B180 diesel - 1.5 or 1.8? How to tell what engine and which is best??

[Knuckle89]

Hi all,

I'm looking to buy a Mercedes B class sport, most seem to be 180ds.

I'm looking at 2012 to 14 age manuals, but in getting really confused with the engines.

Wikipedia and other sources suggest there is a 1.5 and a 1.8 variant but I'm struggling to understand how to tell the difference (in for sale adverts). Auto Trader shows displacement but not sure if it's accurate.

So I guess question 1 is when did they change it / what models is related to each engine? How do I tell?

Second is, which do I want? They seem to have similar outputs. I may consider adding a tuning box or a remap at a later date too. The 1.5 I understand is Renault derived which would put me off, if it wasn't in SO many cars. I've heard that it's a bit unrefined though.

The titles of some that I've saved so far have either cdi or cdi blue efficiency.

Third question is there are a few 200d in budget. Are these mechanically different to the 180d or can they be remapped to 200 levels?

First Mercedes so thanks for any input you can provide!

 

[Craiglxviii]

The 1.5 DCI is the same K9K which is in over a million Qashqais and Jukes, let alone all the Meganes and other Renault tat that take it. It's a great engine just a little rattly.

 

[turbopete]

The 1.5 DCI is the same K9K which is in over a million Qashqais and Jukes, let alone all the Meganes and other Renault tat that take it. It's a great engine just a little rattly.

not that you're biased or anything.....

personally the fact that theyre so rattly is the one reason I WOULD avoid them in a MB. fine in a run of the mill Renault or Datsun (sorry, Nissan) but in whats supposed to be a premium brand? id avoid them. each to their own of course, and it depends what you want/need the car to do.

 

[julesg007]

Mercedes long ago moved away from the number in a model means the engine size!

It can be confusing, I have an 06 B 180 which has a 2L engine but Mercedes also done a B 200 which also had a 2L engine, in my case the B180 had a lower power rating than the B200 so you may need to do a bit of reasearch if possible to actually understand what the difference between the 2 engines is.

 

[gizze]

I was told by a head tech at Merc the 1.5 diesel is the most troublesome unit they have ever had.

 

[Mr Filipov]

Easiest solution. Get the MyCarCheck app on your phone. When you enter a reg it will give you the size of the engine. Bob's your uncle.

As for the engines themselves, I would personally avoid the 1.5 renault crap they put in a Mercedes.

 

[Craiglxviii]

not that you're biased or anything.....

personally the fact that theyre so rattly is the one reason I WOULD avoid them in a MB. fine in a run of the mill Renault or Datsun (sorry, Nissan) but in whats supposed to be a premium brand? id avoid them. each to their own of course, and it depends what you want/need the car to do.

They're not too bad (not great mind) with decent NVH and Renault falls down there. Qashqai with the 1.5DCi is comparable to my E220 W212.

 

[Craiglxviii]

I was told by a head tech at Merc the 1.5 diesel is the most troublesome unit they have ever had.

Interesting isn't it. We hear it's the most troublesome diesel they've ever had, but Renault-Nissan-Dacia don't report any serial problems (more the opposite). Yet we know that MB's direct competitor engine, the OM651 has an inbuilt weakness in its simplex timing chain and that can cause problems from 40k onwards... but that engine is less troublesome.

One wonders if MB in this case have configured the powertrain in some way that causes engine failures...

 

[gizze]

To be fair, what he said was (may have got the turbo bit wrong)...

We seem to be getting lots of issues with failing turbos, normally this is not an issue as we simply replace which is an easy job. however we have to wait for someone from Renault to come out and sign it off, which is fair enough after the 1st or 2nd, but when it is the 40th one it would be nice for them to say "Just replace it" as it keeps things moving and the customer happier.

 

[Craiglxviii]

Ahh. That's interesting in its own right. Renault warranty team... heheh!