C16 RKC's Project 2003 CL500 (and other stragglers)

[c16rkc]

Dinosaurs

Fast forward to mid-June and Aston had been invited to visit a dinosaur Park with one of his school friends; as his school friend's birthday treat.

But then days before they were due to go, the boys mother was taken ill and ended up in hospital. So we took the kids instead.

I should mention that the boys mother is out of hospital and OK now, just one of those things...

A new experience for Lindsey and me having three hooligans to watch instead of two!!

But we had a great day.




How come I always look like an escaped nut job in photos....



But my wife always manages to look perfect...

 

[c16rkc]

Nice rear end

Some Eagle eyed readers may have noticed I replaced the tail lights on the Mercedes S class for the face lift versions. Aston and Spencer both gave a helping hand, but I did not take any during photos sadly.

But I was happy with the results.

I would not say the standard lights are not to my taste, but I do prefer these ones. I think they make the car look a little more modern... and she is an old girl really.



...and after...



I think its personal taste as to which are better, and I was going to sell them on again if I did not like them. But I like these so they are staying on.

 

[SmartAmg]

Nice rear end

Some Eagle eyed readers may have noticed I replaced the tail lights on the Mercedes S class for the face lift versions. Aston and Spencer both gave a helping hand, but I did not take any during photos sadly.

But I was happy with the results.

I would not say the standard lights are not to my taste, but I do prefer these ones. I think they make the car look a little more modern... and she is an old girl really.



...and after...



I think its personal taste as to which are better, and I was going to sell them on again if I did not like them. But I like these so they are staying on.

Much better, Chris.

 

[c16rkc]

Getting a good grilling

The grille on the Mercedes really let the car down, so I managed to source a brand new genuine Mercedes replacement for £220.




To my absolute surprise, these things are not secured by any screws, but you have to get inside the bonnet to release the catches holding them in.



With the old one out, I decided to give the grille a thorough wash, so get rid of the ingrained dirt. Then I gave it a once over with Meguiars metal polish.





That looks so much better!

The Mercedes is looking pretty good now, not much left for me to fix. Just a couple more items to attend to...

- Spencer leant on the front phone keypad, and he cracked the base. So I have bought a new base in the correct colour to fit.



I'm really please with the new one, as the chrome was cracked on the old one.



- The keyless go is intermittent on the drivers door. I am guessing its the usual cracked cables behind the handle, so I may as well fix that.

- I made an "Aux in" cable by hacking into the i-Phone cable loom. I plan to turn this into a bluetooth interface so there are no cables poking out of the dash.

Then the last thing would be to tidy up the scruffs and marks on the bodywork, but I'm not going to do that; as I already know I'm selling this car.

Might make me sound like a spoilt brat, but even though I hunted to find an example with the Nappa leather and all the toys, the car just does not feel very "Special" to me. I think I've been spoilt by other cars I have owned, perhaps I've already had too many Merc S classes?

I find myself just as happy to take the Citroen to work, and I just don't feel like the Mercedes suits me. I have no idea why...?

I have been looking at different cars, and I'm considering trying a Lexus to see what its like... Lindsey liked her one, and the dealers were fantastic. We'll see...

In other news, Aston turned 5 on Friday! We had a party with 20 of his school friends yesterday at the local sports centre. He had a great day, and all the kids were very well behaved.



Spencer let off lots of steam too...



...thats all for now...

 

[SmartAmg]

Happy Birthday, Aston.

 

[91dm]

Front looks much better now!

 

[2002ML55]

Just joined this forum . Read your posts from the start . Great write up of your cars and glad to see Aston running around with his brother . Looking forward to seeing what happens next .

 

[c16rkc]

Blue Teeth

I spent Saturday doing family things this weekend, so no progress was made in our car universe until Sunday.

Sunday morning quickly vanished, but then Sunday afternoon the boys went out to play... and so did I!

First of all, I wanted to improve the "Aux in" audio input I had added to the Mercedes S class a few weeks prior. I had previously installed a 3.5mm audio jack plug, which could be plugged into a phone or similar to enable audio to be played through the cars speakers, but I did not find this very elegant. I really wanted a wireless "Bluetooth" solution.

So I purchased a quality Bluetooth adapter from Aliexpress for a few £££s. This is a model I have used before and they are extremely good quality.



I also purchased a cheap 3.5mm audio jack "male/male" adapter so that I could mate the Bluetooth device and the existing audio jack I had soldered on to the car.



I quickly made the sort of progress that deserved a cup of tea.... that's those two installed together



Then I smashed apart a car USB charger, so I could use it to power the Bluetooth adapter.



Soldered two wires to it, and then protected it in heat shrink.





Then I opened up the car dash, to see if I could find a 12Vdc power source to hack into that could power the USB charger; and therefore the Bluetooth adapter.



It turns out the BROWN wire you can see is a nice 0VDC point, and the RED/BLUE wire is a 12VDC power source that turns on/off with the ignition. Exactly what I was after.

I hacked in and installed the unit behind the dash, and I was happy to find that I can now link to it by my phone, and I can play quality music over the Harman Kardon car audio system - and best still I can use a graphic Equaliser App on my phone to make corrections for the shrill (though powerful) mid speakers in the door cards. The sound quality is incredible!

Aston agreed!



Let's not mention the greasy fingers causing me further work in the near future...



So next, some may remember Spencer knocked the keypad in the front centre armrest, and somehow managed to break it off!



Last week a brand new base had been fitted to the hinged top, and was ready to go in.



First I cleaned out all the crud that had accumulated in here:





Then the new part is easily fitted with one bolt.



Keypad clips in...



Perfect. It's like Spencer never happened...



I'm too juicy for my bed

Something I missed, was that Aston woke us up Sunday morning with "Mummy I've wet my bed".

This is unusual, and the only time we have known him to wet the bed was after a Lumbar puncture (intense chemotherapy dose), which we think used to give him nightmares. But he does not have those anymore... so this was a surprise.

Oddly when I got up and said "come in the bathroom and take your wet trousers off", he ran back to his bedroom. When I got to his room I was greeted with 4 or 5 small drips on his bed, roughly where his head would have been. His trousers were also bone dry.

"Daddy after we have changed my bed can be go downstairs and have breakfast"

A dramatic plan unfolded.... Aston was clearly pretending to have wet his bed so that he could go downstairs and have breakfast.

At this point I should explain that Aston regularly wakes at 5am and wants to go down for breakfast... we always tell him to go back to bed. This was clearly his cunning way to get mummy and daddy up!

I explained to Aston that I knew he had not wet the bed because:

- His trousers were done dry.
- His bed only had a few drips on it.
- He did not seem interested in changing his trousers....

Annoyingly he stuck to his story, but I hoped the might of "detective daddy" with would discourage him from concocting similar lies in the future...

I was wrong.

The following morning, this morning, Aston tried the rouse again; but this time, taking on board my feedback from the day before, he made some crafty amendments to what he did.

First off all, Aston addressed the issue of the bed not being wet enough. Aston has clearly emptied half his juice bottle onto the bed, and this was evident by the unmistakable smell of blackcurrent coming from his bedsheets.





Next, he addressed the issue of his dry Pyjamas.



Inspection of his Pyjama trousers revealed a neat circle of wetness on the left bum cheek area. This too had fragrant blackcurrent tones... so it appears that while he did not think to add the juice to the groin area, rather than the bum area, he did at least have the foresight to add bit of wetness.

Then he also addressed my last peice of advice, his disinterest in changing his Pyjamas the morning before. He ran ahead of me, and when I got to his room he was already changing into a nice clean pair of Pyjamas - to prove how serious he was taking the whole "wet the bed" issue.

He was changed in seconds and went straight to the washing basket with the Pyjamas he had removed "these need washing now Daddy, can we go have breakfast now?"

I'm not sure whether to be annoyed, or coach him for politics.... what does everyone else think?

 

[suty455]

I think coaching is not reqd he clearly has all the skills he will ever need.....just get his name down for entry!

 

[c16rkc]

A tale of severe frustration!

So with all that's been happening, I have regularly stared longingly at my poor CL500 in the corner of the garage... remembering what it once was...



The battery is permanently on trickle charge, and I often open the door and have a sit in it... I may even make V8 noises to myself...

I really must get it back working, as I would love to drive it. Would be a lovely treat to take this to work!

I had a mobile Mercedes mechanic visit me back in May, and it sounded very promising. He seemed to know a lot about the cars, and straight away knew where the engine oil leak was coming from, and how to fix the idling issue. He said he had worked on a lot of Mercs with that M113 engine, and knew all the common issues. But he did seem less confident on the Hydraulic suspension, but in all honesty there does not seem to be any experts on the hydraulics of these cars out there; other than enthusiasts who own the cars.

But despite that, I thought surely changing the pump was worth a go, and he said he could come back to me with a plan.

I don't think he was particularly enthusiastic. When he left he asked me a series of questions about driving it to his premises; and I reminded him it can't be driven when you can't turn the steering wheel thanks to the collapsed suspension. He said leave it with him... but he never got back to me.

So I never chased him, and I am wondering whether to, or perhaps to try someone else... hmmm...

So I found another mobile mechanic who covers this area today, and I messaged him the details. He says he is not available until 25th August, but thats no issue. He says he'll let me know if he wants to take it on later tonight. I also messaged my mobile Mercedes mechanic again to see if he is willing to do the work.

I am afraid if neither will do this work I might be facing doing this myself... and that scares me!

Fingers crossed

 

[c16rkc]

Getting a handle on things

Did a few things this weekend, the first was the drivers door handle on the S class. The car has keyless go, but the drivers door is the only one that does not work. The fault is very common, and is usually a broken wire in the handle, so helped by Aston and Spencer I opened things up to take a look. First you release a screw at the end of the door using a T20 male Torx bit.





Then the two peices of the handle pop out easily.







Once on the bench, I found the break.



The original wire is very thin and stiff. I soldered in some more flexible wire to replace both cores.



Then heatshrinked the joins, and put it all back together. The Keyless Go works perfectly now! So I am very happy with that.

 

[c16rkc]

The little things

We seemed to be getting intermittent rain, so the next thing I decided was to fit new number plates to both cars. Lindsey's plates had been fitted in a hurry last winter, and were embarrassingly wonky. The Mercedes had very badly deteriorating plates at the front and the back.

So I changed them both over, and it is amazing how little things like this help lift a car's appearange....







These are no longer needed!

 

[SmartAmg]

The number of cars I've been behind, inc new and really expensive ones that have a number plate that looks like it's been put on by Ben Turpin, really bugs me, and it's not even my car.

 

[SmartAmg]

The little things

We seemed to be getting intermittent rain, so the next thing I decided was to fit new number plates to both cars. Lindsey's plates had been fitted in a hurry last winter, and were embarrassingly wonky. The Mercedes had very badly deteriorating plates at the front and the back.

So I changed them both over, and it is amazing how little things like this help lift a car's appearange....







These are no longer needed!

Cars looking good, Chris.

 

[c16rkc]

The Mercedes is untouchable - seriously no one will touch it

My poor Mercedes CL.... no one seems to want to play with him



Some may remember last week I re-contacted the mobile Mercedes mechanic about my ABC pump; but I also contacted a new local mobile mechanic I found on google. Sadly the Mercedes tech did not even reply, and I don't think he wants to do it. The other mobile mechanic said sadly this is not something he would want to do given his workload.

But I think that might actually have been a blessing... I'll explain why.

When the mobile Mercedes tech visited me, he did seem a little uncomfortable with the ABC, and he did say a couple of strange things. First of all, he said that the valve blocks were built into the struts, and that made it expensive when there was a valve leak as the whole strut needed replacing. I obviously knew this was not true, having just refurbished my valve blocks, and the funny thing is.... I had already explained that to him. But either way, it shows he did not really know that much about the ABC, as rebuilding the blocks is discussed very commonly when approaching ABC issues.

So was that the first red flag?

The second thing he said, was when he noticed the ABC system did not have enough pressure (which is fair enough... the pump was likely dead), but he also saw the cracked lid on the ABC header tank dipstick, and said that it could be the problem. He said it would not be sealing properly; and not allowing the pressure to build up. I explained surely the header tank won't be under the full pressure of the pump... and he just looked blankly at me. I said surely if it was under high pressure it would not be a flimsy rubber cap too...

He looked at me like I'd asked for a lick of his ice lolly, and an uncomfortable silence engulfed us for a few moments.

So that's maybe another red flag... not only does he not understand how the concept of a header tank works (which is fair enough, he's a mechanic not an engineer), but he also does not have the common sense to realise a flimsy rubber cap will not withstand the high pressure... of course I could be wrong myself here... and please let me know if you notice I am

So did I dodge a bullet?... maybe... I have certainly heard other owners say they have lost a lot of cash with garages replacing expensive parts chasing the issues rather than diagnosing them.

So then if the Mercedes expert might struggle, I was probably looking for trouble by asking a non-Mercedes tech to take a look... perhaps I dodged a bullet here too?

So what do I do now? Yes I'm an engineer, all be it an electrical engineer, so I can understand the technical side behind the ABC; but I'm no mechanic and I have found cars can be rather a pain when it comes to pretty much everything. So I did not relish the idea of doing this myself...

But that's exactly what I did!

I'm just the right balance of dangerous

Sunday morning, weather was giving rain... what can I do inside? Yes that's right, I can work on the CL!!



Armed with this helpful video (what a nice jolly man this guy seems):

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I made an attempt to change my ABC pump.

Of course Aston was on hand to help too.... and Spencer as well.





I am not sure if all the leather cleaner in the world will make up for possible contamination the seats were subjected to from Spencer's bare cheeks... not to mention me constantly telling him to keep his boots of my seats!



Aston had my back...



It turned out to be pretty simple.... you clamp the hoses from the header tanks one by one...



Then disconnect them... (I have since ordered the correct pipe clamp pliers for re-assembly)



Keep a watchful eye on what your helpers are doing...



Then unbolt the header tanks from the engine bay...





Then I removed the ABC hoses from the pump.





Bit of cleaning here and there...





But at this point I hit a stop....!

When I heard "Torx" in the YouTube video, I pictured the bolts with female heads (known as T10, T12, T14 etc), but the bolts on the pump are he other way around (I need E10, E12, E14 etc...!!). So I was not getting the pump off, which is a shame, because if I had been able to continue I think I'd have been finished within two or three hours.

So I have ordered myself a set of the correct "E" Torx sockets and I hope to continue with this soon!

But it gets worse because instilled with the confidence of doing all this engine stuff, I decided to undertake the changing of the rocker cover gaskets, and fitting a new mass airflow sensor. I have ordered a Bosch sensor, and Ajusa gasket (I'd never heard of them, but they are reviewed well).

When I put Aston to bed last night, I read him a book and then he laid down to go to sleep. Then his last question came "Daddy, when we have finished fixing the car will we drive it?"

I hope so Aston.... I really hope so...

Watch this space

 

[c16rkc]

Wow that's a cool avatar SmartAMG.

How did you get her to pose for you like that?

 

[SmartAmg]

Wow that's a cool avatar SmartAMG.

How did you get her to pose for you like that?

Easy, (I wish)

 

[c16rkc]

I have been watching videos on Youtube on how to change the rocker cover gaskets, and I noticed one chap was changing breather pipes and other bits and pieces at the same time.

Does anyone else know if there are any parts that are a good idea to replace on a 20 year old engine while I am doing the rocker cover gaskets and Mass airflow sensor?

I have purchased brand new air filters as I gather that's a good idea with the sensor.

 

[c16rkc]

The naughty Audi...

Around 6 months ago Lindsey saw a message "Steering defective stop driving" on the Audi speedo pod. This message tended to stay for a few seconds, then vanished. We hoped it was a fluke the first time, and it did not then re appear for over a month.

After the she saw it for the second time, we booked the car in at the Kings Lynn VW/Audi centre in Kings Lynn, and they checked it over; but I made the mistake of booking the car in for more than one thing... and of course garages can't handle that, so when we collected the car they told us "don't worry about the message, it's probably just low battery of something". They recommended to leave it until the light stayed on for a bit longer.

That did not really sit right with us, and I am pretty sure they did not even bother to look at it.



So the message has probably appeared 4 or 5 times since.

But then a few weeks ago the battery died on the Audi; it was so busy at the time I neglected to mention it on here. The car returned to the Kings Lynn VW/Audi centre, and the diagnosed and fitted a replacement pully in the alternator belt system (old one was cracked). May I say it was an incredibly expensive pulley, and the work cost me around £1,000. But the battery and alternator were actually fine.

Lindsey picks the car up, drives off and then thinks "hang on, the entertainment screen is blank"... but she continues home as she is in a hurry.

As this is the 3rd time a car has returned from that particular garage with a fault, I decide to try somewhere new.

I book the Audi in at Reeve performance in Kings Lynn, and straight away I was impressed with the polite guy I spoke to. The car went in, and they fixed the screen with little fuss, with the fault turning out to be a split wire; so it was a co-indidence it went at the same time as the pulley. But they also investigated the steering warning that had been coming up, and they said it was the steering rack. They said it's something the A7 is notorious for, usually water ingress, and told me do not worry too much, but they would recommend having it done in the future... before it goes properly.

With a genuine Audi steering rack, the cost would be £4K+.... With a "pattern part" steering rack, the cost would be £3.2K+.... In both cases the fitting was around £620. So I was going to investigate an alternative of course, as that's crazy money.

I quickly found a company in the UK who refurbish steering racks, and planned to speak to them. But then on Friday night Lindsey took the car out and the error was staying on. She said the steering was heavy too. She didn't want to drive it...

So Lindsey is in the Mercedes now, as she does not dare drive the Audi. I have booked it in to be looked at on the 17th August. They will be removing the steering rack and sending for refurbishment which costs around £600, and then fitting it for me. So the total cost should be about £1,200... which is somewhat less that I was originally scared with!

So that's us down to two running cars again

 

[91dm]

I have been watching videos on Youtube on how to change the rocker cover gaskets, and I noticed one chap was changing breather pipes and other bits and pieces at the same time.

Does anyone else know if there are any parts that are a good idea to replace on a 20 year old engine while I am doing the rocker cover gaskets and Mass airflow sensor?

I have purchased brand new air filters as I gather that's a good idea with the sensor.

I'm in the process of changing the rocker cover gaskets on my M113K, found all the 20 year old rubber breather pipes to be in good condition and not perished so it's worth having a look before spending on them.