wobbles

Hi guys,

Something weird happened to my car this morning. When I switched on the airconditioning, no air came out. I then tried to turn up the fan speed = nothing. Not even switching on and switching off the centre "on/off" switch did the trick. I then left the air-conditioning turned "off".

After about a minute or so, I tried it again, and hey presto, it worked just fine!

Drove it to the workshop, and they ran the diagnostics on the car - turns out I had some compressor/regulator problem, so they replaced the whole jig. End of story, or so I thought.

Then, tonight, the same shyte happened again. No air.

Anyone have ANY idea what could be wrong? Please?

Many thanks in advance!
*a very desperate wobbles sweating big time, and not necessarily from the lack of air*

glojo

WOBBLES????? what is happening???? It sounds like insufficient gas, but no doubt they replaced it after replacing the pump??

Are all the pipes fitted correctly?

Obviously this is NOT your worry, but it is a worry when things are not perfect. Back to the dealer you go.

You have really been looking forward to getting this car, and sadly it is not 100% perfect. Grrrr :v You will soon have a reserved parking space at the dealership. I bet they are all getting to know you?

Good luck and may this be your LAST visit to the dealer for a very long time.

Regards,
John

A sunny with showers afternoon in Torquay

jonathan212

hey it happens ... i know some of my friends that had that problem ... so bring it to the delaer and ask them to check it out.

glojo

But poor old (just a mannerism of speech) Woobles has had a number of.... 'hey it happens'

Regards,
John

wobbles

Hi guys ... the air-con problem has not recurred since the last I typed. The dealer is of the opinion that it could be due to the gas (which they replaced/topped up during the fix) needing time to circulate ... blah blah blah (the usual excuses), but since it's not happened again, I'm inclined to leave it like that.

HOWEVER, there's a NEW problem with my car ... and one which the dealer's tried to fix, but to no avail...

I have this HIGH PITCHED (almost like a mosquito's buzzing) sound everytime I depress the brake. It doesn't matter how hard or softly I press it, as long as the brakes are engaged, the high pitched tone is present.

It's driving me NUTS!

Any ideas on what it could possibly be? Or anyone has a similar problem to report?

*a slowly being driven insane wobbles* ... TWO mercs, TWO sets of headaches...

glojo

Unfamiliar as I am to the mellow sounds of a mosquito's buzzing (does the male have a deeper buzz than the female?)

If it is not the actual the pads, it could be an air noise perhaps from a trapped or kinked pipe. Have a technician go out with you and let him try to locate the source or area of the noise. He could do it on a rolling road I suppose.

Make sure he has clean overalls AND CLEAN footware.

You have about as much luck as myself regarding cars.

Take care,
John

wobbles

Glojo,

Thanks for the reply. The technician did check, and they acknowledged the sound. They seem to think it's due to the wires being too close to each other, and when current runs through the wires, the high pitched electrical-buzz-like sound is created. It's driving my super-highly-sensitive-I-must-have-been-a-dog-in-a-past-life ears insane!

You have bad luck with cars too? I never had bad luck with cars until I bought a Merc! But, woe is me, I can't help but love those droopy-eyed headlamps

GearHead

Wobbles

This high pitch sound was reported in one of my RANTS on SBC awhile back. I have it and had brought my E in for work on the SBC (groans and high pitch) a few times. Each time, it went away (or mimimized) for a week or so, and comes back.

According to the master tech at the dealership where I bought my car, they had consulted with MBUSA and this is the best they can do. I'm not sure whether C&C can do a better job.

GL

glojo

Hi Wobbles,
My luck thankfully is nowhere near as bad as yours.

Have they re-assured you that these wires will not generate heat?
Why are they so close?
If this is a genuine reason why don't all our vehicle make this noise, or does it only apply to areas that have this type of mosquito?
Why can't they put some insulation between the wires? (Or insecticide)

Sorry about being a pest (Sunday's tend to be a drag)

Regards,
John

wobbles

Hi there, GL

Thanks for the reply ... and for sharing your experience. At least I'm sorta reassured that I'm not insane, and I haven't been imagining the bloody high pitched whine with the SBCs...

I'm gonna look up your rant on SBC and see if there's anything else I should be afraid of/on the look out for...

It seems that the more technology they try to shove/pack into the car, the more problems the gadgets end up giving us *arrgh!!*

Regards,
Wob - "I will wear ear muffs when I drive" - bles.

wobbles

Hahaha. Oh, of course they've reassured me that the wires wouldn't blow up in my face and turn my car into a rolling inferno. But, like I said in a previous post... I wouldn't trust the dealers any further than I could throw them.

GearHead

Hi Wob

The "GL" was meant as Good Luck to you.

In the case of high pitch whine, it is very inconsistent. At my last visit at the dealership over this (probably 5 months ago), the Master Tech actually went into the sales office and took out a bunch of keys of Brand New W211 sitting on the dealer lot. I sat in probably 5 W211s (320s and 500s) and only one of them had the same pitch and intensity as mine. Others had it but it is very much subdued. Mine you, we were testing these cars on the dealer lot where the ambient noise was high due to road traffic. At the end, he was convinced and therefore agreed to research with MBUSA support on this issue.

I guess my hearing is like yours (picking noise just like some other animals). Funny thing on this was that I was 'fighting' my piano tuner just yesterday over the pitch and harmonics on my piano which was tuned by him. He couldn't picked up the irregularities while they were killing me.

Back on the topic, the W211 has so many geeweez gadgets that creates a lot of noise. I have noticed that my E500 sounded like passing gas whenever I stepped on my brakes harder. After alot of trial and error, it appears to come from my airmatic suspension because of nose dive during harder deceleration. My wife also complains of a ticking sound at idle when she sits on the back seat.

Despite of these, we still like our W211. It does have other refined characteristics and makes it a MB. I just wish that it is as refined as my Honda Ody minivan.

If you do bring you E back to C&C to look at this whine, please let us know what they say about this. Good Luck (GL) on your quest.

GearHead

Wob

I don't think it has anything to do with the wires being too close to each other. I looked at my SBC pump and after my last complaint, the dealership replaced the rigid tubing with flexible reinforced tubes. Sound came back within a week.

glojo

Mosquito gets come upance

wobbles

Ooops, sorry about that... wasn't sure if your GL was a contraction for GH in some weird way I didn't get ... I still have to get used to these internet/SMS contractions, being the ancient dinosaur (with hyperacute hearing) that I am :p .

The C&C technician (with whom we have a very good relationship, as opposed to the salespersons who'd disappear faster than Shell's oil reserves the minute the signature's on the dotted line) promised to take a look into this at his own time.

He's initially localized the sound to coming from behind the instrument cluster, and only when the brakes are depressed (hence his hypothesis of some wires being affected by circuit current) - try as he may, he couldn't make the sound disappear.

So, to that end, he's insulated the suspected wires, as well as added soundproofing to behind the cluster (did quite a lot of work on the car, to be honest) - and yes, the sound's better, but STILL GAWDAWFULLY SCREECHY to these pair of ultrasensitive canine-in-an-ex-life ears of mine.

I don't know how this saga will play out... having a high pitched whine/buzz/monotone isn't something that would make me sell the W211 (on the contrary, I love the car and it's lightyears better than the old C-class I owned), but if only... IF ONLY... I didn't have to contend with the sound: that would have been the perfect car for me.

Will keep you guys posted.

Thanks to glojo and GH for their replies (and to glojo for scoring one against those damn mozzies *haha*)

glojo

Hi Wobbles,
I was wondering if that pesky mosquito has gone to that great lake in the sky yet?

Regards,
John

SAguirre

I have not had any A/C problems except that sometimes when I start the car and I have the A/C button off, but the fan running, I swear the compressor is running since the air is way to cold to be just outside air. I have had other E 320s as loaner cars and they all did the same thing. So I figured that there is nothing wrong with it.

I did hear a noise after running the A/C this August when it actually was humid here in Colorado. I parked the car in my garage and I swore there was something still on under the dash. It turns out that the A/C unit will actually run the heat after the car is parked so that it dries out the A/C core (I think its the condenser, the part in the dash). This way the car will not smell moldy when you don't run the A/C but like the fan running. This is great, my 124 did smell funny at times, but that could be that it lived in Tampa for years before coming the Colorado and who knows what grew in the A/C system.

Now to the side topic of the brakes. I have heard an electronic bussing (very high pitch) only when I pressed the brake pedal. My passenger heard it too. I told the dealer about it and they interpreted my description as being the SBC pump being noisy. They installed a pulsation damper. The SBC pump is really quiet now and this is great. But I still hear an electrical noise, but only sometimes. I can't tell yet, but I think that it goes away when it is cold outside (blow 32 F). I have very sensitive hearing and I can hear very high pitches. The dealer claimed they did not hear what I was hearing.

Please tell me what, if anything actually makes this go away. If I had to blame something I would say that in might be the electronic sensor in the pedal that senses how far the pedal is depressed. It kind of sounds like a cheap quality dimmer only that is a lot higher pitch. I don't think it is coming from behind the dash, I swear it is coming from the pedal area.

Until I hear what it is I am implementing my own fix that always works on my AUDI with 260,000 miles on it. I turn up the radio.

Tell me what you find!

Steve Aguirre

SAguirre

If the A/C fails, then you can ride like this fine woman does in this car (I think it is a Fiat??) We don't have these cars here in the US, but we do have plenty of ladies that look like this.

A bit sick, I know. . .(if this bothers you please tell me and I will remove it ASsAP)