aspett

A couple of months out of warranty my 2003 C 230 Kompressor Coupe (50K miles, automatic) has started to give me a CEL with a P301 (Cyl 1 Misfire) only when the engine is warm and I put it in neutral or park. I can drive it all day, it idles fine in gear, but if I take it out of gear it will misfire noticeably and the CEL light will come on. If I drive it, the misfire continues (rough RPM, loss of power), but if I turn off engine and restart, the problem goes away. I have tried swapping the Cyl 1 Ignition Pack, the problem remains on Cylinder 1. I have removed the #1 Spark Plug which looks OK. Any suggestions? Naturally , the first time this happened was when I pulled in forn an Emissions Test.

William C

I have the same problem. The #1 cylinder has to have work done on it to repair it. also have them check for the RAD for the famous leak with the trany

Glyn M Ruck

What sort of work is required on the No 1 cylinder??? Are you talking about the early M271 head carbonising & failure?

William C

Yes the M271 issue

Glyn M Ruck

That usually means a new cylinder head. It was redesigned for crap fuel.

William C

They want to repair the heads. What should be done. They also informed me that the rad and converter might need replacing

Glyn M Ruck

Well they can clean all the carbon off the head & if it has not detonated the crap out of the head it might survive. A new head is big time expensive. Change to a Behr radiator is a must. Hope TC is OK. It's not usually the first thing to fail - maybe TC clutches are gone from Glycol in tranny oil.

Midnight Koop

how common is this issue? problems like this make me rethink about keeping my c230

Glyn M Ruck

If you drive the crap out of the car most of the time you might never have the problem. The M271 engine was designed to run on narrow cut Eurograde fuel. In markets like the US & SA where fuel is not to European standards, the head & valves used to carbonise & cause misfires. Benz redesigned the head. We had a family car driven by a lady that had 3 old design heads under warranty in 100,000Km. She pampered the car which does not help. If you run on Techron & rev the engine hard frequently it blows the carbon off & out of the exhaust & does not allow it to build up. The cheap & nasty fix used to be to rev the engine at 5000 RPM for an hour. I don't like revving unloaded engines like this.

Midnight Koop

ahhh thanks

i think i'll be ok then. i like driving in the higher RPM's off the line and am a Techron user... so i hope i'll be ok

William C

Sorry guys a thought. can a 2006 -2009 AMG 5.5 litre engine /trans fits e,s,and clk 400 hp fit a 2003 c230 coupe? and solve this problem?
I can get this cheaper than the cost of repairs to the head unit of my present engine.

I'm still new to posting here. Sorry if this should be done else where

William

Glyn M Ruck

No - you need the longer wider nose that the C55 had.

hyih

I took my 03 C230 Kompressor to the shop for CEL and I was told misfire and 3rd cylinder pressure low (105 psi). To replace the header will cost somewhere between $4k - 5k. The new header itself costs $3050 from MB.

Has anyone had any success replacing with remanufactured header (~$1000) Saving $2k is a big deal for me. Thx

Herman