Very interesting thread …. I have owned, I believe, 9 Mercedes all told maybe more, all purchased used.

All of them had “the green stuff” in them except the current wagon. I ended up replacing the radiators on all of them over the years except the current 190e (93) and the wagon. I changed out the coolant on all of them along with my mandatory front and rear sway bar bushings and links upon acquisition.

I was searching for the G05 coolant a couple years ago at a local parts store and the “old pro” asked: “You’ve got a Mercedes? Use the Mercedes stuff in a Mercedes. As a matter of fact I use it in all my cars. Something about it. Damn expensive but I never have done a water pump, radiator or nothing to my cars”. OK, purely allegorical but it made me wonder.

I found that once the “right stuff coolant” is in these cooling systems and any problems are corrected, you just don’t have to mess with them again.

More allegorical: The old ’87 190e 2.3 would go through water pumps most directly related to miles and its known penchant for over heating in summer stop n go driving. I delayed the coolant change because I thought I’d own it for a short while. Finally (and may I add after a full heater core replacement!) I changed the coolant, but I first flushed the system with a citrus cleaner. It ran cooler and stopped having all the problems that were so frequent with it.

I agree with Duke2.6 in that the problems were there and it was just a matter of time.

I heartily recommend flushing and cleaning the system before migrating to the Mercedes or the GO5 coolant.

Haasman

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'03 E320 Wagon-Sold
'95 E320 Wagon-Went to Ex
'93 190E 2.6-Wrecked
'91 300E-Went to Ex
'65 911 Coupe (#302580)