Merc C180 Sport - Please Help re Camshaft Sprocket

My car is 2002 reg and is a 1.8 petrol. It didnt start last week and the garage that have it now say that:

"Right hand camshaft sprocket keeps jumping teeth when engine turned by hand".

Has anyone experienced this or does anyone know how to fix this???

Please help as garage dont have a clue what to do!!!??!!


Thanks

Jennifer

 

Hello and welcome Jenifer to the forum,,how did this all start please and what went wrong,,what they have told you is very odd. Are thay an MB specialist

 

Jennifer

Big mistake, taking a Merc to a non Merc garage.

Are you not local to a Merc independent garage - where you located.

 

Reply to Malcolm

IN REPLY TO YOUR QUOTE MALCOLM;

The car had been running ok but chugging for a week on and off slightly and the orangey engine light had been on for a couple of weeks. The garage said that I could have avoided this by an oil change and oil filter! I did not get it serviced at 6 months but to be honest I had not drove it excessively over the past year. The only problem I had with this car is that last year I had to get a new starter motor for the car last December which cost £300 from that garage. The garage are not specialists in Mercs. They dont know what's up with it at all.

 

HI, IN REPLY TO YOUR QUOTE MALCOLM;

The car had been running ok but chugging for a week on and off slightly and the orangey engine light had been on for a couple of weeks. The garage said that I could have avoided this by an oil change and oil filter! I did not get it serviced at 6 months but to be honest I had not drove it excessively over the past year. The only problem I had with this car is that last year I had to get a new starter motor for the car last December which cost £300 from that garage. The garage are not specialists in Mercs. They dont know what's up with it at all.

 

You will have to get it out of there, what they have told you is impossible to happen and the car still run/drive,,

The light could have come on for many simple reasons.

Where are you in the uk

 

I am in Scotland. My bill is £500 at the moment at the garage cos they have;

gave me 2 new tyres at £100
A/roll bar link £13.96
Air Mass Meter £200.04
Camshaft Sensor £56.31
Plugs £32.00
Oil Filter £30.00

VAT £65.90

They said I was to go on this forum with that info re the right hand sprocket jumping and get info and they dont know how to fix it and also they said it would probs cost me less money now to get a second hand engine and just replace it.!!??? I am so confused, just want to know if it is fixable or not.

 

Jenifer,,please just hold on till this evening when the good techies come on, and see what they say. I will bring your post to the top of the pile this evening to make sure that it is seen

 

Thank you

Thanks very much, I will log on later and have a look.

Thanks again

 

jennifer,

please can you post some more information:-

1. did the car ever drive (engine start up) after when it failed to start? (or did it just get towed to the garage)

2. are the garage saying that the right hand cam shaft is jammed solid?

3. how many miles has the car done please?

suggest you tell them to do nothing until there is an understanding as to exactly what the state of the engine is just now. can't imagine that lack of an oil change at 6 months would cause this as described

 

She drove in as in post 4

 

Hi yes it start up finally and we drove it to garage and the garage are saying that the right hand camshaft keeps jumping. I dont really know what this means??!! They said it wont stick it just jumps.

Jen

 

malcolm,

i don't get it post 4 says the car was not driven excessively over the past year?

How many miles has engine done?

 

Hi its done about 80k miles.

 

The sprocket would have to be very worn, or the timing chain has no tension for it to do that, and the engine would hardy run or not run in this condition, it would just jump to the point where the pistons hit the valves

 

I mean 80k in total on the clock. The past year I have done the average mileage to and from work which is only 5 miles from my house and for social use to and from supermarket etc

 

That mileage is nothing on one of these engines,,I wonder if that engine had the leaky cam adjuster seal that fouled up the MAF on looking at that list, this would have put the lamp on

 

so half the valves are OK (left hand camshaft) and half bashed by pistons it seems,

80K is not high mileage but then if cylinder head has to be removed

I suppose it all depends upon how much damage there is to the valves etc.

as you say see what the techies say later this evening

surely the engine would have been making a lot of noise running like this!

does 300 pounds seem a lot of money for a new starter previously?

 

Much of this does not add up does it,, the right had sprocket is the one that has the most tension on it, I picture of the cam wheels would tell a lot

 

jennifer,

that your garage suggested this forum seems good

what year and exactly what model is your car please?

oops I just noticed you already said 2002!


malcolm,

looking at the chain sprocket diagram, if the chain were loose it would likely slip a tooth on the crankshaft sprocket, it would then be guesswork as to what happens next.

seems more likely that the right hand cam shaft jammed first then chain slipped on its sprocket, the garage mentioned oil change maybe being polite or because they think oil had something to do with right hand cam shaft slipping/jamming