HVAC pods
 

Ksing,

I just finished replacing the evaporator on my father's 95 E300. As you know, that means everything having to do with the AC and heating is either out or open.

You would not believe the dirt that builds up in the evaporator fins and the heater core fins. I was astounded that any air got through this road block at all.

1. As Arthur says, open up and remove or replace the air filters and see if there is a difference in air flow.

2. While its open, I rec remove the blower motor, and you will see the evaporator. Spray in Frost King Air Conditioning Coil Foaming Cleaner (Home Depot) or something similar, rinse with a hose, and repeat again. See if that makes a difference.

3. Lastly, it may be vacuum pod replacement time. Buy a MityVac, remove the passenger airbag, and check the integrity of the six pods by pulling the vac lines for each and testing. They should hold 20 inches pressure.

As Arthur said, the recirc switch does not effect velocity of air flow out of the vents; it merely recirculates air in the cabin by closing a flap blocking air in from the outside.

The slapping noise you hear when you start the car is indeed this recirc flap, the foam on which has degraded so much over time that the metal flap is hitting the plastic heater box, instead of foam on that flap hitting plastic.

My 95 E300 is also a Special Edition- 704 Azure Blue with 265 Creme beige leather. The leather on both fronts seat was beat to hel by the PO, which I covered with canvas seat covers after Leatherique did almost nothing.

Dave

Edit- 20 inches pressure, not psi, thanks Richard

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you mean 20" of vacuum? In my opinion, 20 pounds of pressure will blow out any vacuum pod in the car...

Is the recirculation flap accessible from under the wipers? Is that the same thing as a “main flap” that was mentioned in a previous post. I would love to fix that slapping sound while I was in there doing the filters.

The 95 Special Edition in Azure over beige is a beautiful car!

I also had no success with leatherique. I think it is overrated, compared to just using any old leather care product from the store. My seats look ok, but I have some cracking on the front leather panel of the seating surface and of course the one bolster on the driver’s side is getting worn from getting in and out of the car for all of these years. I will get the leather redone one of these years, if I stick it out through the head gasket, front timing cover, wiring harness, AC compressor, transmission rebuild, and now the filter/pod issues.

By the way, you said 95 E300. I didn’t know there was such a thing, except in diesel form. I’m thinking you must be in Europe.

BTDT with leather. You have to realize that pretty much all leather interiors sold in North America (exception: Ford King Ranch) is spray-died with what is essentially paint. When that plastic-paint coating cracks, the natural leather shows through. Treating the leather will treat only what it can get to: the leather in the cracks of the dye.

The only way to really make the seats look new is to re-dye. I've done this successfully on leather seating in my coaches, took years to develop the technique, and it is nearly impossible once the seats have been "treated" with any leather treatment product containing silicone (many do) as the silicone is difficult to remove from the leather and will resist the dye which needs to penetrate / soak into the hide evenly.

I have 5 of my vehicles sitting here now which range from perfect to needing a facelift on the leather dye, and knowing what it takes to do it right, they are staying as-is for now.

20 inches pressure on pods
 

Yikes- my huge mistake about pressure the pods should hold! NOT 20 psi as Richard quickly noticed was wrong, but 20 inches HG pressure. Sorry about that.

E300 is the USA diesel, available in 1995 only. It has an "E" because it is an E Class, even though "D" is more descriptive. MB marketing gone wrong.

And no, even though you can see that flap after the blower is out (and there is foam on that outer side as well), the foam on the inner side is what deforms and no longer deadens the sound of the flap movement.

That would be E 300 D I believe, which is inline with the nomenclature M-B has for the rest of the world. Before that, we had US only names like 300E or 300D (which ironically was a 2.5L in '90-'93, a 250D in Europe). Audi did it also with the 4000 and 5000 instead of the 80/90 or 100/200 in the rest of the world, US marketing folks sure do confuse things for us.

The E in E320 desinates E class ... The E in earlier chassis , when following the model, designates Injected.

I really like the idea of having a diesel, although it gives me pause when I see the price premium for the diesel fuel. I am especially interested in the new Honda diesel that is coming and maybe also the VW diesel. For both, it will depend what models come equipped with the diesel motor.

I had a Golf in the past that I really did enjoy, so I think I could like a diesel Golf. I drove my Golf cross-country from Philadelphia PA to California and up to Washington state and then back again with camping equipment and stayed in 10 different National Parks. I think I would especially like a Golf with a GTI transplanted suspension and a diesel motor that gets 50mpg. A diesel Accord or maybe even a diesel Civic might be nice too. A new great high-mileage American car would be cool, but I am not going to hold my breath.

Actually, I am thinking about one of the new cars for my son, who is just learning to drive. In the next year or two I figured he could use a car to drive to college and maybe to his first job. I may also get the new car for my wife and let my son have her 2001 Honda Accord. It seems a little odd to give a teen a new car. At the same time it would feel good to set him up with great transportation to take through college and into his first real job.

I would like to try to keep my car. I will have to wait and see how things change in the next couple of years. I still love to drive my car and it is actually hard to imagine loving another car as much as I love this 1995 E320. I have considered a BMW 3-Series. It seems I should be able to fall in love with one of those. The newest one is pretty. They even have a new diesel coming, but it sounds like BMW went for more of a performance diesel rather than high mileage.

Thanks again to everyone who helped me with my issues. I will be back to say how it all turns out.

Diesels are to me more than just efficiency, good thing since diesel fuel is still too high.
When I pull in with my Mercedes diesels and people think that they're gas engines because they're so quiet (and most people think that they all sound like Dodge/Ford/GM pickup trucks) and don't smoke even at full-throttle. Besides that, my '87 300D is faster than my '94 E 320 (top end), and just loves to run. I've been considering having a hat made that says "Real Mercedes don't have spark plugs", I used to have a similar hat for the Hummer.
We'll have to see what happens with fuel prices regarding the economy of buying one in the US, last stats I saw still put Europe at nearly 70% of new vehicles sold are diesels. We aren't able to buy most of those engines here (such as the E 430 diesel which is amazing).