Before I take it in to the dealer to look at, I have a couple of minor questions on the C230.

1) How do I remove the center console wood to get at the broken trunk switch. Couldn't find anything on C consoles in the archives. The dealer can do it, but I don't want the wood messed up.

2) The AC is loud - the air coming out has a loud wind noise that varies randomly up and down, on any blower manual setting, or on auto. Rather like wind going past a partially open window, but coming from the vents. Also a ringing bearing-like noise accompanies this wind noise. Are these normal to the C class?

3)Sometimes the trans downshifts with a clunk just before coming to a stop at a red light, jolting the car. On a 300E I would be worried, but don't know enough about the C230 to say if this is normal or not.

Thanks for any input, I would like to find out if these are common traits before I have the dealer tell me "They all do that", or some other great line.

Removal of the wood is somewhat simple, just pull the plastic ring around the shifter up & "tug" on the wood.
The Trans SHOULDN'T make any "clunk" when slowing down!! Can be signs of early valve body / computer mis-communication.

Just to add to MBDoc.. yes the wood is that easy. Pry up that little plastic surrounding of the shifter... and then pull at the wood from the front... it should pull right up.

As for your vents, I get that too sometimes when it's on high speed. It doesn't sound like a smooth stream of air (from the center vents)... it just sounds like there are many obstacle the air must go around. When I have the center vent partially shut, I too hear that whining noise... but there's not a lot of the whining noise otherwise, but still some.

Thank You M.B.Doc and David! I fixed the center console boot lid switch in about 1 minute. After the switch was out I saw it was sitting up too high, applied some kinetic energy with the palm of my hand which popped it back into place, and now it works perfectly. Of course, this will deprive the dealer of the 1 hour labor and wiring harness/switch charge back to MB/DC on warranty repairs, but oh well ;).

I will hope their tender mercies on the trans are artfully applied, and will have them check the AC noise.

I ordered a replacement filter for the AC from fastlane, and down loaded the Bosch site pdf file on changing the filter, which they show as being behind the passenger foot well air vent. Everything removed as described, except there was no filter, or filter holder in that position. And unlike the w124, the w202 doesn't seem to have a nice book of 'exploded' diagrams to find the filter location! Well, when the new one gets here, the shape of the filter ought to give me some clues on where it goes - I suspect under the cowling as on the late w124s.

BTW, David, getting time for another SoCal meet? You really have to see some of the 500Es that showed up last time - mirror images of Black/gray and Silver/black. 2 show stoppers!

John,
Are you saying that there was no (cabin, correct??) filter? Hmmm, now that's interesting... I'm assuming Bosch gave you the wrong directions...
The filter is under the dash, passenger side, above the passenger's feet. If you look under there, you should see a plastic panel with holes in it (for recirc). There are 3 screws that hold this in... they are in a line below the glove box (but still under the dash). Once you have removed that panel, there should be a sliding panel thing (white i think). Not sure from there, I don't really remember, but I'm sure you can figure it out. Anyway, good luck and let me know if you have any other questions. BTW, did you get a charcoal filter?

As for the meeting... I was sitting at Breuggers Bagles today in that same table and was wondering the same thing. We need to do this soon, I'm dying to see those 500E's! TTY soon.

David:

I didn't see a cabin filter. I followed thedirections of turning the vent screw 90* and removing the vent, then removing the 3 screws on the bottom of the under glove box panel and pulling that. Unless I was looking in the wrong spot, I didn't see a filter. On the other hand, maybe no filter installed is the source of my loud pulsating windy and whining noise!

The Bosch Euro site lists a dual purpose carbon and particulate pollen filter for the C class, with a 9000km change interval. The one I ordered from fastlane is labelled "combo". After it gets here I will tell you what that means. I wrote Bosch/DE regarding sources for the charcoal filter, but never got an answer :(

I also ordered the replacement stock grill and chrome strips for my body shop to spray matte black like the 300E, and have the tire shop working on some 16" rims. Blackmercedes provided a great source for AMG suspension kits for w202 bodies that will be the third install, right after it goes out of warranty in January.

[Edited by JCE on 07-25-2001 at 02:03 AM]

John,
You should have contacted Bill, or Phil in partsshop! Bill was able to get my a charcoal filter for $25 about 6 months ago.
Anyway, maybe at the next meet, I could take a look and see what's going on with your car. And we will have mine there too, maybe that will help us go through the process!
Can't wait to meet up again.

David:
I went through Phil at FastLane, and $25 was the price, so maybe that is what I will get! The replacement grill and strips were pretty inexpensive, so you will have to check out the paint job as well.

John,
What replacement grill and strips? For the grill on the front of your car... did you modify it? Avantgarde? Did I have my avantgard grill when you saw my car?

No, I decided for a first step to just get a new stock grill and replacement chrome strips, as the old ones are pretty dinged up. The shop I go to shoots it with Matte black and matte clearcoat, and it looks sort of stock, but subtly different because of the black. leise wasn't sure she wanted an Avante Guard grill, so this is a $25 mod until she decides what goes best with the new wheels.

A new stock grill and chrome replacement strips are only a $25 mod? I am not sure I follow you...?

David:

A new plastic "egg crate" grille insert is $24 on Fastlane, my shop sprays it for me free when they are doing other parts. All new aluminum grill strips are an additional $13, which I am doing since I have a big rock ding in one of them. If I weren't doing the strips, total cost for a matte black grille would be $25!

2 down, 1 to go!
 

I got the new Fastlane filter installed in the AC. The new filter eliminated 95% of the variable pitch wind noise and whining bearing sound, and the rest is sensitive to position of the center vent dial control. The car records showed that the filter had been changed at the B service, but the appearance of the filter (gray-black, debris, multiple tiny holes and tears that let daylight through!) seems to indicate that it was 'overlooked'. So now the AC sounds like it belongs in an MB instead of a 10 year old Nissan mini PU.

Now to work on the "rear axle" noise. I wouldn't be surprised to see that turn out to be the tread on the Eagle LS tires. I'll try some 16" rims with Yoko AVS dB tires and see what that does.