Antifreeze resorvoir needs fluid ... W124
 

Its down about 2 inches or so. The radiator warning light was flickering on/off last night, that's how I realized it...

Assuming there are no other problems (car was operating very well within its normal range, so don't foresse any problems), Where could this fluid have gone , how? Or is could there be something definitly wrong :( ?

Also, being so little,do I just pour in distilled water or mix a small batch of antifreeze / water ?

thanks :hat:

Could be the sensor that is bad. Unplug the wire that is going to the sensor on the bottom of the antifreze tank and clean the electrical contacts. Also how many miles on the car. Head gasket was done on it?
If not, there is a problem.

His coolant level is down 2", so his sensor is working correctly. Being down 2" is not normal. Definitely a coolant leak somewhere.

Start, by refilling to the proper level using 50/50 mixture of antifreeze and water. Than perform with a good visual inspection to find the source of the leak. Go for the obvious, and most likely cause first. Check all hoses, Clamps, water-pump, Radiator, coolant reservoir, Coolant cap, ect, Look for dripping coolant on the floor as well.

Phil

I checked below the car 2-3 times last night after a couple of stops I had to make and nothing on the ground. I will check the ground when I get out of work later and check the coolant level as well again.

The senser would go on and off, so maybe senser, but again its "low" on coolant in the reservoir. But to be honest with you I hadn't even looked at coolant level since it was flushed a few months ago :( .. so who knows if it was almost at that level since then,and now it went down a "hair" and is making the senser go on. I am going to see if it goes on more if I brake (slushing of fluid back and forth)... maybe... Just trying to find the "easier problems" to solve :D ...

head gasket been done btw.... and again, after the light started flickering yesterday, and I checked the low level in the reservoir, I drove 20-30 miles and no less coolant nore any higher in eng temp :confused:

Check your tranny fluid-a cracked tube in the cooler section of the radiator will allow the coolant to mix with the tranny fluid & destroy the tranny. If the tranny fluid at the bottom is milky you've found the problem.

Ok, now that you told us the rest of the story, maybe there is really nothing wrong. Just fill it up and monitor the level for a while.

Phil

It is also not unusual for the tank to develop a crack and leak.

Tru dat! I had this issue some years ago, and the cracked tank was the culprit!

I had a craked tank too.

Thanks for all the responses and help!

This am, the upper tank was missing more fluid :( .... I put in 50/50... about 3/4 gal ... There was no fluid on the ground ... I drove to work temp actually went down from the past couple wks from mid level temp to the notch before.... so fluid must've been missing for that time but not enough to trip the warning light... what an idiot :hat: ....

My drive to work was 20 miles, highway speed... so not stop and go... and not a drop missing ARGGHH... Let's see when I get home.... I definiely need to check the tranny fluid and go from there in checking what can be happening....

Do you have the heated windshield washer fluid option? My 90 300E had a crack in the coil that is inside the W/W fluid tank. The anti-freeze was able to mix with the W/W fluid and it ended up on the paint after I the squirt the windshield and damaged the paint.

:rolleyes2 I still have to ck the tranny in the am and see if any fluid in there... but I got home temp was low like this am... Thats 44 miles round trip to and from the office... I was even in stop and go for about 5-10 minutes of the trip in the afternoon and no temp increase or fluid loss.. I am at a lost... Glad that no fluid loss now, but something was / is wrong for the prior fluid loss .. :rolleyes2

I had a spate of coolant loss recently and was relieved when it wasn't a gasket or block leak . . . it was my aux pump to the heater core.

is it possible that the coolant somehow evaporates over time? all our cars were bought new and after about a year of driving, they all were low on coolant. i brought in to the dealer many times but they said no leaks anywhere?

it almost seems to me he has a radiator cap issue.... and it's seeping out through there......

I had this problem with another car..but that's a long story...turned out it was a hose buried under the intake....it leaked very slowly...and the heat from the engine evaporated it......

This am (I ended up not checking it when I got home last night) level was below the section where the top of the container and the bottom join together (like the lip)... so I added fluid up to that lip...Got to work 22 miles later and the fluid was to the TOP of the container (ie: fluid level went up) , could be b/c of heat that it flows into that container from the engine when it gets to operating temp?

I bet this excess fluid will now go to the ground and return to the level below or at the lip ....

I need to confirm what is the "proper" level... :confused:

Hi

Try pressurizing the system cold. Just put a pump (any pump - ballon pump, bicycle pump) to the OVERFLOW hose and see if the system holds pressure for some time, ie 1 hr. The cap has a built in one way valve to hold the pressure. If the cap is not working, you can immediately hear the hissing. Any leaks when cold will show up as drips. These small leaks cannot be seen as they evaporate immediately from the heat of the engine.

Oreo

Just make sure that when you top it up to the proper level, (as explained in the previous post) that you do it when the engine is stone cold

Wait at least 8Hrs after you parked the car.

Phil

Ok, so the seam is where I was targeting....35 miles accross the city round trip later, and no fluid loss!!! WTF.... :rolleyes: A PMS'ing cooling system! I mean not one drop at my 2-3 stops in this HOT south FL weather... Let's see if any fluid on the ground at 5pm.... 22 miles back home...check and I'll report back, lol.

I have access to a one of those pressure pumps for the cooling system. Will have to ck tommorrow. I am also going to reread this thread to see what else to ck... If the car was loosing fluid continually it would have definitely lost it today with the driving and all.

To avoid adding one sentence responses... following the 2 water pump comments, I will also look out for those tommorrow.

Keep in mind that many Water pump leaks are notorious for occurring only when AFTER the engine has been shut-off.

They typically leak through the water pump weep hole.

Phil

I was just going to add that point.

On all of the Japanese / American cars I've owned, when the water pump was going out, coolant would leak out of the weep hole, and you could see it puddle on the garage floor.

With my 1993 300E (3.2) "E320", coolant would only leak out of the water pump when the car was running. It didn't leave any residue on the garage floor.

We now have residue....
 

This am, there was a little "puddle" on the ground. It was I.D'ed as green in color, sitting right under the engine towards the front..... I have to do some reading Mon when I get a chance, but it seems like it would be the water pump :( ....

But the thing doesn't overheat, and still hasn't lost much fluid, maybe a finger-width on the reservoir...and today, I again, I was stop / go , idling with a/c on , etc... maybe like 30 miles or so today, yesterday like 100 miles...

I definitely want to fix the problem b4 it leaves me stranded, seems it could be unpredictable , any minute, now that I narrowed down that it is leaking .

Should it be the water pump, I thought they lasted 130K +. I only have 104K :confused: ...

Financially speaking this will skew my numbers... it would have been ONE year I have the car mid May... if I can get past mid may, then I don't have to include this expense in the first year's maintainance / repair costs :D .... and just put it in as second year expenses, LOL... going to have to not drive it for two weeks ...ha ha...

Anyway..... I don't have the facility to do the job probably....Just did a search and saw "labor extensive" :( ... also found one of my own posts, two months ago asking " how long they should last?" The lowest # I got was 130K! ... yet I am at 104K! :thinking2:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/tech-help/117549-w124-water-pump.html?highlight=water+pump

My pump lasted 10 years and 86K
 

My 1995 E320 with 86K was doing the same thing. It was the water pump and it cost $800.00 to have it fixed at the dealer. I also had the oil and filter done. You don’t always see the water right away because it gets trapped on top of the lower engine cover. You may have a little puddle on the cover that leaks out when you are driving. Once it started, mine got worse rather quickly. Don’t risk having your car overheat. I would get it fixed immediately.

Be sure to ask that they replace all of the hoses and flush your system when they do the repair. I was told that there is one hose that can only be replaced by removing the pump, so don’t even think about using the old hoses.

I don’t like the sound of having “green” liquid on the floor. Everyone seems to think that the proper fluid should be red or something similar. It should not be green.

My water pump lasted about 130,000 miles, fwiw.

"Old age" and mileage
 

I think it might be good to consider the age and the mileage. Your 1995 is 10 years old, even though it "only" has 104K. If you notice, suginami’s 2000 W210 is only 5 years old.

No, I think he means on his prior W124. So how many hours does the book say it should charge? I need this info b4 I send it in... and at the rate we're going, it will be tommorrow or the next day :( .

I lost my coolant pump on my W124 at just around 100K...coolant loss occurred when engine was off.

$750 at the dealer when I had it done (prior to joining MBShop). Still, it's labor intensive because you have to remove a lot of stuff before you can get to the pump.

Yeah, I was referring to my 1993 300E (3.2) "E320".

Age is as hard on things like water pumps just as much as mileage. I think 104K and 10+ years is pretty normal.

Also, you mentioned you can now see green coolant leaking, which might be part of your problem.

It has been debated to death on this forum, but Mercedes emphatically rejects the green fluids for these engines. Green fluid is not compatible. The ph level is completely wrong. MB fluid is a pale yellow color, and is ph neutral. The green stuff is not ph neutral.

There are compatible fluids that are made in the aftermarket, but they are not green.

MB fluid also contains a lot of silicates, which keeps your water pump lubricated. They also claim it keeps your hoses lasting longer.

Great, so they put wrong fluid at a MB indy :( last year when I had the fluids change :( ... You know what... who knows??

Damn, one person said $750 the other $800... :( ... If they piece itself is like $200+ then that's a lot of hours labor, even at $75/hour :eek: How many hrs could that be?

note I am am aware of the costs of these cars, just have to kick and rant, since its comig out of my pocket :hat:

Water pump swapped.
 

That's it, I had it changed today. Got a Laso, upper / lower radiator hoses, and that third hose someone said I should change, thermostat, and MB coolant for about 650..

Come to think of it, I should have just changed the belt as well! How many miles can one of these belts last?

Well, hopefully, I will have the car around the next 100K miles + for the next water pump :D

Out of curiosity, what's a Laso?

ready for another 100K miles
 

My belt was replaced. They said it was frayed. Maybe yours was fine. I don’t know how long you have owned your car, but maybe the previous owner already replaced the belt. I wasn’t the first owner of my car, but I have owned it since it had 22K miles and for about 8 years. My belt had never been replaced.

That's the water pump brand I kept reading about when I searched. Here is a link from Fastlane.
http://catalog.eautopartscatalog.com/mercedesshop/sophio/quote.jsp?clientid=catalog.mercedesshop&cookieid=1IK06E6181IO0GHMZH&baseurl=http://catalog.peachparts.com/&partner=mercedesshop&year=1995&product=G3000-34885&application=000243065

I guess the belt was ok, cause I can't imagine a mechanic NOT changing something he could make extra money on.