I suppose I can't complain, but last night (doesn't everything happen at NIGHT), my '05 C230K, in a parking lot in a basement 45 miles from my house, the car's fuel pump dies and leaves me stranded. You'll know it's the fuel pump when you go to start your car and it turns over fast, and you can hear it try to start, but it sounds like somebody pulled three of the four spark plug wires off the engine. Then it shuts off again. The worst part of it (besides the repair bill....OUCH), they put a brand new pump in it and that one failed as soon as they started the car up, so they had to pull that out and do the job again. Imagine if I had done the job myself, bought that particular pump, put it in, and had that happen to me. Yikes. Took them the most part of a full day to do the whole job twice too. Car is OK now. Oh, did I forget to mention they couldn't get their tow truck in the garage because of the 7' clearance ???
So, it took two trucks to get it out. One that was a lower overall truck to pick up the car by its front wheels and pull it out of the garage, and another flat bed (huge thing) to take the car to the shop. Car was down two long inclines, so pushing it out was not an option.

Now waiting for my crank postion sensor or my mass air sensor to die. That's probably next. Any bets on which one will go first?
After this job, I really don't want to think about it. Oh well. []

 

Mr Coyote,
Did you had any other major problems before your fuel pump went out?
Currently we have 2003 c230 with 70,000 miles on it and engine light keep coming on. We had to replace MAF and fuel filter.
The engine light still came on couple weeks later.
The mechanic told us that there is fine particle in fuel tank that needs to be clean out.
I also notice there is oil residual by front of engine where crank position sensors are. When I clean the oil and dust, it appear lightly over time(over 3-4weeks).
Where do you think the problem is coming from?

 

OK>you've got an engine light on, a mechanic who says you have "fine particles in your gas tank" that need to be cleaned out,
a new fuel filter, and a dusty front engine where the sensors are. First, with a check engine light on, you need to scan the OBDII
for any codes that might indicate what's going on. Either you can do this with a scanner, or you can take it to most any auto parts place and they will do it for no charge, or any shop can do it if you don't want to do that. That will tell you what's going on as far as WHY the check engine light is still on or came back. Now, I have no idea why anybody would tell you about fine particles in a gas tank unless they are able to see in your tank, and I seriously doubt that. If they said that because they had to replace your fuel filter, then you should be protected from any particles by the new filter. Right? That whole thing doesn't sound right to me.
As far as the dust on the front of the engine near the crank sensor, I wouldn't worry about it too much. My C230K has 148,000 miles on it and it's plenty dusty and oily in that area, and it runs just fine. Today I got 34.5mpg on the freeway in it no problem.
As far as "major problems" go, I've only had the supercharger go on me at about 60-70K miles, and my extended warranty paid for the replacement. Other than that, only the fuel pump/fuel pump relay have been replaced. So, start with a scanner and go from there. If you want to know more about the OBDII codes the scanner pulls up, you can GOOGLE them and find everything you could possibly want to know on some of the sites (free)....don't pay for anything...it's all there for no cost to you.

 

Wow 146,000 miles before its first real issue. First time break down gee it only took 146,000 miles. That car sounds like a great car. I looked at the title thinking "ohlord it died didnt it?"

 

Mrcoyote,
Thanks for responding so fast. I'd my mechanic check the engine light and it indicated thermostat and thermostat sensor being malfunction. The engine temperture has been inclining and declining within 5 degree celsius for couple of weeks.
Regarding the fine particle in the gas tank - the code has been clear. My mechanic said he put fuel injector cleaner last time I had the car in for a service (without any charge). I'd ask him to clean the fuel tank but unfortunately it's about 10 hour job for him. So we decided not to do that. I hope this clear all the codes for engine light.
Mrcoyote, did you had to replace thermostat around 70,000 miles? I thought this only happens on American made brands? We used to own BMW, Honda, Toyota and we had no problems with termostat even when we hit 180,000 miles.
[]

 

The faulty thermostat code is a P0128 code and that appeared on my car just a couple of weeks ago at around 148K miles. Until now, I have not had to replace the thermostat in my car. But, the symptoms of a bad thermostat in a C-class is exactly as you described it and as it was in my car.......the temp gauge starts to read a little bit high or a bit low......in my case, it was reading about 75C or so. The 128 code on a scanner confirmed it was bad. Did a flush of the coolant (never hurts) and replaced the thermostat. It now runs at about 90C (194F) and believe it or not, the gas mileage improved as well. Now, on the highway, I can get a solid 33.5-34mpg cruising at 65mph. Not bad for a car with it's mileage, huh?

Also, the new battery has made a big difference in everything. There were issues that I never would have guessed were related
to a battery that was starting the car fine, but caused a lot of little electronic things to be affected. Just thought I'd mention that.

 

mrcoyote,
we are replacing the thermostat and yes we did flushed the coolant. Quick question, how often did you replaced the coolant? My mechanic told me that I should replace them every 30k miles. Also they recommended replacing coolant sensor. Did you replace coolant sensor as well when you replaced your thermostat?
Thanks for letting me in on the battery issue. When did you replace the battery? It should help in the future.
One more question, every time I have my mechanic do an oil change on the car, they either have too much or too little oil which would lead to warning light. How do you know exactly how much to put it in since the vehicle does not have a dip stick.

 

OK>I flushed the coolant once a long time ago....maybe the car had about 65-70K miles on it when I did it. I have never replaced the coolant temp. sensor because the thing has never failed. The P0128 code that will come up if it fails is the same code as the faulty thermostat, so.....if you ever get a 128 code, you'll know where to look. I have never had anybody tell me I should replace that sensor as a matter of a routine flush, but.......hey.......what do I know! Maybe it's a good idea to do them both at the same time. You do know that MB uses a coolant that is not green, don't you? OK. You don't have to buy the expensive one at MB dealership...you can get it at the auto parts stores under a different name. But I won't get into that now.

My battery was due to fail, so I really should have replaced it long before I did. It lasted just under 4 years, but again, there are
so many variables with batteries I don't want to say much. Here in the hot Arizona desert, they don't last very long, so it's my fault for not replacing it sooner. But...in my own defense....it started the car up just fine, etc. But believe me, it affected the car in so many more ways I can't even begin to describe them. It really did. I myself would not have believed it if it hadn't happened to me.

Let's see....oh, yeah. The oil thing. No,we don't have dipsticks, but we DO know that a C230K takes 5.8 quarts of oil with a new filter. At least mine does. So I drain it, put the filter in, and refill with just that amount and I have never had a high or low oil light come on ever. That's about all I can tell you on that one. Oh yeah.....I forgot....how often to flush the radiator and put new fluid in. Yes, some mechanics say 30K miles. Some say more. This is another one of those gray areas with so many opinions.
Mine would be this: It's certainly OK to do it that frequently, but if it took you five years to put 30K miles on it that would be different, wouldn't it. Like an oil change every so many miles or so many months. Right? I think every 36K or three years is fine on the coolant in a MB. I can't remember what the service manual says, but......I don't read those things anyway. Look in there for a transmission fluid change and you won't even find it. There's another one......CHANGE IT!!!!!!! Transmissions are very pricey when you find out you didn't change the fluid and the little filter in there and you need a new one. OUCH.[:'(]

 

Why wont C230 crank. Car starts to crank but then stops and does not start.