ABC High pressure hose burst
 

Today one of the ABC high pressure hoses burst and I lost all fluid on the highway. Since the pump is was not making any noise I hope the ABC pump survived. The hose which burst is connecting the front valve block with the rear valve blocks. This line runs up the strut dome around the engine, along the fire wall and follows the exhaust to the first union.
How do I get this line out? Any suggestions? WIS just states to replace the line if it leaks but I feel that there is major surgery required to get the line out in order to get the hose replaced. I already removed all heat shielding on the left strut dome and removed all mounting places.
Thanks
Wolf

It would help if you could post the hose part number and/or picture. There is such a thing as having a new hose fabricated or sections done to splice in rather than replace the entire hose.

Check out some of the posts by Welwynnick in the W220 forum. He and others have successfully repaired ABC hoses with Fab's.

Good luck,

Bob

Hi Bob, Thanks
It is line 200 and line 110. These are running parallel for the most part. My issue is to get them out!. I can get these refurbished after I got them out.
Wolf

If you drove after the line failed, it is doubtful that your pump survived. I would go ahead and start shopping for a new or rebuilt pump.

Yes, the lines are typically rebuildable. While you are doing that, I would go ahead and have all of the ones you can get to rebuilt.

If the pump survived, you likely have some big time contamination issues. I would flush the system up to the point that hose failed. Connect the new hose, replace the ABC filter, and completely flush the system twice with two new filters. The tiny metal particles will continue to wreak havoc on your pump, control blocks, and struts. The contamination will start a domino of destruction that is difficult to stop.

Thank you for all your good advise. Please read my post before you answer and please forget about the ABC pump for the moment!!

My problem at hand is that I can not even get the lines out for hose replacement. The lines are called 320 and 330 on the R230 (110 and 200 on the CL) and in the r230 these line run inside the strut dome around the exhaust manifold peaking at the level of the left valve cover before going down to the bottom level again following the exhaust before these connecting to the lines from the pressure control valve. Is there a trick to pull this lines? Do I have to remove the sub-frame? Any advise? I could not find a reference about hose replacement in WIS.

Update:
Got both lines out by taking the exhaust, the steering column heat shields and valve cover off (needed to replace gasket anyway). In order to avoid to disconnect the steering column I decided to cut the line where it crosses over from the outer wheel house to the inner wheelhouse. Took me 5 hours to get so far. Talked to a hydraulic shop this morning and they will fix the lines by extending the hoses to the area where I had to cut the lines. This will change the line routing slightly but it will solve my line problem. They will weld on SAE fittings to fit the hoses.

Update:
I got the short piece of the expansion hose and the engine compartment lines refurbished at a local hydraulic shop for $89.00 !!!. Unbeatable.
The expansion line coming from the pump did not show any debris or particles and the pump moved freely. Therefore I decided to put the system back together.
After filling the reservoir with fresh Pentosin and connecting my STAR Computer I started the engine and pressurized the tank to about 1.5 bar. It took quite a while until the pump primed itself and started to pressurize the system. The pump reached 188 bar easily. The ABC works fine again.

Lessons learned:
The ABC pump seems not so delicate as reported. Mine ran about 3 miles from the first red warning massage to engine shut down without oil. A internal residual oil film seems to have protected the pump from overheating and major damage. It seems that wrong priming procedures are used and a pump failures to be the first and most expensive diagnosis. At least it seems that I got lucky.

Hello mbwolf,

I am in this situation now. Did you take pictures when you were doing this? I am having a hard time trying to figure out how to take the 2 lines out. I have done this before, but with the other line behind the front left wheel and the ABC worked after the replacement. When you mentioned that you took the exhaust, steering column heat shields, I can seem to imagine that but, why do we have to remove the valve cover? I would appreciate if you could give me some input. This weekend, I will attempt to tackle this thing.

Btw, I have a 2006 SL500 with 102K mileage. I had this since 2012 with only 30K Mileage from the 1st owner and its only recently that these problems are starting to pop up...

I fixed mine for 250.00
 

Utube is a pretty good reference, I used in replacing the entire ABC, struts

J. Roche That looks promising to repair that nightmare line ! Would you have a link to the coupler or part number ? Thanks

I just replaced the "car killer" line 230-997-06-82 that goes between the motor and LH frame rail on my 05 SL500. You DO NOT have to remove the motor. Once you remove all of the heat/splash shields and exhaust (enough work as it is), you can drop the engine and cradle on the left side. On a lift (may be able to do on ground though) you need to remove the driver side ignition coils and release a few clamps that are on lines that would bind when dropping down including front lines on lower rad support. Just remove the clamps, leave all the lines connected. Using screw jacks I supported the passenger side with 1 and driver side with 2. I loosened the passenger 2 cradle bolts, but did not remove. I removed the driver side bolts and dropped the cradle about 1/2" on passenger side so it wouldn't bind and 2 inches on driver side, unbolting the steering shaft from the column.

You have to push the line forward almost past the radiator on left front and under the frame rail. Then you can rotate the line from around the lower part of the steering column. and it will come down through the bottom. Installing the same way in reverse. The key is having the line on the outside of the frame rail up front close to the shock. Once you get it clear of the exhaust manifold and steering column, you can rotate it up under the frame rail and then into location.

It took about 15 minutes to get it back into place. All of the rubber grommets lined up, no problems.

Then of course the hours to get everything else buttoned up.

"Fear Not , The LORD is With Thee"

this was 2016, so how long did the pump last ?

Hello,
You have to drop the engine cradle down about 2" on the driver side (using a jack to support). You need to loosen the passenger cradle bolts so you don't bind the cradle and possibly crack it. There are a couple of lines that need to have the clamps removed so they don't get damaged by stretching.


Once the cradle is down a little, you can rotate the front of the line from the inside of the frame rail, under and in between the cradle and frame rail. Disconnect the steering shaft at the steering column. This way you can push the "loop" in the line past the steering column and then down. The front of the line will almost be at the radiator and outside the frame rail.. Now you can rotate the line and pull back.

I wish I would have filmed a video for this.


Because of all of the bends in the line, it gets hard to explain. But basically you are trying to turn the front of the line under and in between the frame rail and cradle. At the same time pushing it forward about 5" so you can clear the steering column and the rotate back to clear the exhaust manifold.


I am by no means an experienced MB mechanic (I was back in the early 80's though).


But I knew there had to be a way to get it out and in without pulling the motor. In this case it requires thinking outside the box...or more specifically, outside the frame rail.

Thanks Jeff