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C230 Will not start

535 views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  eric242340 
#1 ·
Hello everyone, my name is Joshua. This is my first time owning a MB. So far i love it. It drives me great. I have the 2002 C230K.
Two days ago, i was coming back from California and i went up the hill and when i was coming down my engine died on me. I allowed it to cool down and i opened the hood and opened the radiator. The radiator was boiling and some smoke coming out of it. I allowed it to cool down and i added some water(was out of coolant) just to get me to the next gas station. I waited for an hr and tried it and it didn't start. It didn't sound like that was any pressure coming out. I checked the oil. It was dark and there was no sign of mixture of oil and coolant. I got it towed to the nearest mechanic. He checked the plugs and there was oil in it.

Did anyone have the same problem? and what was the problem? The mechanic thinks i have a blown head gasket. Also why did all my coolant leak out. It only leak when it is driving. The mechanic is going to open the engine soon.

Thanks for any help i can get from you guys. I am also a newbies :)
 
#2 ·
Firstly welcome to Benzworld.

You are very lucky you did not seize the engine, when it lost the coolant and in an uphill climb the temp would increase very quickly and moving parts start to expand thus a seize can happen. My guess is blown piston rings hence the oil on the plugs and possibly a warped cylinder head and blown gasket, but we will not know until your mechanic pulls the engine down.

As to the leak it could have been from hundreds of places on this engine type.

I hope in future you will pay attention to your instruments as they are there to warn you of any problems, too many people only look at the fuel guage/rev counter/speedo.
 
#3 ·
Thanks Eric for your reply.

Next time i will be more careful to check the temperature guage. Like i said, this is my first time owning a benz. I should have studied it more. But how could it be a head gasket when i didnt see coolant mixed with the Oil? Do you know any of the places the coolant can be leaking from?

Thanks
 
#4 ·
Man we are all guilty of not checking instruments, me included LOL, I even destroyed a diesel because of this.:D

Sadly the damage has been done so tests to find out where the leak started cannot be performed until after the engine rebuild.

The fact that coolant did not mix with the oil means you simply lost the coolant through a straight forward leak and then the engine became seriously hot, at those sort of temperatures metal expands which means warping of heads and this destroys gaskets such as the head gaskets.

It is all cause and effect and the cause was a coolant leak from the coolant system onto the road, not into the engine, ie it was not a head gasket that caused it but the head gasket will now be damaged from the initial temperature increase.
 
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