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A New Baby

3K views 25 replies 11 participants last post by  DP 
#1 · (Edited)
To my kids surprise Big Mama (my 560 SEL) gave birth to a baby. Well I think this baby W201 is welcome to the stable and will be treated real good just like her mama.
The baby is a 1988 2.3 that needs some TLC but rides and shifts wonderfully. First task is to install a hood lift and latch so I can work on it without the resort of a 2X4. Next I will install new rear door straps and figure out how to make the trunk lock (it maybe a vacuum line disconnected). The car has 96K miles and I got it for $875 from a diplomat heading back home. I got it today, drove it from Northern Virginia to Baltimore while my wife followed me with the Big Mama and she could hardly keep up with me. I must say that I am impressed how zippy this thing is. Let's hope it holds up and that she services our family well.
 
#2 ·
nice and clean, a virgin 190e indeed...:cool:
 
#5 ·
Hey, the dude was like leaving tomorrow and had his other 190E already on the ship today. It would have cost him more than what the car is worth to send it since he had a quota for only one car to be shipped by his government. I lucked out I guess.
It's amazing, I was the first one to call his wife when it went on Craigslist. They had like twenty people call afterward and offer them cash but they were true to their word by holding on to it for me. Mind you I had to drive all the way to VA to pick it up and that is after a few days from the time of listing. My angle that won them over is that I offered to buy it the day they listed it and I also let them use it while they were moving. So I guess they so value in a buyer that was willing to help them through their move and all of the hassles that it entails.
 
#10 ·
Ok, today I had a chance to look her over. It has some issues but i don't think they are
too hard to handle.
The biggest concern was the main fan. It seems like the clutch is weak because the fan was going slow and the temp gage was going well over 80F but not 120F. I also found out that the auxiliary fan does not kick in at all.
I put my hand on the main fan while the car was running and I was able to stop it while the pulley kept going. I also checked fuse #10 for the aux and it was fine. This leads me to think that one for the main fan the clutch is fubar, two the either that aux's relay went south or a temp sensor of some sort is not sending a trigger notice to the relay but it can also be the aux fan itself.
Well, let the fun begin!
 
#14 ·
Behind the fan and the water pump pulley is a circular magnet with a wire connector plugged into it. Often, that magnet fails and needs to be replaced. I would replace the wire as well.

The sensor is a three pronged black plastic capped piece that rides on the forward port side head next to the distributor cap.
 
#16 ·
To carry on:
If the fan clutch is magnetic why would it need a sensor (or even a wire)? Shouldn't be activated as soon as the motor is on? Is the temperature sensor (I did a search and there seem to be one with three prongs that connects to the head) for aux? I would think so.
I would love to hear a clarification on this subject, thanks.
 
#17 ·
The car's cruising speed is roughly 120 miles per hour. The fan must not be engaged and spinning under engine power because the spinning fan will impact adversely upon the movement of the car at that speed. That is to say that the spining fan will impose drag upon the car because it is moving through the air faster than the air can move past the spinning fan. This in effect acts as an air brake and slows down the car wasting precious fuel and making the car dynamically unstable.

So, Mercedes makes a magnetic clutch that allows the fan to spin free when the cooling system passes coolant through the water pump and then the radiator fast enough and the movement of the car through the air is fast enough to cool the coolant in the radiator without the fan.

Then, as the car slows down, the car has two fan systems to keep the coolant at or below 100 celsius. The electric auxiliary fan kicks in at 110 celsius and quickly brings down engine temperature. The electric clutch engages the fan on the water pump pulley to bring the temparature to below 100 celsius.

Contrast this with an American rust bucket that has a fixed fan tied by the fan belt to the spinning motor. It rotates all the time whether the car is standing still or huffing along the highway: poor cooling, low performance, low speed.

All of this means that you must maintain the integrity of the factory design in order to get full system performance when the need arises. These are powerful and capable automobiles when they are properly maintained and maintenance on them is damn easy: just remove and replace the part. The cost of a few parts is well worth the safety and dependability that the car is able to deliver.
 
#18 ·
Excellent information and trust me I don't intend to change the design I just want to know what i am dealing with and of course how to fix this little problem. I am going to short the sensor to test the fan since the sensor is resistive and creates a short at the right temperature. I don't want to order a clutch or an aux then only find out out it's the sensor/switch.
 
#23 ·
That's what I am going to do today. I just realized that maybe the clutch is electromagnetic not just magnetic so it must have some wires I can trace back to a relay. This means I have four areas to check: Power/fuse, relay, sensor and then the clutch itself.
I will do the same with aux.
Now I must have lunch:D
 
#25 ·
Ok, just checked the cooling issue and sure enough it was the clutch fan sensor activator. All I did is measure the voltage across the sensor wire and it was 14V, realizing that it's an open circuit I shorted it to test and sure enough the clutch fan started like a happy little kid.
I added this duhuky to my list and crossed the clutch fan off.
I will wait as far as the aux because when I measured its sensor wire I found out that it was holding less than 5V so it must be part of a logic circuit that will wait for the fan clutch to kick in then additionally measure the cooling temperature before it quicks the aux. It's like an AND gate of some sort!
I am starting to actually love this car, it's fairly straight forward. Hey, I even managed to repair the trunk lock that was not locking. I realized that the pump was activating when locking the doors but it will not activate when trying to lock the trunk. I removed the rear shield for the trunk locking mechanism and sure enough the pump arm was not connected to the lock because a screw was out that held the arm to the plastic guide attached around the lock. It took less than five minutes to figure out and repair.
 
#26 ·
Well, this lasted for over ten years and it's still ticking. Aside from the stalling issue at the beginning and the random no start when it's humid outside this car has been very reliable. It's now in my son's hands.
I hope it lasts him another 5 years or more.
 
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