SLK32 Service

[stereophoney]

Having owned the car for a week and seeing as the service indicator was telling me the service was due in 29days I spent some time yesterday doing it all myself. Bought all parts from Eurocarparts for £267 which was for:

10l 0w40 Mobil 1 New life
Mann Oil Filter
Mann Air Filters - Didn't realise 2 came in the box so ended up with 4!
Mann Cabin Filter
NGK Spark Plugs
Mann Fuel Filter
Plus 1l of Brake Fluid and a new sump plug and washer.

I could have bought some cheaper brands but wanted to stick as close to OEM as I could without buying direct from Mercedes.

Started off with the oil. Raised the passenger side front and placed on an axle stand. Removing the undertray was thankfully easy. Placing my Poundland 9l washing-up bowl under the drain hole the plug unscrewed without any drama. Unfortunately my oil filter removal cup had broken so had to use an old chain one. Again it came off with no issues. Got pretty much 8l out. New sump plug and washer on and then refilled. Would have been easier with a suction pump, (might get one for next time) but it was not difficult and not too time consuming.

Then started on the spark plugs. I changed them on my old CLK55 and it took all day and I had to go out and buy new tools halfway through. No such issues this time. With the proper lead removal tool it was much easier. As was having 4 less plugs to do! The hardest was again the back one on the passenger side which took about 15mins. In total took 1hr 25mins to do all 12, so very happy with that.

Changed the air filters, very straight forward to do. Moved onto the cabin filter, again very easy to do. If it wasn't for the screws each would take 1min to change. Checked the coolant strength and it was good to -23°c, so that can wait for another time.

Brake fluid change was next. Used Gunsons Ezibleed which works very well and so much better than doing it manually. Was quite please the see the fluid didn't look too bad.

Whilst the back was up I tackled the fuel filter. It's in such an awkward position and the annoying clamps were a pain. Found it easiest to do from underneath. Hardest part was getting the hoses off, but they eventually did. Replaced the clips with jubilee clips.

Put the car back on all fours and started it. Was so glad to hear it fire up and settle down to idle straight away. A quick 80 mile test drive and all seems good. Checked this morning and the oil is right where it should be.

I think it was the first service I've done on any car where everything pretty much came off as it should with no rounded or stuck bolts and without having to stop midway to buy a new tool. The most time consuming part was lifting the car. Having a 4-post lift would make life so much easier.

Not sure how much it would have cost me to get a garage to do it all, but I'd guess at least twice as much, so not a bad saving for a days work. Had the Gearbox and Diff oil changed by PCS the week before, so service wise the car should be good for a while!

 

[Rory]

You didn't mention covering the hinges and bonnet catch in white spray grease!

 

[stereophoney]

You didn't mention covering the hinges and bonnet catch in white spray grease!

I didn't, but I did do it, spray grease is messy stuff! I also bought some calipers and measured the brake pad and disc thickness and tread depth. I followed the service sheet as closely as I could!

 

[rorf]

Well done and as you are well aware, the satisfaction of knowing it was all done correctly is enormous:bannana:

 

[Major774]

Nice little service for the car

I read about how the spark plugs can be a pain on a E55k engine at the rear, however, I had no problems taking out the rear plugs, was easy (just used my normal socket set with no extra tools). To take the leads of the plugs I used a 17mm spanner.

 

[stereophoney]

It's good to know that it's all done and hopefully no more servicing for another year! Had a quote from Mercedes of over £1000, so a nice saving of £750

The spark plugs aren't difficult to do, the rear ones are just a bit awkward, mainly due to a heat shield restricting access, but there's nothing complicated, just not as easy as a straight 4!

 

[Terry_]

Mann filters are excellent quality. They are pretty much all I use when not fitting genuine. Which isn't often
A job well done!

 

[Hawkwind]

How do you find the car runs with the NGK plugs?

 

[stereophoney]

How do you find the car runs with the NGK plugs?

No issues with them at all, they've been in for about 3k now and all seems good.

 

[stereophoney]

It's getting to that time again, planning to do another service, though will be a few weeks early. Will only have done around 5k miles, but sticking to servicing by date rather than distance. This time it's oil, coolant, power steering fluid and supercharger oil. Bought everything today for £145, which is not too bad. Hopefully will be nice and straight forward!

 

[gbjeppm]

Great to see somebody else getting their hands dirty.

 

[Dave Barlow]

Is the '32 your daily driver?
How many miles have you covered since the 2014 service?

 

[stereophoney]

Great to see somebody else getting their hands dirty.

All of it's very doable, and I've not got a warranty to protect, so why not?! Would be nice to have a 2 post lift to make it much easier, but I'll slum it with my axle stands!

Is the '32 your daily driver?
How many miles have you covered since the 2014 service?

It's my only car, but it would be a stretch to call it a daily driver. I don't commute in it so it only really gets used at the weekend. Getting on for 5k miles since I serviced it last year.

 

[stereophoney]

Never thought I'd have a reason to buy this:

Bought from here: ExxonMobil Jet Oil II - The Flying Shop

£18 with postage. Great service, ordered yesterday, arrived this morning.

 

[stereophoney]

After 11 months and 3900 miles it was time to service again today. On the list -
Oil - Mobil New Life 0w40 x8L
Oil Filter - A0001802609 x1
Sump Washer - Corteco x1
Supercharger Oil - Mobil Jet II x1L
Coolant - Comma XStream G05 x5L
Water - Halfords Distilled x5L
Power Steering Fluid - Fuchs Titan PSF x2L

Started with the supercharger oil. It's really not too difficult, and there's no need to remove the belt or pulley if you have a thin enough allen key. I used a 3/16 as it seemed to fit the best. Starts looking like this:

Only thing that needs to be removed is the front cover - the bit with the star on it. You'll then be faced with something like this:

The plug is circled. It's easier to see from above. It's a good idea to put a cloth under the plug. Not just for any spilt oil, but I dropped the plug a few times and it would have been very hard to find had it not fallen on the cloth.

It's a tight fit to reach the plug, but it can be done!

To extract the oil I used a 100ml syringe. Got 2 from here as also wanted to do the PSF:
MULTIPLE LARGE BIG HUGE 1x 2x 3x 4x 5x 100 ml SYRINGE + 2x 1m TUBE OIL CHEAPEST | eBay

The oil coming out:

As others have noted, the old stuff smells!

The new stuff going back in:

Put the new oil in until it seeped from the hole. Think it took around 120ml, which was more than I took out.

Cleaned up the plug and put on a bit of threadlock:

Tightened back up and all looks good. Just for comparison, the old and new oil:

Then onto the oil. All very straightforward:

Then the power steering fluid. I raised both front wheels. I used the syringe to drain the reservoir and then fill up with fresh fluid. Then bled by going lock to lock a few times. I repeated until I'd used 1.6L and the fluid was coming out clear.

The finally the coolant. Located the drain plug on the bottom right of the radiator and ended up using a flat file to undo it as none of my screwdrivers were fat enough! Once undone I placed the container underneath - £1 9L washing up bowl from Poundland. Why anyone would need a more expensive purpose made bit of plastic, I don't know! Then I took the coolant cap off to let it flow out:

I left the car jacked up. I was going to lower it but I managed to get the bowl full to the brim before it slowed to a drip. This takes some time and it must have been around 45mins. I used this time to check all the other things on the service schedule. Everything all working and looking good. Hinges greased etc.

I mixed the coolant 50/50 with the distilled water and after tightening the bleed point I filled up. It took just over 5L. Squeezed all the pipes and then switched on until the heaters got warm. The level dropped until just before the tank emptied. I managed to get about 3L more until it was full.

Put everything back together and took for a 25 mile drive with all different conditions - Motorway, country roads, town, standstill traffic. All went well, heater burning hot all the way. Checked the coolant and the expansion tank is now only half full. Will top up and keep an eye on it for a couple of weeks.

5hrs all in and that's everything done for another year!

 

[stereophoney]

Noticed when doing the service that mu supercharge pulley bearing sounded a bit noisy, had never really noticed it before. Ordered a new one and having watched some videos of the job i gave it a go. After taking the belt off it became even more obvious just how bad the bearing was. It came off without too much trouble, bought some circlip pliers for a couple of pounds which did the job. Then to get the bearing out. A good platform was 2 rolls of masking tape which held the pulley perfectly and far enough off the ground to allow the bearing to come out.

3 taps with a hammer and the bearing was out and can now be used as a maraca. Tried the freezer and oven method which didn't really work as the bearing inly went halfway in. Tried using a bush pulling tool to push it in further and managed to get it close, but still 5mm short and could go no further. Walked it to Kwik Fit who kindly pressed it in and refused payment.

Put it all back together, started it up and all was well. Sounds a lot nicer now.

 

[gbjeppm]

About time you did the diff and ATF i think.

That will keep you out of trouble

 

[stereophoney]

About time you did the diff and ATF i think.

That will keep you out of trouble

That was done about an hour after i bought it. Took advantage of being near PCS. All fluids have now been changed except the roof hydraulics.

 

[stereophoney]

That time of year again, after almost 2 years and not quite 10k miles, service number 3 was due. This time only oil, cabin filter and brake fluid.

Had a big issue with the supercharger about a month ago which led to its replacement. Started getting a bearing noise,which considering the pulley bearing was changed 4k miles ago was a bit unexpected. Turned out that the the two other standalone pulleys / idlers were shot. That wasn't too much of a big deal, but there was another issue, the supercharger pulley gap had increased to a vast casm of 1.2mm, way out of spec.

After measuring everything i couldn't work out why, but a set square gave me the answer - the top of the clutch coupling recessed itself around 1mm around the top edge, meaning that the pulley sat right in the shaft, but it was way out at the top. It got to the point where the charger stopped engaging, and on researching i couldn't find anyone who would repair it in the UK.

After much looking, the only option seemed to be get one from the US or Germany. There were a few US ones available, but with postage and import taxes, all of them would have been £1000+. There was one in Germany for around £350, but it looked like it had spent a not insignificant amount of time underwater.

However, i did find one in the UK, from a Chrysler breaker in Lancashire - ACD. They had one in stock and it really was a fantastic price, and they delivered it the next day. Chrysler Breakers The Chrysler,Jeep & Dodge breakers.

That was the first problem over. The next was fitting it. As it turned out, it wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. I took my time and everthing came off and went back on as it should.

I ordered all the gaskets and sealant from MB Newcstle. Other things which came in useful was this v-pulley puller, as my old pulley was stuck on. This got it off in seconds:Neilsen Ribbed Drive Pulley Crankshaft Auxiliary Removal Garage Tool Alternator | eBay


This helped with cleaning up the mating surfaces:
Sealey 100 Composite razor blades & 5 Holders non marking cleaning scraper tools | eBay

As did this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002T8X0AS/?tag=amazon0e9db-21http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201108298975?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

As i didn't have anyone to help me with the refitting of the charger, and as it's fairly heavy and awkward i got some guide pins to help locate it. I'm sure the specific tool is available from Merc, but these did the trick and cost less than £3:
http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p55597?searchstr=55597

Here they are in action:

As i had the charger off, i thought it would be a good time to tidy it up a little, so i gave it a couple of light coats of VHT silver, and it made a huge difference.

As mine is an 02 model it didn't come with a plaque on the supercharger, whereas the replacement is an 05. I didn't want to get a fake plaque, so found these to tidy up the look: Blank Aluminium Metal Sheets Small Signs 80x80mm Dye Sublimation Printing | eBay

They're slightly bigger, but fit fine. Not got a picture with it on the car yet.

Here's the before and after:

As the coolant was drained i also ordered the Needswings fluid isolation kit, which is a nice bit of kit and the service from them was very good. I'm probably not going to notice any difference as it's not a track car, but every little helps.

Starting the car for the first time was a very nervous moment. After a few seconds spluttering, probably as the fuel rail was removed it came to life and settled down to its correct idle. I've probably done around 300 miles since and it feels better than ever. Don't know what caused the problem with the first charger, but glad it's now all sorted. On to the service!

The parts:

I'm trying out one of the magnetic sump plugs. Not sure if it's going to have any benefit, but hopefully can't cause any harm.

This is what a 2 year old, 10k cabin filter looks like:

Rear tyres will need changing soon:

The trusty Eezibleed comes up trumps again. So much better than any other method i've tried and takes no time at all:

Coolant up to strength:

Now on 73k and still going strong. Hopefully other than tyres, no more expense until next year!

 

[callahan]

I'm in awe of the work you've done, good stuff.
Incidentally, you can apparently buy the correct build plaque for your car. You need to register on the AMG Private Lounge, sent them your vin and they will confirm who built your engine, then you can order the plaque from a dealer.
I haven't done it for mine yet as I have other priorities - new rear tyres, probably new rear brakes, heater, CD changer.... And more!