jmg1848

"subframe bushings tool" - op needs to borrow one in case that got missed

Twichel04

Haha, yes I do. Thanks!

Super B

Hey when you do that job, maybe you can give a loose outline what that's all about. I need to do the same. Looks pretty straight forward but devil is in the details.

As far as your low idle, mine did the same when I got it. The throttle body was nasty, found some cracked vac lines so look for those but the sneaky ones is under the 3.6 crossover pipe. where the breathers enter into the intake pipe, really common for it to crack there and leak a little un metered air into the intake.

DRBC43AMG

Congratulations on saving that C36. They are becoming rare birds these days. Have you done some oil and filter changes? I hope the engine harness is in good condition, because they have a tendency of crumbling to pieces.

Twichel04

I'll do a detailed write up when I get around to that job.

I already took care of the throttle body and vacuum leaks. My crossover pipe had been obliterated at some point and then cobbled back together. I sealed it and checked for leaks. I didn't find any, but I also have a good condition c280 crossover pipe that I can use temporarily, if need be. Tomorrow the o2 sensors, coils and wire set will all go in, and the new MAF will be here Monday. I'm hoping that I won't have an idle issue after that. Lol.

This was the only c36 that I could find for sale within 500 miles.

Fluids will all be in the next couple weeks. I want to do valve cover gasket and trans service at the same time.

Harness is good. It's been replaced at some point. That was the very first thing I checked when I looked at the car. I am all too familiar with the harness issues, and I really don't want to have to rebuild a throttle body harness from scratch ever again in my life! Lol.

In other news, I bought two sets of wheels today. One because I was planning on buying them for the car anyway from a friend of mine, and the other because they only cost $75 with tires. The $75 wheels are 5 spokes off of a w203 sport. I don't have them yet, my friend in Jax went and picked them up for me.

But I did get the 17" SLK AMG wheels today and got rid of those nasty chrome things!

Before


After


Soooooooooooooo much better! I'm still looking for some 18" Monoblocks, but I don't mind running these as long as I need to to find a clean set.

The car rides a hell of a lot better now too.

jmg1848

looking good!

Super B

sounds like you have all the bases covered and the merc is in good hands. Looking forward to seeing it come together. Thanks for agreeing to a write up.. Btw

Also while your under the hood doing the tune up. Might want to pull the serpentine belt and give the idlers a spin. Make sure none of those are dry as well as the clutch fan/water pump bearing for play. The bearing for the clutch fan almost seized and left me walking last year at just shy of 200k.

Twichel04

Good call on the idler pully! Thanks.

Tonight the car got the new coils, coil boots, wires, and o2 sensors (pain in the ***), as well as a recheck on vacuum leaks. MAF won't be here till Monday. The car feels like it has a little more power now. Definitely running better. I did descover that my front flex disc is indeed bad, which explains a random driveline vibration that I get occasionally. The car idles a little better, but it's still about 50-100 rpm too low when in drive at a stop with the AC on.

Now here is the weird part, when I got it, the CEL was on. Several misfire codes, an EGR code, and a tranny code. All of these were fixed about 200 miles ago, the CEL never returned. Now tonight, after replacing all that stuff, I took it for a drive, everything was fine. It wasn't till I restarted it later that the CEL came on. Here's the weird part, there are no codes in the ecu... Light is on, but there are no codes to clear. I tried clearing anyway, no results. So now the car is parked for the night with the battery disconnected, I'll see if it comes back in the morning.

Continuing list of parts to order-
Flex discs
Motor mounts
Fuel pressure regulator
Valve cover gasket
Trans filter/gasket
Probably more things that I can't think of right now.

Twichel04

MAF is in now. Runs better, but it's running a little rich for some reason and the idle is still too low (576) while at a stop in drive. Mystery CEL turned out to be that plug on the tranny again. I need to get a clip for that thing so it doesn't keep vibrating loose.

The car is almost begging for a manual swap, haha. The idle in neutral is perfect and it keeps rejecting that plug for the transmission. Honestly, this car really would be near perfect with a manual... Hmmm... I might start collecting parts....

Sulaco

Member Remolexi (I can't recall if he's here, but he's definitely at club202.com) did this swap. I'd locate his thread or at least pick his brain if I were you. He sold his 5-speed C36 after completing the swap, though. If I recall, he sold it to a friend who promptly lost control of it and wrapped it around a tree

Twichel04

Thanks. I'll look him up. I'm familiar with the manual swaps (done it on my friends 190e Sportline) and I know that it's the same process on the m104, save for the fact that the m104 only let's you rev to 4k in neutral, so I do need to research what he did with that aspect of the swap.

On the note of modification, I know someone local(ish) to me who does tuning for a living, mostly BMW. But he agreed to do a tune for the c36 for me once I have all the maintenance stuff sorted out. The car will be dyno'd before and after to show REAL gains. He seems very confident that he can squeeze out an extra 20-30. I think that's probably a little high, but he's the professional, so who knows?

Super B

He is a super nice guy too. I've collected all the pieces for the manual swap and contacted him for the control module programming. He had to get some custom coding made up. I was curious if you could just use star and tell it the car is a c280 manual but he said it didn't work out that way. Since I'm in oregon and he is in northern Cali the plan is just to drive down and see him at his shop once the swap is done. Just need to do a million other things first. The hardest part in collecting the pieces is working up a flywheel to work with your crank trigger.

Twichel04

I've been pretty lucky with finding m103 flywheels in the past (still attached to m103/5speed cars). If I find another m103/5speed to use as a doner, my understanding is that I can use the m103 flywheel, as it has the same 3 pick up points as the pre 97 m104's, and just add the magnetic pickup that the m104 requires. The other option is to use the more available m102 flywheel, have it machined down, trim down the m104 ring gear, and sandwich the two together.

I'm wondering, when I have my friend do the tune on the car, if he could just remove the rev limits? Or at least remove the neutral rev limit.... I'll have to ask him to look into that.

After a couple days of driving, the ecu seems to have adjusted to the new parts and no longer seems to be running rich. My long term fuel trim is spot on. My scanner app also tells me that I am now averaging around 23mpg. I feel like it is fairly accurate too since it gets all it's info directly from the ecu, and the last tank (before all the major tune up parts went in) my good old calculator math gave me 19mpg. I'll double check with a calculator on the next fill up.

I still have the low idle issue. I hooked up my scanner to check the intake temp sensor. It's giving accurate readings, so that's not it. Coolant temp sensor is reading accurately as well. I need to order a fuel pressure regulator. We did a quick check to see if it was still holding vacuum, and it was... Sort of... We didn't do a leak down test, just a simple, suck on the vacuum line and see if it holds pressure test. It seemed to hold, but there must be some amount of leaking because I also got a little bit of gas fumes in my mouth. Not a good sign...or taste.... Found a Bosch one on line for $40.

I also need to inspect the Idle Air Resonance Valve, or what ever Mercedes has decided to call it these days. I know that if those things go, it can cause all kinds of havoc with the idle.

If the resonance valve is good and the new FPR doesn't fix the idle I will be all out of ideas. I already double checked the EGRs, both hold vacuum, no more EGR codes have been thrown since I fixed the vacuum lines. I cleaned the EGR tubes this morning. Is there anything that you guys can think of that I may have over looked when it comes to the low idle issue?

Super B

Ohh that's right I keep forgetting you have a 96. Because mine is a 97 I had to figure out a 70-2 crank trigger.

Yeah just keep an eye out for a tranny they are out there. The shifter assemblies are getting spendy anymore. Remolexi started out swapping in a 5 speed then he modified the shifter assembly and installed a 6 speed. But when your looking for a tranny make sure your keeping your rear diff ratio in mind. The 190e's had a few different ratios over the years. Clk is another option. I haven't tried it out yet, but the clk crossmember looks really promising as it looks to use the forward bolts in the trans tunnel.

As far as your mpg and such if your getting 23 she is running good. That's about as good as these 3.6 get. as far as the idle I'll check mine today and see were she idles in gear. I know it's pretty low. But sounds like you have fixed the usual culprits. As far as the resonance valve you just need to pull the little rubber plugs to get to two of the 4 of the hidden bolts. Then it will slide out. Just a little vacuum gate in there. You can pull a vac on it and see if the gate is working. Can't speak from experience of the engine running symptoms if it's bad. But it's sure easy to test.

Super B

In gear.

Twichel04

Hmmm... Is that in gear with AC on? Mine's really not that much lower... Just a hair or so. Is your idle smooth? Mine vibrates really badly. Maybe all I'm really dealing with are bad motor and tranny mounts.

Super B

In gear no AC.. yeah open the hood and shift the tranny from forward to reverse and see how much that bad boy is slopping around. If the mounts are real bad the springs for the rear trunk lid will start rattling against the body.

Edit: you know the 36 isn't a super smooth at idle. I tried for years to get it to idle like the m62tub44 I had in the 540i. Including matched injectors, all ignition, motor mounts, fixing everything idle related. It's ok but your not going to balance a quarter on its side .

Twichel04

Oh yeah, I'm not looking for super smooth. I know it won't be anything close to the e46, but right now, I can sit at a stop light and watch my hood and wiper attempt to vibrate off of the car, haha

Super B

Haha yeah that's not right.. If your not seeing it on the tach and it's just a bad vibration. I bet the motor mounts will help a lot. Here is in drive with AC on.

Twichel04

Yeah, that looks exactly the same as mine. I'm still going to do the FPR because it needs it. But checking motor mounts tonight for sure! Thanks for the help!

Twichel04

Motor mounts are bad! Weird thing to excited about. Lol

Sulaco

Bad motor mount in mine meant engine trying to throw itself out of the car under acceleration!

Twichel04

Thank you guys so much for the help. The motor mounts did the trick! It feels like a whole new car now. Idle is perfect. It's funny, sometimes you need an outside perspective to realize that the problem is actually something simple.

Luckily, I wasnt just throwing parts at it, everything else I replaced, got replaced because it needed to be done anyway. And now it's running perfect.

It still needs a few little things here and there, but soon it will be 100% up to date with maintenance, which means I can start setting aside cash for paint.

Super B

Glad to hear it. Might tuck a little money aside for some nice springs and shocks too.

Those mounts really effect a lot on these cars. Bet you'll also notice the car will feel better in the corners on turn in as well. Don't have that heavy engine moving around.

Twichel04

Definitely. Suspension will come almost immediately after getting everything maintenance related sorted out. After putting about 300 miles on it since replacing everything, my long term fuel trims have started creeping back towards running rich. I am fairly certain that the fuel pressure regulator is the culprit.

The next few weeks will see a new FPR, trans filter/fluid/gasket, flex disc, transmission mount, oil change, valve cover gasket, valve cover sand blasted and painted while it's off, and lifters and cam lobes inspected and cleaned (I have a couple lifter taps that come and go. I'm pretty sure the passages are clogged from the car sitting for so long).