tjamesbo
Senior Member
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2006
- Messages
- 1,467
- Reaction score
- 95
- Location
- Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands
- Your Mercedes
- 1999 CLK430, 2007 VITO 3.0V6 , W124's (1994 320TE , 1993 220TE ) , 07 2.5 X-Type
decided to tackle this as the squealing like a loose fan belt is telling me this needs sorting now
I have a W124 E320 with the M104 in it with the Pre 95 Bolt / Rod Tensioner mechanism
I sprayed some water near the Aux idler pulley and the noise stopped
So off we go I replaced the Aux idler Pulley (top LH of engine ) apparently these are quite common to cause a squeal it was only £15 for a replacement and a quick job so Try that first as everything else involved a fair amount of dissembly
In prep I purchased a fan locking tool (£9.99 wire rod jobby ) of Ebay in prep for possibly having to change the tensioner if fix #1 didnt work
Fix# 1 didnt work and inspection of the service record revealed that the car had a new belt april 18 and has only done few thousand (1000- 2000) since then so the Belt should be OK
Next I removed the Belt and spun all the pulleys the only one sounding noisy was the Secondary air pump but i remembered that spraying water at the top idler stopped the noise and that the tensioners on these engines should be replaced at anything between 115 & 170K and as I'm at 115K and Im down there with access and the radiator out it seems good practice and could be the source of Belt Slip so off comes the tensioner assembly , but on removal & inspection it still looks good in a vice theres plenty of resistance in the rubber donut inside it .
I'm now thinking it may not be that but its sensible to replace whilst I'm down there with the Rad out I've ordered the Tensioner and Damper from Febi (£70 in Total from simplycarparts )
So whilst I'm at it might as well remove the alternator and get the pulley and bearing done ( eliminate something else ) a kit can be bought, but I favour finding an alternator specialist and getting them to do it hopefully inexpensively and another source of squeal isolated so that leaves me with the secondary air pump ( runs for approx 2 mins on a cold start then cuts out ) rebuild or replacement is expensive £400-£700 for something thats not really required I am therfore looking at this as a solution
https://www.kurth-classics-autopart...-w124-secondary-air-pump-replacement-kit.html
But am not sure how to get the correct shorter belt if this is done and whether anything else ( eg the alternator ) needs moving
There's also a query on whether deletion will cause the EML light to come on I d be surprised if this was the case due to its short start up operating cycle but MB tend to be thorough
I was also looking at possible replacing the Fan Pulley Bearing eliminating something else but the Tool for locking the fan that i bought off Ebay will not engage with the holes in the rear despite about 3-4 hours of trying with the aid of an inspection camera and then out of frustration several tweaks to get it to engage so i cannot do this without a decent tool klann or Baum ? and i can only find one source in the UK my original £10 ebay which i have lost confidence in (but havent tried MB themselves yet tomorrows job )
If only the aux idler or the tensioner were obviously worn / faulty
Boyd
I have a W124 E320 with the M104 in it with the Pre 95 Bolt / Rod Tensioner mechanism
I sprayed some water near the Aux idler pulley and the noise stopped
So off we go I replaced the Aux idler Pulley (top LH of engine ) apparently these are quite common to cause a squeal it was only £15 for a replacement and a quick job so Try that first as everything else involved a fair amount of dissembly
In prep I purchased a fan locking tool (£9.99 wire rod jobby ) of Ebay in prep for possibly having to change the tensioner if fix #1 didnt work
Fix# 1 didnt work and inspection of the service record revealed that the car had a new belt april 18 and has only done few thousand (1000- 2000) since then so the Belt should be OK
Next I removed the Belt and spun all the pulleys the only one sounding noisy was the Secondary air pump but i remembered that spraying water at the top idler stopped the noise and that the tensioners on these engines should be replaced at anything between 115 & 170K and as I'm at 115K and Im down there with access and the radiator out it seems good practice and could be the source of Belt Slip so off comes the tensioner assembly , but on removal & inspection it still looks good in a vice theres plenty of resistance in the rubber donut inside it .
I'm now thinking it may not be that but its sensible to replace whilst I'm down there with the Rad out I've ordered the Tensioner and Damper from Febi (£70 in Total from simplycarparts )
So whilst I'm at it might as well remove the alternator and get the pulley and bearing done ( eliminate something else ) a kit can be bought, but I favour finding an alternator specialist and getting them to do it hopefully inexpensively and another source of squeal isolated so that leaves me with the secondary air pump ( runs for approx 2 mins on a cold start then cuts out ) rebuild or replacement is expensive £400-£700 for something thats not really required I am therfore looking at this as a solution
https://www.kurth-classics-autopart...-w124-secondary-air-pump-replacement-kit.html
But am not sure how to get the correct shorter belt if this is done and whether anything else ( eg the alternator ) needs moving
There's also a query on whether deletion will cause the EML light to come on I d be surprised if this was the case due to its short start up operating cycle but MB tend to be thorough
I was also looking at possible replacing the Fan Pulley Bearing eliminating something else but the Tool for locking the fan that i bought off Ebay will not engage with the holes in the rear despite about 3-4 hours of trying with the aid of an inspection camera and then out of frustration several tweaks to get it to engage so i cannot do this without a decent tool klann or Baum ? and i can only find one source in the UK my original £10 ebay which i have lost confidence in (but havent tried MB themselves yet tomorrows job )
If only the aux idler or the tensioner were obviously worn / faulty
Boyd
