240D algae, hoist inspection and minor jobs

Yesterday, I posted an update on my 240D showing how I had changed the petrol filters.   A friend pointed out that my filter was full of algae.   My 240D was from a deceased estate and it’s condition and mileage make me think it didn’t get a lot of use in recent years.   Algae seems more prevalent in cars that have sat around for a long time.

I stopped by Repco and bought a bottle of the Penrite Diesel Biocide.   It claims to kill bugs in the fuel and separate water and diesel.   The bottle had various concentrations, but I went for the ‘shock treatment’ – 200ml to treat about 50 liters.    Apparently when it is working, the dead algae can clog up the fuel filters.   I checked the pre-filter after I arrived, and there was definitely some algae caught in the filter.   I don’t know if this is the product working right away, or more from driving 150km yesterday after changing the filters.

In any case, my plan is to try and run most of this fuel tank through, changing the pre-filter if I need to.   Once the tank level gets low, I will drain the rest of the fuel and replace the strainer.   I did a quick check of the fuel tank with my cheap boroscope.  The tank is three quarters full, so I couldn’t see too much, but the walls were generally clean, with some minor black spots in places.   The black spots are likely the algae.

Next, I put the car up on the hoist to check a few things.   My hoist was out of commission for a while, and was finally repaired recently.   Putting the car up in the air, I was really impressed with the condition underneath.   There was no trace of any rust or any damage.   This is in keeping with the overall condition of the car.   Everything looked in pretty good condition.   The fuel strainer had been out before, and the fuel hoses were fairly new.   I also checked he bottom of all the doors and they are in excellent shape.

On the downside, the brake hoses looked pretty old, and the shock absorbers are Monroe, not Bilstein or Sachs.  They seem in decent condition though.   While I was inspecting things, I noticed the steering shock looked a bit old.   I had a spare one on hand, so installed it.

While the car was up in the air, I had a few other things I wanted to do.   First was to clean the water drain for the fuel tank filler.   I had tried from the top, and had not been able to push the debris out.   Pushing a long pipe cleaner up from the bottom managed to clear the debris.

Next I wanted to see if the brakes were grabbing.   A few weeks ago, I noticed the car was quite hard to push.   Yesterday, I noticed the brake pedal get a bit soft after a lot of stop/go traffic.   The first test was to see if the wheels spun freely.   The rear wheels do, but the front wheels had far more resistance than I would like.

Next test was to see if a few hard applications of the brakes made any difference.    The rears were fine, but the fronts were even harder to spin after a few presses of the brakes.  I also wanted to check if the rears were doing anything at all.   A long golf umbrella was useful to press the brake pedal while spinning a rear wheel.   I was able to stop the wheel, and it spun freely after I released the pedal.

Based on this, I want to change all the hoses, and the front calipers will likely need a rebuild.   Mercedes used multiple suppliers, so I had to inspect them.   The front calipers on my car are Bendix, and the rears are Girling.   The Girling calipers don’t seem to be all that common, so its probably just as well that my rears are fine.   Most of the rebuild kits seem to be for ATE or Bendix.

I had to remove one of the rear wheels to inspect the rear calipers, so I gave that wheel arch a good cleaning.   For the other three wheels, I cleaned the wheel arch with the wheel on.   I had a huge pile of debris on the floor by the time I was done.    I also noticed that all four of my jacking points was clogged up with wasps nests.   The jacking points are in good condition, and are now without dead wasps.