WOW, What a trip! 1. Our first leg was to Ohio for a family reunion, and thence to Chicago for outlaw Thanksgiving (flew to Seattle and back). Halfway to Ohio the new monovalve developed a tiny tear causing no heat at cruise rpms. I also realized the Aux pump had failed, so we had multiple issues. Rusty was able to get a Saturday delivery of the affected parts, and everything worked perfectly until driving in downtown Chicago on Sunday afternoon. While at a stop light, I noticed the temperature climb from it's normal 90 to about 115....at the green, it returned to about 100 and then continued to fluctuate from 95-110. Pulled over to check under the hood, and noticed that the NEW aux pump was dripping coolant at idle from the joint between the motor and pump body, and spraying it at high rpm's. Nice! After a few sentences of "NAVY" vocabulary, I was able to get a phillips screwdriver on the 4 screws which hold the thing together, and the leak stopped. This was a MTC (?) replacement, and it was only on the car for about 400 miles before it started to leak. UNSAT.
2. While on the subject of MTC, I have gone through 2 monovalve kits this year from MTC, and each have had a VERY small tear in the diaphragm which renders heat inop at cruise rpms. During our drive to today from Buffalo to Maine, it happened again! ARGH!!! No heat at cruise sucks. I learned that I could go max hot while at idle, and it would stay in hot, but the second that the valve would try to cycle, it would stay cold. I will bet that the NEW MTC monovalve has a tiny tear like the others.....maybe it's time to drop the $135 for an OEM??? 3. And of course...what would a major road trip be without a vacuum issue? While I as in the autoparts store looking for the right coolant (unsuccessfully), SWMBO unlocked the car from the pax side. Nothing has worked right since then: must use the manual shutoff for the engine, no locks, cruise control intermittent, weird climate control stuff (might be monovalve), and definitely harder shifting. The investigation starts tomorrow now that I am in garage and not FMAO. All of that being said, this is still the BEST automobile that I have ever owned. The only car that comes close in terms of driving is the '93 Northstar Eldorado, and it isn't that close if you consider reliability. My old Volvo 240's are up there in the reliability department, but then you have to drive a Volvo..."Sorry daughter, I hope you are still enjoying the 245!" ....to be continued.... _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
