Uncle Benz
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2006
- Messages
- 4,223
- Reaction score
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- Age
- 53
- Location
- West Sussex
- Your Mercedes
- Mainly Mercedes
I don't often have time for this sort of thing, but I'm away to the Lake District on Friday, so have run the work down at the shop this week. I have had an entertaining one Monday/Tuesday so thought I'd share it...
The car came from a mechanic up the road. He's pretty good normally, but just goes to show that anyone can make a mistake. Tidy 204 estate with 37,000 miles on it came in with limp mode. He scanned it with a snap on machine which reported "boost pressure too low, check turbocharger". Well don't ask me why, but he merrily trotted off down the garden path laid for him by mssrs Snap and Off, and replaced the turbo. Twin charge unit, Christ knows how much! He also fractured the oil supply pipe - beware, when you remove the pipe support bolt from the turbo it does become very fragile... Anyway, I digress.. Of course, when rebuilt the car was exactly as before, hence it was dropped on my doorstep.
Immediately I could sense a bit of a hiss on the left side of the engine and conducted some tests with Star. Engine revved up and down for a bit and Star reported a boost leak. Quelle surprise! Star then suggested a test with a bit of fancy merc kit which I don't have, but I do have a smoker. Test revealed a lovely plume of smoke from under the inlet manifold. Well, I assume manifold but you can't even see it!
First things first, ring Cole and see if he has ever seen this before, 'cos it's a new one on me! No joy, he's never seen one either... Cue four hours of stripping to discover one manifold bolt sheared in the head, probably like that from new...
Here it is, close up
Hot gasses from egr had eroded the plastic behind the gasket and pushed through the underside of the manifold
Because of the location, drilling out the broken stud was looking doubtful, so I used an old mechanics trick of holding a washer over the broken bit and welding through onto the stud. Tack a nut onto the washer, and simply unscrew.
New manifold arrived today, at vast expense. Five hours later it was all rebuilt, teach-in of new swirl flap motor, refill coolant and road test. All golden on a beautiful sunny day!!
The car came from a mechanic up the road. He's pretty good normally, but just goes to show that anyone can make a mistake. Tidy 204 estate with 37,000 miles on it came in with limp mode. He scanned it with a snap on machine which reported "boost pressure too low, check turbocharger". Well don't ask me why, but he merrily trotted off down the garden path laid for him by mssrs Snap and Off, and replaced the turbo. Twin charge unit, Christ knows how much! He also fractured the oil supply pipe - beware, when you remove the pipe support bolt from the turbo it does become very fragile... Anyway, I digress.. Of course, when rebuilt the car was exactly as before, hence it was dropped on my doorstep.
Immediately I could sense a bit of a hiss on the left side of the engine and conducted some tests with Star. Engine revved up and down for a bit and Star reported a boost leak. Quelle surprise! Star then suggested a test with a bit of fancy merc kit which I don't have, but I do have a smoker. Test revealed a lovely plume of smoke from under the inlet manifold. Well, I assume manifold but you can't even see it!
First things first, ring Cole and see if he has ever seen this before, 'cos it's a new one on me! No joy, he's never seen one either... Cue four hours of stripping to discover one manifold bolt sheared in the head, probably like that from new...
Here it is, close up
Hot gasses from egr had eroded the plastic behind the gasket and pushed through the underside of the manifold
Because of the location, drilling out the broken stud was looking doubtful, so I used an old mechanics trick of holding a washer over the broken bit and welding through onto the stud. Tack a nut onto the washer, and simply unscrew.
New manifold arrived today, at vast expense. Five hours later it was all rebuilt, teach-in of new swirl flap motor, refill coolant and road test. All golden on a beautiful sunny day!!
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