97. E300 Td. Eleg. Est.eng. Supt. Corrosion.

[HERBIEMERCMAN]

hi everyone, as i am waiting for my maf cure i thought i would tell you about the excessive corrosion you can get on the engine lower support cross member. this can happen on any of this model after 3 years, forgive me if this situation is allready known about. what causes the problem is the plastic cover which runs under the engine fills with water from the aircon and also rain water, about 2 cm deep, this submerges the base section of the lower engine support cross member which is mild steel and not designed for continuous submersion in water. the complete base of my support was 80% corroded away with everything else in the area including all the upper parts of the crossmember as new, this happened at the 5yr old mark on my vehicle, it was obviously ignored by the service people at HL GORNER merc main dealer of warrington,who supplied the car, you could not miss it when you were changing the oil. hope no one is suprised at their attitude! the base of the crossmember was cut off and a new piece of 8's gauge steel plate welded in place, then painted and waxoiled. the plastic lower engine cover had several 8mm holes drilled in it to avoid any further water pooling. herbiemercman.

 

[television]

Thank you for the running updates on you popular car.

Have you checked the front spring supports under the wings and hard to see

 

[FIBAMAN]

hi everyone, as i am waiting for my maf cure i thought i would tell you about the excessive corrosion you can get on the engine lower support cross member. this can happen on any of this model after 3 years, forgive me if this situation is allready known about. what causes the problem is the plastic cover which runs under the engine fills with water from the aircon and also rain water, about 2 cm deep, this submerges the base section of the lower engine support cross member which is mild steel and not designed for continuous submersion in water. the complete base of my support was 80% corroded away with everything else in the area including all the upper parts of the crossmember as new, this happened at the 5yr old mark on my vehicle, it was obviously ignored by the service people at HL GORNER merc main dealer of warrington,who supplied the car, you could not miss it when you were changing the oil. hope no one is suprised at their attitude! the base of the crossmember was cut off and a new piece of 8's gauge steel plate welded in place, then painted and waxoiled. the plastic lower engine cover had several 8mm holes drilled in it to avoid any further water pooling. herbiemercman.

Had exactly the same experience on mine and obviously either ignored by Newcastle main dealer or they never had cover off.
Good to see someone identifying the cause and potentially solving the problem.
I did not have time to do this on mine, I just looked at the cost of a new subframe and the hassle involved and kicked it into touch, as when I started to look further I found that the doors, boot lid and rear wings were developing rust also.

 

[television]

When I see a low loader full of scrap cars, there is not one as rusty as an MB can get, absolute crap cheap metal