Hi all!

I'm having a bit of an annoying problem with my 1996 W210 E200 at the moment.

Last week it started over heating in Dublin's horrific traffic, however I found that the second I got moving, the temperature dropped back to normal levels straight away. I also turned on the cabin fan and blew hot air just to take a little away from the engine and this helped also.

I did not allow the temp. to go into the red.

I decided to buy a new thermostat for it but before I had the chance to fit it, I had pulled into the office car park and the car was gurgling when I turned the car off. I made a call to someone who knows a little bit of mechanics and he said it could be low on coolant, and sure enough, he was right so I topped it up.

I replaced the Thermostat last night and filled the rad with coolant again but straight away I noticed that it was loosing some of the coolant I had just put in.I was REALLY careful not to spill any so I know that it's not just because of my shaky hand or anything. Problem is, Ican notsee where the hell the leak is! has anybody had a similar problem with their car? what did you do to find it and resolve?

Any help on this would be fantastic!

Denver

 

hi
I have E200 1994 recently I had similar problem with overheating my local garage told me that the radiator fan needs replacement and dirt is blocking the radiator - however a leak was also discovered from a pipe connected to the lowersdie of the radiator. I repaired what needed and it's ok now. Overheating is risky and may damage the head gasket.

 

Hi Hedge55

Thanks for the reply! I reckon it's coming from low down on my car as well, there is no sign of watermarks anywhere on the upper side of the engine block or radiator so I will check this.

Thankfully I think I escaped head gasket damage, there's no gunge in the oil or around the oil filler cap so fingers crossed!!

 

had a similar situation last year when my temp goes up in traffic...found that my fan clutch was defective..replaced it and all went well....it is real tricky to test fan clutches..have a mechanic test them for you...hope this helps in anyway..good luck

 

actually not tricky to check a fan clutch, fan should spin easy by hand with the engine cold and become progressivly tighter as the engine warms up...of course the engine should not be running while checking this...good luck ...cliff

 

plus, if you can't see any visable coolant leak how do you know it's leaking?could be internal...which, of course, is not good....

 

denverbres

Have you flushed the cooling system ever? Changeing the coolant helps in the long run, In these cars if it sit too long, the coolant gets acidic rotting out the freeze plugs in the bottom of the engine causing a slow leak. you may be able to look under the car and see the plugs. I hope this helps.

 

Pull the engine dipstick and make SURE it's not leaking from the head gasket into your engine oil-although with MB they tend to leak oil into the coolant with a bad head gasket.

If your oil looks good, put a large piece of cardboard or butcher paper under your car whenever you park for long periods. Look carefully for initial stain spotting, (not the trail where the coolant runs along the cardboard/paper). Then you can figure out what region of your engine is leaking and hunt for it.

Kevin