W210 E320CDi owner's blog/maintenance costs

[toby1]

10/09/11: 106,652 miles, 'A' service, transmission fluid + filter change, replace air filter, EGR valve cleaned. Fault codes checked and cleared, nothing pertinent to fuel injectors present (in my quest for the missing 10 mpg); £307.23

Just a thought which crossed my mind (desperation, really); what if the previous owner had it re-mapped? Would that "over-fuel" and could it be traced within the car and/or ECU? Hmm

BTW, thanks to Steve at Avantgarde Automotive for the work on Saturday

 

[Spannaz]

IMHO to loose 10mpg is a huge amount, I would think there might be a loss of fuel to create that amount over your previous usage.
I know ours was leaking, but it never noticed as it was only when the pipe gave out totally and filled the engine bay did we know. However i am sure Steve would have noticed unless its getting burnt off on a hot sump and not hanging around. We thought ours was coolant, as we got what we thought was smoke when in traffic from under bonnet. But it was not coolant but diesel, yet it NEVER left a puddle under the car?!!! Weird i know but that's these Mercs all over.
As for the remap, possible but then it would have to be a serious remap to drop 10mpg's unless you have a very heavy right foot lol

 

[d215yq]

You should have bought a 300TD, mine has cost £7100 in 11 years, including Dealer servicing, tyres, hire cars, bonnet respray, complete new suspension, etc.
It's had a few expensive jobs this year, new wheel bearings and one stub axle, new brake pipes front to rear, so the next year will be cheaper again.

...Or a w124...done over 4 years and 53k miles now in two different ones (coupe and estate) and total maintenance/service/repairs/tyres combined over both vehicles is just under £2k, highish milers with patchy service histories too! No breakdowns either.

It really is scary how it mounts up. I can only think how upset I'd be feeling at such expenses...hopefully now "everything that can go wrong" has gone wrong you'll have a fair few miles of trouble free motoring to spread the cost over.

 

[toby1]

IMHO to loose 10mpg is a huge amount, I would think there might be a loss of fuel to create that amount over your previous usage.
I know ours was leaking, but it never noticed as it was only when the pipe gave out totally and filled the engine bay did we know. However i am sure Steve would have noticed unless its getting burnt off on a hot sump and not hanging around. We thought ours was coolant, as we got what we thought was smoke when in traffic from under bonnet. But it was not coolant but diesel, yet it NEVER left a puddle under the car?!!! Weird i know but that's these Mercs all over.
As for the remap, possible but then it would have to be a serious remap to drop 10mpg's unless you have a very heavy right foot lol

Hi Spannaz. No leaks present, and I agree, Steve knows his stuff and I very much doubt he'd miss something like that.

I'm clutching at straws now regards the fuel consumption. Now that the EGR has been freed off, I think I'll take off the EGR shunt for a while and see how it runs. I only fitted it to stop the excessive smoke, which it did.

I know it's only my word, but I am a steady driver, certainly no heavy right foot with me, especially with today's fuel prices. My old CLK270 would easily see 45mpg as a comparison.

I wonder if it's possible to flash the ECU mappings to the factory default, just to confirm the ECU is back to where it should be Just thinking aloud, really!

 

[Dosco]

EGR Valve

Just taken mine off and cleaned it out at a mileage of 112250

After reading so many posts about the crap and crud there is in and around that device I decided I would take a look and clean it all out.

Removed the two 6mm retaining screws followed by a dose of releasing fluid and it came out. I was truly surprised at the lack of the reported crap and crud - just a covering of soot the majority of which came off by simply brushing it. Yes there was some 'burnt carbon' on the valve and spindle but a good old soaking in release fluid (that is all I had) and it came away.

Gave the internal body a rub down with fine emery paper removed some corrosion from the mating face very thin coat of copper grease replaced the 'O' Ring and refitted.

I then removed the air pipe from the inter-cooler to the inlet manifold and again could see no real build up of c&c - oil yes but not floods of the stuff simply a coating. Cleaned it all out and re-fitted.

As an after comment I do not have the 'make smoke' scenario but then again I am 'light on the right' unless I really have to hammer down which is rare.

R

 

[Steve@Avantgarde]

10/09/11: 106,652 miles, 'A' service, transmission fluid + filter change, replace air filter, EGR valve cleaned. Fault codes checked and cleared, nothing pertinent to fuel injectors present (in my quest for the missing 10 mpg); £307.23

Just a thought which crossed my mind (desperation, really); what if the previous owner had it re-mapped? Would that "over-fuel" and could it be traced within the car and/or ECU? Hmm

BTW, thanks to Steve at Avantgarde Automotive for the work on Saturday

No problems Toby!

Definitely no leaks present, its as dry as a bone your engine and all the injector smooth running values were spot on, you cant get better than 0.2hub/mg on all the injectors!

I would reconnect the EGR system and run it properly for a while and see if there is any difference. I think someone else reported they lot MPG with the shunt so it would be worth a comparison.

The air filter was pretty clogged too, combine that with the service and a reset of the gazillion fault codes that were stored and it might improve.

Let me know if not and i will put the thinking cap back on.

 

[toby1]

08/10/11: 106,967 miles. MoT test, passed with three advisories, rear tyres close to limit, rear pads wearing thin, rear brake hoses need replacing soon. £25.00

 

[umblecumbuz]

Phew!Quite an overall bill.

I think most of us would be surprised if we totted up all we've spent keeping our cars in good order. I file all my bills away, keep a reasonable record of jobs done/to be done, but I have never added up all the costs. Don't think I want to, now I've read this thread.

The overall worry for me, if this was my car, is not the payouts every so often - it is the rust. That would kill it for me - I would not want to keep shelling out if I had rust like that. Rust, to me, is like woodworm. Once it gets a hold, no matter what you do to delay its progress, it will always win in the end.

Just my penn'orth.
Baz

 

[toby1]

10/10/11: EGR shunt removed now that the EGR valve is operating post-service. Will try it for while although I'm not expecting any improvement in mpg. Quick blast up the road and still plenty of thick dark smoke on heavy load but none on no/ light load which there was before the shunt was installed. This points to the seized EGR valve previously causing that issue, I would imagine

 

[Steve@Avantgarde]

You will get some black smoke on full throttle but it will be interesting to monitor your MPG with and without the shunt.

Hope you are well toby!

 

[toby1]

It seems to have developed cold start lumpy running. Only lasts about 4 seconds then clears up. Will monitor. Might put the EGR shunt back on after I've done some more mpg monitoring. Car definitely warms up more quickly than before with the shunt active.

Could just be a coincidence as the last two mornings have been chilly and I still have the glow plug light staying on for 30-40 seconds.

1st MPG measurement since shunt taken off: 328 miles of mixed driving using 43.35 litres, mostly 8 miles of 'A' road to work, same journey back, plus 2 miles of urban. 34.36 mpg.

2nd MPG measurement: 133 miles using 12.81 litres, all motorway at 70 mph on cruise control, some 50 mph restriction (M25 between jcts 18/19 onwards clockwise). 47.16 mpg - hmm, this is the highest figure I've ever seen on it.

This is a click-to-click test on the same pump at the same filling station using the same standard Shell diesel and ignoring the inaccurate trip computer.

More monitoring required though, by no means a full test on my usual driving habits. Next check will be at fill-up time as I'm running this tank down to empty.

 

[alexanderfoti]

It seems to have developed cold start lumpy running. Only lasts about 4 seconds then clears up. Will monitor. Might put the EGR shunt back on after I've done some more mpg monitoring. Car definitely warms up more quickly than before with the shunt active.

Could just be a coincidence as the last two mornings have been chilly and I still have the glow plug light staying on for 30-40 seconds.

1st MPG measurement since shunt taken off: 328 miles of mixed driving using 43.35 litres, mostly 8 miles of 'A' road to work, same journey back, plus 2 miles of urban. 34.36 mpg.

2nd MPG measurement: 133 miles using 12.81 litres, all motorway at 70 mph on cruise control, some 50 mph restriction (M25 between jcts 18/19 onwards clockwise). 47.16 mpg - hmm, this is the highest figure I've ever seen on it.

This is a click-to-click test on the same pump at the same filling station using the same standard Shell diesel and ignoring the inaccurate trip computer.

More monitoring required though, by no means a full test on my usual driving habits. Next check will be at fill-up time as I'm running this tank down to empty.

It sounds as though one or more of your glow plugs isnt working, hence the lumpy running when cold. Mine has had 3 of 6 not working for ever and it runs lumpy for a bit then smooths out.

Also 47mpg at an average of 50 isnt too bad, ive had 60mpg out of mine (dash readout) but that was a very very slow trip round the m25 behind a lorry!.

I have tried to not tally up all the costs, and I do all the work myself to keep them down but it includes:

front set of brake pads
rear differential
subframe mounts
egr transducer
egr valve
propshaft (to try and find the source of vibration!)
Engine mounts
1 x injector due to bad spray pattern
helicoil due to injector no 1 thread being stripped
new injector pipes etc after blowing one out on the motorway
Various little things

Im not getting an El power control error whilst I put my foot down any now and then, but I still love my car!

 

[toby1]

390 miles, mixed driving mostly daily commute with one 90 mile motorway trip, 49.08 litres (10.81 gallons) = 36.07 mpg

 

[toby1]

Rough running after starting again this morning. It's ok in park and neutral but as soon as I put it in to reverse, it runs lumpy and smokes. Clears itself after 5-10 seconds, select drive and off I go. No further issues. Only does this when from a cold start.

 

[toby1]

Selected drive from cold-start - no lumpy running. Shifted to reverse, runs lumpy and smokes a bit. Strange, but I can live with it. Other more important things to look at 1st.

 

[alexanderfoti]

Selected drive from cold-start - no lumpy running. Shifted to reverse, runs lumpy and smokes a bit. Strange, but I can live with it. Other more important things to look at 1st.

I suspect its spray pattern causing misfiring whilst the engine is still cold, have you had a smooth running test run on the car?

 

[toby1]

Steve from Avantgarde says it's bang on the values according to STAR. Why does it happen in reverse and not drive, though? Strange. Sent you a PM Alexander

 

[alexanderfoti]

Steve from Avantgarde says it's bang on the values according to STAR. Why does it happen in reverse and not drive, though? Strange. Sent you a PM Alexander

Maybe a bad O ring on one of the pipes to/from the fuel filter then? Putting it into drive/reverse shifts the engine in the engine bay causing the pipes to move?

Just replied

 

[toby1]

439 miles using 58 litres (12.77 gallons) = 34.38 mpg. This was mostly my daily commute, with some urban. Definitely 5 mpg better than prior to air filter replacement and EGR shunt removal.

I think that's about enough mpg monitoring for the time being. Over 40 mpg on a run so I've gained 5+ mpg. I'll be hard-pushed to better this.

 

[toby1]

Bosch wiper blade from Halfords - £20.99

How on Earth does it go on? It looks like a normal clip-in type but the arm won't lift up past a few inches. Make a horrible noise if I try to force it so I'd rather take advice first. Nothing on youtube, google search not good either.