umalik

Hi, I have about 189K miles on my 95 C220. After reading a few posts in this forum, I am concerned about a few issues. I had not had to have to the head gaskets on my car changed nor the wiring harness. Firstly, I'm not quite sure what the function these parts serve in the car. And secondly, is that something I should be concernced about?

Moreover, my car has recently been heating up which in turn causes the area around the gearbox to heat up quite substantially. What could be causing this problem? I was told by someone that since I still have the original radiator in my car, it could not be working properly. The same person suggested that I should replace my original radiator after using it for over 188K miles.

Lastly, what other service issues should I be on the lookout for in the upcoming months/years as my Benz gets up there in mileage and age?

Thanks very much.

GDawgC220

Your headgasket serves as a gaskets purpose, keeping the seal tight for oil to stay inside engine and not leak. If you look around your engine bay, look straight down. If you see areas with "wetness", that would probably be leaking oil over time from headgasket.

I am not sure about the wiring harness. I have a '94 C220 with 128k miles and had the headgasket done at around 100k, no wiring harness.

Radiator issue, I do not know about.

Your C220 should last for a while, enjoy it

DMXtremeZ

my transmission box area heats up quite a bit after high reving and a lot of shifting... it melted my shifter brushings so my shifter is loose right now. i dont know what exactly can be done to fix that heating up.

GDawgC220

THe only thing i can think of is if there is a harness gone bad from the tranny or the tranny fluid is heating up too fast? Anyone else help on this...?

GDawgC220

Are you manually moving the shifter from like D to 3 to 2 to 3 to D, etc? If so, I think that causes the tranny to heat up too much, thus causing your heat problem. I read that somewhere else when someone did that while driving in the mountains with twistys that they manually downshifted to 3 then back to D and back and forth, they f'd their tranny because of the heating up too much from that.

umalik

Thanks for your prompt feedback. My car has an automatic transmission and I almost never shift down from 'D' to '3', etc as I drive in the New York City area mostly. I did notice, however, that the transmission area heats up particularly after lots of stop and go traffic situations.

It is very frustrating because there is a lot of heat inside the car, especially now while I am waiting to have my A/C fixed. I am more concerned, however, about the longer-term damage this may cause to the car.

Thanks again.

vas2vas

NYC traffic is murder on our cars' trannys.....i usually just put it in N when at the lights (as they usually take long)......that reduces tranny temperature.....one common mod is a bigger tranny cooler (ie mounted under the radiator) instead of relying on the stock cooler (built in to the radiator).

umalik

Yes, I'm beginning to realize that NYC traffic is torture for the car. How would I go about gettting a tranny cooler installed? Is it an after market part or OEM?

Thanks.

davis449

I've noticed that my gear box area heats up too from time to time for no aprarent reason. I guess I should go get it checked before my bushings melt too. Thanks for the post.

DMXtremeZ

yeah i always manually downshift D to 3 to 2 a lot so i can stick on gears and for engine braking. hasnt given me a problem yet...but perhaps i should stop. but i mean, why else would they make their tranny like that if you shouldnt use it for engine braking? the brakes arent too good on the car alone so sometimes i need some help with the engine braking. and also to conserve the pads as well.

GDawgC220

That's tru that u can use it for engine braking and conserve your pads, but then u run the risk of wearing out other parts of the tranny or engine by doing that instead of using the good old brakes. I think it would be cheaper to have pads replaced than the tranny or other major parts linked to that

I think they put those there so that if u have a heavier load or whatnot (inside the manual) so u can set it to that gear from the start, say like going up a hill, use a lower gear to help move the car up...but I don't think it was meant to be like a manual tranny where u should shift from gear to gear.