C63 W204 - Serpentine belt, pulleys and tensioner help!

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robinc

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Jan 3, 2015
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C63 estate
Has anybody replaced the serpentine belt, 4 x pulleys and tensioner on a W204 C63?

One of my pulleys is going bad, so I will just change out the lot as preventative maintenance.

Any tips how to get the radiator shroud out and what torque setting are the various pulleys? No room to do this work with the shroud in place.

I have had a couple of quotes for £400 labour to do this work! I cannot believe it’s that bigger job, am I missing something!

Genuine Mercedes parts about £300 from my local dealer (pulleys, belt and tensioner assembly).
 
Parts and labour, labour rate is a start, might only be 2 hours work but at £100 an hour for arguments sake there’s £200 plus vat before you start. But again cheap labour usually points towards shoddy workmanship. So it bears the question of would you let just anybody work on your pride and joy?
 
It's under £250 for the same parts bought not branded as Mercedes but still the same quality bearings like SKF. I can't recall what I paid in labour but I think it was 1-2hrs. £400 just for labour is a rip off.
 
The official MB instructions seem to say it's all done from underneath and you only need remove the front under tray to replace the belt and pulleys.

If you go in from the top it could be quite quick if you know exactly what you are doing but if you don't it could take a while. There are tonnes of different plastic clips to release, e.g. the front engine cover which must only be pulled upwards, the front grill needs to come out and has a slightly odd clip arrangement, the fan shroud also has its own odd clip arrangement. All perfectly doable but time consuming the first time if you don't want to break any clips.
 
It's for a w212 V6 petrol, but there's a good vid in post#4 in this thread that shows the basic principle for getting the fan shroud off the w212.
The video is for the alternator, but the first 80% of the video is getting to the point of removing the drive/aux belt.
I would imagine it's a similar process for a lot of the 'V' engine saloons of this era.
 
Parts and labour, labour rate is a start, might only be 2 hours work but at £100 an hour for arguments sake there’s £200 plus vat before you start. But again cheap labour usually points towards shoddy workmanship. So it bears the question of would you let just anybody work on your pride and joy?
Parts and labour, labour rate is a start, might only be 2 hours work but at £100 an hour for arguments sake there’s £200 plus vat before you start. But again cheap labour usually points towards shoddy workmanship. So it bears the question of would you let just anybody work on your pride and joy?
I have no problem paying £100 an hour this is fine but when Merc are quoting 2.5 hrs for the work, I find £160 an hour a bit of a pi@@ take.
 
It's under £250 for the same parts bought not branded as Mercedes but still the same quality bearings like SKF. I can't recall what I paid in labour but I think it was 1-2hrs. £400 just for labour is a rip off.
I am actually ok with the £300 for parts, it was more the unreasonable labour which was a joke, I would only fit genuine Merc parts to my car, ocd and always keep my receipts.
 
It's for a w212 V6 petrol, but there's a good vid in post#4 in this thread that shows the basic principle for getting the fan shroud off the w212.
The video is for the alternator, but the first 80% of the video is getting to the point of removing the drive/aux belt.
I would imagine it's a similar process for a lot of the 'V' engine saloons of this era.
Thanks I am going to have a look over the weekend.
 
Was it a mercedes Independent specialist garage or just a random back street garage? there must be a reason they have quoted this much for the job. ie removal of several parts like the radiator and refilling, bleeding it etc as there isn't much access at the front of the m156 in my e63 never mind in a smaller car like the c63. your paying for a garages time and they have overheads to pay, they simply can't work for say £20 an hour plus all the costs for Diagnostic tools, equipment, knowledge. barely enough to keep the doors open never mind pay staff wages. Could have a look yourself and execute the repair but at the end of the day it depends on the skills set. Garages don't like the "i made an attempt myself and broke this" approach, believe me iv been in the trade and had it all too many times. especially when there's a box of bolts handed over with no idea where they are meant to go
 
Was it a mercedes Independent specialist garage or just a random back street garage? there must be a reason they have quoted this much for the job. ie removal of several parts like the radiator and refilling, bleeding it etc as there isn't much access at the front of the m156 in my e63 never mind in a smaller car like the c63. your paying for a garages time and they have overheads to pay, they simply can't work for say £20 an hour plus all the costs for Diagnostic tools, equipment, knowledge. barely enough to keep the doors open never mind pay staff wages. Could have a look yourself and execute the repair but at the end of the day it depends on the skills set. Garages don't like the "i made an attempt myself and broke this" approach, believe me iv been in the trade and had it all too many times. especially when there's a box of bolts handed over with no idea where they are meant to go
 
So, I had a ganders at the weekend and will order the parts and do the work myself. It will probably take me longer to get the car on the race ramps, undertray and fan shroud removed than replacing, V belt, pulleys, tensioner unit.

I brought the full workshop manual for the W204 from Emanuelonline which gives all Mercedes work instructions/exploded views/torque setting etc. Bloody wish I had purchased this when doing all the other bits and bobs around the car over last five or so years. It’s brilliant once you get head around how to navigate it. Anyone handy with the spanner’s I can recommend buying this.👍
 
Robinc can you remember the torque for the pulleys and tensioner?
Read elsewhere that it is 35nm for tensioner and 25nm for pulleys?
Want to make sure.

Thanks.
 
This is what i used as a ref.
 

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