I created a list of items I wanted to address, with the first being the critical one.

• Occasional coolant leak after long drives
• Fix a transmission leak
• Windscreen washer not working
• Oil pressure gauge odd readings
• Slight noise from alternator
• Poor A/C performance
• Fit battery monitor

My 560SEL has 342,000km on the clock, but I use it quite a lot so it is in good mechanical shape.   Any older car can have an issue, but sorting that list out would give me confidence for the trip.  I also packed some spares with me, such as radiator hoses, fuses, the old alternator and the like.

Poor A/C Performance, Alternator & Transmission leak

I started with the A/C performance, largely because I hadn’t noticed the coolant leak at that time.   Late last year, the freon leaked out of the system, so it felt like a good opportunity to not only address that issue, but fit the same uprated condenser I have on my 560SEC.   I started this upgrade at roughly the same time as I upgraded the condenser on my 450SLC.

As with before, I got the kit from Klima Design works, and my mechanic fitted it for me.   There wasn’t any real issue fitting the kit, but the leak was found to me my compressor.   The compressor had been replaced by the previous owner about 10-12 years prior.   Based on the leaky compressor, we didn’t re-gas the system and I sourced a new compressor to be fitted on my next visit.

The transmission leak turned out to be the secondary transmission pump.   The seals were replaced, as well as the transmission cooler hoses.   At the time my mechanic noted it looked like the radiator had been leaking coolant.

I had heard some noise from the alternator, so had him replace it with a Bosch rebuilt unit.   After my experience last time, I figured the swap meant I would also have the old one as a spare before it failed.

A few months later I had the compressor changed and now had working A/C again.   It didn’t seem as cold as the 560SEC is, but it is a good improvement on what I had before.

Coolant Leak

I was only able to see the coolant leak after a long drive, and after that I would have a small puddle of coolant under the car.    The puddle was always under the middle of the car, but I could not see any evidence of leaks from the coolant hoses.

To try and narrow it down to see if it was the radiator or something else, I ran the car while up on the hoist.  I couldn’t get it to leak coolant and I checked carefully around the radiator and heater hoses.   I changed the oil pressure sender unit while the car was up in the air.

After leaving the car overnight, I had a small pool of coolant on the floor underneath where the starter was.  At least the oil pressure gauge was working correctly.

Since the leak was not conclusive, I took the car back to my mechanic so he could pressure test it.   Turns out the radiator would leak from the seams when under pressure.  I guess the coolant was running down the undershield, or being blown back onto the engine before leaking onto the ground.   A new Radiator fixed the problem.

Windscreen washer and battery monitor

Having a working windscreen washer is quite useful for country driving.  The first and most obvious test was that I had fluid in the tank, which I did.  I was also able to test the headlight washers, which did spray when the headlights were switched on.    The pumps from my parts car were really crusty.  I simply swapped the headlight and windcreen pumps over.  I now have a working windscreen washer at the expense of the headlight washer.   The headlight washer is really for snowy environments.

I also fitted a BM2 battery monitor, which I use for most of my cars.  Since Mercedes-Benz didn’t provide a voltage gauge, the battery monitor allows my phone to act as a voltage gauge.

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Firstly I decided to replace the coolant reservoir tank.  My current one is not leaking, but the plastic was quite discoloured and looked a bit white around the hose entry.  Genuine Mercedes coolant reservoirs are still quite inexpensive, and you never know how long that will continue.   Best to change it now.   I was already planning to replace the level sender as it never alerted me to my coolant leak.  It is a pretty simple job to move all the hardware over to the new tank.  Having a proper set of circlip pliers would have made changing the sender easier, but it wasn’t so bad with the a set of needle nose after the tank was out of the car.

The old one will be useful as a temporary spare if I ever have a problem in the other W126s.   I also replaced the coolant hose between the tank at the bottom of the radiator.  I ended up having to cut this hose removing the old radiator as it was so rusty.

It is easier to get the bottom radiator hose in place before installing the radiator.   I used a new hose here and new hose clamps.   I don’t know the age of the current one and hoses are not expensive and worth changing at the same time as the radiator.  The radiator slides in fairly easily, but the fan shroud must be in place first.

The clips that hold the radiator in place were a bit rusty so I purchased a new set.  I generally avoid Meyle parts unless there is no other alternative.   In my opinion they are poor quality.   I figured a simple clip would be fine, but I was proven wrong.   One of the clips snapped in two with just light pressure from my thumb.   The big challenge is that Meyle seem to be the only manufacturer of W126 transmission mounts that I can find.

The Nissens radiator that I have purchased does not have a drain plug like the IMI did.   I think the Behr radiators do, but I could not get one of those.   Other than that, installing a w126 radiator is the same regardless of brand.

The top hose is easy to install once the radiator is in place.  I also used a new one here.    While I was at it, I also replaced the clip that holds the small hose to the coolant reservoir tank against the front of the car near the headlight.

When I removed the radiator, the transmission cooler hoses were very crusty and I ended up cutting them.   They looked original and it was definitely worth replacing them.   The new hoses from Mercedes have metal spring protectors as they hang down quite low.

It is so much nicer installing new parts that screw together easily like those hoses than all the time it took to remove the rusty hoses and hose clamps.   Once these final hoses were installed it was now time to fill the coolant.  I used Penrite coolant, which is also to Mercedes spec.

At first all was well and I could see no coolant leaks.    However, after revving the engine a bit to get the water pump going and manually actuating the heater valve by sucking on the vacuum hose I started to get a bad leak from the heater hoses.   The puddle of coolant joined the puddle of transmission fluid under the car.   For some reason if I don’t use the SEC for about a month it dumps a big puddle of transmission fluid on the ground.   Its dry and then all of a sudden lake superior appears.   A problem to solve another time.

After removing and repositioning the hose clamp the leak seems to have stopped.  I have re-filled the reservoir and will check if it has gone down at all tomorrow.

If the car is now working properly without coolant leaks, the next step is to take it for a test drive to make sure everything working properly, and I am getting cold A/C.   As I have not yet installed the solenoid, the heater valve should remain shut and I should have no coolant flowing through the heater core.   Overall, installing a W126 radiator is pretty simple.   More simple than removing one that has been there for a while.

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The Traction currently has a habit of marking its territory after every drive with a nice dirty stain where the coolant has spat out the overflow.   I normally have to top the radiator up each drive or so, which is something I want to have looked at when the car goes in for rego.   Therefore, before that happens, I wanted to get the system as clean as possible, and the first step was the flush it out as best I could.

Unlike a ‘modern’ car, the Traction has a screw on radiator cap, then a mechanism to allow overflow at a certain pressure built into the radiator.   The mechanism on my car does not seem to be working anymore.   Many people convert their tractions to regular radiator caps due to the problems I am having, as well as that the cap is quite hard to remove.

The radiator drain for the traction is not as easy as the DS.   It is at the bottom of the radiator, accessed from the right hand side of the engine bay.   It is quite close to the hot exhaust manifold as well as the metal engine fan which does not have a shroud, so care is needed to operate it when the car is running.

I had already fitted a clear hose to the radiator overflow for when the car ‘spits’ after a drive, but the drain is a different outlet, so a second hose can be used to make sure it does not dribble all over the engine.

All I did was let the coolant slowly drain out while the car was running, and then keep topping it up to make sure the radiator core was always immersed.   A traction is much easier to do than a more modern car as there is no thermostat that could prevent the block from being flushed also.     After the first 20-30 minutes the coolant was still very dirty, but it slowly cleaned up, and from the photo you can see the last bottle in the row is much cleaner than some of the early samples I took.

Next step is to put in a cooling system cleaner and do another flush.

UPDATE (22/8/15) – The cooling system cleaner was well worth it with the same amount of crud again being flushed out of the system.

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The M110 thermostat is quite easy to remove – three 10mm bolts hold the housing – one is harder to get to and easier with a 1/4″ ratchet and extension.    Care should then be taken to align the new thermostat correctly – i.e the little valve at the highest point.

The thermostat change did the trick – the car is now running around 80c instead of around 60-65c and after a flush has fresh coolant.   We did an oil change too.  The M110 thermostat is much more accessible than some of the other cars, making it an easy change.

The post 280CE coolant flush and M110 thermostat change appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

The DS from what I can gather had been run on rainwater by the last owner – not sure about prior to that, but I do know it was in South Australia for a while, which has hard water. In any case, it looks like it was actually run on ditch water.

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