torrick

Great site!

I am about to buy a 97 c280 vith only 48000 documented kms (29k miles). After test driving it, I noticed that the gas cap was missing. The salesman told me that it was probably stolen as there is no lock. The engine ran fine and there was no check engine light. However, according to my research, the check engine light was supposed to be on with the gas cap missing.

What is going on?

Any help will be appreciated.

Rick

cil254

The cap itself does not lock, but the fuel door does lock with central locking.
A drop of pressure in the fuel tank usually triggers the CEL.

pointman

check to see if the bulb for the CE light was removed.

torrick

Good point. But that'll be rather difficult to do I suppose.

pointman

not at all... when you put the key in the ignition turn it to position two...all the cluster lights light up, telling you whats operative. leave the key at position two and see if the "CHECK ENGINE" light illuminates. if not, the bulb is out.

ABsC280

good stuff ahopeter, anyways i just found out about that locking gas door yesterday when i locked my car at the gas station to use the bathroom. came back and tried for about 2 minutes to open the gas door. finally it hits me, unlock the doors

GLisella

Deff. make sure ALL lights are working, if the bulb has been removed I would personally not buy. You never know what else could be missing.

torrick

It turned out that the "CEL on" doesn't happen every time the gas cap is missing. Anyhow, the bulb is OK, and the cap is replaced.

Thamks everyone for your input.

Rick

Ashkan's C43

whao whao whao when my doors are locked i can still open the gas cover door or whatever it opens easy, someone help!!!!!!!!!!!!

pointman

sounds like its broken, sorry.

Ashkan's C43

how much would it cost to fix? I am taking my car to the stealer ship soon, I am hitting 80k miles so I guess I could get it fixed then, yeah my anten is also ****ed the motor or something is messed up and it won't come up anymore, sigh so much to fix no money for mods

EuroWerkZz

The antenna broke on mine, $300 to get it fixed

Ashkan's C43

wow that sucks i gotta get that taken care of and the gas cap, also i was wondering could I just have them add the newer style atenna like the one on the top of the car and some how just remove the older one?

cil254

Probably just the actuator (also called vacuum element), about $50 for the part. You can replace it yourself, you access it from the trunk.

Ashkan's C43

oh ok, because it was seriously starting to get to me, I was like I have a mercedes you'd think that there would be a way to lock the gas cap, but at least its broken rather than not having it at all, and what about the atenna, is there a way to switch over, because the newer style seems to only be just stuck on