KevS
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2014
- Messages
- 7
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Sheffield
- Your Mercedes
- C180 Kompressor 2003
Hi all
I'm new to the forum. I'm having a horror story with my 03 reg C180K and having looked through plenty of threads on timing/cams I haven't found the answer I need! Sorry in advance about the length of this post...
To cut a very long story short, I bought the car in August 2010 and it ran fine until May 2012 when it began to misfire and the engine management light came on. My local independent garage repaired the damaged coils/seals/followers/rockers and gave me the car back but the fault returned within days.
It then spent 18 months at the garage! Whenever they thought they'd solved the problem the management light kept returning with a variety of fault codes related to cams sensors and timing issues. Work done included new cam position sensors, tensioner and timing chain with no success.
They gave it back to me twice supposedly fixed but with no improvement. It still had a lag in accelerating and a rough idle. On the second occasion they told me that I could drive it for a few weeks until they had time to re-examine the car... And a fortnight later a valve broke and cracked the cylinder head!
After a total of 18 months in the garage and £1800 (not counting what they tried charging me for a replacement cylinder head which I firmly believe is their fault because they assured me it was okay to drive!) they returned it supposedly fixed after finally sending it for repairs to the wiring loom.
The same day the fault returned. I have no faith in the first garage so took it to an independent Merc specialist. Again, they followed the fault codes - cam sensors, crankshaft sensor. The timing was spot on but the fault wouldn't stop coming back. They replaced the wiring loom (insisting the "repairs" the previous lot did were pointless and botched) and still no improvement.
Eventually they passed the car to Mercedes dealer for more diagnostics. They have now been told the fault is that the inlet cam gear is intermittently sticking. On top of the £1600+ for the work done already its going to cost another £600 plus labour to replace the cam gear.
So before I decide whether to get the work done or write it off as a bad experience I have a couple of questions...
Has anyone else had a problem with the cam gear sticking?
Is replacing the cam gear likely to fix the problem or am I wasting my money?
I'm new to the forum. I'm having a horror story with my 03 reg C180K and having looked through plenty of threads on timing/cams I haven't found the answer I need! Sorry in advance about the length of this post...
To cut a very long story short, I bought the car in August 2010 and it ran fine until May 2012 when it began to misfire and the engine management light came on. My local independent garage repaired the damaged coils/seals/followers/rockers and gave me the car back but the fault returned within days.
It then spent 18 months at the garage! Whenever they thought they'd solved the problem the management light kept returning with a variety of fault codes related to cams sensors and timing issues. Work done included new cam position sensors, tensioner and timing chain with no success.
They gave it back to me twice supposedly fixed but with no improvement. It still had a lag in accelerating and a rough idle. On the second occasion they told me that I could drive it for a few weeks until they had time to re-examine the car... And a fortnight later a valve broke and cracked the cylinder head!
After a total of 18 months in the garage and £1800 (not counting what they tried charging me for a replacement cylinder head which I firmly believe is their fault because they assured me it was okay to drive!) they returned it supposedly fixed after finally sending it for repairs to the wiring loom.
The same day the fault returned. I have no faith in the first garage so took it to an independent Merc specialist. Again, they followed the fault codes - cam sensors, crankshaft sensor. The timing was spot on but the fault wouldn't stop coming back. They replaced the wiring loom (insisting the "repairs" the previous lot did were pointless and botched) and still no improvement.
Eventually they passed the car to Mercedes dealer for more diagnostics. They have now been told the fault is that the inlet cam gear is intermittently sticking. On top of the £1600+ for the work done already its going to cost another £600 plus labour to replace the cam gear.
So before I decide whether to get the work done or write it off as a bad experience I have a couple of questions...
Has anyone else had a problem with the cam gear sticking?
Is replacing the cam gear likely to fix the problem or am I wasting my money?