C350 W204 2010 problems!

[Bertlush]

Hi All,

I've owned my Mercedes for almost a year now, and it's a great car. Drove from the UK to Denmark and back in it for work and it ran perfectly. Just got it serviced back in Lincoln last month and now I'm having some issues with it. Also been out of work since the end of March, so I'm hoping I can do most of the work myself to reduce costs! Any advice from you guys on which jobs would be easy enough to do myself without lots of specialist tools would be greatly appreciated. I'm a trained aircraft mechanic and structural fitter, so I'm fairly handy on the tools, I just don't have much experience on cars.

So on the service the Mercedes specialists said I needed a few jobs doing, which I'll list:

1.) New front wheel bearings

2.) NS lower front arm bush split.

3.) Slight corrosion on front to rear brake pipes

4.) I think I will need to get the gear box service done too as the car has 77,500 mile on it now.

5.) Also, after getting the service done, a couple of weeks later the Engine management light came on and the car keeps going into limp mode. A friend connect his diagnostic tool to it and it brought up the codes P11DA(00) Control unit: Engine control unit and P2454 OBDII DPF pressure sensor A - circuit low. when I clear the fault codes the car goes great again, but it doesn't last long. I've read quite a bit on some forums about it now, and I'm hoping just changing the sensor will fix it, but I'm confused and people saying you need to flash the ECU after? Do I need to take it to a garage to be done?

The garage used 5W30 C3 oil when they changed it on the service. I noticed some members mention the oil had to be low ash on the forum, so I'm assuming this is the correct oil as it was a Mercedes specialist.

6.) Just to finish, my air con has stopped blowing cold now too!

I was thinking about buying an iCarsoft CR Pro so I could do a force region on the DPF also, and was wondering if anyone recommends this equipment?

Sorry for all the questions in one go, and thanks for any replies and help in advance.

 

[Jason63]

1) Apparently the wheel bearings can be tightened (unlike most other cars) but if there's any roughness then they do need replacing.

3) Have a good look at the lines, sometimes it's surface corrosion but if you have any doubts then you'll need to replace the bad section. MB allow you to have joins. If you do the whole line then you'll need a lot of brake line something like 4 metres for the RH side and a little less for the LH side. It's standard metric DIN flares and cunifer is better and easier to work with than the steel lines MB use.

4) Yes, good idea.

5) Check the wiring. If OK change the sensor. I very much doubt you'll need to do anything special with the ECU.

The oil sounds fine to me.

6) If it's only just stopped blowing cold you may be able to find the leak using a UV torch. Most places that regas add UV dye but if the leak is old the dye will have washed off. The most likely leak will be the condenser, a stone has probably punctured it.

Forced regens may not be possible if a fault exists relating to emissions or the sensors (but that experience is from BMW not MB). It would be best to fix the fault first. And if the car needs a regen it should do one itself. You can also achieve a "passive" regen by motorway driving for 45+ mins.

 

[Bertlush]

Thanks Jason63. I've ordered a new sensor so I'll start with that fault first and hopefully the dpf will be fine after I take it for a long motorway drive.

I found a video on YouTube for the wheel bearing replacement and you need a special tool to get the cap off, so 'I'll try source that before attempting the bearings.