Orta
New Member
Hi All,
Had my C250 CDI for just under a year. I bought it from Specialist Mercland, in Nuneaton, February 2020, and whilst it's an absolute pleasure to drive on my 33 miles-each-way commute 99% on the A1 and I'm getting decent enough mpg (42 average by Spritmonitor.de records) it's been fairly pants in the reliability department. It was my first privately bought car in 5 years after opting out of my company car scheme, I wanted to buy a cheaper older car outright with the view of then trousering the saved tax money for a couple of years to pay for some travelling we intend to do (If the govt ever lets us out of our houses again)
The car's never actually stranded me anywhere but there's been a couple of issues with it. One of my new year's resolutions is to get them sorted as 1). Either I'm keeping it for the second year and I don't want these to be issues ongoing or 2). I'm going to sell up, but don't feel right about moving a car with outstanding issues (I'm into Kharma).
Anyway, that's what brings me here. I wouldn't really call it an "enthusiast's car", although I am a car enthusiast I'm more into my VW Transporter these days, so am no stranger to car forums; but new to this one!
Got three issues that I'm wonder if you chaps would be able to shed a bit of light on for me please?
1). The Wipers...
So a week prior to that day we all randomly got snow a few weeks back the wipers would occasionally be unresponsive to my stalk commands. This always immediately fixed itself and tbh never thought anything more of it.
Then the day we randomly got all that snow the bloody things really went into overdrive. They'd basically be working for maybe 10-15 minutes, then stop working completely for another 10 minutes. This is terrifying, as you'd imagine, on the A1 raining heavy, spray from lorries etc. and your wipers just stop... I pulled over as soon as I could (This was a challenge) and fiddled with the stalk for a bit. Eventually they'd start working again, I'd drive off and they'd stop again.
I eventually got to work (My normal 40 minute commute taking about 1.5 hours!) and had to rush straight into the Office as I was already behind. Went back out to them at dinner and, of course, they functioning well. I sat in the car for an hour with the wipers just working.
Went to drive home, repeat performance of the morning.
Did some research online and didn't get a great deal back from googling. I'd hit a badger two days before lockdown back in March and it has messed up the front grill somewhat. I eventually had to replace the bonnet and the plastic grill (Everything else was fine), was a fairly low speed impact but you know how big those bastards are. Anyway I read somewhere it could be something to do with a sensor in the bonnet, which made sense as I'd replaced it myself.
Only thing that didn't ring try with this as a culprit was that when the wipers themselves weren't working the jets still would, which with the bonnet "released" they didn't.
Anyway, I lift the bonnet, WD40'd the catches (Where I presume the sensors are, the sites I visited kept mentioning these sensors but never told me where they were). Closed the bonnet again and the wipers seemed to be working!
I forgot about the problem and carried on with life. Then they totally failed on the wife two weeks ago. Fortunately it wasn't raining, she was just clearing the windscreen of some mud. She drove home with them stuck half way across the window.
I tried all the same tricks as before and nothing. Booked it in with my location independent (There's nothing on this Earth that would take me to a M£rc£d£s main dealer, and there's no local specialists), and of course they opened and closed the bonnet and they started working again. They did however get their computer to generate the error in the attached.
The wipers are now working but I'm terrified they're going to fail again mid-drive on some freezing cold and wet day. Anyone dealt with something similar? Or any advice?
Had my C250 CDI for just under a year. I bought it from Specialist Mercland, in Nuneaton, February 2020, and whilst it's an absolute pleasure to drive on my 33 miles-each-way commute 99% on the A1 and I'm getting decent enough mpg (42 average by Spritmonitor.de records) it's been fairly pants in the reliability department. It was my first privately bought car in 5 years after opting out of my company car scheme, I wanted to buy a cheaper older car outright with the view of then trousering the saved tax money for a couple of years to pay for some travelling we intend to do (If the govt ever lets us out of our houses again)
The car's never actually stranded me anywhere but there's been a couple of issues with it. One of my new year's resolutions is to get them sorted as 1). Either I'm keeping it for the second year and I don't want these to be issues ongoing or 2). I'm going to sell up, but don't feel right about moving a car with outstanding issues (I'm into Kharma).
Anyway, that's what brings me here. I wouldn't really call it an "enthusiast's car", although I am a car enthusiast I'm more into my VW Transporter these days, so am no stranger to car forums; but new to this one!
Got three issues that I'm wonder if you chaps would be able to shed a bit of light on for me please?
1). The Wipers...
So a week prior to that day we all randomly got snow a few weeks back the wipers would occasionally be unresponsive to my stalk commands. This always immediately fixed itself and tbh never thought anything more of it.
Then the day we randomly got all that snow the bloody things really went into overdrive. They'd basically be working for maybe 10-15 minutes, then stop working completely for another 10 minutes. This is terrifying, as you'd imagine, on the A1 raining heavy, spray from lorries etc. and your wipers just stop... I pulled over as soon as I could (This was a challenge) and fiddled with the stalk for a bit. Eventually they'd start working again, I'd drive off and they'd stop again.
I eventually got to work (My normal 40 minute commute taking about 1.5 hours!) and had to rush straight into the Office as I was already behind. Went back out to them at dinner and, of course, they functioning well. I sat in the car for an hour with the wipers just working.
Went to drive home, repeat performance of the morning.
Did some research online and didn't get a great deal back from googling. I'd hit a badger two days before lockdown back in March and it has messed up the front grill somewhat. I eventually had to replace the bonnet and the plastic grill (Everything else was fine), was a fairly low speed impact but you know how big those bastards are. Anyway I read somewhere it could be something to do with a sensor in the bonnet, which made sense as I'd replaced it myself.
Only thing that didn't ring try with this as a culprit was that when the wipers themselves weren't working the jets still would, which with the bonnet "released" they didn't.
Anyway, I lift the bonnet, WD40'd the catches (Where I presume the sensors are, the sites I visited kept mentioning these sensors but never told me where they were). Closed the bonnet again and the wipers seemed to be working!
I forgot about the problem and carried on with life. Then they totally failed on the wife two weeks ago. Fortunately it wasn't raining, she was just clearing the windscreen of some mud. She drove home with them stuck half way across the window.
I tried all the same tricks as before and nothing. Booked it in with my location independent (There's nothing on this Earth that would take me to a M£rc£d£s main dealer, and there's no local specialists), and of course they opened and closed the bonnet and they started working again. They did however get their computer to generate the error in the attached.
The wipers are now working but I'm terrified they're going to fail again mid-drive on some freezing cold and wet day. Anyone dealt with something similar? Or any advice?
 (imgur.com))
