Dodged a major bullet - catastrophic engine failure avoided.
Thread Starter
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 1,905
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From: Atlanta
03 C32 AMG
Dodged a major bullet - catastrophic engine failure avoided.
Over the past few days I had started to notice a faint whiff of something smelling like clutch or oil when i was driving the C32 to/from work. I started to worry about glycol contamination and took the car in to a local independent mechanic for the test. He came back with some startling news.
1) Timing chain tensioner was leaking BADLY. We put it up on the lift and i watched it drain roughly 1/8 cup of oil in about 5 minutes. Mechanic said if i had driven it a day or two more the engine would have completely seized up.
2) bolt missing from subframe assembly. I had been hearing a popping noise when i made a hard turn. Turns out i am missing one of the 4 bolts that holds the subframe on, so this was causing the popping. If the other bolt on the passenger side had sheared off, the engine and transmission could have fallen out.
Needless to say, I'm relieved at the $600 repair pricetag.
1) Timing chain tensioner was leaking BADLY. We put it up on the lift and i watched it drain roughly 1/8 cup of oil in about 5 minutes. Mechanic said if i had driven it a day or two more the engine would have completely seized up.
2) bolt missing from subframe assembly. I had been hearing a popping noise when i made a hard turn. Turns out i am missing one of the 4 bolts that holds the subframe on, so this was causing the popping. If the other bolt on the passenger side had sheared off, the engine and transmission could have fallen out.
Needless to say, I'm relieved at the $600 repair pricetag.
Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2004
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2002 C32, 2011 VW GTI
I'd get it checked out.
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Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 173
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From: Vegas
02 C32
Over the past few days I had started to notice a faint whiff of something smelling like clutch or oil when i was driving the C32 to/from work. I started to worry about glycol contamination and took the car in to a local independent mechanic for the test. He came back with some startling news.
1) Timing chain tensioner was leaking BADLY. We put it up on the lift and i watched it drain roughly 1/8 cup of oil in about 5 minutes. Mechanic said if i had driven it a day or two more the engine would have completely seized up.
2) bolt missing from subframe assembly. I had been hearing a popping noise when i made a hard turn. Turns out i am missing one of the 4 bolts that holds the subframe on, so this was causing the popping. If the other bolt on the passenger side had sheared off, the engine and transmission could have fallen out.
Needless to say, I'm relieved at the $600 repair pricetag.
1) Timing chain tensioner was leaking BADLY. We put it up on the lift and i watched it drain roughly 1/8 cup of oil in about 5 minutes. Mechanic said if i had driven it a day or two more the engine would have completely seized up.
2) bolt missing from subframe assembly. I had been hearing a popping noise when i made a hard turn. Turns out i am missing one of the 4 bolts that holds the subframe on, so this was causing the popping. If the other bolt on the passenger side had sheared off, the engine and transmission could have fallen out.
Needless to say, I'm relieved at the $600 repair pricetag.
Are you the original owner of the car? A missing bolt on the sub-frame strikes me as odd; I hope it didn't work itself out and I am wondering if a mechanic failed to replace it or properly torque it during a repair.
Thread Starter
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 1,905
Likes: 1
From: Atlanta
03 C32 AMG
As to the background on the car, I bought it used and had to put some money into it because it had been wrecked and the dealer (a small local dealer, last time i make that mistake) swore up an down that it had not been wrecked. I even had it inspected by a local MB dealer who cave it a clean bill of health with the exception of a few normal maintenance needs.
Upon discovering the issues, I gave the dealer a substantial piece of my mind, and they refunded my money, then threatened to sue the original dealer, and he paid for half the repairs.
The bolt missing was almost certainly due to the wreck (looks like it was just a fender bender where the car rear ended something) so I wouldnt worry about them working themselves out.
The ultimate source of the leak was the timing chain tensioner. The mechanic has seen it on a number of cars. Basically, the tensioner is steel and the block is aluminum. Since the different metals react differently to heat in terms of expansion/contraction, after a few years they tensioner tends to "back out" and leak oil. My car was not the first MB they had seen with this problem, so I would definitely check it out if your car has around 80K miles (what mine has).
