Bob from The Land Down Under writes:
G’day Sajeev, here is a question for you. In my ML320 (2001) the accelerator pedal has broken and for the life of me I cannot remove the pedal assembly from the bulkhead of the car. I have undone the two bolts I can see but it refuses to budge. No one in the Mercedes Benz forums can/will answer my question. Plus the actual workshop manual is held by Mercedes Benz, who will not part with it unless an inordinate amount of money crosses their palms. (The last time I checked they wanted about $400 Australian for the manual on DVD and I thought movie DVD’s were expensive!)
Thanks for the help, oh master of the wrenches, mystic diviner of the oil sludge.
Bob (from Oz)
Sajeev answers:
You’d think that a little sweet talk and a case of Foster’s would loosen the dealer’s grip on the service manual, right? Why I’d go straight back there and say, “Don’t come to the raw prawn with me, mate!”
Or not. I think $30 USD and a little time on eBay gets you exactly what you need. I’ve seen several compact discs with ML-specific Mercedes shop manuals on eBay, and many USA sellers ship internationally. Out of sheer journalistic independence, I won’t link to a specific auction. But if you Google “ebay+mercedes+shop+manual+ML” I trust you’ll be mighty happy with the results.
Or perhaps one of our Best and Brightest can find you a (legal?) torrent file of said shop manuals, which aren’t super easy to decode, but the price is quite nice.
[Send your technical queries to mehta@ttac.com]
Go to Helm or Factoryautomanuals.com
Even with the shipping cost to the end of the world, it will still be cheaper than the stealership.
Or you can download emule, and look for Mitchell auto manual. For free.
Or ebay, as Sajeev suggested.
So you waste several days and nights wondering how to swap a part.
Even if you did find the magic wingnut, a home mechanic has so hope whatsoever of calibrating the replacement electronic pedal, which requires the MB StarScan scan tool.
If it involves stoppin’, steerin’, or goin’, pay a professional.
I wonder if the Bentley site would have a proper manual? These are somewhat costly, probably around $100 or so US, but far less than the Mercedes version.
Sajeev, not great advice unfortunately on the Ebay front. Most of what one sees on that site are very poorly-made screen captures from pirated service software (or from paper manuals) and aren’t usually considered worth even their modest sales price. I highly doubt the accelerator assembly (especially for an Australian model) would be anywhere in these “solutions.”
Bob, perhaps running down to the parts department and requesting a view of the assembly in question will reveal where it’s connected via the exploded parts diagram. They should be able to furnish it for you, although there’s no guarantee the parts diagram will contain the specific detail you seek. Worth a try!
checking out the torrents there isn’t much for Mercedes ML but plenty for Mercedes deep throat, whatever that is but I suspect that a different issue than a broken throttle.
Sajeev: The expression you’re inadvertently mangling and commingling is Don’t come the raw prawn with me! — there’s neither a “to” nor a “mate” in it; it’s English, not Australian. Contextually, what’s needed here is Fair go, mate!.
As for the accelerator pedal: I took a look at Alldata and it appears the pedal is held in place by nothing more than the two bolts and the cable fixture. Once the cable is detached from the pedal and the two bolts are removed, it should come right off. The electronic actuator and position sensor appear to be located in the engine bay, not the passenger compartment. This is for a left-hand-drive 2001 ML, though; the RHD setup may be different.
Get the dealer to fix it. Have it professionally detailed (ask around for a good place). Sell the bloody thing. This is just the beginning of your MB-induced misery.
I got a copy of the WIS (covers all Mercedes from the late ’80s to 2004) on eBay for $90 a few years back. Otherwise you can go to http://www.startekinfo.com and get the info online. I believe they have subscriptions for as short as 24 hours so the outlay shouldn’t be too much.
Don’t sell the Benz. Though it’s not trouble free, it’s very durable. We have 193,000+ miles on our 1998.
Jeeze, the subaru manual is something like $600 USD which is like a million aussie bucks. They offer a 24 hour subscription for something like $30 where you can just individually download all the chapters.
I’m sure if you just posted on the benz forums asking about the service manual someone would just email it to you.
Daniel J. Stern :
August 6th, 2009 at 11:02 am
Sajeev: The expression you’re inadvertently mangling and commingling is Don’t come the raw prawn with me! — there’s neither a “to” nor a “mate” in it; it’s English, not Australian. Contextually, what’s needed here is Fair go, mate!.
What’s really needed is that “A$400 is a fair suck on the sauce bottle and if that flamin’ drongo at MB thinks Ozzie Bob is going to pay that he must have a few ‘roos loose in the top paddock.”
WIS says detach the cable, remove two screws and it will come right off…