03c32AMG

Hello All. I wanted to share my experience with a check light. Last Wed. night left office...check light comes on...running very rough. I have been refilling antifreeze about 1 qt./10 days with no evidence of leakage outside engine. Thinking this finally has done something in inside the engine, I took it to MB dealership here in Sarasota. During test drive harmonic balancer breaks from engine. They repair and test for leakage of antifreeze with pressure test. No leakage found. Inspection of intercooler is "bone dry." Total bill was $642.97, of which Mercury Warranty paid all but $131.73. Car runs like a dream. Anyway, the reason for this post is this: Where oh where is this antifreeze going? Reading these forums had me printing out some of them and giving to the tech. They did the presumptive looking around/testing and found nothing. Why am I adding antifreeze every week or so? It seems to be against the laws of physics because I know this stuff doesn't evaporate! Any discussion would be welcomed.

gkstar

Not sure how sensitive their pressure test is but loss may also occur only under certain circumstances (temperature, coolant pressure, etc).

This is a tough one to diagnose. I have similar issue but it is even more weird:

I had a coolant loss and power loss. After the dealer changed a faulty I/C pump, loss stopped. A month later, I lost 1.5" on the coolant reservoir within say 10 days - seeing it disappear gradually. Now, it has been 3 weeks and I no longer see a coolant loss (it stays at that low level - 1.5" below where it should be). Go figure. Cannot point to any driving pattern or weather differences.

From what I read here, one thing is to have done is a glycol test on transmission fluid (by dealer) and second, either yourself or dealer to open the air intake covers and inspect for coolant deposits - due to intercooler failure (likely crack or corrosion).

... and I am out of ideas...

OCJeff

Could this be the issue of your coolant leaking into the transmission? But that sound like a lot of leakage!

-Jeff

03c32AMG

So I would look for residue inside the air intake covers, where my K & N's are?

03c32AMG

I thought of this, too, but yeah, I don't think the tranny would keep working with this much other liquid going in and not coming out.

SilverBulletAMG

Curious why Mercury did not foot the entire bill? I have a large claim through them now and am afraid of what the final bill out the door will be and how much they are going to try and dig into my pockets. Did you have the premium coverage?

03c32AMG

The dealer told me they do not cover "wear and tear" items like the belt. MB belt is $80. plus. The bill does not break down all the misc parts and pieces used, but I didn't quibble about the excess $20-30. I have the Platinum plan with zero deductible. I'm just happy they covered what they did. I did not even have to call them. I am going to put a claim in for the rental car I had for 5 days (weekend). I will let you know how that goes.

gaz

Are you seeing a lot of steam from your tailpipe?? Mayo in the oil cap?? How much fluid would you estimate you have added in total??

As mentioned, gearbox is a possible. Are you certain of no external leaks?? Have you taken down underguards to have a look from below?

AWDman

did you pull intake plenum? or is that what you meant by IC is dry?

03c32AMG

No excess steam; no mayo; have added roughly 4 gallons since Dec. 05. I have not removed anything to look from below.

03c32AMG

MB Service tech guy told me the "IC is bone dry." How they made this determination I do not know.

m444

If they pull the hose connections off the intercooler line, to the blower, and both inlet and outlet are dry, this would indicate, that the IC under the blower is dry also.

It is possible to get an airlock in the IC lines, if the IC pump does not prime properly.

blackscooby

One month after I had my IC pump replaced I found I was loosing approx 10mm of coolant per day. Adding approx 1 litre per week. MB pressure tested the cooling system and could not find the leak at all. No external signs of leakage.

Cutting a long story short the Intercooler was replaced and is discussed a lot on this forum (search coolant loss).

Mine had no other symptoms, although having it back now I'm convinced it's got more power... although that could be the C180 loaner I had !!!

I haven't had much of an opportunity to see if the leakage has now stopped as immediately after it was replaced I was dispatched to a customer site with work.

Cheers

Mark

03c32AMG

Mark, how did you get them to replace the IC without visible signs of leakage? Was this warranty work, or out of pocket?

blackscooby

After one hell of a battle ! Because there was "no fault" they wouldn't investigate, yet agreed that it was loosing water at a litre a week. I ended up writing to their head office here in the UK compaining of the cars history. I bought it in Sept and it had been at the garage for a number of faults a number of times.... ie IC Pump visit was 3 visits before repaired. I'd informed the garage of the issue on visit 1 (from reading on here), and I'd provided the evidence from here.

Anyway all this was documented and sent away. The garage I bought it from agreed to pay for the investigation should there be no issue which was going to be bloody unlikely due to theavy water loss.

I was told originally as there was no sign of any water loss that if they stripped it down and found no fault I'd be responsible for the rebuild cost....to which I said noooooooooooooo freeekin' way. Hence my letter !

In the end it was all warranty work except the service that cost me £420...($800).

Cheers
Mark

03c32AMG

I think I will end up just waiting for a catastrophic engine failure, like others I've read about on this forum. I have not had any decreased performance as far as I can tell, so no need to fight it. Thanks.