03/08/09

Due to illness my Wife needs an auto. She absolutely loves her Alfa but it wasn't and auto and if I'm honest I just don't have enough faith in the Selespeed Alfas so it had to be some other make.. She likes Merc CLK's so off we went on the hunt for one. After a lot of downs caused by various sellers one of the guys (thanks Beefo) from a local forum I use told me about one he'd spotted in Belfast. We headed off in search of it this afternoon and found it straight away. A  Mercedes 230 Kompressor CLK in silver with dark grey leather interior and 17" AMG wheels. Exactly the car she was after. It didn't take to long to strike a deal with the dealer and off we drove in it. It has a little bubbling around the wheelarches but that's prety much it. Even has a new timing chain fitted. And it's a lovely car to drive, very comfy and not a squeak or rattle. Of course when we got it home it was raining as usual but I couldn't resist getting a couple of photo's to kick it's page off.

23/11. Noticed the drivers side front tyre is wearing on the inside quite a lot. It usually means that a ball joint is on it way out. And sure enough on checking it, it was done. So an new one was bought today and fitted. The joints on the CLK are very easy to change as they are held on with 2 19mm nuts.  

When taking the ball joint out there is a locating pin for the joint (I'm pointing at it), the pin old pin has to be removed as a new one comes with the new joint. A pair of grips is all that was needed to get it out.

New joint fitted and being tightened up.

Since I got the ball joint on so quick I als serviced the car with new oil, oil filter, plugs and air filter. Once this was done I also went to my local tyre supplier and had a new tyre fitted.   

29/11. guess what, the ball joint on the passenger side isn't the best either so I changed it to. And went and got another tyre to match the one I got fitted a couple of weeks ago. 

02/12. I don't normaly drive the car but did this morning and noticed it felt a little hesitant when taking off. I know this feeling very well on Alfa's which usually means the airflow meter is on it's way out. So of it was to my local motor factors and a new one bought. Photo shows the old one being taken off. It's held on with 2 funny self tappers that can be taken off with grips if you don't have the right tool.

The old and new together. Once on the car was lifting much better. Job done. 

Since I had the time I also changed the fuel filter. It's located under the car ahead of the rear wheels more or less right in the middle so not the easiest thing to get at. But it's only held on with a a couple of clips and a 10mm clamp. Photo shows the old one off. It had clearly been there a while.

18/12. Lorna came home yesterday and was saying the car was driving worse than ever with no power. I took it out and sure enough there is very little power from the engine. I checked everything over but don't see anything out of the ordinary. Rather than mess about with a car I don't know much about (it's not Italian), I left it in with a Mercedes specialist.   

21/12. Got a phone call from the Specialist today, the throttle body has lost it's memory but when it's been re-programmed it still loses the memory after a short drive. So I have to get a new throtle body.

22/12. Contacted a very friendly man called John in Dublin who has a throttle body on a working car with the correct part numbers. John is sending the body up to me today. I have to say, he has been one of the most helpful and trusting people I have came across. Although he is has never met me he does not want paid for the body until he is sure it works ok on the car. Not many people would do this these days.

23/12. Throttle body arrived from John at 5PM today. I have to take it over to the Mechanic first thing in the morning.    

24/12. Dropped the throttle body over to Andrew (the Merc mechanic) at 09.30. Got a call from him at 11 AM to tell me the car was 100% again and ready to pick up. So we'll have the car back for xmas... Went and got the car at 11 AM and it was clear straight away that the throttle body mustn't have been right since we bought the car. It's so much smoother to drive and good punch on excelleration.  Lorna's so pleased at the way the car's going she's talking about keeping it even though she has trouble getting out. Here we go again. Mot's up at the end of January so it looks like I'll be putting the car through it at this rate.

31/12/09. Thoughts for the year. The CLK turned out to be a really nice car that my Wife loves. She is still very undicided on selling it to get a new GP Punto even though she has difficulty getting out of it. Not only that but I find myself drawn to it more and more over my CE and am tempted to keep it for myself. Early 2010 will see how this ends, or continues...  

21/01/10. Mot day. Changed the rear orange indicator bulbs as they were losing their orange colour. That's it, didn't need to do anymore than that and the car walked the test. So once the Challenger comes back the CLK will be going for sale.

16/02. Well after long consideration We've decided to sell the car. Although it flew through the MOT and it's going great we don't need it since buying the Range Rover. So it's time for it to move on.

Some up to date photo's.

I actually only discovered today that the original first aid kit is in the car and it's complete. Nice little touch.