Wow, killer price! Thank you!

I believe they do, but the rest of my dash is burlwood, so someone swapped it out.

Alright, another mini-update. The MAF came in today, and I installed it in the early evening. Long story short, it fixed all of my problems, so far. I drove it around for about 10 miles, so we'll see how it acts as the car 'adapts'.

The new BOSCH sensor:




New vs. old:



The old MAF. NOT Bosch or OEM. Maybe while it failed despite being newer?




In the process:










The codes:











From what I can tell:

P0100: MAF
P0110: Intake Air Temp
P0105: Manifold Absolute Pressure/Barometric Pressure Circuit malfunction
P0400: EGR flow malfunction

We'll see if any trigger the CEL again. I guess I have to clean out the EGR tube/value, now I have to figure out where it's located ...

 

While you at it, try and buy the CD WIS manuals over Ebay. My wife just got mine for my birthday as well as an emblem to fit to my front engine cover as my car didn't have it when I purchased it.

 

Before you attempt the valve covers I would go ahead and get all the breather hoses. I have not done valve covers on a m113 and not had to replace most if not all of them. (there is 4).

 

Good idea. I'll browse around on eBay. I too am missing the emblem on mine, but I'm sure you saw that

I actually did order those. I agree; they're essential. I wish the site I purchased them from offered shipment tracking b/c I have no idea when they're arriving.

 

Hey guys, a quick update. The hoses and gaskets came in. I also ordered a radiator today, so I look forward to no more coolant leaks. My upper dash strip of burlwood came in damaged, so back to eBay to look for another. If anyone has use for it, let me know.

In other news, I enjoyed showing my friend's '15 435xi the CLK's taillights. 60 start speed to not disclosable end speed. It's interesting to see how he stays close until roughly 11 o'clock (about 1.75 -3 car lengths behind, depending on the run), and then the upper end of 3rd gear, and 4th gear, net another 2-4 cars depending on the end speed. He admitted he was surprised to see me pull away as strongly as I did. He said I was slowly pulling away until the upper end of my 3rd gear when it gap started to widen significantly. I assumed he was off the throttle when I saw this happening, but that was not the case.

It was a bit disappointing to see him close by until around 10/11 o'clock given the car has a flash tune. It may be time to consider headers. Based on my research, 435xi's seem to trap around 104-106 in the 1/4mi, so our encounter makes sense, but it does leave me with the desire for a bit more sound and power.

 

Hey 03seb,

Why did you sell the Mustang and go for the CLK 55 ?

Curious Gator

Best

 

they did

 

Hey Gator, that car was great. I miss it. I got rid of it because it primarily sat around being a second car on drag radials, grad school was looming, and a friend wanted the motor to swap into his Mustang. Given the money I made off the swap (we put a stock '14 5.0 motor back into my car), as well as the trade equity and the profit from the part sales, it was worth it. At 500whp on stock heads, the setup was good for 10s@125-128. It surprised many people and was dead reliable. I bought the car new and had ZERO problems in 28k miles. I was also not very kind to it, and made sure it saw redline multiple times on every drive.

The CLK was added because I missed having something I could tinker with that had power. I'll likely get rid of it this summer, and get something else. I like to cycle through cars, either daily drivers or projects, because I like experiencing new things. That said, I may just get rid of the C300, make the CLK my primary car, sell it later on, and buy a used C63. There are a lot of options, and the only thing I'm sure about is that I'd like to tighten up the W208's loose ends (radiator, diff. fluid, have a fuel pump ready in case the stock one dies, get the wood grain to match, ABS switch, cabin filters, redo stereo connections, valve covers, breather covers, etc), and see what happens.

 

Aright guys, some more progress.

The ashtray dash piece came in. I bought this primarily to replace the power outlet. It was cheap enough off eBay. The valve cover gaskets also came in, so that's good.

Today I spoke with Cory from Kleeman, and a set of headers they were recently selling on eBay will NOT fit our cars. I also discovered the Eurocharged headers will not fit the W208's, so if I can't get the fab guy I've been working with to the remove the primary cats, I'll just settle for secondaries and a resonator delete. It seems like that will be the end of the line for the power mods, which is a shame.

I spoke with my tuner back on the east coast, and he may be able to fit me in for a dyno tune in early March, so we'll see how it works out. I anticipate another 10ish whp from a dyno tune, and increases in response and drivability, but it's not a given that this will work out; he's very, very busy and I'll only be out east briefly.

I just ordered:
-2 more jugs of MB coolant in anticipation of the radiator swap
-2 rear diff screw/bolt/nut things
-Drain plug and gasket for future oil change (just in case)
-2 liters of MB 75W-85 rear diff. fluid
-ECS Tuning EGR kit (might as well replace the whole thing)

Another problem area I'm not looking forward to is the lower control arm bushings. It's clear they're shot, and the cheapest I've been able to find whole LCA replacements is $336/side. That's crazy. I guess I'll have to try and find some bushings. I read through Chappy's threads, but they were from so long ago the vendors are no longer advertising the bushings, or are no longer in business. That'll be the final area to tend to for this car.

 

Check on Pelican Parts or someone who is a Febi distributor should keep them bushes separately. I have a local shop here well around the country who sell Febi parts and lucky me them bushes can be bought separately instead of an entire new lower control arm. You really are pouring the money load into this car. I would not sell if afterward unless it has served me well for a good couple years.

 

I would highly recommend installing the K-Mac bushing kit on the front lower a-arms. They allow you to actually have your car aligned. These cars destroy front tires due to negative camber on the stock bushings.

 

I would not recommend Febi. I bought a Febi transmission mount from Pelican and it broke after one month.

 

I've never had an issue with wheel alignment. Running Eibach springs and Bilstein B8's.

 

03Base... you are crazy man
i know some friends like you. it seems they like working on cars more than they like having the car to drive once its finished.
i respect that though, guys like you are how we learn lots of new stuff and small tricks

i plan on keeping my C43 as long as possible and we will see on the CLK55, but at least a few years.

 

It certainly could be around for a bit longer. We'll see.

The tires are new, so I do want to avoid this ...

Sounds like Kmac is the ticket?

Well, it just bugs me when stuff is not maintained. It's like an itch that doesn't go away. Once all is patched up, I'll cool it for a while. I also hate having things undone that may affect the performance of the car. I don't want it to be a poor representation of its model because the plugs are shot and the filters are clogged.

 

Alright guys, it seems I have an exhaust leak on one bank. I cant tell if its at the header or at the connector flange right after, or elsewhere. It's louder when the car is cold, and I notice some softness in the midrange.

Any ideas how much a shop would charge one to replace the header gasket?

 

Spray with some soapy water (while cold of course) and have a look before it heats up. Changing those is not a fun job. Definitely want to isolate exactly where it is coming from. The connector flange is an angled join which I would not have thought would spontaneously leak if not disturbed and the bolts are good.

 

Yes, I will test this. The radiator is going on this week as well. I hope to get some time towards the end of the week to play with the car. The sound is almost inaudible when the car is warm, and performance is as it should be. It's only noticeable when the car is cold and has been sitting for 1-2 days without being started. Very odd. Gets quieter as the car warms up, and performance improves as well. Seemingly quieter if the car is started when cold, but has been driven during the day. I doubt it's internal. I made it my job to absolutely flog the wheels off of this thing over the last two days. Maybe I'll know more when I rip off the valve covers?

 

Great thread! A ton of info for a novice to these cars, like myself

 

So I sat down and did some math tonight (bad idea). Between the parts and the labor, I've spent $3445 on this old boat and there may be an exhaust leak, and the lower bushings still need to be addressed. Kill me. Now, that number does include prepayment for the labor to do the radiator, diff. service, and EGR. The rest I plan to do on my own. I'll likely do the valve covers first, then the breathers. I need to plan in 24 hours of no driving to let the breather sealant harden.

I've scheduled the radiator, diff. fluid, and EGR for next week, so I'll have more updates then!

 

If you use the MB RTV sealant, you can drive the car after an hour's cure time. I think with any 10 year old or older CLK you're going to drop 3 - 4K to get the car properly maintenanced and corrected to a safe reliable daily driver. If you bought a w126 I think that number would be closer to 15K.

I'd strongly suggest you review this article before starting on the breather cover / valve cover work: http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w220...r-sealant.html

 

You need to do the valve and breather covers at the same time. All fun cars take lots of $$. My transmission needs a rebuild, there goes $5k.

 

When you do the valve covers plan on some time. To have really good results you need to totally clean, degrease, and dig all the old rtv from the covers. If you start with clean and dry covers you will get better results. Permatex ultra black rtv works well for this application. I ran a very small bead in the groove where the gaskets go to help seal and hold them in place, also it looked like the factory did this as well. Slightly bigger bead in breather covers because there are no gaskets. I also put a small amount on the sealing surface where the gaskets make a sharp turn at the cam cut outs.
And for sure get the breather tube kit. You will need it just plan on it.

 

DO NOT PUT RTV IN CONTACT WITH THE GASKET. If you use a genuine MB gasket there is no reason and it will make changes in the future harder and more time consuming. Only put RTV on the breather cover and just enough to fill the void.

 

Hey guys, I did a little bit of work on the CLK! It's been a while since my last update and I finally got the time to throw in the brake light switch. I also planned on swapping 12v outlets but made a fun discovery!

I pulled down the lower dash panel after removing a few screws. You can see the switch (red circle).




The last owner was a real comedian. Is that a sheet rock screw? Doesn't look OEM ...




The new switch and part number.




Old vs. New (blue)




One needs to disconnect both plugs, and then twist half a turn clockwise to take it out. The swap is really simple, and there's no reason why ANYONE should pay a dealer, or mechanic, for this repair.




This is where it gets funny. I removed the trim piece around the gear selector to access and remove the 12v/cigarette lighter. As you may know from my earlier posts, my car has a mix of burlwood and black birdseye. It appears when the previous owner started the burlwood conversion he did not order a center trim piece with a cutout for the rear shade button, so it was stuffed under the dash. On a positive note, the center dash piece is easy to remove when I want to use the shade! Oh, and I can confirm it works!






Finally, the reason why the 12v charger wasn't working is because it wasn't plugged in. The wiring harness female? plug is no where to be found, and I suspect it's being used to power the aftermarket head unit

That's all for now, but my mechanic completed the radiator swap earlier today. I'll post a couple of pics later tonight!

This weekend will likely bring an EGR overhaul (bought the ECS complete EGR kit), install of the burlwood door trim pieces, and maybe the diff. fluid flush. Next week may see the valve cover/breather gasket replacement.