WTF....It always seems to be something
 

I keep repairing things and the more I repair...the more I find broken!!!

I was driving yesterday and when accelerating I heard some clicking under the dash and the power of the engine was surging in and out.

I knew it was the switchover valve turning on and off the boost to the ALDA. I thought first, maybe I am over boosting. and the switchover is really protecting my engine.

I hooked up a calibrated gage between the ALDA and the switchover and soon as the boost reaches 9 psi, the switchover dumps the boost and the car falls on it's face.

I bypassed the switchover and the car is running great and not going over 10 psi.

9 psi is too low and I like (believe it is DEFINITELY needed to have the switchover to protect against over boost) for the switchover to work.

What is going on???

I could write a 10 page essay about what I have repaired on this car in 3 months.....my wife has already given up on this car and is starting to drive our Jag (Jag supposed to be our weekend/high fluting car)

FRUSTRATED!!!

i know what you mean, my $300 300D is the same way. its just one thing after another...over and over again.
its worst when you have the EVIL servo, which you are lucky enough not to have.
i'm replacing mine soon with manual heater controls from a euro. my life will be much easier then

there's not a spec of rust, and its really clean so i'm happy :)

You bought a 300 dollar luxury car that's over 20 years old.........




OP, just bypass the solenoid and never think about it again

The pressure switch unit on the manifold is closing at a value that is below specification. See if you can find a proper replacement without resorting to a brand new pressure switch ($$$$).


Also, kindly read and follow the recommendations in this post prior to posting again on the forum:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=127342

yup it was a hellofa deal
the engine has 40k on it, perfect compression
no rust, interior is perfect, and i have receipts for $2000 worth of work.

i originally bought it for parts, but it was too nice to take apart so i replaced the hood and fender(body damage) and put it on the road

Well it is a Mercedes if you wanted a car with no problems you should have bought Lexus but then there is no soul in that car. I had 1993 Lexus GS300 with over 300K miles all original before I SOLD it yes it was SOLD with over 300K miles and it still runs and it is a gasoline car.

a lexus is a toyota, hence why they go so long ;)

Yes but it is "luxury" Toyota that is why I compared them. All in all not a bad car a lot of options and cheaper than MB.

Thanks for the info about the pressure switch. I will check into that.

BTW, I read the post that you wanted me to read before posting again....guess I don't get it. I asked a question about what could be wrong with my car. I thought that was the purpose of this forum.

My wife complains at times what I have to put in a car, but I have to point out that it has been FAR cheaper than having monthly car payments.

I keep waiting for the "being cheaper than car payment" time to happen!!

At this rate I could have bought an AMG 55.

80's old school, I believe Brian was just pointing that out as a tip, since you are kind of new to the forum. These topics may have been covered, several times over. We're all here to help each other but sometimes issues that have been addressed by lots of us before and seen by regulars, which is why whunter went to the trouble of sorting out issues by part.

Keep in mind, as its been said many times before, there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes. Are these cars reliable? yes. Are they reasonably inexpensive to maintain? yes. But keep in mind, you're buying something 20+ years old, if it made it this far, at minimum, the previous owners did the bare minimum maintenance to keep it running this long. You hope they addressed other issues, like suspension bushings and front end parts, but thats wishful thinking. Thats been my experience anyway.

I look at everything I have invested in my 87 SDL, including the cost of the car, and I'm in for under 6 grand. And no car note.

Go back and read it again.

Read the section about how to post a new thread and what to put in the title.

I have to agree with your lexus story.. my ES300 has 128K on the clock and never had any issues, it still runs nearly perfectly to this day (I credit my own maintenance). It is definately lacking a soul.

My MB on the other hand is full of soul but has its little issues once and again, but it is to be expected from a 31 year old car (31 years and 44 days to be exact). They are just so well built that they are fun to work on, sometimes I get excited to find something to fix on it as it is such a joy (compared to my chevy and the fords that I have turned wrenches on).

Better yet, get a 2003 Caddy lke my inlaws. I was going to check the tranny fluid, think I found the cap. Check manual, yup thats the cap buried under air filter and large group of wires. Manual say better off taking to dealer to check tranny fluid level. The the head gaskets that go, then engine and heads aren't rebuildable. Wonder why gm is in trouble?