edtzxr
Active Member
Hi all just thought I would share a couple of fixes rather than just requesting help.
I bought a 1999 CLK 320 elegance auto convertible recently from a back street dealer in Leeds.
77,000 miles with full service history £1400!!! yes I know there must be some major fault?! well yes and no as i will explain later.
Lovely looking motor with usual wheel arch and boot lid rust that I have recently had resprayed for £420! and a great job too.
It also had a number of scuffs and nicks on the interior where someone must have been using it as a pickup truck!
So onto the major fault, when I bought the car she appeared to drive perfectly sounded sweet was clean and responsive the oil was so clean i though it was empty!
About a week in and I found the reason for the cheap price. overheating!!
during normal open road driving no issue but stuck in traffic the needle would head up to the 120 dg mark and only reduce once i got moving again.
No fault codes on my ODB2 reader so I tested the fan with a perm 12v supply and she ran fin but would not kick in. all fuses where ok and I did a coolant flush and change just to rule that out.
I traced through process of elimination to the fan control realy buried deep at the front under the passenger headlight.
As i bought the car so cheap buying a new one of these seemed ok to me but i wanted to remove it and take pics so I could make sure i got the right one. As i removed it i found it only had one screw holding it on and the plug came off a little too easily. once removed it looked brand new! so I photographed it and set about refitting. as i was refitting the plug just did not seem to clip in correctly so I turned it through 180 deg ( this felt wrong as it really twisted the loom) and low and behold it clipped in really hard.
Started the car and everything works perfectly! I assume previous owner has had this replaced and whoever did it had not plugged it in correctly and the fault remained and they just got shot as i imagine it wasn’t cheap! Major win for me!
Second Mistry fault was a few day later the car would not start nothing at all all electrics on but no fule pump prime could be heard. again i checked all the fuses and found nothing. however i took the lid off the box in the engine compartment (the one with the diagnostic plug in it) and found one tine yellow plug with 2 very thin wires going to it was just sitting there not plugged in. I found a likely socket for it and plugged it back in (it does not feel like it clips in very well but has not moved since) started the car with no issues and has not had a problem since. I again assume its had been disturbed when they were looking for the overheating fault. I have no idea what it does but was wondering if it was connected to the immobiliser system.
Anyway both random faults with for me very lucky easy fixes. maybe this could help someone in the future maybe not but there you have it.
For me superb low mileage well looked after car for pennies! very happy boy!
Ed
I bought a 1999 CLK 320 elegance auto convertible recently from a back street dealer in Leeds.
77,000 miles with full service history £1400!!! yes I know there must be some major fault?! well yes and no as i will explain later.
Lovely looking motor with usual wheel arch and boot lid rust that I have recently had resprayed for £420! and a great job too.
It also had a number of scuffs and nicks on the interior where someone must have been using it as a pickup truck!
So onto the major fault, when I bought the car she appeared to drive perfectly sounded sweet was clean and responsive the oil was so clean i though it was empty!
About a week in and I found the reason for the cheap price. overheating!!
during normal open road driving no issue but stuck in traffic the needle would head up to the 120 dg mark and only reduce once i got moving again.
No fault codes on my ODB2 reader so I tested the fan with a perm 12v supply and she ran fin but would not kick in. all fuses where ok and I did a coolant flush and change just to rule that out.
I traced through process of elimination to the fan control realy buried deep at the front under the passenger headlight.
As i bought the car so cheap buying a new one of these seemed ok to me but i wanted to remove it and take pics so I could make sure i got the right one. As i removed it i found it only had one screw holding it on and the plug came off a little too easily. once removed it looked brand new! so I photographed it and set about refitting. as i was refitting the plug just did not seem to clip in correctly so I turned it through 180 deg ( this felt wrong as it really twisted the loom) and low and behold it clipped in really hard.
Started the car and everything works perfectly! I assume previous owner has had this replaced and whoever did it had not plugged it in correctly and the fault remained and they just got shot as i imagine it wasn’t cheap! Major win for me!
Second Mistry fault was a few day later the car would not start nothing at all all electrics on but no fule pump prime could be heard. again i checked all the fuses and found nothing. however i took the lid off the box in the engine compartment (the one with the diagnostic plug in it) and found one tine yellow plug with 2 very thin wires going to it was just sitting there not plugged in. I found a likely socket for it and plugged it back in (it does not feel like it clips in very well but has not moved since) started the car with no issues and has not had a problem since. I again assume its had been disturbed when they were looking for the overheating fault. I have no idea what it does but was wondering if it was connected to the immobiliser system.
Anyway both random faults with for me very lucky easy fixes. maybe this could help someone in the future maybe not but there you have it.
For me superb low mileage well looked after car for pennies! very happy boy!
Ed
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