Mercedes Sprinter Engine dead ??

jambo73

Hi all .....

I've a 08 sprinter 313cdi 78,000 miles on the clock which I use for work or should I say I did use for work until it died on me this week. I'm looking for advise, help what ever to try and save some money.

I bought it in Sept 10 with 18,000 miles on the clock, took it for its 1st service to the local Merc thought it was very expensive so the next service I took it to another dealer 1/2 the price. All was fine .... about 6 months later I started to notice that power was dropping off and coming back until it lost total power and I had to take it back to dealer no:1, they put in a intercooler(€375)which worked fine .... for 6 months back to the same problem took it back to them they said there was a hole in one of the air inlet pipes which caused this (€200) ... worked fine for 2 weeks back to the same problem, I rang in one Friday even to report it I was told that if there was no warning lights coming up on the dash there wasn't a lot they could do & to pull over stop for a min or so and head off again which I done the it worked fine again for about 20 miles so I stopped and started my way home ... took it to the dealer on Monday they kept me there for about 4 hours and the service rep took me into the garage showed me some part and said that was the problem and that they wouldn't charge me for the part but I'd have to pay for labour (€110). I was also told that I needed to drive on the motorway the odd time to "clear out" the engine and that was also a cause to the problem.... I told him I was on the motorway most of the time to which he said was I wasn't ....

After all this messing around and also out of warranty I thought why pay dealer prices for a service so I started to take it to another garage to be serviced. So I got the last 2 services done with this other garage the last one was in April.

I had noticed that there was the problem back only slightly with the loss of power again and as there was no lights showing up on the dash I done as the Merc garage told me stop and start it and if it solved the problem keep on motoring.

On Wed I was driving down the motorway going grand next thing power dropped off and it slowed down to a stop. Couldn't get it started again only tired a couple of times but knew this wasn't good. Got a piggy back to the local garage he had a look at it and reckoned it was something major in the engine and told me to take it back to Merc dealer as it is only fresh van this shouldn't happen to it.

The dealer has it now and has said its something like the crankshaft gone and that more than likely they can do nothing about it but replace the engine .... cost as of yet unknown .... he is seeing if Merc will go someway with the costs but the problem is they are standing over their services but they won't accept the other garages services even though he used all the correct filters and oil not Merc makes but the correct ones all the same .....

A long winded story but has anyone any advise or ideas what might help me out with the dealer ..... there's a mention of about €7k to get a new engine which to be honest would just flatten me totally ...... HELP please ....

R.O.R

Just double check the Turbo Hose is securely on before looking at anything else.

We've a fleet of 08 vans on the road. Driver's carry Jubilee clips with them and fix the vans themselves when it happens. They are generally in remote area's and are engineers, but it's such a common and frequent issue that causes massive power loss.

Worth checking as a very cheap fix.

jambo73

the van is totally dead no kick from the engine at all .. as I said the dealer has said its a crankshaft in the engine and it isn't a fix its a total new engine.... I'm just wondering/hoping that I can get Merc to cover the costs cause if its €7k as mentioned that's me going under

winnie the schtink

talk to john murphy in carlow, MERCEDESPRINTERS.IE

Bigus

Main dealers diagnosis is probably wrong. It's in there interest to sell 7k engines

dh0011

might be worth a trip to an engine specialist.

jambo73

spoke to john murphy in Carlow, MERCEDESPRINTERS.IE .... he was saying that this is a common problem with sprinters and that the engines in them now aren't really fit to do the job asked of them so they just die, he had 8 in his yard at the mo waiting new engines and has replaced loads more.

I was looking on another forum site and it has been found that if the crankshaft is cast in the engine there is never a problem however if it is milled then they cause endless problems which usually can be 1st found with a slight knocking noise in at the crank pully which is often mistaken for a broken hydraulic steering pump .... the cost to repair the crank pully is about €400 .... wish I had to have known this about a week ago now its going to cost me the guts of €7k .......

darragh o meara

R.O.R wrote: »

Just double check the Turbo Hose is securely on before looking at anything else.

We've a fleet of 08 vans on the road. Driver's carry Jubilee clips with them and fix the vans themselves when it happens. They are generally in remote area's and are engineers, but it's such a common and frequent issue that causes massive power loss.

Worth checking as a very cheap fix.

There was a service measure for this that advised to put a Mikolor type clip in this hose. Costs a few quid each but any we done at the time never gave hassle afterwards. That pipe coming off was the cause of a good few dpf filters getting clogged too.

jambo73 wrote: »

spoke to john murphy in Carlow, MERCEDESPRINTERS.IE .... he was saying that this is a common problem with sprinters and that the engines in them now aren't really fit to do the job asked of them so they just die, he had 8 in his yard at the mo waiting new engines and has replaced loads more.

I was looking on another forum site and it has been found that if the crankshaft is cast in the engine there is never a problem however if it is milled then they cause endless problems which usually can be 1st found with a slight knocking noise in at the crank pully which is often mistaken for a broken hydraulic steering pump .... the cost to repair the crank pully is about €400 .... wish I had to have known this about a week ago now its going to cost me the guts of €7k .......

I would get it diagnosed at a main dealer and insist they apply for goodwill on your behalf. The engine should last a lot longer than 5 years... If its a known problem you may be entitled to something but you won't get anything if you repair it yourself.

gctest50

Put an engine in it and get rid of it ? eg

http://www.erithcommercials.co.uk/engines_for_sale_6.htm

jambo73

I would get it diagnosed at a main dealer and insist they apply for goodwill on your behalf. The engine should last a lot longer than 5 years... If its a known problem you may be entitled to something but you won't get anything if you repair it yourself.[/QUOTE]


It is with a main dealer at the mo as they have diagnosed the problem ..... they are saying that because the last two services were done by a non dealer garage that Mercedes wont stand over it even though he used the correct oil and filters and it was also done on the correct mileage.

I won't be getting any repair work done until the dealer tells me blank that Merc won't assist with the repair. I think this is a balls as you said it should last a lot longer than 5 years and with only 78000 on the clock it has to be Mercedes problem.

darragh o meara

Get onto Mercedes Ireland ( Motor Distributors ltd ) yourself if you get no joy from the dealer. I wouldn't be accepting that excuse for not getting cover on this. Engines don't just go like that. The other route I'd go down is to request that they get someone from the service dept in mercedes to come down and look at the engine. There's a lot of good lads up there who really know their stuff.

NuckingFacker

darragh o meara wrote: »

Get onto Mercedes Ireland ( Motor Distributors ltd ) yourself if you get no joy from the dealer. I wouldn't be accepting that excuse for not getting cover on this. Engines don't just go like that. The other route I'd go down is to request that they get someone from the service dept in mercedes to come down and look at the engine. There's a lot of good lads up there who really know their stuff.

Don't say it too loud, but merc are having major hassles with their commercial diesels at the moment, especially sprinters and trucks with dual turbos. My good mate services sprinters - I asked him would they be a good buy and he said "nucking, I couldn't reccomend one to you in good concience mate, too much grief, tbh."

jambo73

I'm just looking at all the invoices I have for the work done in the dealers garage and every time I told them that there was a loss of power which they have on the invoices, I can also remember the service rep telling me that it could be because I got washed diesel (which I never did knowingly). Its funny when you think back but I also got a lift with one of the lads from the garage and he was saying that they had serious problems with sprinters and had to replace a few engines on them. My big problem is that I can't just go and get a replacement van as mine is a chassis with a bin cleaning system on the back which is separate to the workings of the van and I can't just put it onto another without a major cost ...... oh the joys of been self employed ......

jambo73

lol its true one of the times I went in with loss of power they replaced something or other from a dead engine into mine and I remember the service rep pointing and telling me that the pile of engines in the corner were all going back to Merc dead, and all he would charge me for was the labour in changing the part ......

GTDolanator

The newer stuff is muck....The old 2.9 on the other hand is a good engine

darragh o meara

NuckingFacker wrote: »

Don't say it too loud, but merc are having major hassles with their commercial diesels at the moment, especially sprinters and trucks with dual turbos. My good mate services sprinters - I asked him would they be a good buy and he said "nucking, I couldn't reccomend one to you in good concience mate, too much grief, tbh."

Must be only recent so. I worked for a Merc dealer when the new type sprinter came out first and for a while afterwards. There was initially problems with dpfs getting blocked after the inter cooler pipe became loose and of course an issue with power steering racks making a slight clunk but no real major faults. By the time I'd left I'd dealt with customers with over 200k miles on their vans and they still relatively straight. Must've gone downhill after that. In fact in my time there we replaced 1 engine in either a sprinter or Vito ( over 4 years ).

But as I said, engines don't just go like that so keep after them until something is done about it and go further if they don't.

Hateart

They are a big problem, I won't take one in or sell one due to engine failures, if you have one drive it hard, don't let it labour in gears, no oil warning lights don't help either! Crazy in this day not to have it as standard in a vehicle, best stay away from sprinters

jambo73

the story so far ..... I got a 50% refund on the engine which was nice ...... it took about 2 months to come but I got it in the end ..... its better than a poke in the eye with a hot stick ...... thanks for all your posts and advice ....

Now who knows anything about winning lottery number?????? lol

Be good folks ....

darragh o meara

jambo73 wrote: »

the story so far ..... I got a 50% refund on the engine which was nice ...... it took about 2 months to come but I got it in the end ..... its better than a poke in the eye with a hot stick ...... thanks for all your posts and advice ....

Now who knows anything about winning lottery number?????? lol

Be good folks ....

Did you get the refund from Mercedes? Id be wondering if they gave you the money are they acknowledging the fact that its a known problem.

cormie

jambo73 wrote: »

the story so far ..... I got a 50% refund on the engine which was nice ...... it took about 2 months to come but I got it in the end ..... its better than a poke in the eye with a hot stick ...... thanks for all your posts and advice ....

Now who knows anything about winning lottery number?????? lol

Be good folks ....

What did it cost before the refund? Was it 7k? What bhp was the van? 313, 314, 316, 319?

Did you have any problems since?



Mods, please don't close thread as I'm asking about this situation specifically.