meister

Greetings MBWorld!

This is my first post, so please bare with me. I have a MY2002 W203 C180 (non-Kompressor) that recently had its transmission rebuilt following coolant leaking in from the radiator - unfortunately, we didn't know about this issue before it occurred, but we certainly do now.

Anyway, after a rebuild, new radiator and $6000 later, the car has been up and running for the last few months without any problems.

However, today I found a black plastic cap on our driveway and noticed that it belongs to our Merc. The part number on the cap is A 1110140133.

A quick Google shows that this is the EXPANSION PLUG - MOUNTING OPENING FOR TRANSDUCER and appears to belong either on the engine block or the transmission.

Could someone advise where exactly this part goes and whether the fact that it has fallen off is something to be concerned about. After spending so much money repairing our car, that last thing we want is to have something else go wrong due to missing/falling off parts.

Thanks in advance.

Glyn M Ruck

It is purely a plastic cover. Item 148 in this diagram - I can't work out where on the engine it goes. You are going to have to have a good look. It is certainly not a critical component but no doubt designed to keep water or dirt away from a sensor.

meister

Hi Glyn, thanks for your reply.

I found the same image on Google too - from the diagram, I also couldn't work out where the part went (there's also another diagram available showing the part alongside the transmission).

I'll give my local dealer a call and get their thoughts. I agree, the part didn't look like a seal - more like a cover. However, best to put it back where it belongs to prevent any more nasty surprises down the track.

Thanks again for your reply. Most appreciated.

Glyn M Ruck

Yeah - sorry, the EPC only shows this diagram - it is not plain where it goes.

04mbc230

$6000+ WOW

That is like close to the value of the car. Hopefully this resolves all aspect with this problem to being with. Anything more because of this, you can buy a replacement car instead.

Glyn M Ruck

With a C180 the OP hopefully lives in a part of the world where the car is worth more than in the US. $6000 is indeed a bundle of money

meister

Hi Guys,

Well, it was $6,000 Australian dollars (not sure what that equates to for the rest of the world). MY2002 C180s tend to sell here for around $20-25,000 depending on condition, so $6,000 was a lot, but not quite enough to worth ditching the car altogether (though we did think about it briefly) Everything else on the car is as new, so we just had to grin and bear it.

The $6,000 got us a rebuilt transmission, new radiator, conductor plate and speed sensors (and a black plastic cap that occassionally falls off ), plus a working car again. But it did hurt the piggy bank.

Thanks for all your replies.

Sathinas

$5,411.402 U.S.

meister

Out of curiosity, how much would an equivalent Merc sell for in other parts of the world ? 04mbc230 mentioned $6,000 is almost the cost of a replacement car - are they really that cheap in the US ?

Sathinas

www.autotrader.com for the US

04mbc230

Yea.. average in my area is $8k to 9k.

meister

Wow - that's amazing. US residents are either getting a really good deal, or us Aussies are getting a really bad one. That's half the price.

I might pop on over to the US and pick-up a few Mercs (for spares)

Glyn M Ruck

Meister - The US do get their cars cheap compared with Aus & SA - generally not as well spec'd to keep the ticket price down. In their throwaway society secondhand prices plummet to small change very quickly.

I can still sell my C240 in SA for more than most Americans paid new. Benz prices hold up in Asia very well too.

04mbc230

Yes. I might agree with the throwaway society part. haha People here are a little wasteful. But we do have crazy environmentist, that red tape everything. Although, I am not proud, but my feelings are hurt. hahah

Well, I really want to sell at a high price, but unfortunately due to the real world over here and with everyone selling at that price. There is really much we can do base on supply and demand that sets the price.

I keep in mind when I want to sell, I will ship it to SA or Aussie.

Glyn M Ruck

Steering wheel is on the wrong side & lights point in the wrong direction when dipped amongst many other things

jcnash

meister,

What symptoms did you notice when you had this coolant leaking into the tranny?

What made you take it in to get it checked?

04mbc230

Ah... Crap. Reality check!!

meister

Hey jcnash,

Funnily enough, we didn't notice anything up until the transmission packed it in and the car stopped driving (ie. we couldn't get any gears). I remember driving it the weekend before it died and it was driving perfectly well.

We had a mobile Mercedes Benz specialist come around and investigate - he mentioned some warning signs are:

1. A sparkly residue floating in the transmission oil. Apparently, this is the coating that is applied to the gears. If it's floating in the transmission oil, that's a bad sign that water has gotten into the oil and is stripping this coating from the gears.

2. A high-pitched whine coming from the engine bay after you start the engine (it's not loud, but it is noticeable). Apparently, this sound indicates that the transmission's pump is clogging up with the residue mentioned above. Once the pump is totally choked, the transmission won't give you any gears and the car won't move.

3. Unexplained loss of radiator coolant. This could suggest that the missing coolant is actually in your transmission.

I noticed the 2nd sympton, but didn't think too much of it (car's make all sorts of noises - I assumed it was a cooling fan or motor kicking in). The specialist noticed the 1st sympton after checking the transmission oil dipstick. However, I never noticed the 3rd sympton - the coolant levels were always full. The specialist did mention that rain water can potentially get into the transmission (not sure how this happens though).

I also noticed that each morning, the car would seem a little under-powered just after leaving our garage. But again, I put this down to a cold engine, as the car travelled perfectly well once we'd left our driveway. By the time we found out, it was too late -the damaged had already been done.

The thing that annoys me the most (fairly or not), is we've always had the car serviced by our MB dealer - in fact, we'd only had it serviced a week or two before it died. Considering this is a 'known' issue with the W203 model, I'd have thought they'd be looking out for symptons and advising us of any potential problems before it became an expensive repair job.

Maybe I'm not being fair, but we pay a premium to have our car service by MB as, by our reckoning, they should know their vehicles better than anyone else. I'm not sure if I'll be going back to them for our next service.

Anyway, enough ranting .

If you're worried about your W203, I'd suggest checking for any of these symptons and if in doubt, have a knowledgable mechanic check it out - it may save you from a heftty repair bill down the track. There's a lot of discussions about this issue in these forums. Note, it only seems to occur to certain W203 models that are fitted with a particular brand of radiator (I think it's the Valeo brand).

I've heard of some owners swapping out their radiators regardless, to pre-empt any hassles down the track.

Good luck - I hope things are fine with your W203.

meister

So true

Glyn M Ruck

JC - there is a glycol test kit you can get from your dealer. Blackstone can also do an oil analysis.

You usually end up with a change in shift quality as the glycol permeates the multi wetplate clutch friction material but by that time it's far too late. It's this friction material that clogs the filter.

Have you worked out from splinter's thread whether you have a crap Valeo radiator?

mattmancustoms

That could possibly be the cap that covers the timing chain tensioner. Not 100% positive on this though. That cap looks like the caps that are on the new 272/3 engines. these are the caps that cover the back of the camshafts.

dutz_bier

Hi, let me explain my situation a little bit. I've got a 180e (190e 1.8 australia) and my parents are getting ready to hand down their c180 to me quite soon as they are upgrading to a c250 cdi. I am well aware that the w203 is inferior to the w201 in terms of reliability and build quality, but I'd be upgrading due to the benefits in difference of age, technology, high specs, comfort and lower mileage. My 190e currently has 122,000 kms which is very low for a 93 car, but the w203 is 57,000kms which is even lower. In australia cars don't rust, so the w203 still presents as a brand new car even though it's 10 years old(worth $18,000 AUD easily). I can't help but think that this valeo radiator issue could cause me some serious problems in the not too distant future if I don't persuade my parents to replace it. It hasn't showed any major issues so far, but it's probably not too far around the corner. What mileage does the major fault usually occur, and what is the main link between the transmission and the radiator? Do they have the same radiator core? The transmission slips very occasionally and the gear shifts seem to be rough every now and then. Apart from that it runs fine. There's no red liquid inside the expansion container yet and nothing unusual under the bonnet from what I've observed so far. Any thoughts? Many thanks in advance.

samaritrey

You need to check the transmission fluid for coolant not the other way around. And if you want to be safe and have a Valeo radiator replace it and do a full fluid flush if contamination is found otherwise a pan drop every 39k miles is a good idea and flush if you feel like going all the way.

meister

I understand that only the early model W203s have the Valeo radiators that cause this problem. Ours is a 2002 model, so if yours is of the same vintage I'd check it out. There's quite a few posts in here that have photos showing how to tell if you a Valeo radiator, so definitely check them out. It's hard to say what mileage the problem will kick in (if it ever does)... our Merc was only around the 80-90,000 km mark when the tranny packed it in - and those were country kms and the car was around 7yrs old. It's probably a combination of things, with a little luck thrown in. Anyway, definitely check out your radiator brand and also inspect the tranny fluid - if you see sparkley residue in the fluid, you're already in trouble. Best of luck mate, hope you don't have the same problems we had.

dutz_bier

It is a VALEO radiator indeed. The ATF has no such sparkles in it, and the car seems to be running fine recently. My dad send a series of emails to mercedes benz Australia asking whether the our chassis number was an effected model (WDC2030352R060699). Apparently the 035 was not on the recall list. Is yours an 035, meister? They mainly stated that the concerned models were USA type ones which also had the VALEO radiator. It's possible that the ones in Australia aren't affected but you were just ever so unlucky, which was a suggestion made by a Mercedes Benz service member that we spoke to. I'm going to ring other local mercedes benz service departments to ask the same questions.