C180 timing chain failure?

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stawho

New Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2011
Messages
9
Car
C180
Hi,

First I have to say this is my first ever Mercedes and I'm rubbish with cars at all Recently this C180 Sport came to an abrupt stop and didn't start since. All the signs point to timing chain failure apparently (camshaft not moving, light sound when cranking).
But I still won't believe it until I see this with my own eyes. Unfortunately if it is the case it wouldn't be worth towing the car to garage even for diagnosis. So my question is, am I right thinking I could check the timing chain by taking off valve cover? If so, how to remove engine cover and valve cover, do I need any special tools?
 
If its a manual you could put it in a high gear then take the oil fill cap off to look at the valves. A short pushing movement(with ignition off!) front or back will show if the valves are moving. Or take off the distributor cap and see if any movement on the contactor plate.
Good luck.
Don
Sorry you said camshaft not moving so valves won't be, sorry defo a chain gone.
 
Last edited:
maybe not the chain broken but the cam gear sheared off the end of the cam.

Had the car been in for some work prior to this ie head gasket repair perhaps.
 
It was in work but nothing intrusive to the engine, just service, steering wheel shock absorber. Some 5000 miles ago it had camshaft sensor replaced (was choking on start from full stop).
That being said, I recall some time before it broke I had a situation where I pushed the accel pedal, while driving, but nothing happened, i.e. no increase in rotation, no acceleration. It lasted for couple of seconds max and then all came back to normal.
 
Camshafts snapping is quite a popular failure.
 
It will definitely damage some valves on one or two cylinders, but it may not cause much other damage.
 
Not unless the chain snaps or the cam lobes wear, which is unusual.

On a 4 cylinder petrol I would do the chain at about 150-180k miles.
 
It does not often do any damage at all.
 

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