I've gone and done it now. After my experience with the '90 300 SEL, I just bought a '98 C230 which my wife will mostly drive. 66k miles and appears to be in excellent shape. I have to get a replacement key (already know the drill on smartkey thanks to this forum), owner's manual, and floor mats.

I've scoured the board to read up on this model. Any advice as far as things to check that are particular to this model (flex coupler wear, engine wiring harness, shifter bushings for examples), ? How about particularly handy after market doo-dads?

I'd consider replacing all the fluids (if you have no records) 60k is about time for new transmission fluid, brake fluid, coolant (way overdo if never changed), differential fluid, etc.

I would consider an Audio 10 CD player (german and/or uk ebay)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7998506052&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

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Daily Driver: 02 E430 4MATIC
In the family: '03 E500 // '04 ML500 // 64 220SE

Thanks....good stuff. It comes with a changer, so should be good to go with that. Fluid change and overall inspection is pretty much SOP for me and a new car.

Does this model have any issues with timing belt/change, or oil leak trouble spots?

I don't believe it has a belt, should be a timing chain. The service interval is pretty long for those things (if ever). Yours may leak a little oil, my dad has a '97 that does, but the engine is a good one.

Front ball joints and/or control arm bushings are something to watch out for.

Do a search. There are a couple of threads on this exact car and subject I think. Off the top of my head I can tell you a few things:

If it squeaks when you go over a speed bump then that is front sway bar bushings which are cheap but a little tricky to install yourself.

If the electric seat adjustments stop working, that is a bad relay in the trunk area.

If the headrest only stops working, that is a bad solder joint on the motor (I have a thread on that)

Watch your electrolyte (water) level in the battery (trunk). General advice but easy to forget since you never see the battery.

Dealer sells mats for fairly cheap. I got the carpet ones and also the rubber ones that are very nice and were about 50.00 as I recall.

Many questions people have are answered are answered in the owners manual. It is very thorough. So get one and read it. Lots of specific info there.

One common question not answered in the manual is: Is it OK to leave the trans switch set on "W" all the time? Answer: Yes, many people like it that way and it is not a problem.

Another common problem is the display on the climate control module starts to "lose segments" like 77 degrees looks like 17 degrees etc. I have not seen a definitive answer about this other than "it has gone bad". I just tap on mine and it comes back, for a while...

The engine air filter cover is a little unusual, seems normal until you try to put it back on and then it seems trickier than it should, and more than 1 person has said that the air filter was too big for the housing (including me). Some have actually suggested that the housing shrunk!! I bought a Mann and it was over 1/4" too large so next time I will try a different brand.

Oil filter is on top and the cap uses a special "socket" that you can get cheap at WalMart supposedly (of course they will then close the place where you work and you will be unemployed but hey, cheap stuff is great, especially when you are unemployed right?)

Some (including me) had "wandering/wallowing" steering and needed a new center link assembly. If you jack up the front of the car, grab the tire at 9 and 3 O'clock and "rock" the wheel back and forth. If there is a clunk clunk then something is worn.

These engines are notorious for burning NO oil. Some have described it as "spooky". Best I can figure, mine uses about 1 Qt every 30,000 miles, and some of that is leaked. And that is with synthetic 0W40.

That's all I can think of!!

Mike

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1998 C230 330,000 miles (currently dead of second failed EIS, yours will fail too, turning you into the dealer's personal human cash machine)
1988 F150 144,000 miles (leaks all the colors of the rainbow)
Previous stars: 1981 Brava 210,000 miles, 1978 128 150,000 miles, 1977 B200 Van 175,000 miles, 1972 Vega (great, if rusty, car), 1972 Celica, 1986.5 Supra

Thanks, Mike. Very good overall review. After I actually get the car and look into it a bit, I'll dig up this post and tell others what was found.

I love my '98 C230. Great ride, good gas mileage and it's got style. Besides the regular maintenance and fluid changes I have changed the water pump (easy job on an M111) and the rear lower control arm bushings. Myself and many others have had a little trouble with the purge valve. It will bring up a PO455 code once in a while. I sprayed a little WD-40 in the upstream port with the engine running and it has not come back in a while.

The only gripe I have about the car is the CAN BUS computer network that runs my power windows. I continue to struggle with an intermittent driver's side power window problem.

All that said, they are'nt hot rods but they are very well put together cars.


Cheers,
Matt

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next oil change -C230- 160000 Km
-Mustang- 70000 Km

Just went on a 300 Mi trip last night. Most of the time at 75 MPH. (70 MPH zone, don't send me a ticket). Got about 30MPG I figure. 2 things I forgot to mention:

There is no tranny dipstick so don't look for it.

The Oil need for a drain and filter change is 5.8 Qts, not 6.5 as the manual says. Gillly said so also in an old post and I know because I put in 5.9 and it went over the full mark a little. That's the only mistake in the manual that I know of other than they neglected to tell you to check the battery water level, but that was corrected later with a recall that added a sticker on the appropriate page with that info, and a sticker under the hood (and a new battery in some cases).

Also I think the manuals said to use regular oil but later that was revised to Mobil 1 0W40 to support the FSS extended maintenance intervals.

Mike

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1998 C230 330,000 miles (currently dead of second failed EIS, yours will fail too, turning you into the dealer's personal human cash machine)
1988 F150 144,000 miles (leaks all the colors of the rainbow)
Previous stars: 1981 Brava 210,000 miles, 1978 128 150,000 miles, 1977 B200 Van 175,000 miles, 1972 Vega (great, if rusty, car), 1972 Celica, 1986.5 Supra

Thanks, guys. No dipstick? This should be fun!

No need to check the trans fluid on a regular basis. Just leave it and have the fluid and filter changed every 90-100,000 kilometers or so.

The 98 W202 has no engine or other wiring harness issues. Solved by MY1996.

If you begin to get spotty performance and a strong feeling of hesitation at 4000rpm and above, but no CEL, it's the first sign of the Air Mass Meter going south. Common problem on all OBD-II cars.

You might want to delve into the trans a bit and find out if the updates have been done. There is an ETC update and some other minor stuff.

I've owned my 98 C230 since new in the fall of 1997, and love it. Economical to operate and very reliable. My trans was updated under warranty to 1999-spec thanks to a failing pressure control spring, but other than that, it's been pretty steady sailing. Have replaced one HVAC blower motor, an AMM, front swaybar bushings and that's about it. A long time back when I was still taking the car to the dealer, they overfilled the crank and blew out the front and rear main seals, so they replaced at their expense. Not the fault of the car, so I don't hold that against it. Those seals have held tight since I began doing my own oil/filter changes. I also had one axle seal sweating, very slightly, years back. I would have left it, but the car was under warranty, so the dealer changed all three seals on the final drive unit.

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John Shellenberg
1998 C230 "Black Betty" 240K

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