pagepro

Hello everyone,

I am new owner of a 96 C36. The car seems fine but I noticed that my temperature gauge is not stable. It moves between 90 deg C to 100 deg C. Is this normal for a C36? If not, what could be the problem?

Looking forward to some advise.

Thank you.

Ben

Denlasoul

I got this info from a really old post on another forum.

Quote from "Inky Winky"

"...it is most likely your fan clutch. That is why it is overheating when you stop! One easy way to find out if it is your fan cluch:
1) Turn on your car and let the temp rise up a little (be careful you don't overheat your engine).
2) With the car on and parked, open the hood and look at the fan cluch. It should be spinning.
3) Turn off the car while looking at the fan cluch. If after turning off the car, the fan keeps spinning, your fan cluch is messed up. However, if it stops when you turn off your car, then you are safe.

I would do this first, if the fan cluch is ok, then your next possiblities are thermostat, coolant tank and tap, and water pump."

I am guessing a fan cluch = fan clutch? Not too sure what this is, but I'm guessing it's the fan system right behind the radiator.

Hope this helps you out. FYI, my car hovers around 80-90 Degrees when driven hard or in moderate to heavy traffic.

Regards,

DLS

steve s

u'r not the only one. the c36 does tend to run very hot. on hot days, like 90+F ... boy, that fan just keeps cranking and the temp gauge just keeps rising.. my aunt was like, dude, what's wrong with ur car? the fan's so loud.

pagepro

Thanks for the feedback guys. If you say your C36 runs between 80 to 90 deg C, which means that my car is definitely running too hot @ 100 deg C. Will this damage the engine or lower the performance of the car?

steve s

more heat will def be slower...for the same volume of air, there are more molecules to "explode" when it is cold than when it is hot...but it's not as noticeable on a turbo as it is on an n/a engine.

mmarg86

Steve, I think you're talking about intake temperatures? Different from coolant temperatures. Actually I have found over the years that some engines run better slightly hotter than the factory cooling setup.

steve s

oh, yeah. intake temps. like hot days and stuff...

BrabusCClass

I remember the temperature gauge on my C36 would move a lot. When a fuse went out to my second fan I was almost hitting the red so check your fuses. There are 2 fans and if 1 doesnt work it will shoot the temp up more than normal. Normal is still very high but on cold days I noticed I would run super cold and car would feel very nice.

kodiak

My C36 tends to run warm sometimes as well. First things first. Verify that that aux cooling fans are coming on- they should fire up near 100 C when the A/C is on. If not, the temperature sensor is bad (easy to replace, about 40 bucks).

Second- when the car is warm 80 - 90 C, shut it off and feel the radiator in various places, the temperature should be pretty uniform. If it has obvious hot and cold spots then the radiator is shot. It cost about 280 from partsbin.com. You can do it yourself.

It the radiator feels okay, then you might just need to flush the system and replace the thermostat. The thermostat is about 20 bucks (buy the Behr, not the Wahler) and the coolant is 12.00 for a gallon (only use MB coolant). Also pickup a bottle of Red Line water wetter (15 dollars) and add that to the mix. If your climate is not to harsh you can increase the amount of water in you coolant mixture. I run 60/40 water/coolant plus a bottle of Red Line water wetter. And my car only goes above 100 on hot days when the AC is on and I am traffic. Most of the time it rests at 80 or slightly above.

~dnm

steve s

i meant the other way around.. hot day vs cold day is quite noticeable in a turbo

MBdragracer

Just an observation but when drag racing my C36, the car is much much much happier cold. Fooling around with water temp during time shots, I've discovered my E.T. can be as much as a half a second slower when the car is hot!

Throw in a dose of cold air, low elevation and the right barometric pressure and, of course, things improve dramatically.

Things are way different with most Japanese imports, especially Hondas. No matter what temp they are, they seem to run the same numbers all day long - makes bracket racing against these guys a bit tough!!

BongC36

The temp needle moves because MB had installed a real thermometer unlike most other makers gauges, which are biased towards the center 'normal' position. No need to worry, 90-100C is very normal for this engine.

For your peace of mind, MB specifically states that operation up to 115C is normal. In fact, the auxillary fans are calibrated to come on at only 100C at low speed and will cut out at 95C. High speed blower comes on at only 115C and cuts out at 107C. The fan clutch (for the engine-driven fan) also starts engaging only at around 90-95C.

I too felt apprehensive at first because my temp needle drifts close to the red zone during stop-and-go traffic, specially after a hard run. Since I live in the tropics this became a real concern for me.
Although I know that MB states that this temp range is normal, I noticed that the 104 engine is peppier when the coolant temps are lower.

My solution was to replace the standard fan clutch with a tropical version from SACHS (the OEM). Now temps are generally lower but still hits 100C on very hot days.

kodiak

Keep in mind that Bong is in the Phillippines, so hot to him is 110 degrees, with 99% humidity. Most of us will never drive our cars in temperatures like that, but the fact that we can get the tropical clutch just shows that MB thought about this and has options available to you.

~dnm

steve s

does anyone find the fan to be excessively noisy? great that it's working, but man...it sure is noisy...

joboo

yep, my fan gets pretty noisy when its on too. It sounds like the engine is supercharged. I also run within the 90-100F degree line. I was just told that my water pump is also starting to go. Dealer says that when the engine is hot, it will not leak but when its cold the gasket contracts and will start to leak a bit. Not too happy about replacing water pump tomorrow.