190e M103 Water Pump R & R - What I learnedWith the help of much that has been writte

[4uky]

With the help of much that has been written in the past on this board I finished replacing the water pump on my 190e 2.6 this morning. It is, as others have said, a pain you know where, but a very satisfying job to have finished. It takes such a long time mainly because so much has to come off to get access to various bolts.

Much of the help for this job on the board is written about other cars that use the M103 engine. 190e owners need to know that wherever a post says that the fan and its shroud and the tensioner don't have to be removed, or the ps pump doesn't have to be unbolted and moved aside, these luxuries do not apply to the 190e. It's all got to come off.

And anyone who has done this job on this car without removing the radiator is a wizard. I tried to figure out how to do it with the radiator in place. If I ever have to do this job again, I'll take it out first thing rather than wasting time trying to figure out how to avoid it. You can't get to the lower rear wp mounting bolt with the tensioner in, and you can't get the tensioner out with the radiator in, because there isn't enough room between the radiator and the tensioner to get the 19mm bolt out with the radiator in. The whole job is like this: you take a hundred things off the car mostly to give you access to something else that has to come away so you can do what you're in there to do.

All in all, I'm glad I did it, and I'm glad it's done.

MDB