spent just as much as I paid for the car on parts alone, since I did the work myself.

Here are some pictures,














As you can see I kept that car absolutely sparkling.
I went off to uni in September to try and become a Doctor So it was hard to keep on top of that lovely shine, with the workload of the medicine degree. I even had to continue working 5&6am starts on the weekend just to afford to run my beauty.

Then at the end of November I made a poor decision and lost the back end at 50-60mph.
As you can see quite clearly below:













I am so thankful to the engineers at Mercedes for building such a solid car, my friend and I felt quite safe as it happened, which was rather surreal, and sustained no serious injuries, just scratches from climbing out over the smashed glass.


My search was then on for a new car, although I'm at uni, going 4 weeks without one was so very difficult! ��

So over Christmas when I was back at home I started searching for my car.

I almost ended up with an X350 Jaguar XJ6. I love the XJs, (my uncle has far too many Jaguars among other beauties).

However I kept seeing a few CLKs about and really did miss the car. It was so good, solid, nice to drive and nice to look at.

So I went to visit another '05 CLK 270cdi, perfect except one side of the car's W/B was an inch longer than the other!


I then saw a '56 plate 220cdi, avantgarde with auto and sports suspension in cubanite silver met. & black Napa leather interior.
The ride quality was immediately noticeably poorer, much more feel and grip... But you really can feel a LOT more imperfections in the road, and the 220 turbo unit is significantly less punchy, but never the less I am satisfied.

I've not had the chance to give her a full clay/polish/wax yet as I am back in uni full time, but it is on the list of things to do!

On the to-do list,
flush and change the P/S fluid
Renew brake fluid
Change thermostat
Check to see when the ATF needs changing, last done 3years ago iirc.

I've already given her new brakes all around, but other than that she is pretty well sorted.

I also got the wheels refurbed as the diamond cut finish was destroyed by chipped lacquer.

And I gave her a complete service, changing everything.

The colour, I think suits the lines of the car lovely, but I do prefer the colour of my old one. I have received a few grandad comments, but f'em ��, it is only when the car is wet from rain, when I look back and think it could be better.





















Please excuse the poor quality of the latter photos, I've not had chance to get some proper photos, and apologies for the rambling and length of the post, but that's my story.


Ben

floridawriter

From one cubanitsilber to another, welcome to the forum

Fatz

Welcome!
Congrats!
That's a nice storyline and a very nice looking car....... And, be careful with this one... ok?

abqhudson

Great story - happy that you are OK. Your car looks just like (different wheels but same color and the steering wheel seems to be on the wrong side!!) my 2005 CLK500. Enjoy your new car.

merceBENZ

So much respect for hard work in order to obtain and maintain such top level car. So many sacrifices just in order to run it.. Well done! Keep up and welcome to this wonderful community!

sailorben

Thanks for the welcome guys!
I remember seeing a cubanite silver when I was out in my old black opal. It really is a nice colour when the sky is clear. I cannot wait for the summer!

Yes, haha the wheel is on the ***right** side

I really love the wheels that it has on it now too. 17s are a good size, the ride is decent, but they're large enough to fill the arches enough. I do like the multi spoke though. You can't see it at that angle, but the spokes kinda come outwards at the centre, bit like spiders if you like...


I most certainly have learnt my lesson, and I've got the road sign I took out in the process, in my university digs as a reminder of my foolishness.


Over the next few days I will be picking some brains about a few things that I am wondering about.


I would LOVE a V8 one day, but my insurance is around £3500/$5000 a year as it is! So that will have to wait ��

There has to be something wrong with this car though, I'm only getting 18-22imp mpg in the city, about 15-18usmpg. And 36imp/30US over 140 miles with cruise @70mph the whole way. But that'll be the subject of another thread, though I can't imagine your v8s are significantly more thirsty!

Ben

sailorben

Yes, it is undeniably difficult, balancing my medical training, working horrific hours, and not least parties, clubs, booze and all that stuff 😉

But I get in my car, I know I've worked hard for it, and I'm proud. 😁

Windows down, country roads, good music and company and you can't beat it.

But equally I quite enjoy when maintenance jobs come about hehe... I do love a weekend of fettling about with her, fixing her up. Accomplishment I guess.

sailorben

Jobs for tomorrow (today) will be to do the thermostat and give her a good clean.

The thermostat in these I shouldn't imagine would be good difficult, I believe the housing comes away with the thermostat, merc did say they had the stat in stock last weekend.

sailorben

Pics of my old car, this thread made me backtrack through my old phone, so just for documentation, I shall put them on here, I may decide to turn this thread in to a maintenance thread.

But meanwhile some pics of my last car, RIP ��





Outside my University Accomodation, need to drop a hose pipe out the window!








Love this photo. Just shows how clean I used to keep her, she was SPOTLESS. (I'd also just washed my Aunt's BMW whilst she was around). I wish I could get that kind of shine and depth from my silver car, but somehow I doubt it.





Up at the Sailing Club's car park through the trees.





Sailing Club, Lake-side

Rudeney

Welcome to the forum! That's some story. Looking at your photos of the crash, I don;t see much if any roof distortion. How was that? Did the roof seem to maintain its shape?

sailorben

It was incredible. The roof panel was dented, but the roof appeared to be all there structurally. When the recovery truck came it was pitch black so I couldn't get any good pictures, as I only had my iPad (no flash, phone dead) but when he rolled the car back over, it was amazing how intact the car was.

As I said, while it was happening my friend and I honestly felt safe and protected.

The only reason the boot/trunk is open is because I had to get stuff out.


The pillars were all intact, and seemed to hold their shape, only the panel skin was dented.

The lovely thick doors kept their form well, only trouble was opening the one that struck the road sign post, but even that appeared only superficially damaged.

I got away very lucky. My father was passenger in a similar accident as a young lad, where instead of striking the sign on the side like I did, a branch went through the window, and decapitated his friend whom was driving.

So ultimately although I felt safe, who was to say a branch wouldn't come through the window. A cars ability to hold up structurally can be easily compromised by the windows. But thankfully not in my case.


But one must wonder, had I been in a more typical young person's first car, how the situation may have been different.

Ben

sailorben

Here is the video of the righting of the car by the recovery guy, at the end you can kinda see the shape of the roofline.

Rudeney

Not that I was really concerned, but the pillar-less design would be harder to keep solid like that. The car did a great job of protecting you.

merceBENZ

World famous great German engineering. You can't beat that.

Reanimation

Just wondering what Make and model of tyres you had on the back wheels?

gaazmon

What a story. These cars really save lives. Glad you both were ok. Congrats on the new one as well.

sailorben

Hi mate, I bought the car in March, and it had some rubbish tyres on it, loads of tread but the tyre itself was horrific. Especially with the torque of the 2.7cdi unit.
In the wet traction control was almost always on, and it was actually scary to drive around roundabouts in the wet. I even span out doing 20mph on one small roundabout, it was ridiculous.


So I went and out a matching set of Bridgestone Turanza T001s.
These tyres were brilliant wet and dry, grip was very good.

At the time of crash they had about 4-4.5mm tread left on them.

sailorben

So on Saturday I changed the thermostat. In theory easy, however I dropped one of the screws down in the engine compartment so I had to run around before the shops closed trying to find another bolt, managed to in the end, but once installed....
...such a difference. In half a mile the engine was up to 60, and shortly after a rock solid 90. Heaters blowing hot very quickly, and additionally, and most importantly! My MPG has gone up about 6mpg in stop start city traffic!


Today I finished med school early, half 11!!! So I got back and gave her a wash, clay and polish/wax.

She came up quite nicely.

One thing I do hate about silver cars though.... The TAR SPOTS!

Here's some photos I took earlier:











She actually cleaned up quite well for a silver car.

Reanimation

Looking stunning and I like them wheels a lot, what tyres are you running now then I'm needing some new tyres soon. I'm also doing my thermostat when the weather gets better, is there any play in your waterpump pully?

sailorben

So I got mid range kuhmos on the front, and I bought a matching set of Hankook Ventus for the back.

The tyres re okay. Not as good as the bridges tones, but they are good. These tyres are also fatter at 225:245 F:R, whereas on my old car they were 205:225, so although the compound/pattern might not be as tacky, overall the grip is about the same, if not slightly better in the dry, but in the wet they're comparable to before.

Basically if I had the choice, I'd put premium bridgstone, or other top brand, I would not put kuhmos or Hankook on, not because they are bad, but I personally, would rather spend that little bit more just to know that they're the best that could be on there.


The kuhmos on the front have about 5mm tread, which was too much to throw away imo.

The rears are only Hankook because when I bought the car, the NSR tyre was down to the thread. BUT the dealer had ordered a new tyre to match the other side.
The other side had 2mm left. So I was going to change that anyway.

So I bought another tyre and had that fitted, when I eventually pick the new tyre up from the dealer, it turns out to be a part worn tyre, and the wrong model, so I refused it and paid myself to have a matching axle. I'm now taking court action to reclaim costs.

So hankooks aren't bad tyres, I think BMW use them as OE, however the ones I've got are an old model. Not bad, but for a little bit more I could get much better.

My father has had good experience with Dunlop, I've had good experiences with Bridgestones, so if I were to boot a matching set, it'd probably be those.


Thanks RE the wheels, they really are nice, I LOVE them.

sailorben

I can only imagine what the alloys would have looked like when new, since they were originally diamond cut, but unfortunately the lacquer had chipped and had water ingress, so I got them refurbed, but they were too far gone to get them diamond polished, so I had to get them powder coated and clear lacquered, it's a really nice, very sparkly metallic. I like them ��

sailorben

So I drove back from university Friday night to visit home for the weekend, and to do a few jobs on the car which I would find easier to do at home.

So this week I had changed the thermostat.

Before replacing the thermostat on my 140mile journey up to university I got 36.4imp MPG. Cruise set at 70, engine temp sitting around 50 iirc. This was at 11pm at night; clear roads.


After replacing the thermostat and driving home on Friday exactly the same route, 140 miles, 70mph cruise, but this time it included a 30 minute standstill in rush hour traffic, at 5pm.
This time I got 43.4imp MPG.

So with heavier traffic, being stuck for 30mins going nowhere, I got an extra 7mpg.

Quite an improvement!!!!



Yesterday I renewed the brake fluid, and also flushed the old yellow PAS fluid out with some cheap chf11s, then re-filled with genuine MB green fluid. (Rebranded pentosin chf11s iirc.)

The old fluid which was the wrong colour, older spec fluid, I believe, was quite mucky!


I now just need to look in to the service history and see if I can see when the ATF was last changed, and schedule that, probably a job I will do when I am home from university for the Easter break.

Also could do with checking the level in the rear diff, just for reassurance.

Reanimation

Any difference in steering feel? after changing the PAS Fluid.

eteller

+1 and welcome!

Reanimation

how did you empty the old steering fluid is there a bleed underneath?