I am in the middle of rebuilding the a/c system on the 1995 E300 (260k miles). When I took the compressor out and saw the traces of metal particles I figured I'd drop a new condenser in it too. Anyway, the engine on this car used to stay steady between 80 and 90 dC. Over the past few years I had noticed that the temperatures were running more betwen 90 and 100 dC. I have attached pictures of what I found when I pulled the condenser out. For anyone that is seeing temperatures close to 100dC while running down the interstate and the radiator is clean and everything is working the way it should then you may possibly have a condenser that looks like this. I'd gues it was totally blocked off at least 25%.

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Jim

Holy Cow Chips!!

That is a mess..... Good that you caught it. That looks like more than 25%. Did this car belong to a "Rancher" at some point in time?

I remember pulling my Aux. fan last year to clean the condenser and straighten the fins after I put my new Rad. in. It had a little debris on there. Most of it was behind the Aux. fan. Nothing like that though. Wow....

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AJ

1985 300D (SOLD)

Good reason to pressure wash your condensor/radiator every few car washes

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1982 300SD 180K, rebuilt engine
1973 450SLC Megasquirt
1990 Volvo 780 - 273k
1993 Volvo 240 Wagon - Scrap yard slumber

http://www.fuelly.com/sig-us/44619.png

This is what I found after the car had sat in the barn for one week (note the corn and debris). They were just starting to make a nest. There was a rat snake on the house porch when I went outside yesterday afternoon. I should have caught him and put him under the hood.

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Jim