I would like to share some of my experiences on MB cooling systems. The typical 6 month summer operating environment out here in AZ is 105 to 115 degree OAT and 80 degree C engine cooling temp. Most of my MB's have been 114 and 123 series cars over 26 years and near a million miles of operation.
Like Peter, I have never had a MB hose or OE clamp fail in service. I believe it has to to do a lot with the use of EDPM compounds in the OE hoses. BUT that assumes the use of OE hoses AND European clamps AND the use of approved coolants, not the green stuff!!. IF the hose is leaking at either end, the problem is usually caused by the use of those American hose clamps with all the holes in them. This stresses the hose in service. Add to it,I time in service and heat, and the hose will begin to leak. it is best to dis-assemble, clean and inspect, and make repairs. A light coating of Aviation Permatex on re-assembly may help, but if the hose has become work hardened in service, replacement is the only recourse. OE Behr radiators will always fit. But are spendy. Other brands often will not fit the chassis and are not worth the money. With the old copper radiators, you could rod and core them periodically usually due to scale, and again, the use of improper coolants . But the MB's were fussy if repaired this way. Both the top AND bottom tanks needed to be reset properly for them to cool and work properly. Most of the radiator shops would only reset the top tank on a cheapo repair. But the MB's needed both tanks reset. The newer radiators are plastic tanks top and bottom and aluminum cores. They work just fine if you use the proper coolant in them. If not, you will have overheating problems until the core clogs and you have a catastrophic failure. The plastic tanks will suffer from under hood heat and OAT excursions. A known failure mechanism on the 123 cars was the breaking off of the radiator neck often in a very dramatic way. You usually wound up buying a new engine when that happened. New radiators would often have a copper pipe, factory inserted in the neck to help overcome that problem. That well known shop up in Washington State once sold a kit consisting of a piece of copper pipe and a tube of goo to assemble it with. That may work up there in cool country, but here in the desert southwest that tube of goo was only rated to 70 degrees C when it would breakdown and fail. It is my opinion that this is still a decent "Fix" but needs to be applied with a higher temperature rated adhesive. I once repaired a failed plastic radiator neck by re-assembly and re-welding it with a plastic air welding rig which is inexpensive . It ran for a day which was my expectation. Then a week, and then a month working just fine. I then ran it for an entire summer and no failures during that time. It proved itself in service just fine but I did not want to trust my neck to this repair permanently. I wound up replacing the radiator with a new Behr unit for peace of mind. I continue to keep the plastic welded unit around as a spare, just in case Marshall _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner has no control over the content of the messages of each contributor.
