Ok, I've had my 2002 C320 for 3 months now and have not had any problems with the car until a week ago. I was driving down the road going about 35, the engine temperature was around 90c. All of a sudden I lose engine power, the car slows down while jerking, it wouldnt let me go above 10 mph and continued to jerk.

I got it towed home, then the next day I started it up and it ran fine, so I drove it to the Mercedes dealer with the Check Engine light on. They checked it out, did some test runs and said there was nothing wrong with my car. It was "running like a champ", so they didnt charge me anything and I went home.

But my engine continues to get hot as hell, the temperature gauge says its around 85c but if you keep for your hand anywhere on the hood for more than a second it will literally burn you. I remember opening the hood after I lost engine power that night and when the heat hit my face it felt like it was on fire.

Any ideas? The towing company were positive that my engine overheated that night it felt so hot. I still believe my engine is over heating, it should not be that hot.

 

Those temps sound normal to me and I wouldn't consider that overheating. Have you changed your coolant since new? Maybe a good time to change that as well as other fluids like tranny, rear diff.

 

mines always around 80-85c it seems normal.

 

Agree sounds like a normal temp (85 is my standard temp), I notice that my engine compartment seems very hot as well and takes some time to cool.

 

my 2001 c320 did the same exact thing when i first got it but the dealer said it was fine and i haven’t had a problem since so no idea but your temperature is about the same as mine it goes from like 80 to 90 all the time. there was a cooling problem fixed in my 01 done by goodwill warranty when they replaced the thermostat and rerouted some pipes. i think there is a service bulletin out on this. this was almost a year after my car did the wired thing. good luck

 

As far as the jerkyness and the car refusing to go over 10 MPH this sound like it went into limp home mode which would suggest a transmission problem, could have just been a really weird software hiccup.

As far as this "overheating", please don't take this personally, but car engines get hot!! The temperature you reported is perfectly within range.

Also, these cars will give you a specific warning if the engine is overheating - the display in the dash will turn red and tell you the engine is overheating and needs to be shut down immediately.

 

+1

 

Seems like the OP believes the engine is getting hotter than the display indicates. He didn't indicate boil over so it's unclear.

Anybody know what, say, the block temp should be using an infrared? Couldn't the temp sending unit malfunction? IDK

 

Thanks, thats what I was trying to get at. Is that my temperature was reading normal, but I dont think its reading correctly. I also realize that engines get hot, I know a little bit about cars , but this one seems to be getting to hot.

But, its under warranty and the guy I dealt with told me to specifically come to him if anything was to happen since he couldnt find anything wrong with it.

Also...just to clear things up I'll ask you fellow C class owners. If you go and drive your car normally for about 2 hours and park it, is your hood so hot that it will literally burn you if you touch it? The towing company even said my engine was extremely to hot.

The average temp is not 80-85 for me, its 95-100.

 

I'll fire a Raytech IR gun at my C240s engine and bonnet for you tomorrow & let you know. I personally think it is going to give spurious readings but I will try

 

Posted my experience on this on another thread, click below link :

https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...-workshop.html