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Started up the car yesterday morning with plans of going to the beach... when I started her up I heard a belt squeal. When I checked it, I just saw the tensioner pulley wobbling like it was about to fly off! Beach plans canceled and car back in the garage.
I think I found the problem...
It only took me 15 min to get it out, and a couple of places in town had it in stock, so the beach was back on the menu! Or not... it seems that EVERY parts store ever has the wrong part on file for the tensioner pulley. I'm not sure if AMG changed it from another car or what, but we checked pretty much every Mercedes engine available in the mid to late 90's.
Ended up just getting a new bearing that was close (same inner and outer diameter, a little narrower) and pounded the old one out, even though I don't think it was ever meant to be serviceable.
Amgie is back on the road now... but it took too long to go to the beach
If you do decide to get a power bleeder pelican parts sells a good one. Part number PEL-0109 it's 70 bucks but personally worth every penny. I can bleed the brakes with the wheels off in 10 minutes and the milled aluminum master cylinder cap works on my brothers E34 touring as well.
on a side note your car looks awesome. It's really come a long ways and the work shows.
Thanks for the complements and the tips. Bleeding did suck. After 3 or 4 times around the car, I finally got some "adequate" pedal feel. It could, and should, be much firmer but it feels fine for now. I will be ordering one of those power bleeders. The car is ok to drive, I just know that there is still some air trapped in there. It's been getting a little firmer as I have been driving it, but I want to do it right.
On the schedule for next week is water pump, t-stat, tensioner, tensioner pulley, and rear shock mounts (started getting a clunk in the rear over bumps shortly after lowering the car).
From: Land of mountains, cheese, chocolate and watches
12' W204 C63 AMG coupe "T-Rex", 12' W451 Smart Fortwo Pulse (99' W202 C43 AMG + Ultima Can-Am sold)
With which wheel did you start bleeding? It needs to be the one furthest from the fluid reservoir, i.e. the right rear followed by left rear, front right and finally front left.
Yep. That's the order I always use. I'm not unfamiliar with bleeding brakes, but my wife who was helping me, was in uncharted waters. I think we got a little air back in there, but its sorting itself out, the pedal is back to it's former firmness as of today. I'll still order the power bleeder though to avoid these situations in the future.
Yeah you won't regret it. Kinda like a shop vac, dremel, good shop light, heat gun... something that once you get it you'll wonder why you didn't buy one years ago.
If I remember right they sell two different versions I bought the one with the red anodized cap over the plastic one. Really like it. Might take the cap off your merc and see if it works on the Jetta.. If it does that would be sweet.
Found a car. Ended up buying a cheap Jetta ecobox. I got $5k for the BMW plus I got to keep the wheels which are now for sale, and bought a 99 Jetta for my wife for $1600 already ordered all new shocks, assembled struts, control arms, tie rods and ball joints. The car runs great, very clean interior and has ice cold AC. I could have bought a better, or more fun car, but we just needed something good on gas for her to daily, and I feel much better pocketing most of what we got out of the BMW.
As for the c36, the leak turned out to be that the BRAND NEW pan gasket blew out the side, almost explosively, like I have never seen before.
New gasket in now, and she's back on the road. My friend just picked up a set of 18" AMG wheels off of an S55 for me today. They're 18x8.5 and 18x9.5, which is good because I did a test fit of the cl600 calipers, and it would be a very tight fit with the current 17" SLK AMGs...
It will be a little while before they go on though. The wheels need a little clean up, and new tires, plus I still need to sell the BMW wheels AND I have a set of w203 sport wheels that I need to sell too. I will probably order some Vogtlands to go in at the same time as the wheels and brakes.
Wheels look great...Do you mind me asking what year S55 they came from and the fr/r offset...did you need spacers?
The came off a w220. I think it was a 2003 to be specific. They are 18x8.5 et44 front and 18x9.5 et46 rear. Spacers are required to run these on a 202. I have 10mm front and 15mm rear, which effectively brings my offsets to 34 front and 31 rear.
[QUOTE=Twichel04;6184396]The came off a w220. I think it was a 2003 to be specific. They are 18x8.5 et44 front and 18x9.5 et46 rear. Spacers are required to run these on a 202. I have 10mm front and 15mm rear, which effectively brings my offsets to 34 front and 31 rear. That's what I figured,not a big fan of running spacers.Looks good though..thanks.
That's what I figured,not a big fan of running spacers.Looks good though..thanks.
I have to correct myself here. I ordered spacers for these wheels because everything that I read on putting these on a 202 told me that I needed spacers to clear the suspension. However, I was having an issue with my spacers causing a vibration, so I took them off tonight to see if I could possibly run the wheels without them.... Turns out that they WILL clear the suspension without spacers... However they will not clear my new brakes. I need just one more MM to clear the calipers. BUT, if you are running factory brakes on your 202, the S55 wheels will go on with out spacers, at least in the front. I have not checked the rear yet, but I imagine that there is even more space in the rear.
Last edited by Twichel04; Oct 2, 2014 at 08:15 PM.
I have to correct myself here. I ordered spacers for these wheels because everything that I read on putting these on a 202 told me that I needed spacers to clear the suspension. However, I was having an issue with my spacers causing a vibration, so I took them off tonight to see if I could possibly run the wheels without them.... Turns out that they WILL clear the suspension without spacers... However they will not clear my new brakes. I need just one more MM to clear the calipers. BUT, if you are running factory brakes on your 202, the S55 wheels will go on with out spacers, at least in the front. I have not checked the rear yet, but I imagine that there is even more space in the rear.
Ok great, so your thinking the front calipers on my C43 WILL CLEAR?
Possibly. Next time I have my wheels off I will measure from where the caliper mounts to the spindle to the front face of the caliper. If your measurement is even 2mm less than mine, you should be fine. I assume that you will be fine though since the c43, while having bigger factory brakes than a c36, actually have a smaller caliper with pistons only on the back side. Also, my new calipers had to be spaced OUT about 6.5mm.
Possibly. Next time I have my wheels off I will measure from where the caliper mounts to the spindle to the front face of the caliper. If your measurement is even 2mm less than mine, you should be fine. I assume that you will be fine though since the c43, while having bigger factory brakes than a c36, actually have a smaller caliper with pistons only on the back side. Also, my new calipers had to be spaced OUT about 6.5mm.
Yes I appreciate that if you could...Yes caliper body looks to be smaller/narrower than a c36...thanks for all the assistance bro!
Yes I appreciate that if you could...Yes caliper body looks to be smaller/narrower than a c36...thanks for all the assistance bro!
I will be taking some measurements for you tomorrow.
Just an FYI for anyone who wants to run these wheels- I had to temporarily put my old wheels back on. I was getting a really annoying wheel wobble after swapping to the S55 wheels. I thought it was the spacers, so I switched out my 10mm spacers for 3mm spacers, and the problem was still there. Then I did a little research and discovered that the w220 wheels use a cone seat lug, and my lugs were ball seat. I had always assumed that all factory Mercedes wheels where ball seat... I was wrong...
But anyway, the correct lugs will be here tomorrow and I'll have my S55 wheels back!
Brake clearance with CL600/C32 calipers and 3mm spacers....
Oh, and when I got my car, the only original AMG thing that was missing, was the shifter. Someone had replaced it with one that just had the plastic badge with the Mercedes star. I stumbled across someone selling a C36 shifter on eBay and snatched it up! It's got a little wear, but it's correct!
Last edited by Twichel04; Oct 9, 2014 at 04:36 PM.
99CEEFOURTHREE, I measured today for you. Instead of measuring the whole caliper, I measured from the face of the rotor to the the outer most face of the caliper. Mine measured about 62mm. So if you measure yours from the face of the rotor out, and it is anything less than 60mm, the w220 S55 wheels should fit no problem, without spacers. Also, I am running 225/40/18 on the front.
99CEEFOURTHREE, I measured today for you. Instead of measuring the whole caliper, I measured from the face of the rotor to the the outer most face of the caliper. Mine measured about 62mm. So if you measure yours from the face of the rotor out, and it is anything less than 60mm, the w220 S55 wheels should fit no problem, without spacers. Also, I am running 225/40/18 on the front.
GREAT! Thanks for the response and all the great info.Much appreciated.Shopping for some 02-03 s55 wheels as we speak.I love how they look on the w202. BTW great job on getting the 36 where it deserves to be!
Just stumbled across these today- http://www.ebay.com/itm/18-AMG-MERCEDES-WHEELS-RIMS-WHEEL-S500-550-600-S430-OEM-cl500-cls55-A2204010802/221570354757?_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D25410%26meid%3Dadfc0e67d7db4671b38ae878df3102a0%26pid%3D100033%26prg%3D10672%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D121420679882
It's a full set of fronts, but they are in decent shape and pretty cheap too.
As someone is looking looking to purchase their first C36 very soon, this thread has been very helpful. Great work and please keep the thread updated.
Glad to be of help! And good luck on your future purchase.
No real updates here for now. Today I traded my old 17'' SLK wheels for a spare M104. It's not an AMG motor, but it will make a good temporary engine for when I eventually take out the 3.6 to give it a good refresh. That way, I can still drive it while working on the motor.
Also, my friend and I are really getting serious about starting up a business that focuses on performance parts for 80's and 90's Mercedes. The main focus will be on M103 and M104 engines, and this one will be a good one for mock up and product testing/development purposes.
I've also been busy revamping my garage!
I forgot to take a before picture, but you can kind of see what it used to look like in the background of this picture-
It's not done yet, but it's been painted, storage cabinets installed, and severely organized. I still need to finish two of the work benches, epoxy the floor, and build a closet in the corner to hide the hot water heater/lawn equipment. My wife is also going to paint some car related artwork for me to hang on the walls too.
My R&D department
And lastly, an obligatory instagram picture that I thought was cool. I'm in love with these wheels, lol
If you've seen my other thread you'll know that I have been working on trying to suppress the top end noise that seems to be inherent in the C36 engine. I know that it is temperature related, so my first step is to get the car to run cooler. Being in Florida and mostly doing in town driving, the car usually runs right around 95*c. The factory fans kick in at 105*c, and in my opinion, that's too high. My goal is to keep the car between 75-80*c. I know that there is the "cool harness" out there, but that only makes the the fans kick on at 95* which is still too high, plus, it's just a $20 sensor with a resistor soldered in, which I could make myself so I cannot justify the $95 price tag.
My plan is a little more in depth than that. My plan is to use an electric fan in place of the mechanical fan. The electric fan will be driven off of a temp switch that I have installed in one of the available ports in the water pump. The switch kicks the fan on at 82*C and back off at 76*C. I have also installed a T-stat that opens at 77*C. Just with the T-stat, the car is al ready running cooler, but not cool enough.
I had hoped to already have the fan in and testing it, but the company sent me the wrong fan, and it's too thick. So while I wait for the new one. I decided to go ahead and wire everything up. My plan was to make everything as seamless and factory looking as possible. The temp switch that I ordered from Summit came with a relay and wiring, so last night I turned this mess of colored spaghetti-
Into a complete, plug and play, electric fan harness for a w202!
I used water proof GM style connectors and heat shrink on everything, I wanted this thing to be the best quality that I could produce. The harness plugs right into the car, no splicing anything at all. It also looks factory when installed, and most of it is hidden under the plastic covers of the factory loom. I installed the harness last night and tested it and it works perfectly!
Once I get the fan in, I will probably do the resistor mod to the factory coolant temp sensor to make the factory AUX fan kick in at 95*C, just to be safe incase there is a really bad Florida day. This whole set up will keep the car cooler than the "Cool Harness" for not much more money. Definitely more bang for the buck. I may even start making more of these plug and play E-fan harnesses if there is any interest. After my "Cool Pack" is complete, I will also be working on an oil cooler for the car.
Last edited by Twichel04; Oct 31, 2014 at 01:26 PM.
Mercedes SLR McLaren 722 S Is Extremely Rare Example Modified by McLaren
Slideshow: A one-of-one U.S.-spec Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster became even rarer after a factory-backed transformation at McLaren's headquarters.
already ordered all new shocks, assembled struts, control arms, tie rods and ball joints. The car runs great, very clean interior and has ice cold AC. I could have bought a better, or more fun car, but we just needed something good on gas for her to daily, and I feel much better pocketing most of what we got out of the BMW.
However they will not clear my new brakes. I need just one more MM to clear the calipers. BUT, if you are running factory brakes on your 202, the S55 wheels will go on with out spacers, at least in the front. I have not checked the rear yet, but I imagine that there is even more space in the rear.
