Drain? Don't need no Steeeenking drain! Be a man! Pull off the
lower hose at the radiator. Drain is OK on the 111, but on 123+ where
it is a little plastic thing, Pull the hose!
Dan Penoff via Mercedes wrote on 5/21/19 9:32 PM:
Don’t know what it is about this vehicle… it seems to want to test me every
time I touch it, and while everything seems to end well for the most part, it’s
really frustrating.
Got my Cardone caliper this afternoon, so I figured I would cool off the garage
and put it on along with the new coolant reservoir.
Go to drain the cooling system and can’t find the darned drain on the radiator.
Weird. Get on the computer to find that there is a plastic petcock on the front
left side of the radiator. OK, I can do that.
Not.
I find the petcock, but I can’t turn it. It’s a plastic tab that you turn to
unscrew the valve out to open it, and it’s in a really tight space in the front
behind the bumper. I finally get a crescent wrench on it and carefully turn,
fully expecting it to snap off. It doesn’t. Relief! But there’s barely a
trickle of coolant coming out of the drain. I turn some more, and more coolant
comes out, but it’s hardly anything of significance. And yes, I had taken the
cap off of the reservoir prior to opening the drain.
I turn it a few more times alternating between a monkey wrench and a crescent
wrench to turn it. Coolant is coming out now, but not a big gush. Hmm.
So I work on replacing the coolant reservoir. Not bad, a few hoses were
reluctant to come off, but I got them off without damage eventually. Installed
the new reservoir, not a big deal.
I move to the right rear to do the caliper. I break the hose fitting first, and
it comes loose without issue (thank you, Kroil!!!) Get the caliper bolts out no
problem. Disconnect the wear indicator connector. Remove the caliper and
unscrew it from the hose. Screw the hose into the new caliper and mount the
caliper back on the backing plate. Tighten hose. It’s got a bit of tension on
it, so I soaked the hard line fitting where it meets the hose in anticipation
for breaking this union and rotating the hose to relieve some of the tension on
it.
Nope, not going to tempt Fate tonight.
Get the rear caliper all tightened down and hook up my power bleeder. I really
wanted to bleed the whole brake system, as the fluid looked terrible, but I had
barely half a liter on the shelf so I didn’t want to run out. Something for the
next parts run. Bled out the caliper and put everything back in place. Back to
the cooling system.
So now it’s time to close the valve on the radiator and fill the system up with
some water for now. I’ll run it with straight water in it for a few miles, then
drain and flush it before filling with MB coolant.
So I start turning the valve with my two wrenches, alternating them to get on
the valve tab. I turn a lot. I turn more. I’m thinking that there is no way I
unscrewed this valve that far. So I get into the area around the valve with a
light and a mirror, and notice the valve is sticking out of the radiator quite
a ways. It appeared that I was turning the valve but it was not engaging
whatever means it used to move back into the radiator housing. Perhaps I
unscrewed it too far?
So I go at it again with my wrenches, applying pressure on the valve as I turn.
After a few turns it appears to be moving into the housing. I finally get it to
a point where it seems tight, and put some water in the coolant reservoir. Then
I hear dripping….
Apparently the valve isn’t sealing or all the way closed. But I tightened it
down as far as I dared since it was a plastic valve. I get on it with my
crescent wrench and turn it again as hard as I dare without braking it. The
dripping stops. I had moved it maybe 10-15 degrees, if that. But it seemed to
be sealed.
Whew!
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