Duncan64

Hi guys, I bought the car as is. It had this gap from the start so now its starting to really bother me. I've only had it for a couple weeks. Is there any way to adjust it lower? I've tried to screw the rubber grommets on each side all the way down, but it did not do anything.

Viper98912

It looks like your hood just isn't closed. You are pushing down all the way right? Take some pictures of the area; something isn't clicking and may be blocking your hood from closing.

Duncan64

Yeah that's the problem. It is latched and pushed down as far as I can. When I pull the lever in the car to open the hood, it pops up even more. I'll take some pics tomorrow.

dre5373

Is the gap the same on the passenger side?

Viper98912

Check the height of the two latches and two hooks (are there spacers underneath?). Something is funny, especially if it's clicking down.

Duncan64

looks to be a smidge less gap on the passenger side.

Duncan64

there are no spacers anywhere. I actually took the hooks out that bots onto the hood and it closed the gap as it should. but obviously i need them there so something else is going on here.















and this is what it looks like when the hood pops up by pulling the lever in the car.

Viper98912

I went out to my car and took some pictures for you of mine, maybe you can compare against yours and see what looks different?

Duncan64

Thank you very much for the pics. I think what happened was that the guy got into a little accident and bent the support down where the bumper bolts on. I think it's called the radiator support. Looking at the pics I think I can see that my lights are a little lower than yours and thus everything that bolts onto that support... Ugh

Duncan64

I've taken everything apart and i think i know what the root cause is here... the car was in an accident and the crash bar looks a bit bent. Maybe the whole support got bent down a bit as well... or is this how all our crashbars look?

maverik259

your also missing the rubber grommet that goes around the headlights FYI, and I'm pretty sure its not supposed to look like that, lol...although its been awhile since I've had my bumper off

Duncan64

damn it... i am missing that rubber seal. Thanks for pointing that out... now where the hell am i gonna find those???

Duncan64

They sent me the wrong seals ugh!!!

Fixed my hood gap though...

ghiaguy

Nice! Glad to hear you fixed the gap issue

maverik259

What was wrong? That center radiator mount?

Viper98912

Yea man what exactly was the fix?

Duncan64

Sorry guys was tied up with work this week... I'll post up some after pics - Flickr won't let me do it on the iPhone ...

The fix was to take the bumper off, loosen the radiator support on both sides, stand on it and get a buddy to push it back in while the other guy tightens it. Took three guys to get it back to where the alignment made looked best.

It looked like it was bent upwards and never tightened down to where factory spec was. Fits like a glove now.

Do all C55 come with auto leveling headlights? Mine now looks a bit close in front of the car. We didn't do any adjustment afterwards because we were exhausted after doing a full service on the car. There is not a drop of oil on any part of the engine just on the inside lol.

Viper98912

If there was a slight accident, that may have caused it to push upward. Good fix.

Auto leveling is on the HID headlights. If they're not aligned, stick an allen hex head in the black connector in the middle of the headlight, near the back, facing up, and turn. Don't try to pull out the cover on the covered one, that's not the one you're looking for.

Duncan64

I'm sure I have the HID headlights, they just don't light as well as my BMW's xenons

maverik259

ya the projectors are pretty small...

Duncan64

Here's what she looks like now...

Duncan64

now i have to fix those front license plate holes

Duncan64

Does anybody know what the product code is for the rubber seal around the C55's headlights? I bought some but they were wrong - close but couldn't make them fit.

I found these on ebay but they dont look quite right either.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2003-2005-Mercedes-C-Class-W203-Left-Headlight-Rubber-Seal-A2038260191-/261425724647?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3cde2ffce7&vxp=mtr
I'm still looking for that evasive rubber seal around my headlights...

C230 Mulac

Hey Duncan, the seals for the C55 will be different than the rest of the w203. That may be the reason you got the wrong ones. If you get the ones for the w209 CLK headlights, they will be the correct ones.

Duncan64

Thanks Petar, i'll keep an eye out for them.