CLK 200 (W208) 2001 sensor issues.

[Voracious Soul]

Evening all.

Apologies for my first post being a bit bloggy and long winded....

A week or so ago I bought a very nice looking 2001 CLK 200 with 93k on the clock. Despite the fact that it was advertised on a dealers website, the salesman was insistant that he was selling it for a friend and as such he deemed it as a private sale. I was initially a bit put off by this but the car was good value - £2900 so I went ahead with the deal.

After owning the car for half an hour, I noticed a slight juddering at idle/park. After another half an hour the engine warning light came on and I therefore phoned the dealer straight away.

In fairness, he told me to bring the car back and his electrical man ran a diagnostic which told us that the oxygen sensors weren't giving any readings at all. I then had to take the car back again to have two new O2 sensors fitted.
After further inspection, it turns out that the O2 sensors were quite new and working properly so I didn't need the new ones after all.

The electrical man then suggested a new air mass sensor would solve the problem and the dealer has sent me a new one by post for me to have fitted at my convenience - rather than having to do a 1.5hr round trip/£20 in petrol each time back to the dealer.

Does anyone think this will solve the problem? Anyone else had similar issues?

I'm at my wits end with the car now, I really like it but the constant orange glow of the engine warning light is getting me down and I'm worried it will eventually slip into "limp home" mode!

Any help or advice greatfully received.

 

[goldenii68]

Best to get the dealer or the garage he uses to put the car on the MB STAR machine so you get a proper diagnosis of the potential fault(s) this should hopefully help you and the dealer know where to look before this becomes potentially costly, welcome to the forum, you should get plenty of good advice on here

 

[Voracious Soul]

Thanks man. I've almost given up with the dealer as I honestly think he's pretty clueless.
I don't mind forking out a bit extra to get the problem sorted and to avoid having to deal with numpties!
I'm guessing a local MB specialist would have the STAR thingy?

 

[goldenii68]

Yes any good MB indy would have the STAR, you are in Hampshire which is not a million miles away from PCS at Horndean, the man you want is 'Olly' and he is called 'BlackC55' on this forum, once you have 30 posts you can PM him, I've only heard and read good things about PCS and I'm sure your niggles can be sorted

 

[goldenii68]

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/memb...r-service-mercedes-specialist-portsmouth.html

Here's the link

 

[Voracious Soul]

Cheers Squire. You're a diamond.

 

[goldenii68]

I do my best

 

[GP801]

+1 for PCS. They really are as good as everyone says. Well worth the trip.

 

[BlackC55]

It probably has oil in the engine wiring loom causing the lambda sensor fault. Very very common issue.

 

[Terry_]

+1 spot on. It most definitely will have oil in loom!!

 

[goldenii68]

It probably has oil in the engine wiring loom causing the lambda sensor fault. Very very common issue.

I told him you are 'The Man'

 

[Voracious Soul]

Woo hoo.

Just gone into what I assume is "limp home" mode on the way to work.

Managed to "kangaroo" the last two hundred odd yards into the car park but it seems fairly terminal.

Olly - I'll be giving you a call shortly!

 

[goldenii68]

I thought you had already dude

 

[Voracious Soul]

Yeah - should have done but was waiting for dealer to send me a new Air Mass sensor to see if that cured the problem. Perhaps not surprisingly, it didn't fit.

Just been on phone to dealer to ask for help but he said as he wrote "private sale" on the invoice I didn't have a leg to stand on. I'm thinking that as the car was advertised on his company website as "px to clear" then he may be wrong.

Just tried to phone Olly but understandably he's not around on a Sunday and I'm not phoning him on his mobile while he could be relaxing!

I'll have to get the car towed over to him as it won't go more than about 4mph!

 

[goldenii68]

Dude,

The dealer is trying to have you over, if the car was advertised on his website, its not a private sale, if the invoice for the car is from him, again its not a private sale, if he was selling for a friend, why would he try to put right the faults with the car?

PCS will sort the car out properly no doubt about that, the dealer however should sort out the cost, let PCS quote you for what needs doing then go back to the dealer and negoiate with him.


Did you get any addtional paperwork with the car, ie a previous bill of sale? do you have the v5c with the previous owners details? It would be a good idea to contact the previous owner and see what they say.

Hopefully your car will be sorted and you wont find yourself out of pocket

 

[Voracious Soul]

Update:

After a fairly lengthy and occasionally heated phone call to the dealer, he has agreed to take the car back to get it (hopefully) sorted out.

Once it comes back to me, I'll phone PCS and get Olly to give it the once over.

This has turned into a huge hassle for me (I stress about cars more than anything else!) and this forum and goldenii68 in particular has really helped!

Cheers.

Just out of interest, has anyone else experienced this "lurching" thing before? I was under the impression that "Limp Home" was a rev limiter type thing (3000rpm?). This felt like someone pressing down the accelerator over and over again for half a second at a time - that was with my foot to the floor.

 

[Voracious Soul]

Update part deux:

Returned to my car yesterday morning and it started but then died after about 5 seconds. Couldn't even get it to "lurch" down the road!

Britannia Rescue turned up an hour later and took my CLK back to the dealer.

I await further developments!

 

[BlackC55]

If I can help let me know.

 

[Voracious Soul]

If I can help let me know.

Thanks Olly. When/if I get the car back, I'll give you a call to bring it over to you and get you to give it the once over.

At the moment, the dealer is still saying that it's the air mass sensor that's causing the problem and he's waiting to have his electrical guy to fit it.
He's also said that he wants to keep the car for a day when it's fixed and run it for fifty miles to see if the warning light comes on again.

In fairness to him, he appears to be trying to the right thing but I'm not convinced that the failure of the air mass sensor alone would cause the car to "die" completely.

Speak soon.

 

[Voracious Soul]

Another update for those that are interested. Probably not many of you but it's helpful to get these things off my chest!

Dealer phoned this morning and apparently it needs a new cat. It had a brand new cat in April but apparently it's faulty.
I'm on holiday now so hopefully this problem will be resolved by the time I get back - I'm not holding my breath!