https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/merced ... 21880001kt
This is reasonably priced. May want to just do this because it's a thing anyway. Or skip the coolant (order the other P/Ns) and just source a few gallons of G48 for the job. I get mine at O'Reilly's (Zerex).
Or replace all the coolant now and monitor the situation and make a future plan as needed.
CLK550/E550 hunt for Adam
Re: CLK550/E550 hunt for Adam
I need to inspect the 3 cam covers on the back of the heads. They are plastic and cheap and known to leak. The 4th cam cover is the oil centrifuge and is not a bad idea to do preventatively as I did on my S550.
Re: CLK550/E550 hunt for Adam
As the coolant does look terrible anyways, I'll probably do just the coolant now. I'll order the cooler anyways as it'll likely need one eventually and when it does do the coolant again.
Re: CLK550/E550 hunt for Adam
I believe the car has an open recall anyways based on the CarFax, so it already needs to go to the dealer.
Re: CLK550/E550 hunt for Adam
Not a full inspection as I couldn't get an angle to look under the centrifuge nor could I see the driver's side intake cam cover.
Centrifuge looks tight but maybe that heat shield comes out easily.
Pass side intake cam cover (small) Centrifuge (only 1, it's attached to the large exhaust cam inspection port on the back of the pass side head). The Mercedes centrifugal oil separator system is one of the better ones in the industry but at higher miles two things happen: the seal to the head can seep oil which explains itself, and the inner seal that rides on the cam can also expand and not seal, which decreases the efficiency of the breather system (which leads to oil in the intake which then can goo up the swirl valves). Driver's side exhaust cam cover (large) I couldn't find the driver's side intake cam (small) cover. Normally you'd do this with the air filter housing removed but I was lazy.
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Re: CLK550/E550 hunt for Adam
Removed battery to fix some stuff, like clean out the right cowl downspout with compressed air. It was pretty blocked. I tried to align the downspout but it somehow doesn't quite reach properly. I have it sort of stretched into place but I don't know if it will stay. The cowl seems to be in the correct place so I'm at a loss.
All the battery charging turned out to be a nearly 4A parasitic draw. Whoops. So that's another reason I pulled it. After I pulled it, I went to charge it and it was full quickly so that is good I guess. I tried to clean out the junk under the battery tray area. It's improved but still needs work.
The battery was not secured correctly (meaning, at all). It is a somewhat annoying battery job in this car due to the weight of the battery and tight quarters (and would be almost impossible without the service position of the hood). I also found out the hold down bracket is there but was missing a nut. The other nut was super tight so someone just plopped a battery right on top of it. So I removed all of that and placed the battery in there right which seems to barely fit. Then slip the bracket in and use a magnet to feed the nut down. So it's now secured with one nut which is better than before.
After reconnecting the draw seemed to be much less so I guess something reset. I reset as many codes as I could and rescanned it. Then I ran it for 45 minutes idling and around the neighborhood and scanned it again. Results posted.
Remaining malfunctions:
- Needs airbag module?? I forgot to check for a light but the code says replace module. I did the diagnostic on the driver's seat belt signal and it read that correctly.
- There is ONE dead TPMS sensor and one weak one, both in the rear. This system apparently does not display pressures which is super lame (although the TPMS module knows both the exact pressures to the tenth and also temp).
- Heating system shutoff valve open circuit? That would seem to impact A/C. I'll see if I can find it (or use my fancy SW to help me). This does NOT trigger the CEL. Nor should it.
- Heating water circ pump issue? I think it's located right in plain view on the right front of the engine bay.
Other info:
- Oil looks good, it looked and smelled clean (was probably just changed, but to what, I have no idea). No milkshake on dipstick or in oil fill. The scum in the coolant is either not oil or the coolant isn't leaking into the oil. Good news either way.
- I think it needs a thermostat. It struggled to get above 180 and mostly was below that. These use a modern/fancy style that is somewhat electronically controlled.
- It likes to shift into second pretty quickly but you can make it wind out if you press the throttle down far enough (but only if it doesn't spin the tires)
- The brake pedal travel seems longer than it should be but I've never driven a CLK. The brake fluid looked kind of bad so it could use new fluid for starters. I inspected the outer pads but perhaps one or more inner pad is spanked. The actual brake performance seems good though.
- The hood struts seem to go into these carriers (which are different left to right). The driver's side one operates the service position.
- There was a foam piece of insulation that was just sitting next to the master cylinder. I figured out that it went into the divider to seal against the hood and keep engine bay heat away from the master and front SAM.
- A similar foam piece is missing which seals off the battery/HVAC intake area. This will lead to sucking in some engine bay temp air which isn't very efficient for the A/C.
- It's missing the middle-right cowl drain down spout.
- I'll see how the battery does overnight just to make sure there is no problem there. I expect to get my E63 back tomorrow so this is going in the driveway at that time.
All the battery charging turned out to be a nearly 4A parasitic draw. Whoops. So that's another reason I pulled it. After I pulled it, I went to charge it and it was full quickly so that is good I guess. I tried to clean out the junk under the battery tray area. It's improved but still needs work.
The battery was not secured correctly (meaning, at all). It is a somewhat annoying battery job in this car due to the weight of the battery and tight quarters (and would be almost impossible without the service position of the hood). I also found out the hold down bracket is there but was missing a nut. The other nut was super tight so someone just plopped a battery right on top of it. So I removed all of that and placed the battery in there right which seems to barely fit. Then slip the bracket in and use a magnet to feed the nut down. So it's now secured with one nut which is better than before.
After reconnecting the draw seemed to be much less so I guess something reset. I reset as many codes as I could and rescanned it. Then I ran it for 45 minutes idling and around the neighborhood and scanned it again. Results posted.
Remaining malfunctions:
- Needs airbag module?? I forgot to check for a light but the code says replace module. I did the diagnostic on the driver's seat belt signal and it read that correctly.
- There is ONE dead TPMS sensor and one weak one, both in the rear. This system apparently does not display pressures which is super lame (although the TPMS module knows both the exact pressures to the tenth and also temp).
- Heating system shutoff valve open circuit? That would seem to impact A/C. I'll see if I can find it (or use my fancy SW to help me). This does NOT trigger the CEL. Nor should it.
- Heating water circ pump issue? I think it's located right in plain view on the right front of the engine bay.
Other info:
- Oil looks good, it looked and smelled clean (was probably just changed, but to what, I have no idea). No milkshake on dipstick or in oil fill. The scum in the coolant is either not oil or the coolant isn't leaking into the oil. Good news either way.
- I think it needs a thermostat. It struggled to get above 180 and mostly was below that. These use a modern/fancy style that is somewhat electronically controlled.
- It likes to shift into second pretty quickly but you can make it wind out if you press the throttle down far enough (but only if it doesn't spin the tires)
- The brake pedal travel seems longer than it should be but I've never driven a CLK. The brake fluid looked kind of bad so it could use new fluid for starters. I inspected the outer pads but perhaps one or more inner pad is spanked. The actual brake performance seems good though.
- The hood struts seem to go into these carriers (which are different left to right). The driver's side one operates the service position.
- There was a foam piece of insulation that was just sitting next to the master cylinder. I figured out that it went into the divider to seal against the hood and keep engine bay heat away from the master and front SAM.
- A similar foam piece is missing which seals off the battery/HVAC intake area. This will lead to sucking in some engine bay temp air which isn't very efficient for the A/C.
- It's missing the middle-right cowl drain down spout.
- I'll see how the battery does overnight just to make sure there is no problem there. I expect to get my E63 back tomorrow so this is going in the driveway at that time.
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Re: CLK550/E550 hunt for Adam
Some shots from today.
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Re: CLK550/E550 hunt for Adam
Confirmed in the manual.
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Re: CLK550/E550 hunt for Adam
SOP after reconnecting the battery from manual:
Clock might be GPS set on vehicles with COMAND. Have to do it manually here even though I think it still has a GPS receiver for the teleaid system.After battery power was interrupted, do the following:
Set the clock (Y page 135). Vehicles with COMAND: see separate COMAND operating instructions.
Synchronize the power windows (Y page 105).
Synchronize the tilt/sliding sunroof (CLK coupe) (Y page 192).