Buying an early w203

[miro]

Who's Richard?

Any chance to locate this place? May be the mytichal Area 51

Americans call Area 51 according to location on the map and the Germans would certainly have annother 50 factories.

 

[recycled]

2F is Germany

Look at the sticker inside the drivers door opening it should say...wait for it...
'Made in Germany' Hurray!

well it would say that. parts built in germany ,car assembled in south africa

have you seen any that said made in south africa?.

Maybe ML/GL owners can tell us if theirs says made in usa or austria

the early ones and a lot were made in south africa
maybe yours was not.

what i am saying is a lot of RHD's were made in south africa
but all LHD's were made in germany.

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=2208&page=2



here is a location checker with your vin
http://www.benzworld.org/modelguide.html?

silly though as it says mine was made in 1978 in germany

 

[recycled]

seems like they build other cars there as well

http://www.daimlerchrysler.co.za/default.asp

 

[Rumble]

heres a vin decoder that might be of use

http://www.mbclub.ru/mb/vin/?lng=eng

 

[recycled]

heres a vin decoder that might be of use

http://www.mbclub.ru/mb/vin/?lng=eng

does not state year built, only delivery date which are two different things

 

[JC180]

the early ones and a lot were made in south africa
maybe yours was not.

what i am saying is a lot of RHD's were made in south africa
but all LHD's were made in germany.

As far as I am aware no estates were ever made in South Africa

And mine is an Estates

 

[c240yaz]

I should point out that ALL W203 have the need for the following
- wheel bearings
- thrust arm bushes
- sway bushes

When neglected these lead to poor road feel and crap handling feel.

Miro, From your experience, what milage would you say wheel bearings need a seeing to ?

Also, "Thrust arm bushes and sway arms" I think you may be using different terminology from what I am used to. What parts are these on the front end. English (or even better, Scottish) name would be better for me. ?

 

[miro]

Miro, From your experience, what milage would you say wheel bearings need a seeing to ?

Also, "Thrust arm bushes and sway arms" I think you may be using different terminology from what I am used to. What parts are these on the front end. English (or even better, Scottish) name would be better for me. ?

thrust - main load suspension arm
sway - roll bar

The bearing was just causing an instability after I hit a serious pothole. There was no point in changing all of these bushes and links without doing the bearings. It was only a little more work and the parts were inexpensive.

The best part of the bearing purchase was that it came with an excellent grease suitable for the rest of the job.

The REALLY IMPORTANT thing about doing bushes is that they must be loose when the wheels are not on the car. They can only be tightened under load using a 4 post hoist with the car rolling on its wheels or a prop under the suspension.

 

[c240yaz]

The REALLY IMPORTANT thing about doing bushes is that they must be loose when the wheels are not on the car. They can only be tightened under load using a 4 post hoist with the car rolling on its wheels or a prop under the suspension.

Understand this fully, or the rubbers could "twist" and the angles of everthing change, when the suspension settles in it's running position with the weight of the car. Thanks.

 

[taylor192]

For the engine you remove the cam magnet connection and "wash" the connector onto a white rag. If the oil stains are on the rag there then you have to install the "spacer" harness (A271 part number) and "wash" all of the other connections. The Engine controller has to be taken out also and held upside down for several hours to see if it holds any oil. If it holds oil it has to be opened and flushed with circuit board cleaner.

Can someone please post this A271 wire harness part number, my dealer cannot find it.

Miro, the TSB is for the 271.747 engine, I have the 271.740. In Canada both engines are C230s, SC 1.8L, we don't have the C180 or C200. My dealer is unsure if the new cam magnet sensor and extra wire harness will work for my engine. I have ordered the harness to see if it fits, if it does I'll order the new cam sensors.

Thanks.

 

[itmek]

"Defining the series types in the W203 family
-----------------------------------------
- 2000-2002 First type with obscure ESP module and annoying airbag 4 pins.
- 2002-2003 Inbetween series with better electronics and old engine type
- 2003-2004 M271 powered series FIRST UHI series.
- 2004-2005 Facelift version
- 2006-2007 Refined version with self-braking on speed limiter"

What isthe easiest way to tell if a 2004 C Class is pre or post facelifted model?

 

[gbjeppm]

Instrument cluster

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

What isthe easiest way to tell if a 2004 C Class is pre or post facelifted model?

Outside: Clear headlamps on a post-facelift model (frosted on a pre-facelift model), but can be retrofitted easily, so a better method would be...

Inside: Centre console is more angular and modern on a post-facelift model (rounded on a pre-facelift model), which would be too much hassle to retrofit.

 

[Adam230K]

I'm not an expert, but i've owned 2x W202's and they were both very solid, and extremely reliable (probably the 1995 one was better than the 1998 in terms of build quality) but i've heard alot of bad things about w203's between 2001 and 2004 on forums and such. You could get a very very low mileage w202 c class, and maybe even save some money!

 

[recycled]

the w203 before the facelift in 2004 are generally not as reliable as a lot were made in east london SA

 

[recycled]

What isthe easiest way to tell if a 2004 C Class is pre or post facelifted model?

instrument cluster.
pre has the speedo covering the whole cluster and then a little fuel gauge and rev counter. No temperature gauge.

Facelift has 4 dials speedo, rev counter, about the same size, temperature and fuel gauge. also centre console looks like command

 

[duncanh]

Early W203 - experience after nearly 6 years

I have a W203 2002 (June) C220cdi estate.

I have had it since new. It has done over 140K miles and has been EXTREMELY reliable.

The only significant items to fail were replaced under warranty (4 injectors, rear shock absorbers and automatic lighting control unit).

Since the warranty expired (at about 75K) I have changed the front ARB bushes and drop links. Everything else has been normal service items.

Disks and pads have been changed once (front at 80K, rear at 135K). Battery is original, MAF is original, it uses no oil, looks and sounds same now as it did when new. There is no rust, just a few stone chips (no spidering around the chips). The interior still looks like new.

Of course, being an estate car, it was built in Germany, not SA. Whether this is the reason why mine has been reliable, I don't know. It might be luck.

It is quite heavy on tyres, 20K is the most I have got from a set, rears wear out slightly faster than fronts

Given the current price of fuel, the diesel version should be much cheaper to run (especially if you do a high mileage). I am sure that there are plenty of good examples available at a reasonable price. I have just checked the Glass's Guide trade-in price for mine, between £4K and £5K, depending on condition. You could get a very good one for £6-7K if you are careful.

As mine has already depreciated by over £21K, I intend to keep it a bit longer and hope for continued cheap trouble-free motoring.

Don't be put off by all of the scare stories. People seem quick to tell of their problems, but slower to offer praise where it is justified.

I got this car after 3 E-class models, all estates, a w124 and two W210s. The C-class is a completely different experience, less of a true Mercedes, more an up-market Mondeo. If it was not for the reliability that I have experienced, I would be asking why it cost £10K more than the equivalent Mondeo/Vectra/Passat etc. I guess that status also has a cost.

All things considered, I am very happy with my W203, and would happily recommend an early model (especially if German-built)

 

[recycled]

injectors should not be failing

 

[duncanh]

Injectors

injectors should not be failing

The injector failure was probably caused by a bad batch.

First one went when the car was two weeks old, second one was two days after I got it back, third one was one day later. They changed the fourth one at the same time. No more injector problems during the next 139K miles.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Injectors failing on the 220/270 diesels is not uncommon based on what I've read on the most reliable of sources - the global information superweb thingy.

Seems that over 80k miles the risk increases.