98 e300 turbodiesel with approx 166k.

At the beginning of the summer, I was alarmed to see my thermostat climb north of the 100 deg celsius marker-before this car always seemed to run cold, I thought. Anyways, after that instance, I installed a scangauge to see the actual read out by the computer and found occasionally I got in the 220deg farenheit range while driving in frequent stop and go traffic.

I then took my car to the dealer who claims that these cars are made to run warmer and that frequenting over 100 deg celcius won't hurt the car. He stated the pump was pumping water, the aux fans were running, and the thermostat was fine.

Note that when i am driving 45+ mph with little stop and go traffic, I stay right at about 80deg celcius, and i experience no issues until stopped at idle. It has the ability to get pretty hot as stated before, and the only way to cool it down is to drive it for a while. Seems to get warm with or without air conditioner on. With air conditioner on it happens a little faster.

Fan is running and stops immediately at car shutdown. I can try a new cap, I suppose. But what is your opinion?

 

+1 agree with Forced