Fuel injection/misfire

I was able to get the fuel rail freed up enough to pull the #8 and #9 injectors. I ran them both through an ultrasonic cleaner for about 20 minutes and swapped them, so what was the #9 injector is now in the #8 cylinder and vice versa. So one of three things will happen…

  1. The problem is gone, meaning the ultrasonic cleaner fixed the problem.
  2. The problem moves to cylinder #8, meaning I need to replace an injector.
  3. The problem stays with cylinder #9, meaning I probably have a bad coil pack (which is still under warranty). There is a very remote chance of a bad plug on #9.

To avoid uncertainty, I am considering swapping the plugs between cylinder #9 and #10. I am however NOT a fan of pulling the coil pack again… if everything else goes well this afternoon and I have time to do it, I’ll do that

Cooling System Done

For a while now, I’ve been chasing a coolant problem on the Mercedes. You can drive the car as much as you want, and never loose any significant amount of coolant (more on that later). However, on occasion — sometimes every night, sometimes not for a week — it will dump anywhere from a half pint to a quart of coolant on the driveway as it sits overnight. Never when it’s hot; only when it cools down.

The shop I talked to said it was likely the radiator. There’s an aluminum radiator with plastic tanks, and as the materials cool down and contract at different rates it can open up a marginal seal and leak coolant. OK, I can see that happening. Radiators aren’t expensive; a good quality, brand new one can be had for under $175. I had plans to replace mine.

I have, however, had the cooling system open. While replacing the coil packs and the air/oil separator, I had to remove the thermostat housing. From what I have read, it’s virtually impossible to get the cooling system completely full and purged of air without using a vacuum fill tool.

How could this be something so simple as air in the system? After refilling the coolant, I ran the car for quite a while with the front and rear heat on full, and spent some time squeezing the upper radiator hose to encourage any trapped air to exit. Well, the other night I went to check the coolant level, and found it overflowing the expansion tank when I removed the cap. Slowly squeezing the radiator hose resulted in some gurgling and the coolant level dropped when I released it, so there was definitely trapped air.

So the question becomes — is this all just because there’s air that needs to be bled out? Or, is it sucking air IN through the leaky O-ring as the engine cools, perpetuating the problem? I guess we’ll find out. I have the tool to fill and bleed the system, and today I took a look. After draining the coolant, I pulled a vacuum on the cooling system. I was able to get about 0.65 bar of vacuum, but when I shut off the air it was obvious there was a leak. I decided to take a look at that leaking O-ring. It was worse than I remembered, with evidence of coolant around the area. I think it had been sucking air in during cooldown and wreaking havoc.

I did see what the shop referred to as corrosion on the driver side turbo frost plug. It was just a little evaporated coolant; the plug is directly below the coolant lone that was leaking. I managed (after a couple hours of cussing and all) to get the O-ring replaced and the line secured. Now I’m able to pull .8 bar of vacuum, with no leakage at all after a couple minutes sitting with no additional evacuation. I refilled with coolant and will watch what happens, but I think that will fix it. I found zero evidence of any other problems — no leaks around the radiator or anywhere else.

Shop estimate to repair cooling system: $3281.23
Parts cost: $7.88
Tools & Materials: $101
Shop time (service bay rental): $120.00
Total spent: $228.83
Total Saved: $3052.35

And that includes the cooling system fill/test kit, which I’ll no doubt use many more times.

Rear brakes done

Parts have started arriving for the Mercedes. The Rock Auto order arrived Friday with the brake parts and washer pump, plus a couple of filters for the Volvo my wife drives. On Saturday Pete and I replaced the rear brake rotors and pads. The old ones were not yet down to the wear sensors, and had maybe 3/16 or so of pad material left. Serviceable, but worn. The rotors looked to be in good condition, but of course there was a noticeable ridge at the edge.

Having two people really sped things up. The calipers and rotors came off without a fuss. We cleaned off the new Brembo coated brake rotors and installed them, followed by the new Akebono Euro pads. I got the two massive rear tires back on and torqued down the bolts. The test drive was utterly uneventful. Brake pedal feels just a bit more firm, and there is of course no shudder or noise whatsoever – as I would expect.

Cost quoted by shop (incl. tax): $698.85
Total parts cost (incl. tax and shipping): $188.82
Total savings : $510.03

In other words, we saved about $170.00 per hour for our labor to replace the pads & rotors. Put another way, I shaved about 73% of the cost off of the rear brakes by spending a Saturday afternoon in my garage.

Yesterday the box from FCP Euro arrived with the ABC accumulators and hydraulic fluid. One more parts order and I’ll be ready to tackle the ABC issues. I’ll have to remember to call DIY Garage and reserve a bay for next weekend.

How to Save Money on Car Repairs

So, I took the Mercedes in to a local independent repair shop specializing in Mercedes and other Euro cars. Everyone — and I do mean everyone – that I asked told me that these were THE guys to go to with problems. I had a few nagging little things wrong that I didn’t feel like fixing myself, so I took it in with a laundry list of stuff to look at. The car would frequently dump some coolant on the driveway overnight after being driven, for example. I have a persistent problem with the #9 fuel injector being clogged or sticky, which had me chasing non-existent ignition issues for months. The ride is harsher than it should be. The A/C doesn’t work for the first 5-10 minutes on a hot day, again only when you drive it for the first time before it’s warmed up. And finally, the transmission shifts from 1-2 and 2-3 are very harsh, but only when the car is cold — after a few minutes of driving, it’s smooth as silk.

After a week I got a call from the mechanic with their quote to sort out everything. It was (I swear I’m not making this up) $14,319.86. According to them…

  • The coolant leak was from the driver side turbo. I’m aware of that tiny little leak; it’s a $.35 O-ring that looks like a pain in the ass to replace, so I left it. I’d gladly pay a shop 3-4 hours labor to replace it. They want to pull the turbo and replace the coolant lines for $3200-plus. Unfortunately, they say the car didn’t puke any coolant while they had it like it has for me… a symptom for which they told me by phone before I took it in probably indicated a bad radiator. So, after paying over $3K to fix a bad O-ring on a coolant line, I’d still have the same original problem that I wanted fixed.
  • The A/C problem could be the compressor, or could be a bad suction hose. They propose replacing both for a little under $1750.
  • According to them, the ABC pump (actually the power steering pump, which also supplies hydraulic power to the ABC suspension) is leaking and the accumulators are bad. Another $3.6K plus to fix all that
  • $400 for a transmission fluid and filter change. I just did that a few months ago, but I didn’t flush the torque converter so it probably does need new fluid.
  • $700 for the rear brakes. No, they haven’t fallen off, nor does that include new calipers. Just the brake disks and pads.
  • $247.70 for an oil change. Right. I pay about $6 for a filter, and $23 for five quarts of Mobil 1 full synthetic. The air filters they want to replace (at $68 for the pair) were just replaced a few months back and are quite clean. And cheap, at roughly $26 for a pair.
  • $4,338.40 to replace the brand new spark plugs and both freshly rebuilt coil packs that I just put in back in March or April, to chase a non-existent ignition problem that I already know (and specifically told them) is actually a sticking fuel injector.
  • Though I specifically asked them to pull the fuel injectors and clean/flush/test them, there was no mention of that at all. The diagnostics point to the coil packs… just as I had told them when I dropped it off. Sigh…

Needless to say, I was a bit surprised. One thing that surprised me was that they are apparently using full retail Mercedes dealer parts counter pricing on parts, than marking that up. Marking it up quite a bit, in fact. An example: They listed the A/C compressor at $784.00. Now, I can buy a brand new one from a Mercedes-Benz dealer for $497.59 ( a bit over 33% discount) – or pay even less for the same part from one of a couple of very good parts retailers who guarantee their parts for life.

That’s just one example, end not the worst one. There’s a 55% markup on the brake rotors (plus I can buy new Brembo rotors for even less), and a whopping 68% markup on the power steering pump. Holy crap…

Now, don’t get me wrong — I’m not complaining about their $117 per hour shop rate; I don’t think that’s too high at all. I also don’t have a problem with shops making a little on parts. They’re going to have to lay out the cash and wait for me to pay, there’s risk involved, yadda yadda yadda. But come on. That’s just egregious. I’m guessing they count on the fact that, first, not many Mercedes-Benz owners would consider turning a wrench on their own car; and second, some seem to take some sort of perverse joy in spending large amounts of money to keep their cars running. With some people it seems to be a point of pride to show off four- and five-figure shop bills. That has never appealed to me, to be honest.

So, I have parts coming to do this stuff myself. I am fairly disappointed that I have still not found a shop where I can take this car, have it repaired and maintained by a competent mechanic, and pay a fair price for the work performed. I’d happily pay their shop rate to avoid doing this, but I’m not going to shell out fourteen grand for what really should be a couple thousand bucks’ worth of parts and labor. We’ll just have to differ in opinion on the power steering pump… I’m willing to replace the accumulators and see how long the pump lasts before taking that step. Even so, that was a drop in the bucket of their $14K-plus quote. So here’s what I have planned for the next couple of weeks, as parts arrive and I have the time to devote to getting greasy:

  • Rear brakes: I ordered new Brembo brake rotors and Akebono pads. Let’s be generous and include the shipping cost and say that all cost me about $185.
  • ABC accumulators: I ordered new parts from FCP Euro and Mercedes-Benz of Laredo. Great people to deal with, by the way. Call it a little under $490, with shipping and 5 liters of hydraulic fluid.
  • I’ll do the transmission flush myself for around $60 to $80 worth of transmission fluid. The filter was just replaced, so there’s really no need to crack the pan open again for that.
  • The oil was just changed a couple of months ago, I’m not sure why that was even on the list. The car itself should have told them that. It’s showing 8 months until the next service due.
  • I’ll continue to feed it fuel injector cleaner to address the injector issue. I have been alternating between Techron and Red Line. The problem is about 90 to 95% gone… if I have to, I’ll pull the fuel rail and injectors and flush them myself, I just figured if I were going to have the car in for the radiator and all, I’d have them do that too.
  • I’ll look for another shop to do the A/C service. I can buy the hose for about $155 (the shop wanted $275 for it!) and have a place that specializes in A/C do the work. I doubt very much it’s the compressor; the collapsed suction hose is a known issue with these cars.
  • I put some fluorescent dye in the coolant, and I’m waiting for it to dump it again so I can trace where it’s coming from. While a new radiator is not terribly expensive, there are a couple of other potential sources for the coolant and I want to make sure I fix it once.

Some of this needs to be done soon, as we’re planning another long vacation road trip soon. I definitely want to fix the suspension and coolant issues and replace the rear brakes, and I’d really like to have it all sorted before we leave. We’re fortunate enough to have a place in Bellevue that rents service bays with hydraulic lifts, so I should be able to do everything in a day, possibly two. I’ll follow up with more details on the work performed and the total cost — I’ll even track the hours to estimate what a shop would have been justified in charging.

Oh, and when I dropped the car off, my windshield washer was fine… when I picked it up, it’s not working. Awesome. Don’t know if they knocked a plug loose, or if it was just a coincidental spontaneous failure. We’ll see when I get the fender liner out to replace the ABC accumulators and pulsation damper..

Mercedes followup

I realized that I haven’t posted anything since July. Since then I’ve sorted out pretty much everything that was ailing the S600. After I finally had the dealer replace the ABS/ESP control module, that fixed most of the issues. I had a nagging problem with peeing coolant overboard after driving, but that turned out to be the cheap coolant tank cap I bought at AutoZone. Supposed to be a high quality part — nope. I bought a new one from Mercedes-Benz, and the problem went away completely.

The intercooler circuit has been working flawlessly since I put the new pump in and had the system bled, giving me full turbo boost under all conditions within its design limits. I replaced the conductor plate in the transmission, which fixed a shift issue that popped up. I replaced a seeping valve cover gasket, and while I was in there did all the spark plug boots as well… the parts are cheap. All of this was really just fixing things that had been ignored by the previous owner and his servicing shop. The only thing that pissed me off, really, was the ABS module — there’s no way in hell the dealer didn’t know about that.

In October, we took the car on a week long, 3,000 mile road trip. We drove through NE, KS, CO, UT, NM, AZ, and back. We stopped at the Four Corners monument, stayed at the Grand Canyon, saw Santa Fe and Albuquerque, visited the Petrified Forest, and more. The only thing I noted was what felt like a little bit of a lack of power when passing at high altitude. I decided not to worry about it… we were on vacation, I wasn’t going to dig under the hood. Wish I had! It was a simple thing. The air intake pipe between the intercoolers and the throttle body had popped off — some fool (me) had not sufficiently tightened a clamp and it blew off. The car still went like hell, with no problem passing even at 8-9K feet elevation. But imagine what it WOULD have done… wow. It took me all of ten minutes to fix that.

The cost hasn’t been as bad as I had expected. Parts have been surprisingly reasonable. The ABS control unit was the worst; you can’t buy used, and the dealer has to install it. Period. The rest, though, was not a big deal, really. Fortunately I found a local shop where you can rent a bay with a lift, which made doing the transmission service and conductor plate easy.

Overall… unlike some cars, you can’t just drive these things and not touch them except to change the oil and tires. It’s a high performance machine, and requires that the owner pay attention to maintenance or it will break. That’s all there is to it. So the maintenance cost is higher than, say, my F150 that I haven’t had to touch other than oil and tires since I bought it.

But the truck doesn’t massage my back while I’m cruising at speeds that would scare me in a lesser car, either.

That said, it’s time to part ways. I love the car, I truly do. But, when I bought it the plan was to sell the truck and not keep an excess vehicle. Well, that hasn’t happened, and we realize that we will probably need the pickup for another couple of years. I’ve got the car listed for sale (at a great price, I might add). I’m looking forward to shopping for an S65 in a few years…

A couple months of Mercedes ownership

I’ve been adjusting to “semi sort of exotic” V12 ownership.  Early May I bought a Mercedes S600 with under 48K miles on the odometer.  If you’re unfamiliar, it’s an exceptionally opulent luxury sedan with a 510 HP, twin-turbocharged 5.5 liter V12 and an active hydraulic suspension system, among other things. It hasn’t been trouble-free, but I don’t think anything new has broken since I bought it — it just had problems that weren’t obvious when I looked at it.  If I’d have had a proper dealer PPI done, I would have screwed the price down a few more thousand — but the logistics of doing that in a distant city are difficult to say the least.  Next time (and there will be a next time), I’ll do it differently.  

The real adjustment is in how these things are serviced.  Got a problem?  Unless it’s something mechanical that’s obviously broken, you’re going to absolutely need the Mercedes dealer level software (at the very least), on a dedicated laptop, and the hardware to get it to talk to the car.  Period.  Or, you take it to a dealer that charges a $160 “diagnostic fee” per symptom.  Or, you find an independent shop and hope they’re as good as they claim.  The mechanical systems are very complex.  The electronics are far, far more complex.  Just an example: You turn the thumbwheel on the dash air vent to control airflow.  It’s not a mechanical control.  It’s a potentiometer, which is read by a control unit that sits on the CAN bus, and talks to numerous other control units, and a decision is made how much to move the electrically actuated damper behind that vent.  Oh, the potentiometer went bad and can’t be read?  No A/C for you, pal.

I’ll be about $3K deep in repairs, parts, and vehicle-specific tools by the time I’m done, maybe a little less.  The good news is, half of that is the one thing that the dealer HAS to do — the rest I can do myself with parts sourced from Fleabay or a couple of dealers that sell factory original parts at a deep discount.  By the weekend I’ll be equipped to do anything the dealer can do diagnostic-wise, which will pay for itself quickly.  

On the plus side…  the thing is over-built, and the level of engineering and the build quality is fantastic.  Even at 13 years old, this car has features most new cars don’t.  You can cruise all day long in ridiculous comfort (the massaging seats help), and if the mood ever strikes you to see, for example, how long it takes to go from 40 to 130 MPH…  it will happily and very quickly do it, without drama, and you’re nowhere near the top end.  This model is limited to 157 MPH, and it will easily do it.  It’s not going to be as cheap to own and operate as my F150, for example, but once it’s fully sorted out I don’t think it will be punitively bad, either.  You don’t own a car like this (or a Ferrari, or a McLaren, or a Bentley, or whatever) because it’s cheap.  

More disassambly

Last night I got a little garage time. I pulled one valve cover, just out of curiosity to see what kind of shape things are in. There were no surprises; the engine seems to be in its original condition with 93K miles. I do see evidence that it’s been worked on over the years, of course — blue Permatex everywhere. No clear sign it’s been overhauled though.

I got the carburetor removed, and pulled the intake manifold (a first ever for me). I’m not going further with disassembly until it’s on the engine stand; in fact, I’ll put the valve cover back on to avoid dripping oil when we pull the engine. But, it’s easier now to get to parts of the engine and the various lines that will be disconnected prior to removing it.

Rearranging…

I took advantage of the good weather this weekend, and my wife’s suggestion, to do some cleanup and rearranging. I got the Mustang down off the jack stands, and we rolled it out into the driveway. I moved the big workbench, the mobile tool bench, and some other stuff to the second garage bay. In between moving stuff around in the garage I got out the power washer and cleaned up the front suspension, engine bay, rear springs, etc. Whatever I could reach without soaking down the interior too much, since there’s still a dash in there. I managed to get a lot of mud, crud, old grease, and some undercoating blasted off.

Once that was done, we got it turned around and into the third bay, nose-in so the front end is near the tool chest. It should be easier to work on now, since I won’t have to walk all the way around the car every time I need a tool. There’s enough room to work – there could always be more space, but it’s an improvement over the way it was before.

A little Mustang update

Last night Lisa and I attended our first MCCO meeting. It seems like a pretty decent crowd. We had a devil of a time finding the place, and didn’t know that all the Mustangs were parked out back. As a result, we didn’t actually see a single Mustang all night! We went ahead and joined. Also got the ENWICC book; I had no idea there were THAT many car club events going on in this area. Or that ENWICC existed, for that matter. Anyway, I think the club will be a very valuable resource for finding places to do media blasting, welding, body work, upholstery, etc.

Now, where was I? I’ve got both fenders off, hood off, etc. I drained and removed the radiator, got the fan and alternator off, and am working toward getting the engine out. There’s almost enough room in the garage for an engine stand. Also got some spring compressors, so I’ll be able to tear out the front suspension for IRAN (Inspect and Replace As Necessary).

The trunk floors… well… not entirely sure what approach I’ll take there. I really would like to avoid pulling and replacing both trunk floors. I may just mark out and cut out square patches on both sides where the rust is, then weld in patch panels. I guess it depends on how far this goes. Given the mount of rust remediation and patching that needs to be done on the rear quarters, I’m thinking I may farm all of it out to a restoration shop — now that I have a couple of them identified.

All of this restoration work has got me thinking about the pickup as well. I think I’ll start getting the underside of that cleaned up, the minor surface rust addressed, paint touched up, and make sure it won’t rust again.

It runs…

I’ve had the battery on a slow charger/maintainer for a couple of weeks. I had assumed the thing was toast, since it was stone dead when I got it… battery voltage was under 0.5 V. I had to use a battery drill pack to throw enough of a charge into it to get the charger to even try to start charging. Every day or two I’d go out, disconnect the charger, run the heater blower for a few minutes, and re-connect the charger. It wasn’t costing my anything, so I figured – why not?

Saturday afternoon, I decided to drop the battery in and give it another try. It cranked over OK, but of course the carb was bone dry. I gave it a shot of ether, and lo and behold — it fired up and ran. I ran it for a total of about 15 minutes or so, until the garage filled with gray smoke and I had to air it out. I’m not quite sure if it was just old-engine exhaust smoke with steam, or if it’s burning oil. Nothing has changed my plan to pull and rebuild the engine, but at least we know it runs.

First start in — how many years? Nobody knows.

Pete and I also got the left front fender off. The last idiot welded this one up even worse than the right side. A large patch was actually welded on, not just over rusted metal — but over the top of rusted metal covered with Bondo. Awesome job, dumbass. The fender is scrap, even the front corner is rusted out.

I’m debating what to do with the floor pans. If I can get someone who knows what they’re doing to finish welding them in place, great. I’m afraid I may end up needed to remove all the stuff that’s been done and re-do it. I hope not, but it is one option. The good news (aside from the engine running) is, I got the instrument cluster finished up and put back together, and it looks great. Brakes also seem to be in good shape, so that opens up options for getting it on and off of a trailer and in and out of the driveway when it comes time to use a power washer to clean up the undercarriage, engine bay and fender wells. Just blasting off all the accumulated grime and filth will make it easier to work on.