Well, it got down to maybe -3 degrees Celsius (what, 28 F?) last night and our C 230 K got very cranky - to say the least - in the morning when we tried to start it. My Dad and my own family were together at my sister's house in Greater Vancouver for a family reunion/get-together.

As I was scraping the frost off the windows, my Dad was in the car and it took three turns of the key to get the C 230 K to fire. Bad scene, I thought...then it ran on 2 cylinders for about thirty seconds before a third one chimed in. The fourth one never did fire up. We ran it for about a minute then shut her down. Needless to say we were not impressed. The check engine light remained on during this whole time, and the daytime running lights did not come on even though the handbrake was off.

So I had to drive my 14 year-old, 175,000 mile 405 to North Vancouver instead to pick up a relative, who was going to get her first ride in the "nice new Mercedes". Guess what? My 405 started on the first turn of the key, as always. I never have concerns about this Peugeot and I've driven it 4500 km across Canada, with no dealers at all...

So while I'm on the road, my Dad phones M-B Roadside Assistance. "Please hold while we contact the technician". She calls back in an hour and says that the technician does not possess the diagnostic tools to make a roadside diagnosis. The car will have to be towed to Silver Star Motors (a hole-in-the-wall in Surrey, BC). That's not very impressive either. The rep did not offer a rental car either, though this situation clearly fell under the terms of the Trip Interruption Protection coverage.

Anyway we had our family get-together. The whole family had not seen my Dad's new wheels. They got to see it all right and were appalled to hear that it had broken down. Great PR for M-B.

So then we had to make a decision. My Dad had a specialist's appointment on Vancouver Island Monday and so he really needed to get back there. So once the ambient temperature was up to 5 above or so, and the reunion was winding down, we started the car again and it ran cleanly. We drove it about 10 km to see if it was running properly and it did, though the check engine light was constantly illuminated. So we decided to screw the M-B assistance and drove it in a convoy with my trusty 405 to Horseshoe Bay for the ferry and got home tonight at about 7 PM. It's running OK at the moment but the check engine light remains on full-time.

I suspect a coil or two are failing but I don't really know of course. It was what would in the old days be considered a "spark" problem, that's all I really know.

So, considering that Service A is about 1200 km away, maybe now would be a good time to take it in for a repair and the standard service. There are some other glitches that need some work: the driver's side headrest adjuster does not allow it to be lowered using the little collar with the button (it does lower when tilting the seat forward), and the driver's side window express up feature failed a while back and re-synching it does nothing, as the first time it's used again, the window seems to bind near the bottom on its way up and hastily retracts again. And the weather seal on the driver's door seems to be drooping at the bottom, almost as though it's falling off.

My Dad feels like he's got bad luck or perhaps expected too much He was even looking back fondly on the reliability of his 1997 Lada Niva 4x4, which was not perfect, but which never broke down at the side of the road or failed to start, even on a Kootenay winter morning with -30 degree weather. I think the 160,000 km/7 year warranty he's got on the Benz may pay off in the end, in spades

Any thoughts/comments?

 

I had this happen soon after taking delivery (exactly one year ago). It started one cold morning on 3 cylinders, shaking like crazy, but went back to normal after a shutdown/startup a minute later. The dealer's verdict was "bad coil", which was replaced under warranty. Has not reoccurred since.

 

Well it's reassurring to read that this is not a unique event and it likely is a simple fix. I suppose that as cars get ever more complicated, entropy is bound to take its toll. Give me mechanical fuel injection and a points distributor anyday...

Still, I hope the C 230 K gets better from here. I suppose it will.

 

as for the headrest, you're talking about power seats, right? i've had that happen on my passenger seat, there's actually a simple fix. just use the switch to move the seat to its forward-most position, keep holding the switch for a few more seconds, then move the seat to its rear-most position, hold the switch for a few seconds. it's a result of memory loss in the seats. sending the seat through this cycle resets the switches. it should work fine afterwards.

 

Nope, it's the manual seats that I'm referring to. The little collar on one of the headrest shafts that has the adjustment button (on the driver's seat) is loose and wobbles around like jello.

When pressed, it does not allow the headrest to be lowered as it should. To do this, only manually releasing the seatback (like someone's getting into the rear) will cause the headrest to lower.

 

It won't go off until you take it to the dealer. They at least have to reset the light even if there is no longer a problem with the car.