300E Running at High Temp Fan Clucth and Heater Core Problems
Hi everyone,
I bought my first benz, a 300E 3.0 five days back. Im really excited however the car has already started to give me some problems. I drove it all the way from ontario to NOva Scotia. However towards the end of the trip i noticed a coolant leak under the left hand side of the car. I took it to a mercedes specialst, the guy onlu looked at it for a minute and attributed it to a leaking heater core. Its so expensive to replace, they said it could take 11 hours and the dash and the console would need to come off. Could it be somethnig else, ahose or something? Is this common?
(They by passed the heater core for now and i ave no heat!!!!, Its gonna get cold soon)
The car runs way too hot. I havent let it boil over. The temperature even rises even on the highway and it reached almost 120 once. i had to stop, wait for it to cool down and the continue. Most of the time it stabalizes around 110. The auxillary fans in the front work fine.
The engine fan moves however doesnt move fast enough. The mechanic said i needed a new fan clutch so i ordered one from mercedes benz. Paid 230 iuncluding freight and tax.
Gonna install it tomorrow.
Can someone please help with some advice on the overheating?
the best advice I can give you is get your money back from the seller and return the car...
the best advice I can give you is get your money back from the seller and return the car.
If the heater core is leaking then you have 2 choices,
1, pay the tech for his 11 hours labour plus parts
2, sit in the cold
Why should anuone be willing to second guess a problem when a specialist has already given you advice? Just because it's not what you wanted to hear doesn't mean it's wrong.
Surely you have some sort of consumer rights, after all you have only had the car a few days and quite clearly it is not suitable for the purpose you bought it for - ie driving.
Ask politely for a full refund then if they refuse see what the lawyers have to say.
I feel so helpless cus the dealer who sold it to me is 2300km away in ontario however i spoke to him and i think he might agree to pay half the costs. If so its not so bad. I guess im blinded by how good i feel in this car.
I found a heater core from importec parts for 102 US and i have some good meachics who might do the job in 7 hours so i might go ahead and do it.
I hope the fan clutch makea difference in the temp.
I really doubt that a fan will fix your overheating problem. Your car should NEVER exceed ...
I really doubt that a fan will fix your overheating problem. Your car should NEVER exceed 80-85 degrees on the highway. It doesn't matter if you take out the fans entirely. A working cooling system doesn't need them once the car is moving at a decent speed. First check that there's no gunk in the radiator or grill (probably not). Then flush the coolant and replace the thermostat (very cheap and simple). If that doesn't work, then you either have a faulty water pump (or clogged hose), or your radiator is shot. It shouldn't be that difficult to diagnose which. I'd bet on the water pump though.
Did you have the problem before your heater core was bypassed?
Anyway, its impossible to say whether your heater core has to be replaced without looking at it. I'd say that its not necessarily the case, though. Your dash would have to be torn apart to tell exactly what was wrong. It could be a cracked hose, but probably not.
i defintely agree with you that the fans should have no role on the highway and thats what scares me cus it means its something else as well.
The guy who sold it to me told me he recently put a new thermostat. Do they fault that often? I will do as you said and recommend to the mechanic to check the radiator and flush it. Regarding your suspicion on the water pump, i heard that they get quite noisy when they need to be replaced. I hope its not the water pump, i hear its a bitch to fix as well.
Thanks for the advice. Ill keep you posted on what happens tomorrow.
Re: your question: " did i have the problem before i fixed the heater core"
Yes the car was heating up and thats when i took it in to the MB specialists. But the heater was working fine the whole way down from ontario.
I just dont understand the car was working perfectly fine, wasnt overheating or i would notice it. around 1500km into the trip the problems began. I think it all started with the heater core leak.
Re: I really doubt that a fan will fix your overheating problem. Your car should NEVER exceed
Quote:
Your car should NEVER exceed 80-85 degrees on the highway.
Down here in LA my car is almost always at the 100 degree mark. It doesn't matter if its 65 degrees outside or 110 outside, like it was yesterday, or if I am on the freeway or parked. My car is the V8 though so it tends to run hotter.
I read everything you wrote again, and I'm thinking that a heater core may be unlikely. Obviously I haven't seen the car, and I'm also not a Mercedes specialist, but things don't sound right.
First of all, most cars have the heater core on the right side, but you said that the leak is on the left.
Another thing is that most of the time I've seen failed heater cores, the air coming out of the vents smells like burned coolant - very noticeable.
Where exactly was it leaking? Is coolant puddled on the bottom of the engine bay, or is it from behind there?
I assume that since you made it all that way, the leak couldn't have been very large. Is it possible that its still leaking (it may only happen when driving btw)?
I'd definitely get a second opinion on this. You may have a hose that was partially decayed, and then clogged up, built pressure, and leaked. That could be blocking some section of the cooling system, or something. It shouldn't be too hard to check most hoses once the coolant is drained.
Also, I think you have two water pumps. There's the main one driven off the engine that's hard to replace, and then there's an electrical (I think) pump right off the coolant overflow tank that's in easy reach.
There is no leak now after they bypassed the heater core. So if there is a leak in the hoses it has to be from some wherte right around it. Regarding your question of where it was leaking, the coolant was leaking right outside the car not in the engine bay. I think one of the mercedes guys told me thats a safety mechanism for the coolant to be pored through a drain outside the car rather than on your feet inside the car. NOt sure!!!
Thanks a lot for your advice though. Ill defintely convey the same to my mechanic.
Linear Mode
