My Mercedes, C Class W201

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Updating Windshield Washer Fluid Valve & Hoses

Slowly started working on replacing the small parts on the car.

The washer fluid valve was leaking so I got a replacement along with 4 meters of new tubing from Mercedes. Also replaced the small grommet for the washer tank motor

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New Stabilus Hood Strut

The original Stabilus strut was slowly starting to fail. Not only was it automatically lifting the hood from the mid point to position 1, but it was also struggling to hold the hood at this position. Got a replacement Stabilus strut along with the plastic housing. I initially swapped the complete unit but later on, swapped the new strut to the original plastic housing

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New Crank Case / Valve Cover Breather Hoses + Dip Stick Seal Ring & Clamp

The new breather hose, pipe and joints are also getting replaced including the valve cover grommet. All of these are super brittle and expanded from 38 years of heat cycles. Replaced with oem MB parts costing less than 50 euros

Yup, the hose cracked and broke. Even the grommet was super brittle

New parts

New seal ring for the dipstick, a new metal clamp ( old silver had twisted but I fixed it regardless ) and a new ring grommet for the clamp

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13th March, a group of the Mercedes Benz owners met at Islamabad and planned on driving to Talagang for lunch. A few members from Lahore also joined in.

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Some rolling shots on the M2. The convoy consisted of:

Camera Car: W123 300D
W201 190D
W124 E200 Masterpiece
W124 E220
W126 420SEL
W126 500SEL

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Some More Suspension Updates

Since i've replaced all the steering/suspension components, I also decided to experiment with the springs. Since I have the pre facelift w201, these tend to ride higher than the facelift models. The absence of the body panel cladding doesn't help either.

Car originally came with 4 nub pads ( 23mm ) on the front springs and 2 nub pads ( 15mm ) on the rears. I swapped these to 1 nub pads ( 8mm ). However, I always found the rear end to be riding a tad bit higher. So I've now ordered a set of the 2 and 3 nub pads from MB to swap around and see what works best

The Eibach prokit 40mm springs are what I will be installing in the car. The springs will be arriving via cargo hopefully by May. I had the chance to opt for the H&R 40/40 but from what I read, these tend to ride harder. The Eibach prokits are more forgiving if a tad bit firmer.

The aim isnt to become a low rider of any sort. My front ground clearance with the stock spring + 1 nub pad is perfect. So the eibachs will be set and adjusted with the correct nub pad to get the same clearance at the front. The rears however will be adjusted to the point where the car sits flat. I'll see which pad will work best to get that height

Mercedes W201 Eibach Prokit E2502-140

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Power Steering Fluid Flush

It's that time of the year. Some basic maintenance including flushing the power steering fluid. This wasn't just the drain and refill for the power steering liquid. The liquid inside had turned a dark shade of red with no clarity.

• In order to do a proper flush, I jacked up both front wheels off the ground.

• Next, I removed as much of the old ps fluid out of the reservoir using a turkey baster.

• The old filter wasn't too bad since it was replaced a few months back but I wanted to install a new one anyways since its a good idea to do so

• I disconnected the return hose ( 19mm wrench ) ( The high pressure feed line is a 17mm ) and kept it inside a bottle.

• It's easier to do the next step if you have a second person who will turn the steering lock to lock. As the liquid in the reservoir goes low which is collected in the bottle, I started adding the good old dex3 atf

• When the liquid collected in the bottle starts to get clearer ( red ), the system has been flush. It took me almost 2liters of atf to get clear transparent red atf coming out of the return hose.

• I finally reattached the return hose to the pump, installed the new filter, filled up the reservoir and kept filling it until it was full by turning the steering wheel. I put the car back down, started it up and just kept a close eye on the reservoir for the level and letting the air bubbles out

And we are done. The same flush can be done with the car on the ground, starting it up and turning the steering wheel. However, I didn't want splatters ( due to air suction during the flush ) all over the engine bay and it was easier doing it this way. I also cleaned the rim of the reservoir (not pictured ) making sure
no gunk fell into it

[Xulfiqar]

great job and if this is cheapo oldschool dexron (whatever spec of it) atf, then its great. I have experienced that using synthetic atf or modern ATF in these oldschool systems cause wear.

To remedy this when Im in a bind and dont have cheapo ATF at hand or the customer is irritatingly "genuine lovebug" I use either of the following oils which are available to me locally.

1 - Mercedes Benz power steering oil spec 236.3 (pale honey colour)
2 - Febi Bilstein 08972 (same as above)
3 - Fuchs Titan PSF (approved by MB against 236.3)
4 - Genuine GM / AC Delco Power steering fluid.

These are great oils to use in these oldschool systems. I have expereinced that they dont have much detergency either and the system runs extra quiet - even at full lock turn (which I dont advise)

p.s.

I have also used general purpose iso32 hydraulic oil in these power steerings with excellent long lasting results as that oil has a ton of antiwear.

On the same note I have also used Ford Type F ATF in these (which is loaded with antiwear additives too)

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Hate turning the steering at full lock and holding it there. I see so many people doing it and it's so off-putting

I have to get under the car and change the transmission mount next week. There are cracks in the rubber so I'm also going to go ahead and do the transmission fluid change too. I believe it too uses plain ATF as far as I remember from the manual but i'll have a look again

[Xulfiqar]

Hate turning the steering at full lock and holding it there. I see so many people doing it and it's so off-putting

Wait till you see some people hold the clutch at bite point in place of brakes.

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Going around the engine looking for any leaks. Need to get down and under and get this engine cleaned up specially the hard to reach areas. There's very slight dampness on the valvecover gasket so that's getting replaces as well as the foam on the engine partition firewall. The old foam was falling apart

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Suspension Upgrade: Sachs Sport Touring Shocks + Eibach ProKit + Transmission Mount

So I finally got to do the last of the suspension (undercarriage) upgrades on my car. This completes replacing EVERYTHING on the underside of the car. The items that were left: Shock Absorbers - Transmission mount - Springs ( even though the OE are perfectly fine )

1) Shock Absorbers (Sachs ST Front/Back)
2) Springs (Eibach Prokit Front/Back)
3) Transmission Mount (Lemforder)

Managed to finish the job in about 8 hours. Yes it can be done much faster considering I have the correct spring compressor and other tools but it took time to play around with the springs and the spring pads to get the perfect ride height.

Heres a look at the OE F/R springs and the Eibach springs

Originally, the car rode pretty high. Front end had the 23mm (4 dot) pads with the back end having 13mm (2 dot)

The current setup consists of 23mm spring pad upfront with the Eibach springs and the 8mm spring pad on the back. The car has evened out. All 4 shocks have been updated to Sachs ST. Still have to sort the alignment but it should be good to go once that's done

The transmission mount had also given up. I had bought the wrong part since it ended up being the mount for the facelift models and the 124. So had to wait for the correct part to arrive. But it too is now mounted and secured

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Updating The Shock Strut Mount + Rubber Boot + Bump Stop

This is something that is not done properly on so many of these Mercedes vehicles. The Dust boot actually slips on the 2 short ridges of the strut rubber mount securing it in place. Once the shock absorber is installed with the rubber bump stop installed too onto the piston rod, the lower part of the dust boot can be slid over the stop ring ( plastic zip tie with the 3 notches ) ensuring the piston rod is protected from dust and grime

Heres a look at the 2 shorter ridges onto which the boot slides over. This is the old strut mount vs the new one along with the dust boot installed and the bump pad placed inside

A look at the lower stop ring over which the lower end of the dust boot slides over

Once its all done, this is how the shock absorber should look like with the dust boot installed

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Lets get this thread back upto speed

The adjustable pulley for the belt drive had started making this horrible screeching sound. When I went ahead and released the tension and spun the pulley by hand, sure enough, it had a grinding sound indicating the bearings were shot. I also notice the engine shock absorber had cracks in the top mount rubber surround

When I asked about both parts, I was quoted 9k for the pulley (INA part which was the OE part manufacturer for MB) and 9k for the engine shock (Trucktec/Febi part when infact Stabilus is the OE part manufacturer)

I had parts being shipped in from Germany to Pakistan and decided to include these parts. It cost me 1/3 including the shipping to get those parts in. Crazy

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Replacing the Tensioner Pulley and Dampener

Once the belt drive if out, you can release the tensioner pulley by unscrewing the hex bolt

Cleaned it out and saw the FAG schaeffler stamp ( same mother company to INA ) along with the MB part number

The old engine shock was made by stabilus ( in W.Germany ). And as suspected, both ends had deteriorated.

To pull the shock out, you can simply remove the tension spring and the top bolt on the shock absorber. Next rotate the tensioner itself which will give access to the lower bolt for the shock absorber

The old parts are out, new ones are in

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Replacing The Diesel Return Lines

It's been a long time and the 201 has been getting some work done on as time passed. First up, it was these fuel rubber hoses which had developed cracks and could have given up any time. I had bought the replacement hose (~3m) from MB and it was simply a matter of removing the old ones, measuring them and cutting the new one to length

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Fixing Leaky Delivery Valves on Injection Pump

Talk about a sneaky bugger known to leak fuel on these 60x engines. Found two of the delivery valve's on the fuel injection pump to be leaking. The reason for this is the O ring and copper washer inside these nozzles.

The way to take those out is by using a non-magnetized (very important) pick tool. The delivery valves themselves need the 33 spline socket for removal. Got the new parts from FCPEuro and it's time to get things sorted

Here's a look at the old vs new O-Rings and washers

Once everything is put back, it's time to torque everything back to spec and get done with the DIY task

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