First off, I am a MB newbie who bought this car about a month ago. I really like it so far and while the engine, tranny and body seem very solid, I do have a few projects to get to. I've been reading threads for a couple of weeks and poking around the engine bay. I've checked with mbusa and they don't carry the manual for my car anymore. I got a CD from ebay.com and ordered a Haynes manual (hasn't arrived yet).

Here's what I want to fix:

1. Hard shift from 1-2 at partial acceleration
2. Glow plug light comes on after start, but not pre-start
3. All "idiot" lights are flaky, come on/stay on a lot
4. Test/change out all vacuum lines/components

After reading a lot of threads, I really like the wastgate actuator mod and want to do that. There is now a part supply issue so that mod is on hold. It did make me postpone the vacuum testing/replacement fix since I think I will be able to get rid of 2/3 of that once I do the actuator mod.

Anyway, last night I tracked down the cause of my tranny hard shift issue. The hose from the VSV was not connected and vacuum was connected to the wrong VSV port. Simple fix and the shift got much better.

Feeling good about that, I went on to the glow plug testing. I pulled the cap and connector from the glow plug relay and tested for continuity to ground for the 5 wires. I found that the middle wire on the 3-connection side was relatively open (200+ ohms versus .4-.5 for the other 4). Can anyone tell me which cylinder this is since my manual hasn't arrived yet (and I have to say that the CD is REALLY bad)?

While I was putting the cap back on the relay, my arm hit the small feed line to the ignition switch for injection shut-off and it snapped. It was really brittle and needed to be replaced anyway. I haven't started the car since - I assume that it won't shut off, right?

How tough is this to replace and can I get replacement lines of the proper colors for these hard lines or do people just use the white/clear? Do I tape the new line to the old and just pull it through the firewall or is there more to it than that... Sorry that to ask for help on what is probably such a trivial matter.

TIA