From experience throwout bearing usually fails long before the slave cylinder. It's prudent to do all 3 (disk, throwout bearing, slave cyl) at the same time.

The w203 has planty of engineering stupidisms built in (mostly electronic) but I don't think this is one of them. I would love to have a 6spd manual in my c320 wagon and maybe someday I will. The vast majority of the repairs I've done on this car (and there are many) have been much easier than the w124, w201s and w210 I've worked on. MB put a lot more thought into service and repair on the w203 than earlier geberations. The v6 is a packaging masterpiece and everything is easily accessible from the top without too much disassembly.

__________________
CENSORED due to not family friendly words

As a side note to the OP. There might not be a problem with the hydraulic clutch. I've seen issues on various cars where the clutch disc material chunks off causing the clutch to drag. Also, some use a self adjusting clutch cover, the self adjusting pivot can wear causing incomplete release.

On to another post.

Modern concentric slave cylinders last just fine, just because your 28 year old MB had a slave failure does not mean that an 11 year old car is somehow "worse" .

More concerning is, based on prior posts, you have no clue how a concentric slave works but have somehow decided that it is inferior to most all other systems. What sort of day job do you have / had?

A mechanical " Z " bar linkage has lots of parts and is a mess in practice, please post a pic so others can see what it looks like.

" Z " bar linkages have:

Lots of parts that need made assembled.

Lots of friction points.

Lots of pivot points that wear causing a sloppy system.

Pedal height gets out of wack as motor mounts flex , body mounts flex , frame twists.

Needs frequent adjusting.


Concentric slave cylinders amount to a hollow disc brake caliper half, this consists of:

A casting with a bore , a seal , a release bearing , a bleeder screw and a place to attach the hose.

Install consists of 2 or so bolts holding the unit to the trans and snapping in a quick connect hydraulic line once the trans is installed.

They are self adjusting.

These easily last life of clutch and are changed during a clutch replacement.

Had a better cable been used ( rather than what amounts to a parking cable ) the system would have been fine. Besides, the clutch cable was the least of this cars worries.

I went to look at the car this weekend. It seems in good shape but the clutch is dead. The pedal goes to the floor and stays there, but I don't thing that by itself is an indication of whether its the master or the slave though. I did start it and it ran good. The heater works but AC seemed a little weak, but I don't know how good it could be idling and 90 out. We were working out the details but it ended when he couldn't find the title. He told me he was going to the DMV and get a replacement, but that takes 15-30 days. The sellers problem is that he doesn't have enough money to fix it.

I'm juggling the risk of buying a car I didn't actually drive. The seller bought it from uncle a year ago, and his uncle took good care of it so I have some history.

He has a mechanic that would fix it there it two weeks, my other options are to tow it home and either fix it myself or have someone local fix it. I did talk to a mechanic who looked at the car and my impression was he wasn't sure if its the master or the slave. Any idea what changing the clutch might cost?

My experience with failed slave cylinders are one slave died but was easy to replace, it was mounted outboard, and the other was a broken clutch fork, which needed the transmission dropped. This newer design does not have a clutch fork, so applying these two events to the new design, I would have one transmission removal and one non-failure.

Don't buy a car without a title in California.

__________________
CENSORED due to not family friendly words

Never

The clutch hydraulics might be out of fluid and not returning the clutch pedal. Yes, there is usually a return spring on the clutch pedal but this is sometimes an over center spring that assists in pressing the pedal once you get past 1/2 way.

Regardless of the actual problem, I'd pull the trans and replace the clutch assembly , clutch slave - master and be done with it, who knows what the clutch friction material condition is.

In any event, hold out for a title, flaky sellers ( " lost title ", " no money " , " bought from my uncle " ) tend to disappear once $ changes hands despite their promises to follow through.

I was looking around the internet for the clutch kit for this car and there were very few hits. I called my local supply place that always has everything, but they didn't have this. The only place I found one was here, and there were only two in stock. I'm planning on getting the car this weekend and having it towed home, about 60 miles, but I'm a little nervous about what I'm getting into.

The kit part number is 019-250-33-01, and its a Sachs. They seem to be rated pretty good.

I found more than a few online starting at $500 for Valeo and $600 for Sachs. That includes the clutch disk, pressure plate and slave cyl/throwout bearing.

__________________
CENSORED due to not family friendly words

My point was usually the internet is full of car parts and the clutch kits were reletively few. I'm wondering if a shop will accept customer supplied parts.

I also have a theory to what I consider a premature failure of the slave. This is the second time this has happened. I had a 190E 2.6 with a 5 speed I bought with about 70,000 miles on it, and from what I knew about the history I'm pretty sure it always went to the dealer for service. But when I was flushing the hydraulics it was obvious the clutch had never been bled, the bleed valve and port were were plugged and what did come out was really dirty. That clutch slave failed at roughly the same age. I'm thinking, since Mercedes sticks are so rare dealers don't think to bleed the clutch. I'm going to bounce that theory off the dealer and see if it gets me anywhere.

And I got my 2000 posts!

Most _better_ garages do not install bought parts.

Wrong parts tie up a bay, if the part fails customer will demand shop change it for free, shop isn't making $ on parts. Bring your own parts car owners tend to be homeless in the sense they don't have a regular garage and wander from shop to shop complaining about how the last shop ripped them off. Their cars tend to be real junkers that they expect to run forever and not pay for repairs.

The only time I installed customer parts was pre internet days when very good customers showed up with a Fiat or something obscure. On their more common cars, I provided the parts.

Either fix it your self or let the shop provide parts. Also, be sure the shop regrinds the flywheel, some don't do this as it ties up the bay while the FW is at the machine shop. Having a flat flywheel surface is critical to long clutch life and crisp clutch release.





Don't focus on the slave when you don't know what is really going on. The only failure mode of a concentric slave is external leakage. Make sure the clutch system is full of fluid and go from there.

Does the car move if you start it in gear? If not, the clutch pressure plate diagram spring is broken.

Calling the dealer for DIY advice is a bad idea. They are busy with paying customers and don't want to take liability when a DIY guy damages their car.

The car sounds like it will be fun once you get it sorted out. The C320 should have the 240mm clutch disc which is slightly larger than the 228mm found in the C240, the dual mass flywheel may be the same. I also think that the crossfire uses the same trans, flywheel and clutch setup, but don't quote me on that. The dual mass flywheel has to be carefully inspected to determine if it will be good for continued service and not all machine shops can resurface one. The good news is that transmission and cluches on these cars are robust and can take a lot of abuse. I would try to pressure bleed the clutch and see if it starts working again before you start throwing money at it, its fast and easy to do, and at the very least you will be able to see which component is leaking.

If you will follow Mercedes maintenance recommendation of annual fluid flushing, the cylinders will last virtually indefinitely.

__________________
2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

Annoy a Liberal, Read the Constitution

So, I bought it and just got the transmission out. The bad news is that the hydraulics are fine. The worse news is that the flywheel is bad. It is a dual mass flywheel that's real loose.

More details to follow.

__________________
5 speed '91 190E 2.6 320,000 mi. (new car, fast, smooth as silk six, couldn't find any more Peugeots)
5 speed '85 Peugeot 505 2.5l Turbo Diesel 266,000 mi. (old car, fast for a diesel, had 2 others)
5 speed '01 Jetta V6 (new wifes car, pretty quick)
5 speed '85 Peugeot 505 2.2l Turbo Gas 197,000 mi. (wifes car, faster, sadly gone just short of 200k )
5 speed '83 Yamaha 750 Maxim 14,000 mi. (fastest)
0 speed 4' x 8' 1800 lb Harbor Freight utility trailer (only as fast as what's pulling it)

Some more:

The clutch material on one side was gone, the other side still had a lot left. The pressure plate looked reasonable but the fingers didn't look so good.

The flywheel. on the other hand, was pretty loose. You could rock it and twist the two halves. The dealer wants $1300 and two weeks and they have one. I've seem a few of them on ebay for $700. But I also found out it's also on the Chrysler Crossfire. I'd be okey with a used one if I can find it.

The part number on it is 112 030 19 05, and the dealer said it's new number is 112 020 05 80. An ebay number is DMF079. If anybody has one laying around I'd be interested in it.

And while he's there, I'm having him change the rear main engine seal and the motor mounts.

You can also try DMF081 1120301305. Cheaper and more readily available.

__________________
CENSORED due to not family friendly words