paul-the-limey

Hi all,

Happy new year. I just got a quote from my MB dealer for a spark plug change on my W203 C240 V6. They quoted £210 (approx $375) for the job. This seems to be a little excessive. Does anyone have experience of doing the job and how long it might take / how difficult it is?

Could it be easily done by myself (do you need tiny hands or special tools??)

Cheers,


Paul

uk_c200k

that sounds about right to me for MB labour rates...

does that include the parts and whats the mileage on the car? i didn't think they needed changing for at least 60K

BruNo

remove the engine cover, and u'll need 2 mb special tools, the pliers to pull the sparkplug wires, and the sparkplug socket. both are specialized mb tools. its kinda hard to pull the wires and install/remove plugs...especially those near towards the dashboard/firewall. seems my mechanic took 40-60mins removing/installing them coz the engine was hot.

paul-the-limey

Hi All.

The milage is 64K miles. Q. If I go to an independant local garage are they likely to have/need these tools? They have quoted me approx £100 (1.25 hours labour + plugs x 12)

Cheers,

Paul

uk_c200k

if your local garage is a MB specialist then they will probably have the tools.... and the parts will come from the main stealer anyway. It's worth asking them...

how did you know you needed new plugs?

where abouts are you in the UK?

paul-the-limey

Hi uk_c200k,

My local outfit is not MB specialist. I was told at my last service that they "should be done" on this car when the milage is above 60K. I live near Oxford and work up in Birmingham (hense the high milage!!).

Do you know of any specialists in the south midlands or south east??



Cheers,


Paul

uk_c200k

i'm sure there must be MB specialist in brum / oxford!

i'm in London and I know of a very good garage in NW Lon.

.elijah.

my car is a 2002 C 240 and I am approaching 60K. I thought that the manual was saying something about not needing new plugs until 100K? Am I wrong? Is it better to change them earlier?

Does the A and B FSS account for the older termed 30K / 60K / 90K service? or do you still have to have those done as well?

Buellwinkle

Depends on your driving style, most cars are 100K miles for plugs on the normal maintenance schedule but may require it to be more frequent if you are on the severe duty schedule. I can't imagine it being even a 1 hour job for most people, 20 minutes for a trained mechanic. Even if you purchased a "special" tool to do the job I can't see it costs £50 for you to do it including plugs and tools (and I removed the plugs with a standard spark plug socket). Mechanics charge too much for what they do, specially dealer mechanics. Simple things like plug or belt changes should be done for under $100. The local Ford dealers want over $600 to do the 60K service on my kid's Mustang which doesn't even require plugs, just oil, tranny fluid, air filter, some inspections (like checking belts, hoses, brakes) and tire rotation. The funny part is they only charge about $32 to do the oil change and inspections. So I let them do that and then I go elsewhere for the tranny fluid + airfilter which is about $75. They even wanted $660 to do the hoses, under $100 in parts and 1-2 hours labor at most. The moral of the story, pay the high price and smile or learn to do it yourself, it's not that hard.

C230 Sport Coup

Yeh, like $660+tax ($715) for brake pads....no rotors. JUST PADS.
DIY'd for $70 (including tax and shipping), and the back ones are still intact 10K miles later.
Didnt need to be replaced at all.

Imagine: The entire AMG big brake kit is 595.

Pancham

Does anyone know of a "Do it yourself MB site"?

Buellwinkle

You are here, just ask and someone that has done it before can help. I've done some how to's on my website but there's plenty of knowledgeable people here to help. Keep in mind that it doesn't really take much skill to maintain your car as many dealer mechanics aren't that sharp and most car maintenance is not really much different than it was 20-30 years ago, specially plug changes. Add the advent of digital cameras and there's no reason you can't do the work yourself.

paul-the-limey

Hi,

Does anyone have or know of a set of step-by-step pictures to go with the C240 V6 plug change?

Cheers,
Paul

levelr123g

special tools to change the plugs?
naaa just a plug socket and just pull to remove the wires.

BudC

Just to rub it in, it takes me less than 15 minutes and a cost of $13 to change plugs on my 300E.

It takes me about an hour and a cost of $50 to change front brake pads or $20 to change the rear. To change the front rotors takes an extra 1/2 hour and a cost of $46.

A Mobil 1 oil change with OEM filter costs me 20 minutes and $30.

My license plates that include a personal property tax cost $135. Plates for a new E320 would cost over $800.

Other than to have the head gasket replaced, the only time my car was ever at a dealership was to have the transmission serviced.

Is it any wonder I'm dragging my feet about buying a new car?

SLCPUNK

Find out exactly what spark plugs go in this vehicle and use those plugs only.

Buy some antisieze compound.

Go down to the local auto parts store and buy a spark plug socket to fit the plugs. Buy an extension. But a torque wrench while you are at it.

Find out what the correct torque spec is. On my 1994 c280 it's 18 ft pounds for instance.

When engine is cool wiggle the wires in a back and forth motion and remove. Take the old plugs out and put a small amount of antisieze on the new plug threads.

Put that new plug in and turn until you here the click of the torque wrench.

Repeat this five more times.

It takes me less than an hours to do my plugs and I have to remove the crossover tube, the cover and work SLOW.

This is an easy job.

Good luck.

paul-the-limey

Hi,

Thanks for the info. the reason I laboured the point is the fact that MB is telling me it's a ***** of a job. They quote 2.5 hours to do the job as there are 12!! plugs and apparently some of the plugs are almost impossible to get out.

I think I will probably get the special tool to remove the leads. I have today had a look (after removing the plastic cowling covering the main engine block). Some of the leads are virtually ip against the side wall of the bay and I can see why they might be difficult to remove them. The wire terminators are not plain old rubber but some sort of metal tube that looks like it could be easily messed up. Also, once removed (the leads) there is very little space to get the plug spanner in maybe 3" between the hole and the side wall of the bay. I guess a standard socket may be too big which is why i believe MB sell one of those too.


Cheers,

Paul

SLCPUNK

Oh sounds like it's a bit different than my setup. As long as you don't have to lift the back of the engine (I've seen some cars where you had to do that) then just buy that special tool and do it on your own. If it looks too tough I'd still go to an Indy before a dealer.



Good luck.

levelr123g

i disagree with the antiseize compound. it is not needed.

SLCPUNK

It is really up to the individual. I think it's worth it for later on, but that's my opinion. If you are nervous about over tightening, just knock back a few notches on the torque wrench.