W202 - restriced performace..?

[dale]

Right... i've found myself a perfect 202 C180. 18" AMG's... leather... all the extras.

only thing is it has a problem. cars done over 140,000 miles, over due a service.

on the test drive the car seemed to have a lack of go and sounded like it was 'hunting' we put it down to an air leak somewhere.

being Mercedes people, any one else have any ideas what could be causing this?

 

[Adam230K]

C180's tend to be gutless and boring in terms of performance, but if its hunting that could be many things... the most common of which is the Air flow meter which costs around £150 to fix (from Euro car parts).

i had a 179k miles c200 and it ran like a dream, despite the fact that i drove it hard it still ran perfectly, and i kept its service intervals without missing a single one. Most people would tell you to steer clear of 4cyl models with that kind've mileage if it hasn't been looked after though!

 

[dale]

cheers! ahh ok.. well it has full service history up until the last one.

yeah we did think it could be an air flow meter...

hmm.. should i get looking for another? its cheap mind, £1200 98 R. with the wheels.

 

[dale]

would this do the trick? its just the sensor instead of the whole unit...?

c180 air flow meter, Vehicle Parts Accessories, Replacement Part items at low prices on eBay.co.uk

 

[NW_Merc]

Make sure you get original Bosch parts as some of the ones off ebay are not as good as OEM parts

 

[Adam230K]

A 1998 C180 with 140k miles on the clock is not worth £1200, no way even with AMG wheels, you can get genuine amg wheels on ebay for £3-400. and if you're going to get an air flow meter you need to buy an original bosch one for piece of mind, ebay ones are crap.

 

[Alps]

Agree with Adam !

Also a C180 with 18`s will normally struggle and be sluggish!

 

[dale]

not too fussed about speed... just want it to run well.

shame, its a lovely car. if it was tidy it wouldn't of been a bad price...

back to the drawing board

i cant find another 1.8 with leather seats, decent mileage....

 

[Adam230K]

I'd actually recommend you get a C200, it actually has some go and exactly the same fuel consumption (or better if driven sensibly) than the C180. I bought my W202 C200 '95 with 94k miles on it in 2005, and in 2 years i managed to bring that up to 179k miles. It was a beautiful and solidly built car with absolutely no issues, only pads and tyres, and its what got me into the marque.

 

[dale]

only problem there is insurance... being only 20 its not exactly cheap for a 1.8 let alone a 2L i have inquired but cant stretch the budget.

 

[Adam230K]

That bad? I was 19 when i got insured on the C200 for £800, third party fire&theft.

 

[dale]

the C180 is £850 third party... bit the bullet and bought it :/ lol

 

[trapperjohn]

Good Luck with it Dale.

 

[Adam230K]

Oh dear, i hope for your sake its a good one!

 

[dale]

yeah switched the MAF sensor drives like a dream cheers for the speedy help

 

[Shude]

yeah switched the MAF sensor drives like a dream cheers for the speedy help

Glad it was an easy (if not that cheap) fix!

 

[Sonny Burnett]

i had a c180 at 150k and i must of redlined it 10x times a day just keeping up with traffic and getting up to speed. and it ran like a dream... cruise controll AC all worked fine and it had ebay AMGs on it 18"s and i did notice a difference in performance when i fit steels once it was a lot faster.. but a 1.8 is a 1.8.. so i put the 18s back on... best car on earth in my opinion... tank if looked after by a good mechanic