190 J reg 2.0 Petrol

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young old git.

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Jun 20, 2011
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Mercedes 190 2.0 Petrol
Dear Peeps of the Mercedes world.

I am just about to buy a nice Merc J reg 190 2.0 looks like a 190e, very quiet and clean, obviously old. On returning from a very local run of about 2 miles tops (to get some fuel from a garage) I noticed a smooth quiet whine coming from the rear diff. I even selected neutral just to coast for a few yards, it remained. I mentioned this to the dealer who is going to give the . . diff people at his suppliers a call and will get back to me. I am sure it is the diff as it was too consistent to be the wheel bearings (but I could be wrong, but I don`t think I am)

In short, how much would a rear diff replacement be without replacing it with an equally noisy diff? And, if I may . . where would one go to to find a lovely diff, please?

Apart from that it looked fine. The auto trans fluid was either very, very, clean, or non existent ( I know!) The auto trans sounded fine with no noise or jumpiness from the change up or down.

I would rather attack the diff prob a.s.p. now rather than it sit on its a--e end on the hard shoulder.

Any input would be much appreciated, and, thank you for being here.
 
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They all do that sir (or many of them do anyway... some even from new)

Apparently they'll hapilly run like that for a very long time so having researched changing or fixing mine and finding the cost to be higher than the purchase price of the car, I decided to just run with it. I changed the diff oil and added some stuff snake oil that is supposed to quieten it down and 10,000 miles later it is no better or worse than it was when I got it.

I suspect it'll go on for another 100,000 miles.
 
Thank you Sp!ke that is comforting to know. Thank you for taking the time to reply.
 
noisy dif

it's a characteristic of the w201.mine included.
 
Yep, nothing to wory about. If it's only a "quiet" whine then your a lucky man.
 
Not confined to W201 either - lots of Mercs do it .
 
Mine does it - there are many articles as Grober says about the doing it from new.

Changed the fluid in mine and it's stopped making the noise relatively speaking - try it to extend the life a bit further...

J
 
Coincidentally, here is a quote from a post I made only this morning on the Mercedes-Benz Club forum

"Had an interesting chat with my trusty Mercedes indie recently. He worked for Mercedes when the W201 was a current model. I raised the idea of removing/rebuilding the diff on my 2.6 auto (22 years old and 200k miles) to try to reduce the clunk on the drive train. (He's just replaced both prop shaft couplings and the centre bearing but the improvement is marginal). He told me that some new W201s had a whining diff on delivery from the factory, so as a Mercedes dealership they simply swapped the whining diff for one that didn't whine.

So to all those with a W201 with a diff what whines on over-run, it's not just yours that makes this noise! Small comfort, I know!

The good news is that even though the noise is present (and irritating), the diffs will work indefinitely - allegedly"

I bought this car five years and 70k miles ago. The diff whined a little bit then, and it still does. Not as bad as some 190s I've driven, but it's there all the same.

Hope that goes some way to reassuring you.
 
Its certainly an odd one. My first 190 was a 1990 123.000 mile 2.0l and the diff was quite noisy on the overrun. The next one was a 1988 2.6 with 165.000+ miles and the diff was silent !! Then came the 1988 2.3-16 with 188.000+ miles, an ASD diff and the noise was ear shattering both in acceleration and on the overrun .
I was told the ASD diffs are known for being the noisiest of them all.
 

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