jonnyjeep

Problem now sorted hopefully...
Before I go into details, I would like to quote the old saying 'buy cheap, buy twice, buy thrice' as all brake pads are not equal & all brake pads do not fit as properly as OEM pads....especially if they are produced in China for the EU.
My problem was brake knock/rattle over bumpy roads at low speed & it was indeed the pads. It wasn't the height of the pads that was the problem (183.4 mm), it was the width of the pad ears. The pad ears on cheap pads are not wide enough, hence they rock back & forth, which causes a clunk/rattle on rough ground which goes away when you apply the brakes.
I bought some NAPA 'proformer' pads & they have ears that are (and I've measured them with a micrometer) 0.9mm wider, which pushes into the caliper clips alot tighter, thus stopping them rocking back & forth and preventing the brake pad from rattling....at last I'm a happy 300C driver

Water ingress on the brake pads makes the problem worse, so obviously a washout issue with how the pad ears & clips are greased.
Copper grease of now seems to be different of copper grease of old & doesn't seem to be up the job anymore.
Tried lithium grease... no better. Tried ceramic grease...no better. Tried CV joint grease...PERFECT !!
CV joint grease....that black stinky stuff that smells like hydraulic fluid is perfect for brake pad ears & clips. Super lubricating & doesn't wash out. No more creaking & clunking when braking for 3 months now, even after driving through numerous deep puddles.

Yesterday, I decided it was a good day to drain the transmission fluid and change the filter....warm and no wind (to blow dust up into the exposed under belly of the valve body). After 85,000 miles it probably needed it
I bought a Mercedes NAG1 transmission kit a few weeks ago with 6 litres of ATF+4, a new filter and rubber gasket.
 
I drained the oil via the transmission sump plug & after this had dripped almost dry, removed the sump & poured the rest of what was in the bottom of the sump into my big bowl. After pouring it out of my 'big bowl' into a 1 litre jug & then pouring it into an old oil can, I found that only 4 litres had come out .
 
I had read that the usual drain is about 6-7 litres.....But have since read, that 4-5 litres is the norm for a partial oil drain. I guess that the torque converter keeps a good majority of the fluid.
 
Anyway, cleaned up the inside of the sump & magnet, new gasket & exactly the same amount of fluid put in that came out & all is tickety-boo .
I did buy an after market dipstick to check the level (had to break MB seal...boo-hoo for main dealers) & after a good warm up, the level is spot on 

10.5 litres .....I thought that the CRD engine took 9.5 litres to top of dipstick. Since I've had the car (bought in Feb 2020), I've done two oil changes & both times have got 9.5 litres out & replaced it with 9.5 litres.
I know some cars do have a factory fill that can be half a litre to a litre more than the service fill. So to get 10.5 litres out can only mean that there was a litre too much in there, or you managed to suck the engine bone dry
It's a good thing though, that we can put in exactly what comes out....means it's not leaking or burning oil. This car is one of few diesels I have owned that never uses any engine oil & never needs any top ups between changes. The only other diesel that I ever owned that never needed oil top ups was my old Saab 2.2 TiD.
 
The one thing that does worry me about sucking the oil out from the dipstick tube is, does it suck out sludge ? Sludge is kind of a thing of past when you used to drain old Ford Cortina engines & it used to come out when you drained the sump....there was no way that poo could ever be pulled out a filler tube 'cos it was way too thick. I wonder how much sludge we have in these sumps ?. Unless you pull the sump off, you will never know, but the only way to get most of it out is to remove the sump plug.
 
Sump plugs have been fitted by every car manufacturer for draining oil since the year dot & that is the proper way to drain oil. If there was a better way, then car manufacturers would have have invented it.
Tinpot amateur inventors & idiot youtubers who think they know better are just trying to endorse a product that doesn't actually work properly because they are probably being paid to do so.

Was able to suck the oil out of the sump, got 10.5 litres out of it! Filter was easy to replace as its on top of the engine. 
 
Happy Days. 

I googled the engine and came up with this link from another forum.
 
https://app.box.com/s/q9fehwjsxq1t7x0q6kyi
 
The manual covers the 3.0 V6 Diesel.

Yesterday, I decided it was a good day to drain the transmission fluid and change the filter....warm and no wind (to blow dust up into the exposed under belly of the valve body). After 85,000 miles it probably needed it
I bought a Mercedes NAG1 transmission kit a few weeks ago with 6 litres of ATF+4, a new filter and rubber gasket.
 
I drained the oil via the transmission sump plug & after this had dripped almost dry, removed the sump & poured the rest of what was in the bottom of the sump into my big bowl. After pouring it out of my 'big bowl' into a 1 litre jug & then pouring it into an old oil can, I found that only 4 litres had come out .
 
I had read that the usual drain is about 6-7 litres.....But have since read, that 4-5 litres is the norm for a partial oil drain. I guess that the torque converter keeps a good majority of the fluid.
 
Anyway, cleaned up the inside of the sump & magnet, new gasket & exactly the same amount of fluid put in that came out & all is tickety-boo .
I did buy an after market dipstick to check the level (had to break MB seal...boo-hoo for main dealers) & after a good warm up, the level is spot on 

Update time, if anyone is interested   
At cold start (now on warmer days), voltage has again started fluctuating up & down & there is now a sqeaking noise that sounds like it's coming from the alternator. After a couple of minutes, the noise goes away & voltage stabilizes.
So it's not the brushes or any weak electrical link, it's obviously the alternator bearings......so new alternator it is then

New Delco Remy 180 amp alternator £198 +VAT, & they require your old alternator in exchange as well    That's a shocking price for an alternator, but then again, it's a big car with a big appetite
Anyway, alternator now replaced & all seems good.
Took a couple of days at a leisurely pace with lots of tea breaks. Did the taking out from the top method as opposed to the workshop manual method (the underneath method) & it was probably alot easier & less back breaking, but probably just as time consuming.
One positive thing though about doing it from the top, is that you get to remove the throttle & it's attached plastic manifold thingy (don't know the correct name for it) & see how much oil & caked on carbon is actually in there & how much this build up of crap is actually affecting performance. I spent a bit of time cleaning all the soot & oil out & the car now seems to breath a little better & be a bit more responsive

Hi everyone, my name is Jon & I'm a newbie, so please be gentle....but I do bite if provoked
 
I bought a 2007 Chrysler 300C CRD a couple months ago with 78,000 on the clock, from someone who had had it sitting on the driveway for a while with a flat battery. He jumped started it for me when I went to view it & I noticed that the ABS, ESP, traction lights were lit up on the dash. At the time I considered this a minor fault because I was buying it for probably £1000-£1500 less than what most were selling for on autotrader & other online selling media.
After fitting a brand new brand Exide 900A battery the lights still didn't go out. I have since read alot about these cars not liking having a flat battery for a while or even being jump started.
 
Anyway, the code I get from both my Delphi & Appcar diag FCA laptop diagnostic software is U140E. The Appcar diag FCA is a recent one that I bought & it seems to do quite alot. But the Delphi software is the only one that will actuate the ABS pump. Seeing that I can actuate the ABS pump via the Delphi software, then I'm assuming that the module & pump are working fine & that it really is down to the fact that the battery was dead for so long, or that a jump start may have messed with the ECU.
 
I'm thinking that the ECU needs to be re-flashed by a main dealer using their Starscan. Trouble is, at the moment, there are no main dealers open due to Covid-19.
 
Anyone know of an independent garage that may have Starscan for chrysler/jeep/mercedes in south Essex ?
 
Anyway, sorry for such a long newbie introduction 

Sorry, should have posted this in the problems page. Next time I will...promise

Anyway, if anyone was wondering what the solution was to code U140E....it was indeed down to a long term flat battery. Took the car to 'D.Salmon' in Colchester today & they sorted it out within an hour. They re-flashed the PCM, took it for a test drive & all sorted.

I've got to admit that I have always been a bit wary of main dealers, but 'D.Salmon' were the only place in Essex that I could find that were still servicing Chryslers & still had Starscan/Wi-Tech & the knowhow to use it. They have now changed my opinion of main dealers. They were absolutely fantastic & the guy doing the job really did know what he was doing, he was a real pro & so much more knowledgeable than every local garage/mechanic that looked at it & said.."it's the ABS pump mate ! "

The price was £99 (inc VAT) & I suppose that also includes the one off £35 pass to Techauthority for access to the Chrysler database, so that's not a bad price.
 
After four months of owning a Chrysler 300C with no ABS, ESP, Cruise control etc & not having the software to fix it (I thought I did when I bought it, but I was wrong), it's nice to finally find a main dealer (open after the lockdown has lifted) that still has the tech to service Chryslers.



 

Update time, if anyone is interested   
At cold start (now on warmer days), voltage has again started fluctuating up & down & there is now a sqeaking noise that sounds like it's coming from the alternator. After a couple of minutes, the noise goes away & voltage stabilizes.
So it's not the brushes or any weak electrical link, it's obviously the alternator bearings......so new alternator it is then

Alternator/generator seems to be working fine now in the warmer weather and it's happy to chuck out a good output so that the PCM internal voltage regulator can do it's job.
Not sure why it was so badly affected by sub zero temperatures, but my guess is that the brushes weren't contacting properly due to flood water getting into alternator (it's pretty low down), coupled with freezing temperatures & usual crud build up preventing the brushes from contacting.
Had a similar thing last winter on my Henry vacuum cleaner that is kept in the shed. It wouldn't work, because the brushes had seized inside their housings, due to build up of normal crud that had thickened due to moisture & the cold temperature 

Sorry jonnyjeep
You are right, re read the post and they clearly say its turning over so not the same issue at all. That'll teach me to read a little more carefully instead of just scanning text.

Interesting, of course I can only speak for my own experience here but as I understood it the relay controls both the signal that is sent to the starter and to the immobiliser and thus would dictate whether the signal is read correctly to allow starting ! As an intermittent fault and based on that idea I swapped out the starter relay for one of the others, in my case the horn, and the issue went away, car started each and every time, but as soon as I returned the original relay, back came the starting problem as described by Lord300
 
I just thought that rather than Lord300 keep buying expensive parts and spending large amounts of time and effort removing fitting them just give it a try and if it fixes it then fantastic if not its back to the drawing board?
 
My problems began last summer and I wasted money on a new battery before I looked at the connections on the starter (earth) in case it was iffy, I knew it wasn't an alternator issue and as it worked 90% of the time with no problems I didn't think it was fuel or such like. I looked at the battery in the keys, they were fine so it seemed to me it just wasn't communicating with the car. What you get when you insert the key is everything lights up and you have full power so the auto headlights, radio, memory seats, mirrors etcetera all work perfectly but the car has nothing other than the solenoid click, turn the key off and back on again and most times it fires up and away you go ! Over time the issue gets worse and eventually the car just won't start. I'm awaiting some new relay units from the States, not going to get it through the MOT with no horn, but who knows when I'll get them, had never considered cracking them open and re soldering but it is worth a go, hell anything is, and if it's your second car or you can afford to have it off the road ! Lets face it, we all love these motors for the way they look and the interior size but they don't have the best build quality in the world. I may well give the solder idea a go and thanks for suggesting it.        

Sorry, should have posted this in the problems page. Next time I will...promise

Anyway, if anyone was wondering what the solution was to code U140E....it was indeed down to a long term flat battery. Took the car to 'D.Salmon' in Colchester today & they sorted it out within an hour. They re-flashed the PCM, took it for a test drive & all sorted.

I've got to admit that I have always been a bit wary of main dealers, but 'D.Salmon' were the only place in Essex that I could find that were still servicing Chryslers & still had Starscan/Wi-Tech & the knowhow to use it. They have now changed my opinion of main dealers. They were absolutely fantastic & the guy doing the job really did know what he was doing, he was a real pro & so much more knowledgeable than every local garage/mechanic that looked at it & said.."it's the ABS pump mate ! "

The price was £99 (inc VAT) & I suppose that also includes the one off £35 pass to Techauthority for access to the Chrysler database, so that's not a bad price.
 
After four months of owning a Chrysler 300C with no ABS, ESP, Cruise control etc & not having the software to fix it (I thought I did when I bought it, but I was wrong), it's nice to finally find a main dealer (open after the lockdown has lifted) that still has the tech to service Chryslers.