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Cheers bbb. If the current battery starts to fail that is what I'll buy.

Yeah, seats. A good call btw. Well, it's an issue because the current seats are heavy, really heavy. I recon I can save 25kg + by fitting buckets, it's just the cost holding me back as the only suitable sliding seat bases come from Recaro. Those alone on their own are not cheap. But as I said in a previous post I'm considering replacement seats.

Removing the rear reg motors is sadly not worth it. I need operating rear windows and the manual regulators are not that much lighter. So, cost wise it's not practical against the minor weight loss.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Nice car the C240. Looking forward to updates and photos.

Another issue worth taking note of, is fuel hose quality. Tthis time it's nothing to do with Mercedes themselves, the hose quality they use is excellent  no matter if it's coolant, air or fuel.


I replaced the rubber fuel hoses at the pump & filter sometime back. About two years later this was the condition of the hose.

fuel hose by Johnny Slow, on Flickr

Just caught in time. I can't recall where I bought that hose, maybe eBay or a motor factors. I ordered some Cohline hose and it still looks perfect to this day.

An issue with C, CLK &  E- Class's of the late 90's and early 2000's is the front spring perch rotting. It can rot on the top or rot where it joints the inner wing allowing the suspension to collapse. It's not a big deal (provided it doesn't fail while driving) ,new perches are cheap and there's only few welds holding them to the inner wing but it's always best to check their condition. In my case they started to rot at the top, a few holes were present but otherwise they were good. I guess I was lucky, it could have been much worse.

I decided an easy way to sort the problem was to have some 3mm cresent shaped plates welded to the top and to the inner wing for good measure. All in between the machine shop supplying the plates and the local garage welding them in, total cost €50. Bargain. 


Perch (with spring removed)
IMG_20200405_111023357 by Johnny Slow, on Flickr



Perch, looking up.
W202 SPRING PERCH by Johnny Slow, on Flickr

Plates welded in prior to painting. (sorry about another rubbish photo)
spring plates by Johnny Slow, on Flickr

Plates.
front spring pearch plates by Johnny Slow, on Flickr 

Weight reduction.

Ideally I want more power or a quicker car. But, I've no plans on porting or running a smaller pulley on the S/C etc So, my only option is to lighten the car, the problem there is I don't want to strip it either. I set a modest target of 50kg/110lb.

Items gone:
Rear split folding seats, head rests, belt receivers, rear shelf speakers and first aid kit. 28.5kg/62.7lb
Exhaust resonator 2.5kg/5.5lb - mistake, doesn't sound too good.
A/C system 17kg/37.5lb - wasn't working, so into the bin.
Original spare wheel, replaced with a space saver from a later C-Class 6kg/13lb
Lighter battery 6kg/13lb

Total: 60kg/132lb

The car weighs 1420kg including driver@ 68kg, luggage @ 7kg and 90% fuel @ 42kg  (all according to Mercedes). Subtracting those items leaves a dry weight of 1303kg/2866lb,

1303kg - 60kg + myself 95kg + 50% fuel @ 22.6kg, wet weight 1360kg/2992lb,

So, overall not a bad reduction giving 165 bhp/ton (225/1360). Ideally, I'd really like 180 bhp/ton but I'll dream on. Power @ the wheels is 185-190 bhp.

The only way I can see on reducing the weight further is to fit light weight seats, lighter wheels and custom exhaust system. All pricey things to fit and they become very expensive when the actual value of the car is about zero.  But if I found good used parts I'd be tempted. There's an easy 40kg/88lb weight reduction with that lot. 



Rear seat delete, a bit of painted thin ply and rubber trim for the bulkhead.
Rear seat delete by Johnny Slow, on Flickr

Looking from the boot, bolted in two hollow cross braces and added insulation to the ply.
Rear bulkhead from boot by Johnny Slow, on Flickr




Space saver by Johnny Slow, on Flickr

The standard battery was massive, this smaller one still does the job.
 Small battery by Johnny Slow, on Flickr

On the topic of induction and boost, one critical item that I overlooked is the S/C belt. I initially did change it when doing the other belt while replacing the tensioners and idlers.. Having just checked the S/C belt tensioner, it was at 90%+ (yellow mark) within the min-max  cast rectangle (outlined in blue) , there's a good chance the belt was slipping at higher boost levels.  A new belt got it back to 33% (cast line)  and then after 100 miles it settled at 50%. But this time I fitted a Conti Elite belt (which is similar to popular Goodyear gator back belt) rather than using a standard six rib belt. So far, so good and the chirping noise on start up from the S/C has gone.    






 I haven't got a photo of the belt but here's a generic photo. You see the hatching on the belt rather that ribs.  It will be interesting to see how this belt fairs out, the previous Conti 6 rib lasted less than 25,000 miles. 
96c947123bab4dd4d3fb1ac6080b8636 by Johnny Slow, on Flickr

Bookmarked.

I also fitted the later ( plastic) T/B inlet rather than the original metal one. It's fitted to the later S/C engines which use the small Eaton M45 charger. The plastic has a much nicer radius (not as sharp), plus it's got a divider inside, the metal one didn't . I presume that aids/smooths air flow at boost pressure.  Has it made any difference? I don't know being candid but since it was free I reckoned there was no harm fitting it. I did have an issue with the boost hose coming adrift, so I fitted good new wide band hose clips and changed the pipe setup slightly.






One thing I have been meaning to experiment with is different Maf's. I've tried a standard Pierberg (Merc use Bosch) didn't notice ant difference but didn't do any logging on the OBD scanner. I also have two other Bosch Maf's, both for BMW's E46/E39's & E60's. So between two possible Maf locations and four different Maf's I've a fair bit of experimenting to do but I;m not expecting massive results possibly just problems. What I can say is, I did run the car a few years back with the BMW M5 E60 Maf and the increase in torque was really impressive but I ran into a problem after 250 miles of driving, the S/C clutch would disengage and would only engage after switching off and starting again. The only way to overcome the cutting out was disconnect the battery for 30 mins, and then it was good for another 250 miles. What I presume was happening, during the 250 miles the ECU is going thru it's learning phase and then decides it doesn't like the MAF signal output @ wide open throttle . It's real pity as it drives great with the E60 Maf.

Could you not simply fit a silicone blanking cap and a hose clip? Keep up the good work.

s-l400 by Johnny Slow, on Flickr