The Holiday Horror show with my W210...
08-03-2008, 06:51 AM
#1
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'01 W210 E320 CDI
The Holiday Horror show with my W210...
I really didn't expect a well maintained car to put up so much trouble in one road-trip...
We were towing a caravan from the Netherlands to Biarritz in the south of France near the atlantic coast. A 2500km round trip. The caravan weighs a maximum of 1380kg but my 220 Diesel engine and transmission are allowed to tow 1900kg.
After we'd been in a 3 hour traffic-jam around Paris, the coolant-level warning lit up. We got off the highway and found the expansion tank was completely drained?! Coolant was leaking from under the front bumper. It took about 2.5 liters to get it filled up again, never to have any leak anymore the rest of the trip?! My MB-indie shop thinks the expansion spring and gasket (on the cap of the expansiontank) may have been stuck cuz it never has any expansion in normal day use. So coolant kept spilling out...
Then 450km further I start noticing a whining sound coming from the back whenever I take my foot of the throttle. When we got to our hotel in Orlèans I took the car to the MB dealer there to check it out. Turns out that the differential is the culprit...oh no! They wanted me to leave the car there and call my insurance. I called my MB-indie back home and he told me to drive on 'cuz you don't have a choice and he'd never heard of any noisy MB differential jamming up' If I'd leave the car there we'd had to take a hotel and the dealer would order a new differential for a 4-figure amount in Euro's. Their mechanic also adviced me to drive on (in broken English) but when the manager turned up we all got into a discussion so I told them to 'Put the car outside now! Give me back my carte-grise! (papers) and we'll take our chances!' Pffft...
Then on the second day only 150km away from our campingsite the exhaust breaks out underneith the car, this was also the point my wife REALLY started to loose it...
It was saturday 5.30pm, so even if we were towed, no garage was open until mondaymorning! So I decoupled the caravan again to jack the car up and tied the broken part up with straps. We made it to the campingsite sounding like a racecar!
The next week we took the car to a local repairshop and had the center- and rear-muffler replaced. But the front parts of the exhaust with the flexible part and cat had been dragging over the highway so these were only so-so also but I decided to try and make it home anyway. Strapped an emergency repair thingy around the welds of the flexible part to be sure...
We made it back home in one piece, and so far I have a new front pipe, plexible piece, cat, center- and rear-muffler. My MB-indie thinks the differential problem is the ingoing bearing behind the driveshaft and they are going to repair/overhaul that later after quoting me a price. But for now we can drive around...
We were towing a caravan from the Netherlands to Biarritz in the south of France near the atlantic coast. A 2500km round trip. The caravan weighs a maximum of 1380kg but my 220 Diesel engine and transmission are allowed to tow 1900kg.
After we'd been in a 3 hour traffic-jam around Paris, the coolant-level warning lit up. We got off the highway and found the expansion tank was completely drained?! Coolant was leaking from under the front bumper. It took about 2.5 liters to get it filled up again, never to have any leak anymore the rest of the trip?! My MB-indie shop thinks the expansion spring and gasket (on the cap of the expansiontank) may have been stuck cuz it never has any expansion in normal day use. So coolant kept spilling out...
Then 450km further I start noticing a whining sound coming from the back whenever I take my foot of the throttle. When we got to our hotel in Orlèans I took the car to the MB dealer there to check it out. Turns out that the differential is the culprit...oh no! They wanted me to leave the car there and call my insurance. I called my MB-indie back home and he told me to drive on 'cuz you don't have a choice and he'd never heard of any noisy MB differential jamming up' If I'd leave the car there we'd had to take a hotel and the dealer would order a new differential for a 4-figure amount in Euro's. Their mechanic also adviced me to drive on (in broken English) but when the manager turned up we all got into a discussion so I told them to 'Put the car outside now! Give me back my carte-grise! (papers) and we'll take our chances!' Pffft...
Then on the second day only 150km away from our campingsite the exhaust breaks out underneith the car, this was also the point my wife REALLY started to loose it...
It was saturday 5.30pm, so even if we were towed, no garage was open until mondaymorning! So I decoupled the caravan again to jack the car up and tied the broken part up with straps. We made it to the campingsite sounding like a racecar!
The next week we took the car to a local repairshop and had the center- and rear-muffler replaced. But the front parts of the exhaust with the flexible part and cat had been dragging over the highway so these were only so-so also but I decided to try and make it home anyway. Strapped an emergency repair thingy around the welds of the flexible part to be sure...
We made it back home in one piece, and so far I have a new front pipe, plexible piece, cat, center- and rear-muffler. My MB-indie thinks the differential problem is the ingoing bearing behind the driveshaft and they are going to repair/overhaul that later after quoting me a price. But for now we can drive around...
08-03-2008, 11:33 PM
#4
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2003 S210 3.8L Brabus wagon
What kind of Hitch do you use? And what does it attach to? I was not aware that you can pull that weight with this chassis. Great story and one the kids will remember. Hope the wife is calmer and all ends well. Best of luck. We are headed to the Netherlands at Christmas. 
08-04-2008, 09:24 PM
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'99 E430, '05 ML500, '15 GLK350
That'll teach you to visit France. Next time head to the Black Forest, then you can visit Sindelfingen if you run into car problems again.
FYI, in Europe it's common to pull a trailer with a car, since no one can afford to drive F150's. Euro hitches are a little different there, but I think some companies make US hitches here for the W210 too.
All in all it doesn't sound like a horror story, it sounds like an adventure you'll remember for many years to come! After all, if you wanted boring, you wouldn't drive an 11-year-old car.
FYI, in Europe it's common to pull a trailer with a car, since no one can afford to drive F150's. Euro hitches are a little different there, but I think some companies make US hitches here for the W210 too.
All in all it doesn't sound like a horror story, it sounds like an adventure you'll remember for many years to come! After all, if you wanted boring, you wouldn't drive an 11-year-old car.
08-05-2008, 09:54 AM
#6
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No Offense, but it takes some ***** to tow anything with that 220 engine. I wouldn't dare tow anything with my 3.0 NA engine. Nice that you made it back home!
