vert

I am in the middle of replacing the alternator on my 2003 c320 and I am stuck. I removed the bottom and the top bolts from the alternator. Now the alternator pivots down, but it seems stuck on the bottom as if there is another bolt. I thought there was only 2 bolts holding it and I removed 2 bolts already. What am I missing? Please help me get the car back on the road!

pcy

The 'sleeve' on the water pump housing may be catching the alternator.

vert

Thanks for your answer... So is there 3 bolts?
Edit: nevermind i see that there are 2 bolts on the instructions you posted.

vert

Tried a long pry bar, still not releasing. Just pivots on the bottom bracket up and down. I must be doing smth wrong as this should not be that hard... i ve changed an alternator on other cars before. Need to get this done though - at a point of no return now.

contact148

use some spray on the pivot point I did mine in the fall it was tight but did come out
wd40 is a good lube for the alum

took me about 20 mins to wiggle it out

JLD2k3

I had some trouble getting mine out when I installed UDP's. I used a pry bar and WD40.

vert

Ist's out! Thanks for posting the pdf - the trick was this step "remove spacer sleeve". Once I took the sleeve out there was more room to pivot it up and then with lots of wiggling it came out. Also - you do not have to take the fan out, there is enough room as is. I wish i knew that as I've broken some clips on the duct work while trying to get the fan out before just leaving it in place. My alternator is Bosch so will be getting a remanufactured one from Advanced Auto tomorrow. Thanks for your help!

Another question - I want to get a manual for the car to help with stuff like this. Do you think Chilton or Haynes would be helpful?

contact148

no there not very good books

if your in the usa buy the MB manual from MB its cheap youll get the same info as that pdf above

pcy

That's what I saying... the sleeve needs to be moved/removed.

I realized this when I replaced the waterpump last week.
I am glad you were able to get it out.

vert

I just reread your original post and see that you were talking about the same sleeve so you were 100% right. I bought a reman Bosch from Advance Auto and will be installing it tonight. Hopefully this will solve the malfunction messages.

I just got this car from a friend at a good price since he was going to trade it in and now trying to see if I should keep it to replace my wife's car (corolla with 130K miles) or if I am opening a can of worms here by going from a toyota to a benz (which has 80K). I drive a bmw 330 and it has a share of its own issues, but I am comfortable working on it as I've had different 3 series (e46) over the last 6 years. All the work so far has been done by me except for computer resets that require a trip to a dealer. There is a huge support for that model though with detailed DIYs posted by people. Browsing the benz forums it does not seem as if there is a lot of info on the c320, so that scares me a bit. That's why I am asking about the books that I can get that will help.

For example, the pdf you posted says things like "remove fan", "remove radiator support", but there are no specific directions on how to actually do it. Maybe it's somewhere else in the Mercedes Service Manual? There are all these bolts and clips so without knowing exactly what to do, i ended up braking a couple of plastic clips, which is annoying. In the end I gave up on removing the fan fearing breaking any more stuff and it turns out it was not necessary from the beginning. For the BMW people have DIYs with pictures for jobs like this and someone would usually mention that removing the fan is not even necessary, even though the book says so. Maybe I am not looking for it in the right place for the c320? Are there other forums I should check out for my 2003 model?

pcy

Service manual direct from MB is the best... considering it's only around $75. You can't beat that. It will have ALL the instructions for removing ALL the parts on this car. If you are planning to do DIY on this car, that MB manual is a must have. There are other manuals available on e-bay; however, none of them are good.

This is one of the best forums for W203. There are several experienced+knowledged folks on this board. With the help of members from this board and MB manual, you should be able to do [almost] everything on your own ... assuming you have the right tools.

About those clips... once you star working on the car, you will quickly learn how to remove the clips and connectors on the car. If you enjoy working on cars, you will definitely learn a lot and save a ton.

Most important thing to remember - do all the preventive maintenance like replacing the trans fluid and filter, replacing all other fluids at appropriate intervals, replacing all filters, etc.

pcy

with the help from this forum, I changed the water pump on my '04 C320. Here are couple of pictures...

Red arrow is pointing to the "sleeve" I was referring to at the beginning of your post.

vert

I picked up the alternator from Advanced Auto and it is now installed. All Malfunction codes have cleared... except that I picked up another code which is P0123 Throttle Position Sensor "A" too high. I will start a separate thread on this so its easier for others to search for the same problem later. Hopefully I can get it resolved.

If I can get through these issues and decide to keep the car, I will definitely get the book. I have a Bentley manual form my 330 and between that and the e46 forums I solved all the issues with diy. Thanks for your help and if you know anything about P0123 please chime in on my other thread...

dippin61

old thread i know.. but will have to tackle this in the upcoming days.. just tagging it so i can find it later

contact148

use some wd 40 on the bolts it lubes aluminum very well

my bolts were very tight I turned them out 1/4 turn them back in all the way out