Corkery11
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2021
- Messages
- 2
- Reaction score
- 3
- Your Mercedes
- 2003 C180 estate
Hi newly signed up member but I have been skulking around for the last month or two making great use of the advice and information to be had.
Posting this as in my experience the timing chain issue does not have to be well over £1,000 if you don't mind getting a bit oily on your drive and it may help some other poor sod who felt like me.
I jumped in to Mercedes ownership with both feet and no clue as my Rover 75 didn't seem likely to make the journey from Leeds to Edinburgh and back which I needed to undertake. I therefore did a quick E bay search and decided it was time to see what driving a Merc was all about. Quite why I expected a 2003 C180 with 116,000 miles behind it to be any more likely to survive the journey when it only cost £700 and was SORNED seems in hindsight to be beyond optimistic. Following day had insurance and tax sorted and following a very pleasant ten mile shakedown set off for Edinburgh the following day. Yeah, stupid I know.
Car never missed a beat there or back or on a subsequent journey to Liverpool. However by the time I got home from Liverpool idle was ropey and EML was on. A subsequent trawl of the internet and this site in particular pointed to the $12 pipe or timing chain or the oiled up "pigtails".
Of course the cheap fixes failed. When i got down to the $12 pipe I could see it had been changed before (jubilee clips) and cam sensor wiring was oil free.
Most of my local garages were not interested in doing a timing chain on the Merc, actually none of them were. I did manage to get a quote for £1300 (a pretty good quote as far as I can see) from an ex Merc mechanic but as the car had only cost £700 it seemed a bit of a crazy deal. I was therefore in a bit of a hole, pay £1300 or sell for pretty much scrap.
E bay had a kit for £200 which included oil pump chain, timing belt chain, tensioner, sprockets, guides and a full set of the necessary tools for locking the cam, removing sprockets etc.
I realised that for this money the parts were probably going to be made out of chocolate and tin foil and not up to OEM quality in any way but decided that was worth a gamble.
While waiting for the kit to arrive I spent a couple of days reading up and watching various videos posted on line. I'd liked to claim fitting the kit was a breeze. It was however a bit of a fiddle and took a morning (with an interval of a few days while I waited for an expensive new Sprocket bolt to arrive. My own fault for not using a deep socket and if you were less ham fisted than me should not be an issue)
When all parts were back together the engine fired up like a champ. No funny idle / lack of power for the first minute or so, instead idle is rock solid steady.
I have now been running the car for five weeks or so and its all going great. Still have a few issues to sort, off center steering wheel and a parasitic drain but the engine is purring.
Now I have posted this in the full knowledge that the quality of the parts I used may well / almost certainly not be of the best quality although they did look absolutely fine. Quality of steel, nitriding etc who knows. However if like me you have a cheap Merc which seems to be a steal and don't want to shell out twice the total cost of the car on a repair it could be worth the gamble. If it only lasts 50,000 miles that should see me another 5 years down the road.
If it only lasts 5,000 I will post a follow up, in fact if I remember I will do one each year.
Cheers, Mark
PS now looking for an SLK and sorta hoping I see a poorly one super cheap needing a new timing chain.
Posting this as in my experience the timing chain issue does not have to be well over £1,000 if you don't mind getting a bit oily on your drive and it may help some other poor sod who felt like me.
I jumped in to Mercedes ownership with both feet and no clue as my Rover 75 didn't seem likely to make the journey from Leeds to Edinburgh and back which I needed to undertake. I therefore did a quick E bay search and decided it was time to see what driving a Merc was all about. Quite why I expected a 2003 C180 with 116,000 miles behind it to be any more likely to survive the journey when it only cost £700 and was SORNED seems in hindsight to be beyond optimistic. Following day had insurance and tax sorted and following a very pleasant ten mile shakedown set off for Edinburgh the following day. Yeah, stupid I know.
Car never missed a beat there or back or on a subsequent journey to Liverpool. However by the time I got home from Liverpool idle was ropey and EML was on. A subsequent trawl of the internet and this site in particular pointed to the $12 pipe or timing chain or the oiled up "pigtails".
Of course the cheap fixes failed. When i got down to the $12 pipe I could see it had been changed before (jubilee clips) and cam sensor wiring was oil free.
Most of my local garages were not interested in doing a timing chain on the Merc, actually none of them were. I did manage to get a quote for £1300 (a pretty good quote as far as I can see) from an ex Merc mechanic but as the car had only cost £700 it seemed a bit of a crazy deal. I was therefore in a bit of a hole, pay £1300 or sell for pretty much scrap.
E bay had a kit for £200 which included oil pump chain, timing belt chain, tensioner, sprockets, guides and a full set of the necessary tools for locking the cam, removing sprockets etc.
I realised that for this money the parts were probably going to be made out of chocolate and tin foil and not up to OEM quality in any way but decided that was worth a gamble.
While waiting for the kit to arrive I spent a couple of days reading up and watching various videos posted on line. I'd liked to claim fitting the kit was a breeze. It was however a bit of a fiddle and took a morning (with an interval of a few days while I waited for an expensive new Sprocket bolt to arrive. My own fault for not using a deep socket and if you were less ham fisted than me should not be an issue)
When all parts were back together the engine fired up like a champ. No funny idle / lack of power for the first minute or so, instead idle is rock solid steady.
I have now been running the car for five weeks or so and its all going great. Still have a few issues to sort, off center steering wheel and a parasitic drain but the engine is purring.
Now I have posted this in the full knowledge that the quality of the parts I used may well / almost certainly not be of the best quality although they did look absolutely fine. Quality of steel, nitriding etc who knows. However if like me you have a cheap Merc which seems to be a steal and don't want to shell out twice the total cost of the car on a repair it could be worth the gamble. If it only lasts 50,000 miles that should see me another 5 years down the road.
If it only lasts 5,000 I will post a follow up, in fact if I remember I will do one each year.
Cheers, Mark
PS now looking for an SLK and sorta hoping I see a poorly one super cheap needing a new timing chain.
