Just called shop to see about getting head gasket replaced on my C280 with 81k on it. He said that the cost would be 1200, but these cars are known to have electrolysis which eats away the head. I have not been able to find this in any threads. Does anyone have experience with this?

Thanks

Do you mean, like, hair removal? Sounds fishy to me. The alloy head on the M103 has been known to corrode some or warp, but haven't heard of that on an M104.

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John Shellenberg
1998 C230 "Black Betty" 240K

http://img31.exs.cx/img31/4050/tophat6.gif

You may be surprised how much & what kind of damage you can do, by either not changing coolant frequently, or using the wrong coolant.

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2007 C 230 Sport.

Dead coolant or use of green stuff instead of MB coolant can cause serious corrosion on aluminum heads -- my sister's 92 Volvo 740 did this, probably caused the head gasket to blow on the highway (or the radiator nipple blew off, hard to tell after it quit running!). Huge pits at the blind water passages, ate almost all the way into the cylinders. Head was junk (warped horribly), so I replaced it.

If you have changed the coolant every couple years, you won't have any corrosion.

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!