My Diesel is messed up!!! I NEED HELP!

[alisondeneen]

I have an 87 190d and lately the amber colored light for the fluid level has been coming on, and I spoke with my technician and he said it wasn't a really big deal, and to just fill the antifreeze tank with water. Well I am living out of town right now going to college, and I can't get back to get it checked out...SO...I'm a bit worried because everyday I fill the tank up with water, and then I drive it and about a half hour into driving it the light comes on again. I am pretty sure it has a leak in it, and my dad said he had noticed it as well. Is this a big deal...do any of you know what I can do to keep my car from acting up...? It isn't really affecting the drivability of the car, but I am really worried that it is going to overheat or something if I drive it back to my parents which is 90 miles away....HELP PLEASE!!!!!!!

[boneheaddoctor]

Originally Posted by alisondeneen

I have an 87 190d and lately the amber colored light for the fluid level has been coming on, and I spoke with my technician and he said it wasn't a really big deal, and to just fill the antifreeze tank with water. Well I am living out of town right now going to college, and I can't get back to get it checked out...SO...I'm a bit worried because everyday I fill the tank up with water, and then I drive it and about a half hour into driving it the light comes on again. I am pretty sure it has a leak in it, and my dad said he had noticed it as well. Is this a big deal...do any of you know what I can do to keep my car from acting up...? It isn't really affecting the drivability of the car, but I am really worried that it is going to overheat or something if I drive it back to my parents which is 90 miles away....HELP PLEASE!!!!!!!

Well you need to find out if its leaking on the ground, leaking into the rankcase or getting sucked into the combustion chamber.

Look at the water pump, there is a weep hole that coolant leaks from when it goes bad. smell your exhaust, and hope it doesn't smell sweet, that means head gasket, check oil, see if its milky, also something bad. It could even be the radiator cap. Don't just do nothing.

[P.E.Haiges]

alison,

A better heading for your post would be:" My '87 190D is leaking coolant Please help"

What do you mean by the antifreeze tank? Do you mean the coolant overflow tank connected to the radiator?

If you are you in an area where the temperature gets below freezing, you will dilute the antifreeze bt adding additional water and something could freeze and do further damage.

Are there any coolant leaks under the car? If not, most likely you have a blown headgasket and the coolant is leaking into the engine cylinders. But it also could be a leaking water pump.

I suggest you try running with the radiator cap loose and see if there is less coolant loss.

I don't think much of your technician's solution. He should be trying to find where the leak is. It could be a bigger deal if you don't get it fixed soon.

P E H

[dieseldiehard]

your concerns are valid!
a leak of the magnitude that replentishing that often is a disaster waiting to happen! you should:
1. carry a cuple of one gallon jugs of water in your trunk
2. check your temp gaue very religiously, often! Stop every so often and look at the level in that tank you described as a antifreeze tank" it should always show some water level - never below the bottom!
3. take the car to an independent shop that has experience with Mercedes and have the leak pinpointed, hopefully maybe just the radiator but it could be something like head gasket (maybe even worse but hopefully not!)
GOOD LUCK! check back here and let us know what they find out

Dieseldiehard
1971 220 (gas) 4-spd manual 106441
1979 300TD w/ ’85 turbo engine 295530
1983 300D 243280
1985 300TD 217300
1987 300D 258230

[Jim H]

For what it's worth, my yellow light came on and the expansion tank, sure enough, was low. I topped it off with water, that's all I had at the time.

Some time later, it came on again. This time, I topped off with genuine M-B antifreeze, to offset the straight water the previous time.

I found it took less time for the fluid to drop when I did a lot of stop-and-go driving, with the temperature gage around the 100C mark. I also smelled antifreeze and thought I saw some at the bottom of the radiator.

Long story made short, a new radiator now sits in place of the previous, which had a small leak from a lower seam. At 100C or so the system would pressurize, no surprise, which speeded up the leak, also no surprise.

Conclusion: short-term, keep topping off. Long-term, find the leak and repair/replace.

Best regards,
Jim

[Hatterasguy]

Do you see a coolent leak? I would think one that big would make a mess. If it is leaking into your oil it will look milky. Don't drive the car if you see this, it will ruin your engine. I would sudjest fixing this it will only get worse and cause more problems.

[psfred]

Any auto repair shop can do a quick pressure test and tell you where the leak is (unless it's a blown head gasket, in which case you would know anyway by the long white trail of smoke out the back!).

Do this tomorrow if you can!

It may just be a hose, but even so, eventually it will run too low on you and you will overheat the engine. This will ruin it, so watch that gauge! If it gets anywhere near the red mark, pull of and stop the engine AT ONCE, even if you have to stop in traffic while it cools down. DO NOT do like my sister did when her radiator blew, drive til it stops. This is VERY expensive!! The engine will NOT (REPEAT NOT) tolerate that temp "just a little bit" -- if the needle gets up there, SHUT IT OFF!!! PLEASE!!!! You can start it up again in a few minutes and get to a better spot after it cools off some.

Peter

[alisondeneen]

i'm scared

[Brian Carlton]

All right, enough.

She stated that she is using the entire tank every 30 minutes or so. The chances that the engine is drinking this quantity of antifreeze are just about nil. Damage to the engine would have already occurred and there would have been clouds of white smoke.

So, there is every likelyhood of a leak or a bad water pump.

She can drive it as long as she wants if there is a leak. Just needs to pull over and add water.

Now, if a water pump is blowing out that much fluid, the bearing is just about toast and there are grounds for some concern if it lets go.

So, have someone look at it while it is running and determine if the water pump is leaking. This is very easy to do. The pump is right up in front of the engine behind the radiator. You can probably do it yourself. If the pump is leaking, then you probably should not drive it 90 miles. If the pump is not leaking, then just stop periodically and top off the tank and you will be fine.

You should have someone determine where the leak is coming from when you get it home.

Hi Alison.

No need to be scared.

Although it really isn't recommended, you
could go to an auto parts store and ask/look for
radiator stop leak.

Ask if someone at the store can put it in for you.
There are instructions on the bottle so you could
do it yourself too.

If the leak isn't to big, this stuff will stop the leaking.
This way you can get thru until you can get back home
an have it fixed right.

Here is a tip on how to do a cooling system flush because with
that stop leak in the system you need to flush it.

TECH TIP... the MB techs use SHOUT (that's right... the stuff from the grocery store) in a 1/1 or 1/3 mixture for internally degreasing the engine before using a descaler or flush chemical. Mercedes recommends a 10% citric acid (quite weak.. ie white vineger is 5% ascetic acid). They usually don't bother with the Shout unless they have replaced a head gasket or something, but you may want to do it at least once. MB in their manual says it is critical before doing a chemical flush or descaling. They refer to it as "de-oiling" the cooling system. Also, it is important to remove the thermostat in order to do a proper flush and rinse, but you must put the seal back in without the thermostat while flushing or it will leak there.

Louis.

[phantoms]

Originally Posted by mb123mercedes

Although it really isn't recommended, you
could go to an auto parts store and ask/look for
radiator stop leak.

Please do not use stop leak in your cooling system. It will do nothing but clog your cooling system up and cause cooling problems from now on. Find the leak instead. If it's using as much as you say, it shouldn't be to hard. Fill it up and then crank it up and let it warm up. Look under the car, at your water hoses, at the radiator, the water pump and the cooling reservoir. If you still can't find a leak, take it for a quick trip down a local highway at speed. After a couple minutes, pull over and check all the same things again.

[psfred]

No need to be scared, just don't plan a long trip until you know what is wrong!

Very likely you have a leaking hose or water pump, that's what's usually wrong by this age, but there is the chance that you can overheat it if you are putting water in every day! You should be seeing a puddle of coolant on the ground under the car uless it's the water pump -- that usually only leaks when the engine is running and hot.

As I said, you need to get this to a shop pronto to find out where the leak is and how bad it is -- look in the Yellow Pages for auto repair and find a shop that works on Mercedes. They probably won't charge you for pressure testing the cooling system (and will think you are pretty smart for knowing what to do!), if they do it will be MUCH cheaper than damaging the engine. They will tell you how serious it is.

If it's a small leak, you may be able to drive home with the pressure cap loose so it won't lose as much coolant and your dad can fix it, or they may want to repair it there. If they talk big money, take it to another shop first, and talk to your dad before commiting to any work!

Peter

[alisondeneen]

Alright, that made me feel better, I was freaking out a little bit!! (still am...) I just am not sure because the guy who works on my car has done so since she was born!!!!!! and i felt like he'd know what to do, and he's like, yeah...as long as the oil isn't carmel colored, i think it'll be ok to drive back here. i am in eau claire wisconsin, so i have NO idea if they even have a mercedes dealership here, let alone a specialty repair shop...i'll try to look. otherwise maybe i just need to make like a little list of what i should tell the guys at the repair shop......

check the water pump? the hoses?


hopefully all is well...i'm gonna give dad a call and see what he thinks....i'm sure he'll tell me to bring it somewhere, i just dont really trust the amoco repair shop with my baby

[psfred]

I wouldn't trust the Amoco shop to fix it, but they could do the pressure test for you and probably find the leak. If it's a hose, they can fix that, too. Otherwise, call your dad.

A radiator shop can do the test as well, and get you the rad if it's bad, but probably won't install it. The Amoco shop could do that, but I'd not let them doe much else, too expensive to fix if they are "learning" on your car....

Peter

[alisondeneen]

alright well i brought it up to amoco and they're doing the pressure test...if they find the leak is in the water pump or whatever, i don't know if i should have them fix it or what...

yikes