Hello all,

I have a 2014 E63 wagon, and, to make a long story short, the coolant feed line 2782000200 that feeds coolant to the drivers side turbo has failed. The plastic fitting that goes into the water pump has broken off, for reasons unknown.

Drove the car home from work, all was normal, get out of the car to go inside, smell coolant, pop the hood, coolant everywhere but, can’t tell from where. Started the car, coolant light comes on (finally) put it up on ramps, can’t find the leak. Fill it back up, still not finding the leak. I took the belt off, the water pump was extremely tight, so, I assumed that was the issue, started tearing it down to do the water pump, and then when I took the cap off the system, to drain it, that’s when I noticed the leaking turbo line.

my two questions are this: Can that line be changed without pulling or lifting the motor for access, and what else should I do while I’m in there?

I figured I’d do the pump, the thermostat, the 4 turbo water lines (if I can get the other 3 out), and clean out the heat exchangers and straighten the fins, since all that front bodywork has to come off anyway to do the pump and lines.

 

How many miles? Those black plastics coolant lines get brittles with age and do break, its common on these motors, unless work was done in the area prior and bumped physically which will break them sooner. Like I tell most new owners, dont even look or breathe their way or they will break lol.

 

These lines get brittle over time... It's a common failure. Now that one has failed, it's only a matter of time before the remainder do. Save yourself the headache and swap them all now.
If you so much as look at the remainder of the coolant lines, they will break.

I can't speak to the install, only based on my experiences.

 

I have 98k miles, so, I’m not necessarily surprised. I had the vent line fittings for the cooling system on my C230 and E55 fail the same way, so, I’m very familiar with these types of fitting failures, just extremely frustrated that I have to tear half the motor bay down to change them…. I’m really, really hoping they can be done without having to pull or loosen the motor, but I’m not confident I can get in there to the bolt on the turbo. Does anyone know what size it is? I can tell it’s a torx, but that’s about it,

 

I don't believe you need to pull the motor to replace. I had a water pump failure, which resulted in the shop breaking the turbo lines... they would have mentioned a motor pull as part of the repair.

 

They can def be replaced without removing or moving the engine - i had a water pump failure and replaced it, the t-stat and housing, and all four turbo coolant lines replaced by an Indy.

 

Well, it’s all torn down except for the turbo lines. The size is E10, for reference. I ordered a second E10 socket off Amazon, and will cut it down and weld a nut to the end of it where the ratchet drive goes to make a little custom tool I can put a wrench on to get the turbo bolts out, as I can’t see how anyone gets a ratchet in there with a socket on the end of it!

 

I'm in the same boat. Puddle of coolant and estimate today form dealer for $2734 to replace the coolant lines. $1839 of that's labor.

They say if you change one your should change them all or I'll likely be back soon doing another. I wonder if any are accessible and could possibly be done without the huge labor hit? They didn't tell me which was leaking.

 

https://mbworld.org/forums/w212-amg/...bite-dust.html

 

Thanks for posting this. If I wasn't pressed to get this done, I would be tempted to diy. Seems like a good candidate and would save some big bucks.

 

i can barely contain my excitement..

 

Here’s my little custom tool. Used my grinder to cut the square drive off a cheap impact E10, then welded a 1/4-20 flange nut onto the end. Heated it up with my torch until it was cherry and then quenched it in water to harden the nut and the socket end back up, check it with a file to make sure it was hard, then stuck it in there on a magnet and spun them out with a 1/2” wrench. Worked ****ing slick! When I’m done with the job it can sit in the corner of my toolbox with the other little custom tools I’ve made over the years…

 

Perfect! nice job

 

You can also use a long thin flexible head ratchet with a 1/4” socket that fits tightly, e socket not truly needed. That made it a one minute job vs struggling with making a contraption. This was a hard one for me, and harbor freight was around the corner to help. It’s either this, or jacking, removing undertrays and wheel. and going from the wheel well.

 

Kinda the lucky break of the day I guess........

Decided to do a a bunch of service, to include a coolant flush. Went ahead and pressure tested my coolant system and guess what suddenly appeared. Better on the lift in my garage than on the road. Still annoying.

 

I wonder long term how many M157’s are going to be burned to the ground by overheating issues from this issue.

my guess is quite a few.

absolutely shameful design flaw on a $60k motor in a $100K+ vehicle. The real kicker in all this too is that the passengers side lines are all metal. There is, as far as I can tell, no reason for the plastic on the drivers side lines, other than to provide flexible lines for clearance to do the water pump, but, if you’re in it that far to do a water pump, you’re going to do these lines anyways because they’re plastic, so who cares!

 

I took the “opportunity” of the downtime, waiting for my parts to arrive to clean and straighten the heat exchangers. They definitely needed it, and I found several pebble sized rocks wedged between the support structure and the heat exchangers, slowly boring their way into important, expensive things…

if you do this little activity, don’t stick the screwdriver or other straightener in any further than you need to, as the fin material is actually louvered between the tubes, and sticking it in too far damages those tiny louvers. While not perfect, holding the shop light behind them, I could only see light through about 65% of the heat exchanger, and now I can see through about 95% of it.

I tried a few different tools, including a fin comb, and that little flat blade screwdriver and lots of patience seems to work the best, along with blowing them out from behind with an air hose as I moved along.

the leaves behind the oil cooler had been riding around in that pocket for so long that there was about 1 1/2” of mushy “leaf mud” where they had started to decompose!

 

Those coolant lines are hard to wedge off the CHRA

 

Can I get a confirmation from those in the know:

I ordered the MB OEM “blue” coolant for the intercooler, and am planning on using the Zerex G-05 for the engine coolant. I assume the G-05 still meets the OEM specifications for engine coolant?

 

I had mine replaced as well due to coolant slightly leaking on and off but for some reason at idle the Fan seems to be working OT when idling or in traffic.

 

did the shop bleed the system properly?

 

I have now idea did not ask or see the repair being done. I've addressed the concerns and he said to bring it in....I hope he did because he told me let the coolant run through and the fan should be back to normal. It's been 2 weeks and still doing it.

 

Didnt plug in the sensor for it... its on the driver side fan shroud casing. Check

 

Well, it is successfully back together. I’ve been working on cars for over 20 years and that is easily one of the longer and more difficult jobs I have done.

Knock on wood, no leaks so far. Will keep a hawk eye on the coolant tank for the next few days, but I think it was a successful job! It even feels a bit quicker, probably from the straightened cooler fins, or maybe it’s just all in my head after driving my wife’s Alfa for a 2 weeks, the Merc feels like a rocket ship.

 

Anything to note about refilling the cooling system - bleeders anywhere ? or the overflow does it all just have to burp the air & keep an eye on the level .