jpr1977 That looks very clean, especially for the price, can't see it hanging around for long... I do like the load bay protector, need to add that to the list of things to look out for.
A little progress has been made on the car but no light in the evenings and some really disgusting weather really slows things down.
First up was dropping the car off with Kamil at VRS for a serious clean and polish. He worked on the car for the entire day and the difference is incredible. Interestingly he was able to measure the depth of the paint and found that the entire passenger side has been repainted at some point. No affiliation but highly recommended www.vrsspecialists.com/
As soon as it stops raining I will get some decent photographs!
I also treated the car to some new number plates which has tidied it up nicely. The tailgate plate was a real pain to remove, it was mounted on some strange rivnuts that held it proud from the bodywork. I ended up having to remove the interior trim to remove them. Amazingly there was absolutely no corrosion at all behind them and the internals of the tailgate are also rot free. As a precaution I filled the tailgate with waxoil and thoroughly lubed the latching mechanism, which now works! While at it I went around the car and lubricated all the hinges and door locks etc along with the seat runners. Simple things but it goes a long way to making the car feel less 'tired' with very little effort.
All visible rust is being treated with some Hammerite Kurust to try and slow it down for the time being.
In lieu of being able to do actual work on the car I have been doing a bit of research into future-proofing with preventative maintenance and modifications.
The biggest worry I have is the vacuum pump which is apparently a bit of a time bomb in an otherwise very reliable engine. The engine has a small piston pump with a ball bearing cam follower running on a face cam which is machined onto the injection pump sprocket.
Failures are well documented on Mercedes forums where the bearing disintegrates and drops the ball bearings. If you are lucky these harmlessly drop into the sump and you lose servo assistance for the brakes and can't shut the engine down by the key any more (fuel shut off is vacuum controlled). If you are unlucky they fall into the chain and cause serious damage to the timing gear and potentially destroy the engine...
This was eventually fixed with the introduction of shielded bearings but replacement pumps are not cheap and not all have the upgrade so it is a bit of a lucky dip, especially if ordering online. Furthermore, even the uprated pumps can fail pretty spectacularly!
www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/231260-om603-vacuum-pump-explosion-bearing-intact-injection-pump-timing-device-wrecked.html
I don't like this at all and am looking at alternatives. As far as I can tell these are:
Option 1: Leave it, it probably won't happen to me
Option 2: Fit an 'uprated' pump and hope for the best, knowing the major flaw is at least resolved
Option 3: Retrofit an OM606 pump - this is a much more reliable rotary vane type but involves also fitted an OM606 sprocket.
Option 4: Remove the pump all together and fit an auxiliary pump. There are a number of options used on other diesel engines. Alternator driven pumps unfortunately all require an oil feed and there is nowhere I can see to 'nicely' fit a belt driven unit.
Electric pumps look like a reasonable option. The Hella UP30 used on loads of VAG diesels produces the 9 psi required and is a known fix on forums, at least for manual cars... The only issue I see is there is some confusion about the vacuum demand of automatic transmissions which use pressure to shift. I keep reading that they use so much air that the electric pump ends up running all the time - not something they are designed to do.
www.benzworld.org/threads/e300d-1996-engine-vacuum-pump-failure.2556785/
www.hella.com/microsite-electronics/en/UP30-32-vacuum-pump-117.html
Can anyone shed any light on just how much air a vacuum shifted transmission actually needs?
Thanks
James
A little progress has been made on the car but no light in the evenings and some really disgusting weather really slows things down.
First up was dropping the car off with Kamil at VRS for a serious clean and polish. He worked on the car for the entire day and the difference is incredible. Interestingly he was able to measure the depth of the paint and found that the entire passenger side has been repainted at some point. No affiliation but highly recommended www.vrsspecialists.com/
As soon as it stops raining I will get some decent photographs!
I also treated the car to some new number plates which has tidied it up nicely. The tailgate plate was a real pain to remove, it was mounted on some strange rivnuts that held it proud from the bodywork. I ended up having to remove the interior trim to remove them. Amazingly there was absolutely no corrosion at all behind them and the internals of the tailgate are also rot free. As a precaution I filled the tailgate with waxoil and thoroughly lubed the latching mechanism, which now works! While at it I went around the car and lubricated all the hinges and door locks etc along with the seat runners. Simple things but it goes a long way to making the car feel less 'tired' with very little effort.
All visible rust is being treated with some Hammerite Kurust to try and slow it down for the time being.
In lieu of being able to do actual work on the car I have been doing a bit of research into future-proofing with preventative maintenance and modifications.
The biggest worry I have is the vacuum pump which is apparently a bit of a time bomb in an otherwise very reliable engine. The engine has a small piston pump with a ball bearing cam follower running on a face cam which is machined onto the injection pump sprocket.
Failures are well documented on Mercedes forums where the bearing disintegrates and drops the ball bearings. If you are lucky these harmlessly drop into the sump and you lose servo assistance for the brakes and can't shut the engine down by the key any more (fuel shut off is vacuum controlled). If you are unlucky they fall into the chain and cause serious damage to the timing gear and potentially destroy the engine...
This was eventually fixed with the introduction of shielded bearings but replacement pumps are not cheap and not all have the upgrade so it is a bit of a lucky dip, especially if ordering online. Furthermore, even the uprated pumps can fail pretty spectacularly!
www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/231260-om603-vacuum-pump-explosion-bearing-intact-injection-pump-timing-device-wrecked.html
I don't like this at all and am looking at alternatives. As far as I can tell these are:
Option 1: Leave it, it probably won't happen to me
Option 2: Fit an 'uprated' pump and hope for the best, knowing the major flaw is at least resolved
Option 3: Retrofit an OM606 pump - this is a much more reliable rotary vane type but involves also fitted an OM606 sprocket.
Option 4: Remove the pump all together and fit an auxiliary pump. There are a number of options used on other diesel engines. Alternator driven pumps unfortunately all require an oil feed and there is nowhere I can see to 'nicely' fit a belt driven unit.
Electric pumps look like a reasonable option. The Hella UP30 used on loads of VAG diesels produces the 9 psi required and is a known fix on forums, at least for manual cars... The only issue I see is there is some confusion about the vacuum demand of automatic transmissions which use pressure to shift. I keep reading that they use so much air that the electric pump ends up running all the time - not something they are designed to do.
www.benzworld.org/threads/e300d-1996-engine-vacuum-pump-failure.2556785/
www.hella.com/microsite-electronics/en/UP30-32-vacuum-pump-117.html
Can anyone shed any light on just how much air a vacuum shifted transmission actually needs?
Thanks
James
