C230 Sport Coup

When I was like 14 my Dad had taken a job out the area for a while out of
necessity. My mom and I were left to fend for ourselves,
I remember her and I being in a store trying to look up the coolant capacity of a 1971 Super bettle convertible, but oddly there was no listing.
Yeah, we did figure it out. Becks?
Hmmm.....my current fav is Longboard lager from Kona.

laidbackkat

Cool... I signed up for the blackstone test kit before I wrote the post. Their supposed to send a contaner or something for me to send the sample in. They said it could take up to two weeks.. That's why I called around.. The dealership wanted $175.. I'm not even going to reward them with my money when they price gouge the way they do... I will send it off soon as I get it. In the mean time I'm going to go forward with the new radiator, flush, and fluid.. Bought everything today locally.. Found a good place to by MB parts at a reasonable price they had everything to me in an hour... Yea.. The salesperson even gave me the radiator for $169 instead of their regular price of $201.. I got everything for $400 including the infamous dip stick tool $35.. If I need more fluid they have it.. It's all good .. hopefully the torque converter shutter will go away when I'm done.. I attached some pics.. hopefully I did that ight.. the test tubs are test ammco did.. The oter pics are my parts.. and the last pic is an antenna I saw on this c230 coupe I test drove today.. Looks like an after market for replacing the amplified one that goes out easy on these.. They want $1,300 to replace mine.. does anyone know of any after markets that work ???

Glyn M Ruck

Pleased you got the SA Behr radiator at a good price. Your fluid does not look bad.

Forget those aftermarket antennas. The small black antenna sticking up on the back window is the Cell phone antenna. The RF antenna is a wire within the rear screen with the heater element. What is wrong with your antenna? Does your key remote work at a distance? It uses the same antenna as the radio. It's usually the sticky pad at top centre of the back window that lets go & causes a bad connection - or the wires being cut doing a tint, or a metallic tint - can't fit metallic tints, or a bad ground, or the antenna amp in the LHS C pillar that is blown - frequently due to the tint guys getting water into it. All cheap to repair as long as you don't need a new rear window.

laidbackkat

Yea I'm pretty happy about the prices I got.. wish I didn't have to spend it but what's a guy to do.. lol Yea my key fob's don't work from a distance.. The car battery went dead after a new one was installed I did all the re-programing.. took it to the dealer they said the Antenna amp is bad in the window.. $1,300 to fix it. yikes .. i'm looking for a cheaper fix if you know of one ..

Glyn M Ruck

Sorry - I see you have a coupe. First check all the connections on the back hatch - especially where the wires go into the glass. Then check the amplifier earth/ground etc which is hidden under the hatch surround. At worst just buy the amp & fit it yourself if it is blown. It does not cost $1200. Ill see if I can find a price for you.

laidbackkat

thanks.. the cheapest i have found was $400 .. i going to spend some more time poking around after i get the transmission thing fixed ... i just came across this coupe that was like mine and it had this antenna on it.. it looked like it was retro fitted on there... the cover on the inside wasn't even on all the way.. I may go by there tomorrow and take the cover off and look in there.. I can't imagine there being any room for anything else..

Moviela

Why, yes. Use the oil dipstick. Oil is used to cool the bottom of the engine. The top of the engine is air cooled, so check the barimetric pressure, and make sure the blower fan is working properly and the engine tin is intact.

(there is a schmart alec in every crowd.)

laidbackkat

Here's an update...I installed everything this weekend.. I did have the Valco rad.. changed it out with the new Behar.. Went ahead and flushed the cooling system, and completely cleaned the super charger system including flushing of the inter cooler, it was full of oil.. changed all the parts on the trans and did a flush.. used 8 quarts of fluid.. I think I need to get more.. (see below pic's)
I have few questions:
1. I have a couple of extra clips I can't remember where they go pic #1
2. Can't find the washers for the trans cooler lines I think it's part #0199975745
3. I need a rubber gasket/o ring that goes on the inter cooler hose (one of them was stretched out and wouldn't seal) Can't find these ether.. part number ?
4. does this trans fluid look ok after flushing or do i need to get it to where it is perfectly clean (it seems pretty close to being the same color) see pic #2 pre-flush, after flush, and new.. keep in mind I have a new rad so that fluid didn't get back in the system and I blew out the return line before I put new fluid in..
thanks for all your help

Glyn M Ruck

I cant find those O rings etc at any of the normal places like Parts.com or RMeuropean. They are cheap & I think you might be better off going to a dealer unless someone else has a good idea. They are very slow moving parts.

BTW - Benz recommend about 14 quarts for a full flush. You are getting there. might be OK.

C230 Sport Coup

The clip goes to the grill I believe.
How many quarts of fluid did you use to flush?
Like we said, 13 is recommended, I needed 12 before I got anything but black.

Gaskets for the intercooler can be found on the EPC under
radiator / 200 charge air intercooling
Looks like it might be A0289974348

The pn for the 2002 C coupe orings for the radiator cooling lines, I listed in my one man DIY.

laidbackkat

Thanks for the illustration... Now I can call around... The dealer here didn't have ether one.. I was able to use the old ones for now... I did find a rubber gasket that was the right size for the SC hose. It's really for a union on an exhaust system.. I'll keep that on hand encase the other leaks.. At 9 quarts it was pretty good.. I used 12 all together.. Since I put in a new radiator I didn't have the fluid in the radiator to flush out so I think it took less.. I also applied low pressure to the return cooler hose when I was draining it to get the old fluid out. I didn't want that stuff going into the first 4 quarts of new.. I sent out sample to Blackstone to see what I was really dealing with.. If it's really bad I might get rid of the car instead of waiting for the transmission to go out.. What do you think ? I've driven it around and it seems like the Torque Converter shutter is gone , so far.. I've been rechecking the fluid level and looking for leaks nothing that I can see.. The fluid seems really sensitive to temp.. I didn't buy a temp reader just using the dash readout.. If it's at 85 - 90 it shows I have a little to much fluid. . 80 and I'm in the middle... man that's touchy.. and you really have to be on level ground also.. Thanks for all your help..

Glyn M Ruck

Yes - the level is very temp critical. Hopefully all will be well now.

laidbackkat

Yea I have my figures crossed .. I'm not going to push it to hard until I see what blackstone says.. I think if the ani freeze contamination is really high I will have to go by the Mercedes bulletin and assume the trans will need to be replaced at some point. I bought this car used from the Mercedes dealer 3 years a go as a certified used Mercedes with 42,000 miles.. I'm going to research when that bulletin came out and go back to them and argue that they should of checked the fluid and radiator. The tab on the trans fluid was black.. it had never been checked.. they claim to have done a 130 point inspection ... hmmmm I guess that didn't include the trans fluid .. pretty weak if you ask me..

C230 Sport Coup

I think I have one of those gaskets laying around.
I'll look tonight.
Ha, no need to worry about the hose leaking, check your MAF connection, it's completely without any seal.
I put tape around mine to get the OD of the sensor to match the ID of the hose, and some Orings from the hardware store.
They show one of those Orings as being for the MAF to hose connection,
but it isn't correct. Thats how I happen to have a new one.
Well, if I find it, you can paypal me a few bucks and I can mail it to you if you want. Let me know. I keep all my parts in one place so I should be able to find it NP.

laidbackkat

That would be cool.. just let me know... Took the car out last night for a little outing and torque converter shuttered a few times.. Not as bad as before but it's still there.. maybe it will go away after the fluid cleans everything ... if not looks like I'll be looking for a rebuilt torque converter .. You wouldn't happen to know the part number for the torque converter would you ? I believe my car is the same year as yours.. 2002 c230 coupe 2.4L Kompressor motor.. Hopefully I will get the results back from blackstone soon..

laidbackkat

I was hoping to get some input on this report from you guys.. Here's the Blackstone report.. What do you guy think I'm not sure how to read this compared to the Mercedes bulletin.. Thanks for any input

samaritrey

you might want to re post the Blackstone report without your info on it.

Dingleberry

if you got rid of the shuttering and everything seems fine now, why continue to worry?

Glyn M Ruck

The Blackstone report shows a bit of a mess but not terminal - I'll bet the oil had never been changed. Just drive the thing & continue to do tranny oil & filter changes every 38,000 miles. If it worries you just do an interim oil change once to freshen things up.

C230 Sport Coup

Ron,
1st off you need a free EPC subscription so you can look up pn's and diagrams like I did.
http://epc.startekinfo.com/epc/
Oddly the Blackstone report while stating that you tested pos for antifreeze,
also said your water was less than 0.0%.
Or in other word, it may have been less than 1 part per 10000 which according to
Mercedes anything less than 10% is OK but you just gotta wonder if thats a typo.

Well, good call on getting the work done and with a mechanic a great price!
Are you certain he changed the fluid?
If so, I think your problems will resolve themselves as you drive it more.

laidbackkat

Oh, ok I will get an account thanks.. I ended up doing the work myself. All the parts where sitting there calling out my name and I didn't have anything to do so I made sure it was done right and did it myself. The radiator was a pain in butt to put in and I cleaned out my inter cooler and super charger system too.. it had motor oil in it..
I called the dealer and talked to the service manager.. He said that every car that they get that test positive for glycol, the transmission always goes out shortly after that.. He also said that you are supposed to change out the overflow when you do the radiator. It has an updated design and was part of the problem... Hmmmm.. I haven't read that anywhere have you..
So you don't think the contamination was very high ? I saw one bulletin,, that I can't seem to find now, that said something like if it was over 400 parts per thousand change out the transmission.. or something like that. I need to find that.. I guess at this point I just need to drive it and hope the shuttering goes away.. It is somewhat better..

nickgailloux

Hey Glyn -- do you have a doc for replacing the transmission fluid for the 716631 manual transmission? Thanks

Glyn M Ruck

Sorry - I don't but you just drain the oil & refill to the fill plug with the car level.

laidbackkat

Hey Glyn, I don't know if I'm stupid or what, but I'm still having a hard time figuring out exactly how much glycol was in my tranny? The blackstone report doesn't really give any percentage or amount.. sodium was 77 parts per million so I'm confused as to how much that is per the volume of the 7 quarts that was in my transmission.. So many people on here say their transmission went out shortly after the radiator replacement.. I'm considering trading it in on a 350z or something of the sorts... Thanks for any input.. Ron

Glyn M Ruck

No you are not stupid - It's reported so you can't work it out. Please note that the averages are for oil having done 33,000 miles. I'll bet that your oil had never been changed at 86,000 so I would expect wear metals & contaminants to be approx 2.5 to 3 times normal & thats roughly where they are.

The fact that no water was found present shows that you had very low coolant contamination & changed the radiator in good time. Yes some water would evaporate off but the majority should still be there. You had a very slight leak. Don't worry.