Car had a meltdown
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2001 Mercedes S430
Car had a meltdown
okay, so I’ve finalky got over the frustration of the car that I love so much.. the car has been sitting at my job for about a month.
one day i was driving my 2001 s430 to work, and all of a sudden the guage cluster died, and from what it looked like, the ac blew a valve and white steam went everywhere. The ac stopped being cold, refilled ac wth Freon and it held the pressure
sent the gauge cluster to a repair service, and it came back with a bad repair job, the lcd screen missing features like tank content and navigation. And with 20k miles more on it. They replaced the computer with one that didn’t match, and the speedo still doesn’t work. Well that was a good 170 dollar loss. And I’m on the hunt for a new guage cluster.
Okay that was the first thing that screwed me over, not a huge deal.
The real issue, is before the ac blew. after about a half hour. The temp guage would start to act weird, jumping between normal operating temp and 120c. Giving me a real scare. But the car doesn’t act like it’s overheating. There’s no boiling coolant or anything. And the temp just seems to jump too fast to be real temp changes. But then it slowly drops back to normal. So im at a loss, it is not losing coolant, changed thermostat, and coolant temp sensor with no change in behavior. Not driving the car now just in case it is overheating. Don’t want to ruin the engine.
Before it started this issue, the electric fan died but it was replaced right away, no harm done. But so much happened at once, and I don’t know if the car is actually overheating. Has anyone had this issue before? I want my Benz back on the road.
Thanks guys
one day i was driving my 2001 s430 to work, and all of a sudden the guage cluster died, and from what it looked like, the ac blew a valve and white steam went everywhere. The ac stopped being cold, refilled ac wth Freon and it held the pressure
sent the gauge cluster to a repair service, and it came back with a bad repair job, the lcd screen missing features like tank content and navigation. And with 20k miles more on it. They replaced the computer with one that didn’t match, and the speedo still doesn’t work. Well that was a good 170 dollar loss. And I’m on the hunt for a new guage cluster.
Okay that was the first thing that screwed me over, not a huge deal.
The real issue, is before the ac blew. after about a half hour. The temp guage would start to act weird, jumping between normal operating temp and 120c. Giving me a real scare. But the car doesn’t act like it’s overheating. There’s no boiling coolant or anything. And the temp just seems to jump too fast to be real temp changes. But then it slowly drops back to normal. So im at a loss, it is not losing coolant, changed thermostat, and coolant temp sensor with no change in behavior. Not driving the car now just in case it is overheating. Don’t want to ruin the engine.
Before it started this issue, the electric fan died but it was replaced right away, no harm done. But so much happened at once, and I don’t know if the car is actually overheating. Has anyone had this issue before? I want my Benz back on the road.
Thanks guys
Last edited by Chuck095; Sep 20, 2017 at 02:37 PM.
