Looks like inlet flap delete for me...

[estate-agent]

Well all has been fine with my CLK (270 CDI) until today. Just popped into Cornwall and all was fine as usual. Started the car ready for my trip home to Devon and as soon as I pulled out of the car park... No boost.

Drove the 70 mile journey back to my home town with the ecu light on, rather slow !! Still got up to legal motorway speed (eventually).

Anyway I called a friend of mine who has a Star reader and it basically showed fault as "Inlet shut off closed".

Looks like a busy weekend for me, just in time for Christmas... Wonderful !!

I'll update my findings but I'm guessing it'll be coked up swirl flaps.

I see most people take them out and then blank the holes which are left behind, this will likely be my plan of action along with a resistor for motor if required.

If I have time I'll do a proper write up with large clear pictures.



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[OJLane]

Good luck, it is a pig of a job, I did mine last year when the alternator was being refurbed along with the EGR delete to stop it sooting up again. Funny thing is before I did it I was getting oily sooty deposits on the back of the car and MOT people said I would be lucky to pass another with emissions but after the work she was as clean as a whistle and flew through the next!

 

[estate-agent]

Well ordered my 5 inlet manifold gaskets today in preparation for the job.

Surprisingly cheaper from Merc dealer than eBay! £3.84 each including VAT. (delivered)



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[estate-agent]

Well I completed this job yesterday and indeed it is a pain in the poo shoot to do

I have to say it was more time consuming than I expected, my car is a CLK 270 so probably tighter in space than an ML which most people seem to have done the job on.

This job is really for fairly seasoned DIY mechanic or full time mechanic, not many tools are required but it is a time consuming job which could leave the "not so confident" enthusiast in a bit of a pickle.

I went down the route of removing thermostat housing and fuel rail to give room to get manifold out. Also had noticed many people say they had to get under the car to get the lower manifold bolts out, all mine were removed from above without any real bother.

With the flaps removed and holes blocked with 16mm bolts I bolted everything back together and took a gamble to leave the stepper motor connected without fitting the resistor, purely because the resistor can be fitted at the ecu end of the loom if need be.

After much cranking of the engine it finally had enough fuel to fire up, had the obvious few minutes of lumpy running while the air was slowly removed from the fuel system and then it clearly revved up no problem and no smoke either which I was surprised at considering it had had a ton of hyperclean sprayed through the manifold and EGR valve whilst cleaning them out.

The ecu light has stayed on so stepper motor was obviously at fault, I shall add the resistor when I get a chance, to be honest the car drives great now and the ecu appears happy to give me regular full power again which I didn't get when the flaps were in so they must have been stuck in the closed or partially closed position. The flaps themselves were fairly well coked up and one was partially missing. They were extremely brittle and broke out quite easily unfortunately the inserts also just fell apart so were also left out but it seemed fairly obvious to me that the new rubber inlet gaskets would be fine on their own once the manifold was torqued up.

Topped up the coolant that was lost and power steering fluid and all is good again (albeit light on until I fit resistor).

I did start taking pictures but as usual with me I just wanted to get the job done asap so soon forgot to take more pics

I'm still debating the EGR delete as my car journeys are usually quite short and I do live in good old blighty so never expect particularly warm days to aid engine warm up!!


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