Please help!!Supercharger only works when car is cold

[essexbenz]

Hi all, New member here ( so please take it easy)
I have a 1999 clk230 and it seems that the supercharger only works when the car is cold. As soon as the car warms up the car feels sluggish, no power to overtake or nothing. With the credit crunch and all im dreading the MB dealer in Southend, Can any one help? If im in the wrong place then please let us know or if it has been coverd before. Thanks. Zac

 

[Quick Silver]

Hi all, New member here ( so please take it easy)
I have a 1999 clk230 and it seems that the supercharger only works when the car is cold. As soon as the car warms up the car feels sluggish, no power to overtake or nothing. With the credit crunch and all im dreading the MB dealer in Southend, Can any one help? If im in the wrong place then please let us know or if it has been coverd before. Thanks. Zac

In my opinion the Southend dealer has the ethics of a Dickensian pickpocket and the knowledge of a delinquent 5 year old from a one parent family . I used to have business vehicles maintained there and they screwed up time after time , ie vehicles kept for days on end for no good reason, wrong parts replaced when the fault is blatently obvious like left CV joint knackered and they replace the one on the right side . To have driven the vehicle out of their workshop and into the customer collection area and not know their is still a serious problem would have had to be stone deaf and have no sense of feeling either as this could be felt and heard even driven at walking pace.

How rude of me , forgot to say Hi and welcome to the forum.

 

[essexbenz]

Thanks for the welcome, and yes you are right, they are wotless, but being the only merc dealer in southend your prety much buggerd. Anyway back to my problem, any ideas anyone?

 

[Ellsy Tanners]

Hello fellow Essex man!

Do you have you engine managment light up on the cluster?

I think you may have a leak in the charge air system like a damaged intercooler, or a pressure sensor fault.

It could be something like that but may need to be code read or have the live engine data read to be sure.

 

[essexbenz]

Hi mate, no engine light at all. I had a similar thought as well. (when the pipes heat up they are not as firm, and may be old) Am i on the right track??? Would replaceing the thin hoses cure this? I cant really afford a trip to Southend Mercedes or pretty much anyone at the moment This stupid credit crunch has hit us selfemployed builders a bit.

 

[essexbenz]

any ideas anyone

 

[Ellsy Tanners]

Try unpluging the air mass sensor, which is on the right hand side of the air intake by the radiator, it if runs better when warm that could be the problem.

Other than that rev the car and look around the air intake track for leaks.

 

[jamesmc]

As per Ellsy Tanners suggestion. Go down the MAF route first. I had similar symptoms until I replaced the MAF. If a new MAF is required do not buy a cheap replacement off of eBay, it will either not work properly or fail shortly thereafter. Either buy genuine item from MB or a Bosch outlet.

(On outer casing of complete MAF unit)
Bosch: 0 280 217 114
MB: 000 094 09 48
LM: 0019

Availible on eBay for £149.90 + £6.50 shipping to UK or PT.
from: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/carpartsberlin
or
www.airmassmeters.com
email: info@airmassmeters.com
TEL: +44 208 462 2543
Mobile: +44 7984 404 739
Company name: Air Mass Meters
Address:
34 Hayes Garden, Hayes
BR2 7DG Bromley, Kent, UK


Also, on an older CLK such as this (same engine model/year as mine) you should check out whether MAF oil contamination is the cause of your problem. See this thread on: How to stop MAF oil contamination (CLK 230K - W208) for further input.

best regards
James Mc

 

[popuptoaster]

Ive not had any work done at the mercedes dealer in romford but they have always been willing to help my hunt for old parts, even if it means sitting in front of the microfiche machine with me for a long time, if your local to southend they are only 20 mins away, could be worth a try if no one has any horror stories about them? They certainly put up with me turning up out the front in my taty old cars without complaint.

 

[essexbenz]

thanks guys. Im gonna get onto the MAF this weekend and have a good fiddle about. Between all your suggestions im hopng to get to the bottom of it. I will post on sunday hopefully with a smile on my face. Cheers

 

[sailorP]

Had the same problem on my SLK...it's a known fault with the SLK, although I don't know if the components and system are the same as in your CLK.
(Does your car have a separate intercooler water circulation pump? Does your car have a water/air intercooler, or air/air intercooler? Someone on here will tell us if I'm barking up the wrong tree, or indeeed just barking!)
It was the intercooler circulation pump that failed on mine, giving the same symptoms, and it was relatively easily fixed.
Your symptoms would support the theory that something is wrong with the cooling of the charge air, since you have power with cold air/engine, but lack power when the engine/air is warm....
A STAR machine would detect the fault code (which was "high intake air temp" in my case), and might help pinpoint the faulty component.
If it's not the pump then good luck with the other suggestions.

 

[moosehead]

The wife's '99 SLK230K seems to be suffering similar loss of power problems. The engine starts and runs fine but its almost as if the supercharger isn't kicking in. It doesn't seem to be temperature related. We've owned the vehicle from almost new and it's still on the original MAF although its only covered 40K miles. Any thoughts before I go down the MAF route?

 

[essexbenz]

hey sailor thats interesting, you the second to mention the intercooler. Im gonna go down that road as well as the MAF. Moosehead ill let you know how i got on. cheers guys