My first MB - a 2002 CLK 270 CDI

[Zarniwoop]

Hi all,

I have just bought my first Mercedes Benz, an early W209 CLK. The 270 diesel engine is a little more 'agricultural' than I'd expected from inside the car, but it seems mechanically very good indeed, and is lovely to drive. All in all I'm quite pleased with it for a touch over a grand.

What's less good is that the interior is filthy, and a few bits of trim are broken, namely the rear speaker grills on both doors, and the corresponding plastic seat trim where the seatbelt buckle has punched through both. Any ideas where I should look for replacements? They are light grey in colour. The seat trim might be fixable with some careful glueing, but the speaker grills are a proper mess.

The only two actual faults with the car (AFAIK) are that the door locks bounce up and down (repair kit ordered - looks like a 'fun' job...), and the spring seems to have broken in the external boot release.

Haven't actually driven it much (apart from back home after buying) as I can't bear to take the family out in it until it's clean. So far it's had a couple of rounds of hoovering, plus shampooing of the carpets and carpet-like trim. Next I need to tackle the leather seats and the plastic bits, to see if I can get them looking less like the car has been used to carry loose coal. Wish me luck!

Cheers,
Martin

 

[Blobcat]

Hello and welcome

We have a forum member breaking one on the below thread. Worth contacting them, they might have the bits you’re after.

https://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/index.php?threads/breaking-3-5w209-sport-amg.193614/

 

[A.J.]

Hi and welcome to the forum

 

[grahamcol]

Welcome from a fellow 209 owner.
Yes l find my 220 CDI a little agricultural too, but only really when cold. After it has reached operating temperature it is vastly better.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Hello and welcome

We have a forum member breaking one on the below thread. Worth contacting them, they might have the bits you’re after.

https://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/index.php?threads/breaking-3-5w209-sport-amg.193614/

Wow - that's a nice interior! If I was richer I might think about buying the whole lot instead of cleaning mine! Unfortunately the plastic bits on mine are a very light grey, and it looks like that one is dark grey.

On the plus side, apart from the filth, there's nothing that isn't liveable with. Maybe I'll just try and glue the speaker grilles as best I can, and keep looking for replacements on eBay.

A friend suggested I could cut away the mesh part to leave just the frame, and then stretch grey speaker cloth over them. Would be non-standard, but might actually look quite nice if the right cloth could be found to match the other cloth on the doors.

 

[mioba]

You may well find getting such small bits are cheaper new from MB than the breaker merchants on Ebay.

Find a good mobile valeter to do yoir carpets, They have the right machines to make light work and it will be far better than you could imagine. A good valeter will also do the leather - but you can try the likes of liquid leather for that if you want a DIY - depends how soiled they are.

I had a very good mobile valter do he carpets on my w220 a few years ago - 40 pounds. Google will be your friend here.

 

[00slk]

Hello and welcome.
I find that some of the worn or damaged parts on used cars are from people not taking care of the car and not the manufacturers fault
I'm sure you will get it up to the standard you're used too.

 

[Taffy7hfa]

Welcome. If maintained properly the 270 cdi is a superb engine, it can feel lazy until you really squeeze it, you just need to be brave with your right foot

 

[Zarniwoop]

Hey, thanks all for the warm welcome and advice!

Re valeting, I actually quite enjoy the process of cleaning up a car that hasn't seen enough love in that regard. The carpets shampooed OK, but the nozzle on my carpet washer wasn't small enough to get into some of the nooks and crannies, so I'll have to try again with a toothbrush. Getting better though. And I have some good quality leather cleaner, so we'll see how that goes tomorrow.

I am quite impressed about how much of the thing is still working after 20 years. Aircon still blows cold, the cruise control works, even the funny seatbelt butlers do their thing on command! Even things that looked broken at first - the plastic boot floor lifting handle, for instance - have just needed to be cleaned and refitted correctly.

Really looking forward to putting some miles on it!

 

[sonic]

Welcome I had a CLK270CDI 2003 version. It was a great car did 115K in it with almost no problems.
We used to tour round Europe in it in the summer, a very comfortable car.

 

[sausage]

Welcome and congratulations. Enjoy getting it back up to standard
Great username

 

[Zarniwoop]

Welcome and congratulations. Enjoy getting it back up to standard
Great username

Thank you! Inspired by the numberplate, which is 'ZNW' (and a love of HHGTTG, obvs)

 

[Srdl]

Hello and welcome to the forum and the world of Mercedes

 

[sausage]

Thank you! Inspired by the numberplate, which is 'ZNW' (and a love of HHGTTG, obvs)

Genius Well spotted and translated. Perfect. Im not sure what is my favourite scene, Marvin vs the Frogstar Killerbot/tank thing on the bridge at the Guides HQ, Agrajag's temple of hate, Zem the mattress of any of the other gems - there are so many of them. On a recent stay at a Youth Hostel I told my freinds "Ford Prefect advises you to not forget your towel" - totally lost on them.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Genius Well spotted and translated. Perfect. Im not sure what is my favourite scene, Marvin vs the Frogstar Killerbot/tank thing on the bridge at the Guides HQ, Agrajag's temple of hate, Zem the mattress of any of the other gems - there are so many of them. On a recent stay at a Youth Hostel I told my freinds "Ford Prefect advises you to not forget your towel" - totally lost on them.

Those are all favourites of mine, too, particularly that first one - "What a depressingly stupid machine..."

Absolute genius

 

[sausage]

I still enjoy the TV series and solely because of your username I think I might pull out the books again once I have finished my current read.

A comment for any HHGTTG fans, I balked at the new film with Zooey de Chanel in when I first watched it, but have actually returned to that film at least twice and think that once I got over the initial surprises of how things had changed I found I really quite liked it. Perhaps not true to DA vision, but it has it's charms.

However, thanks to you, I really do want to read the scene that ends with the phrase "What a depressingly stupid machine..." so, I guess that is my next few books sorted Thanks.

I hope the work on the car is going well. At times like that, it feels like every job however small is a step in the right direction.

 

[Zarniwoop]

I hope the work on the car is going well. At times like that, it feels like every job however small is a step in the right direction.

Thank you, and I completely agree. This morning I repaired the armrest release button (the cap clips had broken, so it kept coming off), prised the cover off the light sensor in order to see what part number it is (I'm getting a warning on the dash), and removed the remaining letters from the boot lid. It was an "LK", so I could either have got a new 'C', or do what I chose to do and remove the remaining letters, especially since the old ones were growing mould. It's personal taste, obviously, but I think the lines are rather lovely on the W209, and the bootlid certainly doesn't look worse for an absence of plastichrome letters.

By the way, the valeting took a total of about 12 hours this weekend, but I got there. Ended up using some alcohol spray sanitiser that I bought for cheap to clean the ingrained dirt from the textured plastic. Using a nail brush, then a soft cloth, it all came up really nicely. Got quite a lot of brown dirt off the leather seats, too, and then conditioned them the next day. All in all the interior is a hell of a lot nicer (and better smelling) place than it was! Check out this sexy before-and-after shot...

 

[Zarniwoop]

And here she is looking lush after I finally put away the polishing cloths yesterday...

 

[Blobcat]

Thank you, and I completely agree. This morning I repaired the armrest release button (the cap clips had broken, so it kept coming off), prised the cover off the light sensor in order to see what part number it is (I'm getting a warning on the dash), and removed the remaining letters from the boot lid. It was an "LK", so I could either have got a new 'C', or do what I chose to do and remove the remaining letters, especially since the old ones were growing mould. It's personal taste, obviously, but I think the lines are rather lovely on the W209, and the bootlid certainly doesn't look worse for an absence of plastichrome letters.

By the way, the valeting took a total of about 12 hours this weekend, but I got there. Ended up using some alcohol spray sanitiser that I bought for cheap to clean the ingrained dirt from the textured plastic. Using a nail brush, then a soft cloth, it all came up really nicely. Got quite a lot of brown dirt off the leather seats, too, and then conditioned them the next day. All in all the interior is a hell of a lot nicer (and better smelling) place than it was! Check out this sexy before-and-after shot...

View attachment 75989

Pleased you put the "Before" and "After" text on...

 

[A.J.]

Thank you, and I completely agree. This morning I repaired the armrest release button (the cap clips had broken, so it kept coming off), prised the cover off the light sensor in order to see what part number it is (I'm getting a warning on the dash), and removed the remaining letters from the boot lid. It was an "LK", so I could either have got a new 'C', or do what I chose to do and remove the remaining letters, especially since the old ones were growing mould. It's personal taste, obviously, but I think the lines are rather lovely on the W209, and the bootlid certainly doesn't look worse for an absence of plastichrome letters.

By the way, the valeting took a total of about 12 hours this weekend, but I got there. Ended up using some alcohol spray sanitiser that I bought for cheap to clean the ingrained dirt from the textured plastic. Using a nail brush, then a soft cloth, it all came up really nicely. Got quite a lot of brown dirt off the leather seats, too, and then conditioned them the next day. All in all the interior is a hell of a lot nicer (and better smelling) place than it was! Check out this sexy before-and-after shot...

View attachment 75989

What a difference !