jimsaco

Hi again, on my 96 C220...

... I think I have a refrigerant leak. After owning the car for about 3 months I got a red EC light. I took the car to a shop and they said they ran some kind of colored gas through it, and couldn't find the leak. They recharged the system... and within 6 weeks the red EC light was on again.

I am now taking the car to a local "M-B specialist". Any clues as to where they should look (particular parts that have been troublesome)? Or should I just grin and bear the heat for 3 months?

Thanks

Jim

Vegetash

im going through the same thing with mine, only my freon leaks after like 1 day. im going to have it checked for leaks and ive been told that it could be the evaporator. hopefully its just a leak.

hangup

guys, i'm just going thru the same thing myself. please seach and you'll find my whole story.
basically i believe that if you have a leak it could be easy to diagnose unless it's in the evaporator.
if it's the evaporator, you are screwed
compressor is another possibility. it is a lot more expensive than the evap, but it's easier to replace so you are not as screwed with it as with the evap.
my leak is in the condenser (i'm lucky, part is not very expensive and labor is OK too) and i am currently going to attempt a DIY on it's replacement and after that i'll take it to the shop to clean, vacuum, recharge, etc.

pierrebond

I have the same issue it seems now also on my 98 C230, but luckily i have warranty until 100k miles. I have noticed that if you hold down the EC button until the light turns off your ac compressor with turn on and blow out cold air. This is my fix until i bring it in to MB this week so that they can fix it. Good luck!

hangup

careful with that . . .compressor is likely turning itself off because of the low pressure on the high side. trying to protect itself.
your turning it on may ruin it . . .
you can put AC in the diag mode (search) and read the pressure on the high side in order to find out how bad it really is. if it's low you probably have a leak somewhere.
i guess you don't care since you have warranty. are you sure everything is covered?
i used to have warranty and then they went bust! i was glad i didn't have anything major going bad . . .

pierrebond

Yea eveything is covered except wear and tear. It has MB Starmark on it and I made sure everything was covered with one of the MB service dept reps. It's really hot here in FLnow and they aren't open Sat or Sunday so I needed some cold air I'll be takin it in tommorrow though and get it fixed along with 2 other minor things. One thing I noticed though was a/c would take a long time to blow cold air out(maybe 30 minutes) and sometimes didnt get very cold at all a few days before the EC light would come on itself. Must be a leak somewhere I guess.

hangup

good luck, hopefully it's not the evaporator leaking . . .
for that they'll need to open the dash up and that takes a long time and when they are done make sure it doesn't make any noises . . .

pierrebond

Maybe they will give me a new benz as a loaner till it's fixed

040mercedes

geez, ac issues suck. Mine has a leak, but I found it when I was recharging it. My receiver/drier has a crack in the top of it and was spewing out refridgerant while I was recharging.

hangup

wow a crack really? have you been hit?
you're lucky, receiver/dryer is probably the cheapest part and easiest to replace too . . . good luck!

040mercedes

Yep, it's cracked. Not on the metal part but the plastic clear piece up top.

hangup

wow . . . well, you are still lucky it's not something else more expensive (like the compressor) or a beaoch to replace (like the evaporator). you should be able to get the OEM dryer/receiver online for cheap, under 100 i'd think. it is probably an hour or so to replace if you want to DIY. then you have to go to a shop to vacuum it, oil it and recharge it. i'll have to go for that soon myself so if you get an estimate for that please share . . . i will too once i'm ready to do that. i'm waiting for a condenser at the moment. should get it early next week . . .

jimsaco

They said the condenser was leaking. Was told about $250 for the part, about $350 for the labor and recharging etc.

Wondering whether I should just suffer through July and August and save the money... but then again, why bother having a Mercedes if you can't always be in the maximum comfort in it? -jim

hangup

i'm in the same boat. i've decided to buy the part for about 250 and put it on myself, then pay someone to vacuum, oil and refill since i don't have all the equipment for that. i already pulled the old part out, that's most of the work usually it took a few hours because it was the first time for me and i also did other things, took the bumper off, cleaned the fog lights of water and some other minor stuff. it wasn't too difficult to do but not super easy . . .

even if you can make it thru two more months (depending on where you are and what time of day you drive in it) what are you going to do next year?
it's a good feeling to have everything working perfectly in the car too
that's why you have a benz i agree