Aero93CLK430

Hey all,

So I have owned my 2000 CLK430 for about two days now, and today I noticed some problems at idle. It is not too terribly bad, but it is enough to raise my eyebrows. When I am at a standstill, the engine gidles up and down and the RPM needle moves up and down just slightly. Along with the the temp guage moves up past normal. Once I start moving, everything seems fine, and I hear nothing wrong. Any ideas? I am going to look at the air filter once it stops raining, but I am not sure whether to bring it back to the dealership where I bought it at and use my 30 day warranty or to drive the 50 miles to the Mercedes dealership and pay out the ying yang. I just don't like the idea of a Kia dealership working on it (thats where I bought it). thanks in advance to any suggestions.....

--slightly nervous newbie--

JMA

Do an advanced search on the W208 board the archives by using the search function located above. Here is thread that I started that includes most of the usual suspects. Most work on these cars is not cheap, so I would try to get it fixed ASAP and have someone else pay for it.

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...ght=rough+Idle

JMA

Aero93CLK430

thanks for the info....and I did do a search, but none of what i found in that reading suggested the same problem I am having, other than it being a rough idle. I will bring it back to where I bought it, simply because maybe it is a simple fix and i won't pay a dime, but i am really nervous after reading about yours missing. i just posted this to see if there was anything wuick, that i may be able to check. i just filled it up with 93 oct gas today....if it had been getting 87 for its life would this matter?...just wondering.

JMA

The higher octane gas can't hurt, but we only have 91 out here in Cali, so 93 is not "needed" for a smooth idle. The car's electronics should handle the octane differences. My guess is that the problem is one of the usual:
Motor mounts (not likely if tach is jumpy)
MAF
Harmonic Balancer Pulley
Bad wires

I'll bet that any of these will cost you at least $500 from a dealership, so I would mention these to the tech if you are going to try to get it fixed gratis...maybe they can benefit form the research?

Good luck-

Aero93CLK430

thanks man, i appreciate it. i will mention all of those to them, and hopefully they will get it resolved. ill let you know what happens tomorrow..thanks again

bs00clk

So, Aero - what did you find out?

Aero93CLK430

don't know yet, they had to schedule an appt for me for monday, so it will be a bit. from all the research and findings i have found on here it really looks like it will be the MAFS, butim not getting any check engine light so.... we'll see. i don't think it is the motor mounts, because that would not cause the Tach to jump...ill let you all know when i know...

bs00clk

Not to bum you out in advance, but I have rough idle and have tried everything (MAF, plugs, wires, fuel filter, air filter, injectors, different fuel grades, motor mounts) and nothing really worked.

Per Mercedes (and a number of peeps on several forums), the rough idle on the CLK is "normal".

The last hope I have is to get the ECU tuned. I'm hoping to smooth the idle and get about a 20-25 HP gain. I'm going to try to organize a group buy for a Powerchip ECU remap so check it out if you are interested. They offer a 14 day money back guarantee.

Aero93CLK430

yeah, ive sort of gathered that info from reading. who knows, it is so subtle, maybe there really is no problem...it doesn't really bother me persay, but i just want to make sure if there is a problem it gets fixed before i have a serious problem. i plan on taking it to the MB stealership to get EVERYTHING checked out prior to making a 9 hr roadtrip next month.

Yeah, im interested in the powerchip...its around 850 dollars, right? i'll do some more reading on it, but what all is involved, do they send a new one, or what? anything else need to be done to the car once its tuned?

thanks again for the info, and keep me updated

bs00clk

Where are you going on 9 hour road trip from/to? Check out the group buy post that I did in the Group Buy forum on the "other" website (this site requires "approval" of group buy postings and apparently my post hasn't been approved yet)...if we get enough people the cost goes down to as low as $660. You pull the chip from your car, overnight it to them, they reprogram it and overnight it back the next day so it's a 2-3 day turnaround. JT on this forum had his done and reports good results...

Aero93CLK430

hey bud, i checked out the forum with the link to the website by jag...it says its $550 on the website for the CLK 4.3L unless i am reading that wrong...

anyway, it may take me a bit to come up with the money, I am in the military and don't make the big buck some of these people on here make...LOL. but i am interested....

bs00clk

hey Aero, www.powerchipgroup.com is the website for Powerchip and here is the link to the CLK 430 "datasheet": http://www.powerchipgroup.com/intera...sp?pid=Mer0029 What was the site that you saw?

Aero93CLK430

that site is a little more in depth and gives a lot more ifo. this is the one i found.... http://www.singhautosport.com/

bs00clk

Gotcha. Know anyone who has experience with these guys? Are you close to them?

rsnpride

I have the same problem.

When I'm driving the car, it's fine. When I'm on standstill, the car is kind of shaky/gidles a little. I notice that my temp guage is at normal temp. for a while then it starts raising above normal.

If you find out anything from the dealer, please tell us your result here. I'd really like to know. I still have my warranty.

Aero93CLK430

i have no idea! i have only owned my benz for a week now, so i am still doing my research. it would be nice to hear feedback from someone that has sent their ECU to them though.... im just wondering why they would charge $300 less for supposedly the same gains from powerchips...who knows.

does anyone have any pics of a white CLK on black wheels? im wondering how it would look. i found some wheels i want, but i am not a millionaire...have you seen the maya rt5s?

Aero93CLK430

will do, but if your is under warranty, id bring it in regardless. i didn't get mine at a benz dealership, so im sure these ******** won't be able to do anything for me tomorrow, its all formalities... but like ill said, ill post whatever they tell me. im actually not too worried anymore after hearing that this is so common among these cars, and even after replacing everything the car still diles rough. im ok with it, as longs as its not hurting it.

rsnpride

I didn't get mine from the benz dealership either. My dads a dealer, so I went with him to the car auction to find the right CLK.

I'm not that worried either, I'm mostly worried about the temp. gauge. I don't like the fact that its above normal. Engine could be over heating. (Had a bad experience with that last year in June)

That happened on my BMW 740iL. I flew to Los Angeles to test drive it/look at it. I bought it. The next day when I drove it back to San Francisco, half way through the trip, I noticed my Temp Gauge at nearly the red shaded area. I stop for 10 min, its normal again and I drive. I kept stopping every 15 min till I got to the gas station. I put cold water in the coolant (or whatever its called).

Anyway that worked for a while. It resulted in me replacing my engine.

Warranty replaced my:

- Engine
- Rear Main Seal
- 2 Drive Belts
- Spark Plugs
- O/F Housing Bushing
- Intake Cover Gasket
- PCV Cover

I had to replace/fix (without warranty)

- rear transmission mounts
- rear lower control arm bushings
- car pulled to the left
- srs light came on then off
- parking brake did not release all the way
- a/c needed recharging
- power steering reservoir mounting bushings needed replacement
- dip stick was broken
- Thermostat
- Intake Manifold Gasket
- Fuel Hose
- Cylinder Valley Gasket
- O-Rings
- water accumulator gaskets

Too many problems with that car. Now its in perfect condition. I even have a 1 year engine warranty.

I just want to take care of my car problems right away before it results in major problems.

Aero93CLK430

u got quite a collection it looks like... sorry to hear about your B-M-Trouble-U....lol i hear you though, i just want to make sure i have no serious problems. honestly, i think the only way to find out is to bring it to the dealership and get a thorough inspection, which i plan to do prior to my trip, but like i said ill let you know if they tell me anything tomorrow.

does anyone know why it is "illegal" to get a VMI from the service center on a car? i drove 45 miles to get one and the lady said they can't give me one or show me one, and just said they look at it everytime prior to servicing a vehicle...well, that really doesn't help me out!

rsnpride

Yeah, I really like cars. I just got my Range Rover a month ago. My CLK was for sale for awhile, then I decided it was too much of a nice car to let go.

My BMW will be gone soon. I'm going to sell it after they fix all my body damage. I was spinning on the freeway a few weeks ago in Nevada, it was snowing. I have $8k in damages. Once all of it will be fix, the car will be for sale. I spent too much money on the car lol. Don't want to spend anymore.

I will def. take my CLK to Mercedes Dealership. For some reason I doubt they'll find a problem with it.

Aero93CLK430

brought it in to the dealership, and i got the response i thought i was gonna get. it can't be the MAFS because there is no check engine light....blah blah. they told me to add some fuel treatment and call it good. ill do this, but i still plan on bringing it into the MB stealership soon.