I'm about to schedule the C230's service appointment. Here are the symptoms (W202 1997 C230):

1. Auxiliary cooling fan stage one not engaging (not sure either way on stage two). Thanks M.B Doc & John .

2. Climate control cooling stops cooling (it still blows) when car stops moving.

3. Slight rise in engine coolant temp when car stops moving (only once over 90).

4. Engine coolant temp. taking a LONG time to reach operating temp.

Any guesses? (The weirdest part of all this is the car drives great and the mileage is as high as it's always been).

I wonder if this is ONE or SEVERAL problems all happening together?

I read somewhere, but have no information, that the 1997s had something defective in the instrument cluster and wonder if this could possibly be the cause of all these symptoms.

Any help greatly appreciated. Best regards,

__________________
Michael

1988 300 SL (5 Speed)
1994 E320 Wagon
1997 C230

Never pull on superman's cape, never spit into the win, and never take your MB into a MB dealer. Find a good independent foreign car service shop.

I believe the saying is "never spit into the WIND".
Some dealers are good, i don't see that coming into play just yet or relating to his problem.

The long time in warming up, and the one time it seemed to have a high temp reading, may be caused by a bad engine thermostat.

All the other problems (plus possibly also the one time the engine ran hot) may be caused by the auxillary cooling fan problem.
I'd get the aux fan problem sorted out, find out what works and what doesn't work and troubleshoot that, and see if they want to diagnose the slow warm up, or just ask them to replace the t-stat.


Gilly

She's off to my favorite indie, Herr Teich.

Thanks guys. Best,

__________________
Michael

1988 300 SL (5 Speed)
1994 E320 Wagon
1997 C230

It's fixed and been working perfectly for several weeks. Indie isolated to "engine fan control unit."

Thanks all. Best,

__________________
Michael

1988 300 SL (5 Speed)
1994 E320 Wagon
1997 C230

Glad to hear the problem has been fixed without any more hair-pulling-out. Was it expensive?

__________________
John Shellenberg
1998 C230 "Black Betty" 240K

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

$250 for the part plus several hours to figure out what was wrong. Big picture, no, not expensive. VERY annoying, though.

Thank you, John and gang, for all the help.

Best,

__________________
Michael

1988 300 SL (5 Speed)
1994 E320 Wagon
1997 C230