Eightpint

Hi, I got the vinyl off Ebay, mentioned earlier on in this thread.

Hi, the door pillars on my 300c were faded alot. I used Kiwi liquid shoe polish and applied with the sponge attachment. Been on over a year now with now problems. Very effective and cheap.

Well, I bottled out of any more soldering as its costed me two boards already.
 
I thought about sending my controls upto the 300c custom shop who do a refurb for a decent price.
 
But I came across a brand new heater control unit on an auction site which was cheaper than a second hand unit!
 
Issue I had with it, it was from China and it was cheaper than a 2nd hand unit.
 
In the end I chanced it and it arrived and I fitted it to the car and now all the lights work and the air direction goes to the area of the car I want it to......happy days

Hi, your car is not Bright Silver Metallic WS2/PS2 as that's my colour and its alot brighter than yours,
If it's not the Silver Steel DA4/PA4 then I would suggest the Steel Blue Metallic DBM/PBM, as from pictures it looks grey,
 
Best bet is to take your car or petrol flap (if car not on road) to a car paint specialist/supplier who will match the colour and give you the exact colour you need, that's what I did

Sadly I think that's the case.
 
Don't want to teach you to suck eggs, but earth yourself before touching the board. Also, how big is your soldering iron? I also had to replace those lights so I bought a soldering iron with a very fine end. You don't want to get that solder anywhere other than where it should be.
 
But what a ridiculous set up those lights are! Every other car I've had the instrument lights that either screw in or are bayonet fittings. Having to get solder out is just stupid.   

Was it all working fine before you took it apart? If so then it has to be your soldering fix mate. Those circuits boards are very delicate things. Static electricity from your fingers, too much heat can fry the chips.
 
Your best bet now is to buy a second hand heater control on ebay. Try these boys https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/chryslerfennsbay
 
 

Hi, the paint code will be located on the underside of the drivers door, look where it says PNT and it will have the paint code. Failing that take your car to a car paint supplier and they can get an exact colour match and make you a can up, if the cars not driveable take the fuel filler cap to the shop and they will get a match off that

Sorted, I checked the circuit board inside the heater control panel and it was damaged, sourced a second hand unit and hey presto all the lights gave come back on,

Bit of an odd comparison as the cars are not within the same sector, your going from a 2ltr up to a 3ltr so the mpg will definitely be lower around the 30mpg, but from a big car the mpg is good, the diesel engine is sourced from mercedes so like the Skoda there is no major headaches. Also remember their are no Chrysler dealerships in the UK no more so you have to use the fiat group which also services jeep and dodge. Service parts are relatively cheap for a big car but would be more expensive than the skoda. Quality, skoda would win hands down, as the 300c has cheap plastic interiors and leather seats that tare if you fart hard enough. Suspension is another area that likes to eat your money as the 2ton motor can get through the bushes quite rapidly. So to me upgrading to another skoda would make sense for you.
 
But let's be truthful here, your on this forum because you want to convince yourself to buy one,
 
To be frank I brought my 300c for the sheer presence on the road, and the look of the car, as it does stand out from the hum-drum cars out there and with a few extra add-ons can look a beast on the road.
 
I love my 300c, so you only live once so go and buy one..

That is a bargain. Especially for genuine MB parts. I’ve had a few spares from MB for mine. The oil cooler seals. Only a tenner. I’d be inclined to leave your handywork in place until it starts whistling again!

I’m well chuffed that has helped. I’m no mechanic at all, but glad you got it sorted mate.

hi Briscoe,
 
i have done what you said and removed the metal pipe from the turbo which goes to the resonator box and found a light green o-ring at the turbo end which seemed to be in good nick.
as i looked at the other end that fits onto the resonator box i had only three quarters of a black o-ring (hensce air escape i assume).
so the next question is where can i get these 2 o-rings from and is the green/black combo o-rings correct for this pipe.
 
at the moment i made a rubber seal to replace the black broken one to keep the car on the road and to my surprise the whistle has gone away, so i am chuffed with myself but would prefer to get the proper ones fitted if i can find them,
again thankyou very much for yor advice on this matter

HI Sean.
 
I know theres some rubber intercooler pipes as well that run down the front of the engine to the intercooler, plus the metal one that exits the turbo (see photo) It might be worth checking these, as the metal one especially has a habit of leaking air.

Hi Briscoe
 
I have checked the top pipe like in the picture you sent and replaced the seal as matter of course, but I still have this annoying whistle when accelerating. So any ideas where I look next cheers.
 
Sean

Found that very interesting and one to remember as a get out of jail card.

Afternoon all.
 
I thought I would share a bit of a story that happened to me this weekend, in the hope that it will help some others if the same thing happens to them.
 
The model it concerns is any 300C with the Mercedes 3 litre V6 diesel. I'm guessing the newer models with the VM diesel will be totally different.
 
So there we are, on the way to Wakefield from Essex where we live, merrily trotting along the motorway. All of a sudden the dashboard starts to chime repeatedly (as if i've left the headlights on and got out), the engine cuts out completely, and on the dashboard are the engine management light, and the red lightening bolt, with a reverse bracket either side (see attached photo).
 
We coast to a stop onto the hard shoulder, and i try to restart the car. It turns over and over, but refuses to fire up.
 
The missus gets on the phone to the RAC, and we're told there's roughly a two hour wait, so this gives me a bit of time to do some Googling before the patrol arrives.
 
Now then, if you refer to the handbook, it clearly states (even in the diesel supplement) that the lightening bolt light indicates there is a fault with the "Electronic Throttle Control". This is utter nonsense. As it turns out, on the diesel models only, this light refers to a fault with either the Swirl Flap Motor, or the Turbo Actuator. Annoyingly this isnt listed in any of the handbooks that come with the car. Poor show Chrysler!
 
Whenever you turn the ignition on in the car, you can see the arm of the turbo actuator raise up. So if this is the problem, then its very easy to diagnose. I tried this little test, and sure enough, the turbo actuator arm wasn't popping up when my wife turned the ignition on, so naturally I thought this was the problem. Sadly I was wrong.
 
What had happened to my car was this....
 
Over time, the seal around the air intake on the front of the turbo degrades. This allows a small amount of oil to drip onto the swirl flap motor, which is situated directly below. (very poor design). This oil had eventually seeped inside the motor, causing it to short out. This short had instantly popped fuse number 15 under the bonnet, which in turn had caused the engine to shut down while doing 70mph to protect itself. I didn't have the handbook in the car with me sadly, so searching on the internet just have me fuse diagrams of the petrol models, which on those shows its for the injectors. Again as it turns out, fuse 15 in the front fuse box does completely different things on the diesel models. It protects the following.... A/C Clutch, A/C Pressure regulator, Crankcase Vent Heater, EGR Valve, Engine Control Module, Fuel Pump, Glow Plug Module, Swirl Flap Motor, Oxygen sensors..
 
So I replaced the blown fuse with a spare 20 amp, and the car fired straight up. It was now in limp mode, and showing the EML and Lightening light, but it was drive-able up to about 80 mph, albeit a bit slow getting there.
 
By this time, the RAC man had arrived. Now there is nothing worse that someone interfering when a pro is at work, so when he arrived, I left him to it, and he plugged the diagnostics in, and it threw up a ton of errors all related to things connected to this fuse. All except the swirl flap motor. He was a bit confused at first, but then I mentioned that I think it might be the swirl flap motor. He hooked up all his testing gear to it, ran a load of tests, and sure enough confirmed to me that the motor was dead.
 
He then cleared the ECU codes, started the car, and only then did it throw up a specific Swirl Flap related error.
 
HE gave me some spare fuses, and after a quick road test, we were on our merry way albeit in limp mode.
 
Now to fixing it.
 
The cheapest place I could find to supply and fit a new motor quoted £575 plus VAT. The motor is just over £100, but the labour involved is a joke. Anything that is situated inside the VEE of the engine (Swirl Flap Motor, Oil Cooler) etc needs major open heart surgery to fix it. Annoyingly both the motor and the cooler seals have known faults, so they couldn't be in a worse place!
 
If you fancy forking out all that money to have the motor replaced, then that is no doubt the best way in the long run, however there is a quick fix for £1.99 and YES it does work perfectly.
 
Get yourself some 4K7 resistors off of ebay, they are £1.99 for 50. Remove the engine cover, then remove the intake pipe that runs from the airbox to the front of the turbo. Right below the turbo, you will see a black box. This is the offending motor. On the right of the motor is a multi plug held in with a grey clip. Remove the metal bracket above the plug, and pop the plug off.
 
Grab a resistor, and bend the legs in such a way that they will fit snugly into the two centre holes in the plug. Theres 4 in total. Once you have put the resistor in, and you can confirm its in there properly. Tape it up with electrical tape so the resistor wont fall out. Replace the metal bracket, and the air intake pipe, leaving the plug sticking up so you can get to it again in the future if you need to. Then start up the car, and stand back in amazement as both the engine management light and the lightening bolt lights extinguish, and the car comes back out of limp mode.
 
Take the car for a drive, and you will see that it drives as good as new.
 
What you have done here, is fool the car into thinking the swirl flap motor is working again. WHen in fact its now disconnected.
 
You shouldnt notice any difference in performance or fuel economy at all. The emissions may be up slightly when cold is all.
 
So to summarise, if your car cuts out with the lightening bolt on.
 
1) Coast to a stop
2) Curse, swear, have a fag, but don't despair
3) Check fuse 15 in the front fuse box, and replace
4) Start the car and drive home in limp mode - The car will do upto 80mph
5) Order your resistors from Ebay, making sure they are the 4K7 type
6) Still use your car while you are waiting for them to be delivered, remembering that it wont pull away as quick as usual
7) Fit the resistor at the weekend in the rain
8) Stand back, chest puffed out, hands on hips, telling the neighbours you've just saved almost 700 quid :-)
 
 
 
 
 
 

Amazing what a £7 ring can do to your car, least your up and running now

Hi can anyone please help the screen on 07 300c sat nav isn't working. Music still plays but no info on screen, just stays black. Any advice would be very welcome.

Hi Eigtpint. I tried to post a reply on Saturday but for some reason the site was down. Anyway success all round. My local garage fitted it for me, not the easiest job by all accounts. The old ring had completely separated. So they fitted the new one, and within a few seconds of pulling away all the lights went out. Plus the gears changed perfectly, and the cruise control works again. I’m so pleased!!!

Hi,
 
The trims come off quite easily with patience, I used a flat scraper and flathead screwdriver, the trim is held on by 3 clips, once you start prying the screwdriver all the way down the trim you will feel where the clips are, I released the top clip then slowly worked down gently as I went released the other two. The trim literally pops out of the clips.
In fact one of the clips snapped off the bodywork, the clip was fine it was the pop rivet snapped so I drilled out the rivet and replaced it with another, job done. Good luck

If you go on ebay and put in 300c rear abs ring in vehicle/parts catagory it comes up with 27 items, please note they are not handed for the rear on this car.

Hi briscoe,
 
Mine is a 2006 saloon which I love the look of and road presence it has, but am finding electrical gremlins with this car. Yes when I had the abs lights on the dash the car wouldn't come out of first, I had to pull over and wait, then it was ok, I heard somewhere it's a safety device on the gearbox, (hence when I heard the bang I was doing approx 60mph at the time and I couldn't get drive untill i dropped below 30mph) but changed the ring and the problem has gone away.

When i brought my car the first thing I noticed were how faded the plastic piller trims were and the 2 trims that run down the sides of the front windscreen were just as bad, you can buy the trim cover replacements for the doors that also supply the triangle sections on the back doors mainly in chrome and black if you can find them, I wanted black as my car is silver but none available at the time. So brought some black vinyl and started with the pillers, I removed the trim from the car so I could lose the vinyl wrap around the back of the trim. Then I did the two triangle bits on the back doors again removing from the doors, I was very pleased with the result that I did the door mirror sections and finally removed the front windscreen trims and vinyl wrapped them, with time and patience I was very happy with the result..they have been on the car for over a year now and still look brand new, all for the cost of £20. Makes a big difference to the car and well worth the effort.

Hi, did you get this problem sorted at all?
 
If you didnt, then its an easy fix. Open the bonnet and, and find the washer bottle. Next to that, bolted to the drivers side wing, you will find a black box. Unplug the box, and hey presto, the fault will vanish. It will also cure a few other faults, such as indicators that miss a click, rear wipers wiping on their own, reversing sensors firing up when your driving forward.
 
The box is the HID translator module. All it does is let the ECU know when a headlight bulbs blows. If you can live without that function then you can cure all the rest!! The HID module develops a fault, and effects lots of other things down the line.

It's true by disconnecting the plug in the engine bay the problems with the radio, wipers and reversing lamps have all gone away. I did for a week reconnect the plug and the issues came back, so up with the bonnet and off with the plug again.. so is it a simple swap out of the Hid module to cure this problem..
 
Just started to have a new problem with the radio/sat nav whereby the unit stays on but I lose the screen (goes blank) sometimes it comes back but most the time it's blank, radio works fine and volume etc, but it's a pain if you wanna change something