After some time I've finally gotten the parts outlined in Alex's TSB (insulated slave cylinder & hydraulic line) installed. However, the weather is too cold to see if that has had any effect. I haveto admit that I wa a little disappointed when I saw the parts. I was expecting them to have a more hi-tech solution than neoprene sleeves
. However, I'm not going to complain.
In addition to having the parts re&re'd I wrapped the headers with exhaust wrap and will wrap the exhaust system all the way to the CAT as well. I've noticed that the oil temp has become more stable since wrapping the headers, but this could be due in no small part to the fact that it's colder out these days. I'm still going to do the radiator, but I'll wait until the weather warms up.
Unfortunately, my opinion of a particular MB dealership has gone down a great deal. Mainly because they continue to employ a service manager who is condescending, argumentative, arrogant, confrontational, and generally unpleasant to deal with. I will refrain from naming the dealership and the service manager in question but I will present the facts as accurately as I can remember them so that it can be seen that the level of service at MB dealerships is utterly abyssmal.
In my first post in this thread I indicated that the problem had been recurring for at least 18 months and MB had yet to find a solution. Furthermore, the night of my first post in this thread I lost my clutch just as I entered the Deas Island Tunnel.
For those of you not familiar with the Lower Mainland in BC, the tunnel runs beneath the Fraser River. It has a two lanes running north and two lanes running south. during rush hour, however, there is a counterflow lane which changes the configuration of the tunnel to 2+1 and 1 lanes. the tunnel is also only one of 2 routes out Delta northbound. this particular day, a truck had already stalled in the ONLY northbound lane and traffic had JUST begun to move again when i entered the tunnel. fortunately, traffic flowed continuously and I did not have to come to a complete stop in the tunnel. If I had, I would not have been able to get out again.
In any case, I was very frustrated with this problem and managed to find only one manager on duty after having called three of the four dealerships in town (they're all factory owned dealerships up here). this was after I had nursed my car to the nearest dealership where i happened to know the service manager, but he had already left for the day. None of the advisors were of any help. Neither was any of the staff, for that matter.
I spoke to a sales manager at another dealership (who i had known for about 5 years) and he advised me to have the car towed to his dealership at their expense.
To bypass a bunch of typing, suffice it to say that it was too late for the towing company to take my car because they woudn't be able to get it to the other dealership before it closed so I got a ride to my meeting downtown - that I was 45 minutes late for - and I came back for the car later that night and drove it home. It had cooled down enough to allow this. The next moring I droppedthe car off at the dealership and immediately put in a call to M-B Canada in Toronto because I wanted them aware of the situation and my displeasure at how it hadn't been handled. unfortunately the customer service manager wa saway for the week so all i could do was leave a message.