Donald Snook wrote:
From all the suggestions - I did figure out a few things I need to do.
Replace ALL FUSES and service rear diff.
There is a guy on ebay selling complete fuse packs for Mercedes. He
says his fuses are all brass rather than aluminum. Is this a bogus
claim of superiority. I haven't looked at my fuses in a while, but I
thought they about half of them were copper. What gives?
Irrespective of what the fuses are made of, they become unreliable after
about 10 years of use. It's the heating/cooling cycle that causes the
fuses to fatigue. ANY fuse (made from any metal or with any body
material - in a glass envelope or NOT) operated at much more than 50% of
rating (Mercedes runs most of their fuses at about 75-90% of rating)
will degrade with use as the metal crystallizes after enough cycles of
approaching melting and then cooling off.
The idea that copper fuses or fuses in glass envelopes last longer is
flawed. ALL the fuses I've tried last about 10 years the way they are
used in Mercedes.
In medical and other critical applications, ALL fuses are routinely
changed at 5 year intervals (or even more often especially if run VERY
close to rated value).
Marshall
--
Marshall Booth (who doesn't respond to unsigned questions)
"der Dieseling Doktor" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
'87 300TD 182Kmi, '84 190D 2.2 229Kmi, '85 190D 2.0 161Kmi, '87 190D 2.5
turbo 237kmi
