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Engine oil and filter change on the B-Class 180CDI W245

This is the most modern car which I have written an oil change procedure about. What is the difference here compared to the older cars? To be honest not much! The only difference is the car computer needs to be told that an oil change has happened and the service interval be reset through an OBD2 diagnostics unit. The OBD2 diagnostics unit can be found quite cheap online, but make sure you get one that works for this model with the capability to reset service intervals and fault codes. Since the more basic ones can only read fault codes.

Preparation

Get the necessary parts and oil. Here you need a filter kit, which contains the oil filter element, two rubber gaskets for the filter housing and a new drain plug with a new copper washer. Make sure to not get the cheapest filter you can find, since in my experience the filter element can start to deteriorate if you have long service intervals. This car is rated at 15.000km between oil changes, but I suggest doing them at 10.000km.

Parts:

Oil filter kit
Oil: Keep at least 6L on hand- The car needs around 5,4-5,8L

Tools:

Jack and jack stands
Sockets
Oil drain pan

I tend to use Castrol’s oil picker to find which oil I need for any car, but if you prefer other brands then I have no objection. Anyway Castrol recommends Edge 0W-30, but this could change if you plan to use the car in more extreme weather conditions. Refer to the owners manual if in doubt.

New engine oil for 180CDI — 0W-30 Oil for 180CDI

Procedure

The engine should be at operating temperature to make the draining more effective. So prepare the oil change after a trip, either back from work or after the store.

I’m always a bit shocked when checking the oil on diesels since it’s usually pure black in color after a relatively short time. This car had some time since the last oil change and the level was quite low. This did worry me a bit since the car is at 250.000km already. It is always a good idea to check the bottom of the oil drip pan for sludge and metal shavings to assess the condition of the engine every time when changing the oil. So with that in mind, hoist up the front of the car on jack stands. This car has a very low ground clearance and it’s impossible to access anything under there.

Start with locating the oil filter element in the engine bay. It is on the right side of the car just behind the turbo. It is a bit cumbersome to reach with a socket, but you don’t need any special filter tool to remove it. The access will be much easier if you have a socket with a joint as shown in the picture below. Take out the old oil filter and then move to beneath the car.

Oil filter 180cdi — Oil filter location. Use a socket with a joint to get better access behind the turbo

If you haven’t seen under this car, everything is hidden beneath plastic panels. You have to take at least 2 of the panels off to get access to the oil drain plug. The oil drain plug is also a joker to find, since it’s not where you expect it to be traditionally. It’s at the very rear of the engine far behind the front wheels. It is the most left plug on the engine block (see image).

Oil drain plug location B180CDI — Oil drain plug location on the 180CDI. You need to remove some plastic panels to find it.

I’m not sure what the plastic panels are for except aesthetics and hiding the under body. Also it can trap moisture and rust. They have some very subtle sound dampening effects and can keep some of the dirt away. Maybe it decreases air drag at high speeds? But I didn’t bother to put them back on. They were quite cracked and had a large hole due to the low ground clearance. I prefer seeing whats going underneath the car and the ability to wash off the salt underneath there especially in the winter.

Now that the drain plug is located. Start drain the oil and try not to loose the plug into the pan when opening it. The oil should drain a while until the dripping stops. Then take the new drain plug with the new copper washer and use that to plug the drain. Do not overtighten! Maximum 30Nm.

Draining oil from 180CDI — Draining oil from the 180CDI

After the drain plug is secured. Then it’s time to change the oil filter. The oil filter cap contains two rubber seals, remember to change both of them! Use a rag to clean up inside the oil filter housing for old oil. Mount the new filter onto the oil filter cap and then reinsert the filter cap into the filter housing. Tighten the filter housing to max 25NM. Over tightening will ruin the plastic so be careful.

Oil filter kit parts B180CDI — Oil filter kit parts. Note the two rubber seals, along with new drain plug and washer. See the old filter how deteriorated it is, it’s almost falling apart. Indicating cheap filter and overdue service interval. The new filter is a honeycomb structure and not a cheap paper filter like the old one.

Recheck that you actually secured the oil drain plug under the engine before you start pouring in the new oil. The car needs 5,4L to 5,8L, but there is probably some residue and the actual amount might be a little less. Start by pouring 4,5L. Level the car in order to make a proper reading of the dip stick. Then pour little by little until max level on the dip stick is achieved.

Oil pan with old oil from diesel engine — Inspect oil from the oil pan. Since this is a diesel it’s completely black. This is normal for a diesel. Also use your smell, does it smell really burnt? This could indicate overdue interval. Also check for sludge at the bottom of the pan which can indicate old oil. Check for metal shavings which can indicate bearing wear and poorly maintained engine.

Check the oil drain pan for assessing the health of the engine and if the service interval have been overdue. Luckily there were no sludge or metal shavings from my oil, but it smelt strongly burnt. Which with the low oil level may indicate an overdue oil service interval. Thankfully I switched this oil in this before doing any driving at all after getting it. The engine is quite strong and starts easy without any smoking indicating a healthy engine still. Phew!

Now the last part is to tell the engine computer that an oil change have been done and reset the service interval. The annoying wrench and reminder every time you start the car will then go away. Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures of this process, but it’s really a straight forwards procedure.

Connect the OBD2 to the connector underneath the steering wheel.
Select the car and engine type with manufacturing year
Go on the menu which you can reset oil service interval. These can be different depending on the type of reader, but should be pretty obvious
Set that oil service have been done, this will remove warnings on the dashboard
While you’re at it, do a scan of error codes if any

Now you can do an oil measurement while the key is inserted and the engine is off. You can access this through the interactive computer in the dashboard through the buttons on the steering wheel. The car will then tell you if the level is OK or not.

If everything is OK and no service interval warnings. It’s time to start the engine. While the engine is running. Inspect underneath and see that there are no oil leaks form the drain plug and also check the oil filter housing for leaks. If no leaks, go for a small 5min drive. When back, recheck the dip stick level when engine is off. Refill more oil if necessary. Also recheck for leaks underneath and at the oil filter housing.

Robs out!

Changing Filters on the W245 B-Class 180CDI

There are quite a lot of filters on this car. Diesel fuel filter, air filter, oil filter and pollen filter. I will cover all of them but the oil filter in this article (the oil filter will be addressed in a separate oil change guide). You can buy complete filter kits which include all filters. I recommend doing that to save some hard earned rupies and then changing all of them in one go, they probably are all overdue anyway.

Pollen Filter

Having that dampness and weird smell in the cabin gain? It’s not always a fart. Changing the pollen filter might address the issue. It’s also the most overlooked filter on the car. Many people does not even know it exists. Especially if you have been around older cars which do not have them! There you have the good old fashioned unfiltered atmosphere straight into the cabin.

So where do you find the pollen filter? Start by opening the hood. At the plastic cover above the engine is a narrow plastic lid. Open it and there you will find the filter.

Pollen filter location W245 — Say hello to pollen filter

The pollen filter is a flimsy piece of paper which you can easily swap without any tools. Mess this up and you are a clown.

Old vs new pollen filter — Can you spot the old filter?

Well done you completed 1/3.

Air Filter

Time to step it up a notch. Now you will require some actual tools. Some torx bits to be specific. The air filter is located at the top of the engine and you can’t miss it. You have to loosen the plastic cover which is held in place by torx screws all around it. Be careful not to loose the screws into the engine bay and you will never find them again.

You don’t have to loosen the air intake tube going to the turbo. And if you do, it’s important to get the seal completely tight again. Not so easy.

Now you have done 2/3, well done. Maybe you’re not a clown after all? Lets step over to the diesel filter.

Diesel Filter

The final and hardest part. Here you will utilize at least a screwdriver. You should also consider getting new hose clamps if the old ones are rotten. In older mechanical diesels injection systems it was a pain to change the filter, since you had to manually pump and bleed the injection system for air after changing filters. Now the car will do this for you with the electronic injection system. To be honest I did zero pre-studying before doing this job and wasn’t 100% sure if this would happen, but it was no issue starting the car afterwards. So no worries!

Locate the diesel filter on the right side of the engine. It should be easy to spot. It’s a canister with two hoses going into it. Note the location of each hose, take a picture so you don’t cross them when installing the new filter.

Diesel filter Mercedes W245 — Location of diesel filter.

Unscrew the hoses and beware of diesel pouring out, prepare some paper to catch the spilling diesel. You should be extra careful of spilled diesel here since the exhaust is just beneath. This can catch fire if a lot of diesel is spilled, and I don’t want you to blame me for you burning up your own car.

The filter canister is clamped tight by a couple of spring clamps which you can loosen by hand.

After installing the new diesel filter. Start the car and inspect closely for diesel leaks. Tighten the clamps if you see seepage. Alternatively the hoses might need replacing if they have started to seep from cracks. Diesel leaks here might cause engine fire and you have now been warned!

If you managed to complete this 3/3 step, you are already at novice DIY level and congratulations! Who said fixing your car was difficult? Hardly need any tools at all.

Robs out!

Unmodding the W245 B-Class

The B-Class has some extra headlights mounted. Not only are they ugly, they are also completely useless when not working! I’m unsure whey they are put there in the first place since the B-Class has quite good original headlights. Also there is some weird power drain on the battery when the car is parked, and it could be part of the culprit. This must be removed promptly!

B-Class with extra headlights — Those headlights must be removed!

Following the spaghetti wire into the car and under the passenger side floor is the location of the battery. There a surprise was waiting, turns out the positive power for the extra lights relay is connected to the negative battery pole. Great.. We’ll remove that crap and throw out the spaghetti.

Headlights relay — Spaghetti wiring of extra lights relay. Red power wire connected wrong to the battery.

To remove the extra headlights I had to remove the grill. There were quite a lot of bolts attached into the plastic of the grill and bumper. The whole assembly job smelled of cheap. The headlights themselves are Hella and of ok quality, but the the water and coronation attracting wiring job without solder and drilling straight into the plastic of the car is not ok! It really felt good ripping the whole assembly off.

So finally after removing the crappy extra lights I could put everything back together. I’m quite displeased with the holes in my grille. Might need to replace it now. The holes in the bumper can at least be hidden behind the front number plate.

Job well done, at least it doesn’t look like a turd.

Robs out!

Changing the windshield wiper mechanism front and rear on B-Class W245

The major issue with this car which basically prevents me from driving it is a malfunctioning front window wiper mechanism. It rains quite a lot here especially in the autumn, also it’s illegal to drive without them. While the front window wipers are essential, the rear one is not working either. Side view mirrors are often enough, however the mirrors on this car are so small and “well” designed so you can’t really see whats directly behind you. So I will need to fix that one as well.

The front wipers were almost not working when picking up the car when I bought it and the wipers were stuck in a weird position. Unfortunately it was heavy rain this day and not really possible to drive without it. When inspecting the mechanism it turned out that the motor was fine, but the wiper bracket was broken due to a totally seized right side wiper shaft.

Broken passenger side wiper shaft after trying to unseize it. No wiping here…

After some 2 hours of fiddling in the rain we managed to get the driver side wiper to work (barely). The drive home was quite interesting where I operated the wiper only when strictly necessary. Thankfully it worked all the way home with no fuzz.

Front Wiper Mechanism

The access to the front wiper mechanism is easily made with removing the plastic cover just over the engine beneath the front window. But first open the hood to get better access to the wiper arms. Some care here is needed so you don’t crack the front windscreen, such as dropping your tools and slamming the spring loaded wipers on the window.

Removing the wiper arms can be a challenge if you don’t know the trick. Unscrew the nut half way, then use an open ended wrench to pry off the wiper arm and voila it’s off. Once both wiper arms are removed, you can remove the plastic guard cover. It’s only held in place with 6 hex screws located at the top of the engine bay. Take care not to loose any tools or screws into the engine bay. You will never find them again from the bottom of the engine bay.

The wiper mechanism itself is easy to take off. There is one cable to the motor, then the mechanism is held together with 3 bolts. When reinstalling a used one, or refreshing the existing one. It’s an excellent opportunity to lube the wiper shafts with some oil and put some grease on the mechanism joints. Much easier than when it’s on the car.

Before reinstalling the wiper mechanism, make sure the joints are installed the correct way. Use the article as reference since there are two ways the joints can attach to the middle pivot bar. Installing them the wrong way might ruin the assembly when turning on the key. Also beware that the motor is really powerful, so don’t put your hand or fingers down in the mechanism while someone is turning the key or checking the mechanism from inside the car. Ideally the battery should be disconnected while working on the wipers.

Before assembling the whole thing, make sure the wiper mechanism works properly by turning on the wiper motor and inspect that the mechanism works without any issues and clears all obstacles under the windshield. There is some wiggle room for the bracket in the 3 mounts. Then you can put back the plastic cover.

Working mechanism, quite fun to look at.

Installing the wiper arms is probably the most difficult with this job, since it needs some fiddling and adjusting to get the correct angle. The two arms are not equal either so make sure to put them on correct to their assigned side. When aligning them, you will need to try them out and see if they have enough clearance when operating while also cover most of the screen. This might take a couple of tries, so be patient. When they are aligned, then put back the plastic covers and your are done.

The issue with this type of wiper arm design is that the wiper arms seem constantly to fight for position. If one binds or get stuck the other wiper will most likely break the other arm with a punch! A problem in older cars with more non-synchronized wipers like these is that they end up fighting for the windscreen and the wiper arms get bent, for example Lamborghini Espada.

Car is now capable to handle rain again!

Feels good to have working wipers again!

Rear wiper mechanism

The rear wiper motor is easier to replace. First remove the wiper arm, or if it’s broken off like mine, remove the nut. Then open the rear hatch, there is a plastic cover under there which can be removed without tools. Just use a plastic prying tool to snap it open.

The wiper motor has a plastic tube which needs to be unhooked. The plastic tube delivers wiper washer fluid to the rear window. Don’t worry, it will not leak water when unhooking it. Don’t mess up the plastic spring, otherwise you will leak washer fluid into the boot. Also unhook the power plug.

Plastic retainer to secure the washer fluid tube.

The window motor is held in place by only three bolts, and when removing these you can slide out the whole motor from the rear.

A new rear wiper blade comes actually wih a new arm as well, since the wiper blade is quite special and non-standard. It is not super cheap, buit not expensive wither. Installation is just reverse of disassembly, remember to test it and check for leaks before finishing at the end.

Working rear window wiper mechanism. Nice when spying on the cars behind you, not that there will be any cars behind this super fast 180CDI!!!!

My experience so far with working on this car is that it’s actually super easy to work on. It seems that if a car is easy to assemble on the factory thus making it cheap, it will also be easy for the home DIY mechanic to do work on. I’m quite happy for that. Older cars are usually more complex in their build and also a bit harder to work on.

Robs out!