E300dt Block Heater
 

Does My 99 E300dt Have A Factory Installed Block Heater And All I Have To Do Is Buy The Electrical Hookup From The Dealer? I Was Reading The Owners Manual And It Leads Me To Believe This.

its there, keep looking...
 

pull the little tow hook plate on the passengers side lower airdam/ grille. You might find the cord tie-wrapped there

If you cant see a 3 prong plug there, get the car in the air and pull the oil pan plastic belly cover. Look on the passenger side near the back of the block for a little cord thing coming out of the block. It should be wrapped in a silver foil and be secured to the frame rail and lead towards the front toward the tow hook cover.

It took me a while to find mine too.

I Just Checked But Could Not Locate. I Did Find A Knurled Knob On The Side Of The Block Where A Block Heater Might Be Installed. It Was Too Tight To Loosen By Hand And I Was Afraid That Coolant Might Come Out If I Loosened It Anyways, Or Is There An Ellectrical Connection There?

randy

I'm not sure...
Mine had the cord there but it took a while to find. You are in CO, correct?
I would be surprised if your car didn't have a heater cord pre-installed at the dealer or from MB.

I'm in NY, but my car is from San Antonio TX (kinda warm down there).
My e300 had a cord installed when I bought it from the previous owner.

I would use the "Search" feature on the top right of the browser. There is a lot of e300 block heater posts.

My 98 E300 was picked up in Germany by PO and like all of these cars (I think) came with a block heater. My car has spent it's life in California, so the cap has never been removed for cord installation. I remember something about a coupon that came with the original papers for a free cord. I doubt getting a free cord is much of an option at this point. But for other info their have been some past post in this forum or tech forum that had good photo's, so I would just use the search function in both forums.

Paul
98 E300

Block heater should be there...
 

But you have to get the cord to run it.

Seems like it was on the passenger side...

Fine I'll go out and look...

I'm back...

Passenger side of the block, under the exhaust manifold, all the way to the back, follow the dipstick tube for the transmission down. It is hidden but you can feel it, standard freeze plug size, oh inch and a half in diameter.

Have not used mine much.

Have a good day!

That is the cover for the contacts on the blockheater.
You need the cord, here is a thread by Hatterasguy on the subject:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showpost.php?p=1302687&postcount=38

IIRC the cars came with the heater installed but no cords. The cars came with a "coupon" for a free cord from the dealer if the owner wanted/needed one. Maybe I am thinking of the older models, but I don't know if this plan extended all the way to '99 or not.

The fact is, last winter when it was -5F here I parked my '98 outside without the block heater and it started up just fine so even though I have the cord installed I have never had to use it. If you have a garage then you certainly shouldn't need to use a block heater on a '99 but even left outside they should start OK well below zero. Use of either 0W40 or 5W40 oil to help it crank a little easier in winter helps too.

Yes, that is the case. Even though my car has never been out of Florida in the winter, I had it done right after I bought it. Couldn't resist going to to dealer and making them do something for free!! :D

I Called The Fastlane On This Site But Phil Did Not Have The Wire Harness. Ordered From The Local Dealer. $42.50. Thanks For All The Advice Guys.

Make sure you get the "heat shield" for the cord. Its a piece of flexible aluminium hose. Its difficult to find on the MB Parts lookup, have them check under cooling system. And its called a hose