Decided to take a break from upgrades and service some severely neglected issues on my car:

[vixen_w202]

Alright, I've realized I've been doing a ton of upgrading, but it's getting to the point where I'm realizing my car has had a lot of self care neglected by lots of prior owners before me and there was a lot of abuse done to the drivetrain. There's a mystery leak I can't pinpoint that's causing me to go through a quart to a quart and a half in between oil changes, the same oil leak is hitting either the exhaust or something super hot and occasionally will smoke out oil from underneath the car, there is a major leak of transmission fluid coming from the rear main seal, there is a ton of gunk around the oil pan (possibly old leaked oil) the differential is leaking too, the cooling system makes the car run a little hotter than I feel comfortable on a daily basis, and my brake caliper lines need to be replaced badly.

I'm realizing that as much as I love my car I'm just asking it to do stuff that it's not in good health to do the things I'd like it to do right now, and within the last week it's really starting to complain at me. I also need to figure out why my transmission is shifting so hard. So, until I go through everything and feel my car is healthy again, it's probably only going to be just going to the places I absolutely need to go and nowhere else.

I do have a couple minor upgrades I'm going to finish off because I already ordered the stuff, but pretty much as of now I'm retiring from modding until I feel my drivetrain is in better health to drive and enjoy the car the way I want to. To me everything I've done to my car has been fun, but pretty much if I keep doing more to it and neglect the obvious problems it has I've been ignoring, I'm going to damage it.

I took the plunge today and am taking the first step to do "emergency preparedness" as I'm calling it. I bought some radiator flush cleaner, 3 gallons of distilled water and 2 gallons of peak coolant. This will be my first project tonight, even though it's bleeping cold outside.

This will be an ongoing thread as I get money to fix stuff, but I will keep it updated and with pics.

P.S. Has anyone done a radiator flush on our cars and how is it done? I looked under the hood and I see an overflow resivoir, but no direct access to the radiator itself. How have you guys done it???

Thanks

[Scary-Larry]

On my 98 C280, I have a minor leak in my rear main seal that I have not taken care of yet, but it's not too bad. My oil filter housing on the engine and the transmission were leaking and I had those fixed. The transmission shifts a bit hard, but it never has slipped or skipped. Your oil leak is probably the rear main seal if it is really leaking bad because the synthetic oil we use will thin out when really hot, which makes it easier to leak. You could have an oil filter housing leak though, and it could be leaking onto the side of the engine which is hot. I believe the rear main seal only contains the engine's oil and not the transmission's (as the dealership told me on the phone and from what I saw upon inspection).

When my transmission leaked though, it was one of the hoses that was doing it along with the gasket for the transmission fluid pan. One of the hoses that carries fluid for cooling the transmission could be leaking and leaving a stain on the plastic undercarriage below the engine as was the case for me.

Here are some videos I found of people flushing and replacing the coolant in their w202's. The videos are done on a C220 and C230.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ledhvKVPI (click mute)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzEuZ7gVgEU

From what I know, the coolant fluid that represents the radiator is all accessed through the coolant entry right in back of the air intake on the passenger side (and in front of the electronic component stating the battery being in the trunk).


My 2000 C280 Sport that I recently purchased is yet for an inspection and has the smell of burning oil after I drive it (even if I drive slow). I am not worried about it that much though. If it was a head gasket leak that either of us had, I think that white smoke would come out the exhaust and that the smell of oil would be out of this world.

[W202FTW]

Alright, I've realized I've been doing a ton of upgrading, but it's getting to the point where I'm realizing my car has had a lot of self care neglected by lots of prior owners before me and there was a lot of abuse done to the drivetrain. There's a mystery leak I can't pinpoint that's causing me to go through a quart to a quart and a half in between oil changes, the same oil leak is hitting either the exhaust or something super hot and occasionally will smoke out oil from underneath the car, there is a major leak of transmission fluid coming from the rear main seal, there is a ton of gunk around the oil pan (possibly old leaked oil) the differential is leaking too, the cooling system makes the car run a little hotter than I feel comfortable on a daily basis, and my brake caliper lines need to be replaced badly.

I'm realizing that as much as I love my car I'm just asking it to do stuff that it's not in good health to do the things I'd like it to do right now, and within the last week it's really starting to complain at me. I also need to figure out why my transmission is shifting so hard. So, until I go through everything and feel my car is healthy again, it's probably only going to be just going to the places I absolutely need to go and nowhere else.

I do have a couple minor upgrades I'm going to finish off because I already ordered the stuff, but pretty much as of now I'm retiring from modding until I feel my drivetrain is in better health to drive and enjoy the car the way I want to. To me everything I've done to my car has been fun, but pretty much if I keep doing more to it and neglect the obvious problems it has I've been ignoring, I'm going to damage it.

I took the plunge today and am taking the first step to do "emergency preparedness" as I'm calling it. I bought some radiator flush cleaner, 3 gallons of distilled water and 2 gallons of peak coolant. This will be my first project tonight, even though it's bleeping cold outside.

This will be an ongoing thread as I get money to fix stuff, but I will keep it updated and with pics.

P.S. Has anyone done a radiator flush on our cars and how is it done? I looked under the hood and I see an overflow resivoir, but no direct access to the radiator itself. How have you guys done it???

Thanks

To access the radiator drain plug, look underneath the radiator and on the driver's side you'll see a little red plug, unscrew it with a phillips-head screwdriver. The coolant drain plug for the short-block is right underneath the exhaust manifold.