Last week, in “W203 ’06 C230 Sport Intake Runner Valve Leaking?“, I was attempting to determine where the leak was, and what the solution would be. The discovery was that one of the levers for the intake runners had snapped off the end of the diaphragm arm, and was also broken from its shaft. The vacuum leak was coming from this opening, which was confirmed by spraying brake cleaner in the area to hear if the engine would stumble; it did.
Mercedes does not sell the individual pieces to fix the problem, and the entire intake has to be replaced. Luckily, we have an extended warranty on the car, so this large expense will simply be a co-pay. Why, when knowing these parts tend to brake, would Mercedes continue to not offer the pieces to repair I don’t know.
I’ve dropped the car off at DBC Tuning to confirm my findings, and my fears were correct! New mani time! They looked up the procedure, found the part listings, and submitted the work to my warranty company. The folks at MasterTech Vehicle Protection Program approved the repair, and had the mani sent to the shop this morning. Awesome! Very glad I made that investment.
I’ve been getting text message updates, with images of the work this morning. Awe, look, it’s like a lil behbeh!
Text update from the owner of DBC Tuning: Old intake is out.
Another text update from the Shop: My my, isn’t that old intake manifold dirty.
Text update: Yea, there was sand and other crap all over the block. I guess they were also cleaning up any residual old brittle gasket that was left over.
4pm of the same day the new part arrived, and the car is done. Time to go pick her up.
I must say, this thing has to have been like this since we bought it! The low-end power response and difference in overall pep is a huge improvement. The wife loves the way it drives now too.
Now for the part where my curiosity kicks in, I asked to keep the old busted intake mani. The idea is so I can take it apart, see how it works, and to get creative. Basically, I plan on tearing the old one apart, to see what makes it tick! This should be fun… Updates to come.
Here are some images of the mani after it came out. I’ll post the tear-down another time.
Wow! So, after further inspection, there was more than just a broken rotator; there was a hole in the side of the manifold as well. Dang, that was unexpected.
Zooming out a bit…
See the hole? See the rotator was disconnected and broken from it’s shaft? Seems something binded and made it snap. Now, let’s flick the broken rotator out of position just to see what’s going on behind it.
How about we take a look at that junk in the trunk… (Hah, I mean the rear of the mani.)
Yea, OK, that’s cool and all. Just wait until I start taking this apart.