TekNinja81

Cleaned up the area and there hasn't been any clear sign of a leak since. Hoping this was just road grime or something left over from the past. Really should have done this months ago.... Living in a house now finally makes it easier for me to get around to maintenance I couldn't easily do before. About to swap out my winters, and do an oil change, so I'll get a better look at things in the process. Friend of mine confirmed the cap above is indeed a vent and nothing to worry about. Next will probably be a good cleaning of the service hatch areas/engine area and maybe new brakes/rotors if they're looking worn.

Hey all. I've got a potential fluid leak somewhere in/around the transmission area of my 2010 Smart 451. As you'll note in photos attached, the entire undercarriage around that area seems to be covered in what might be oil, transmission fluid or some other foreign substance. I did coat some of the underbody of the car with RustCheck early into the winter, so it's possible some of this might be what I'm seeing. My oil level hasn't dropped significantly, and I'd imagine if the transmission were leaking significantly, I'd have noticed something by now? Would greatly appreciate any suggestions as to what this might be. I do need to get the underbody washed up nicely so as to confirm if this is actually an active leak; for all I know this might just be gunk from the road, but it's looked this way for a fair while now. I will note that the darker patch over on the right side by the oil pan, appears to be dried up and has been since I got the car -- it's the area under the transmission that has me most concerned right now. Also, can anyone tell me what the yellowish cap is, just underneath/in between the air filter box/tube? Is that a breather or something to that effect? I tapped it by accident while checking the area and noticed that it's free-spinning, and seems to be able to lift up & down, but does not come off entirely. Thanks a million in advance. I'm due for an oil change so will be getting that done within the next week or two, but hoping to sort this issue out first.

Hey guys, I'm in need of a set of the "resistor fix" headlight wires/harness for my 2010 451. It's the pigtail/harness kit Mercedes usually sells for around $75 with a set of H7 bulbs -- but I just need the pigtails, not the bulbs, and Mercedes doesn't sell them separately. Does anyone in the GTA have some to spare for a reasonable price? I've now had both sides of the set that came with my car either melt or shatter as the plastic became brittle, and I'm starting to blow replacement bulbs out quickly as a result. Hoping the newer kits are made of something a bit better than the original set I had. For reference, the Mercedes/Smart OEM part# is: "A 451 540 23 06". Again, I just need the wires, not the bulbs. Heck, if they're sold in bulk I'd probably buy a few.

How much have a difference have you noticed since installing the DynaMat/similar product? As with my previous post on the matter, I definitely find the "trunk"/boot area stays cooler than it used to, and have found the engine noise to be a bit quieter inside. More than anything now, the vibration/rattling in my doors drives me nuts as I can hear it more clearly!

Thought I should share a piece of info I came across this morning totally by accident -- so as it turns out, Huronlad you were right, the harness/pigtail I was inquiring about *IS* the one MB/Smart issued/sold as a resistor fix to extend headlight bulb life. Check this link out over at Flying Tiger... http://shop.flyingtiger.ca/index.php?p=product&id=3408 Part# is "A 451 540 23 06" per MB/Smart and it is an OEM kit, which FT sells for $45. My understanding is it's a pair of bulbs plus the harness set; I'm wondering if the harness set itself is sold separately... Going to inquire at a Smart dealer, but otherwise I guess I'll be ordering one of these kits -- the same headlight I've since been running without the harness burnt out suddenly the other night, yet the filament inside appears intact, so I'm thinking this may be why.

So I should really try not to do these things when I'm fresh off a 12-hour overnight shift. That said, the point at which I made one final adjustment and said "screw it I'm going to bed" before checking my setting, I apparently managed to almost perfectly align the lights! Go figure, sometimes giving up pays! That said -- I've used these Eurolite bulbs for several years and with good results -- the catch is, I get mine from Pacific Mall specifically, and have tested them against a differently-packaged batch Canadian Tire sells/used to sell, and the CT ones are crap in comparison, oddly enough. I mostly get them because of the "true white" colour they output vs the slight yellow tinge to most factory-style halogens. I should note, when I first replaced the bulb, I actually did have the new bulb installed in the wrong orientation -- the tab facing upwards I believe, where it needed to be closer to a 6- or 7-o'clock position. That seems to have also helped a bit. Again, side effects of doing anything in a half-exhausted state.

Hi folks, I recently had one of my low-beam bulbs blow and upon replacing it, I felt like the left beam was aimed way too low for some reason, and had been wondering if it had been prior to that. Standing 15-20' away, looking dead-on at the front of the car/into the lowbeams, if this makes any sense, my passenger-side low-beam projector appears fully illuminated, while the driver-side appears to mostly be illuminated in its bottom-half. That's the first thing I noticed. Sitting in the car, I feel like my driver-side lowbeam is mostly hitting the ground about 6-10' in front of the car, while the passenger-side lowbeam hits the wall about 20-30' away. If I hold my hands in front of the projectors, I can see a definite difference in the height of the light being output. Not exactly the most "technical" way of looking at/explaining this, I know... Now here's the thing: I've been trying to adjust the driver-side beam using the single hex-key adjuster located between the high/low-beam to raise my driver-side lowbeam, and my understanding is the low/high are both adjusted by the one setting. If I run my high-beams, the driver-side highbeam ends up way higher than the passenger-side by the time my low-beam looks anywhere near right to me. It takes several full turns of the adjuster to make a significant difference in the height. Am I doing something wrong here? I'm using a matched set of bulbs (those Eurolite "xenon 55w" bulbs if anyone knows them) and am 99% sure they're both installed properly, but I can't figure out this bloody alignment! Heck, if anyone in the Toronto area wouldn't mind, I'd love your help getting this right within the next day or two. I've tried looking through Google/other forums/here but the only site that seems to offer a visual guide of how to do this is Evilution, and I'm not a member there nor interested in paying for it.

Hey folks, bit of an odd one here. I'm directionally-challenged at times, to put it nicely, lol. I do have a GPS which I use on longer routes, but I'd like to just have a little compass in the car so I know what direction I'm going at least. I picked up one of those Type-S/Type-R/whatever brand ones Canadian Tire sells, and it seems like no matter where I put it in the car -- windshield, center console, over the speedo/dash area -- it always tells me I'm heading south or southwest. Maybe just a crappy/defective unit, since that brand isn't exactly top-notch, but is there an issue generally in Smarts (the 451 in my case) interfering with compass accuracy? I don't want anything big and fancy, or that requires batteries/power... just a simple compass so I stop ending up 10 minutes in the wrong direction. LOL!

Just out of curiosity, do you know if/where that part is listed on the website? I don't actually need one personally, but would be interested for future reference.

I've seen a few people mention dampening the rear hatch now. In your case at least, do you mean you've applied strips within the actual storage compartment, or did you take apart the hatch/door somehow and install it within that section? I'm considering doing this myself to reduce some vibration from the area, but if I can do so in such a way that the product isn't visible that would be much more preferable.

Got some off-brand Dynamat-type product from a friend of mine and decided to try and dampen some of the sound (and hopefully in effect reduce some of the heat transfer) from my engine service hatch. I will need to test this a bit more during the warmer days and see how much it really makes a difference, but given that this product is only about 1/8" thick, I found the car a little quieter and definitely felt less heat through the carpeting in the boot area than I normally would. Here's a pic of the "finished" product: I might install some more throughout the rear areas of the car to try and reduce other vibration noise etc I've noticed; maybe inside the door panels as well as I find my driver-side door can be noisy at highway speeds. But I'm hesitant as I don't even know for sure what brand or material this product is vs the authentic Dynamat stuff...

This is what I was hoping/thinking (and/or that it was part of a previously-removed headlight upgrade etc and no longer necessary.) So far everything's been fine using the factory wiring, which I will be particularly careful with. As mentioned before, I'll probably end up replacing it with another/higher-quality set of pigtails just for the extra peace of mind, if I find a decently-priced set. But at least I know I don't *need* to now. Thanks all!

As far as I can tell, the (3-wired) connector and socket inside the low-beam housing is the factory wiring. The 2-wired pigtail above was connected to that as an extension for some reason, perhaps just as a backup in case heat from the bulb would melt the plastic as mentioned above.

Thanks for the responses so far; however, I still do not know if these were factory-installed parts or an aftermarket add-on from the previous owner. I'll likely be replacing it/them regardless to be safe, but I'd still like to know whether they're actually necessary in my car. Would those of you with 451s (especially if a 2010) mind checking in your low-beam housing to see if you have such a pigtail connected?

Doesn't seem to have any kind of resistor or any other electronics on the pigtail, rather simply the wires and spade connectors. Unless the wire itself acts as a resistor?