They Said it Can't be Fixed - A Journey to the Inside of a Mercedes Bluetec

In reply to Agent98 :

I believe you misspelled "moron" there, but I appreciate the kind words!

I probed around further down in the wiring harness, to a place that wouldn't have had any heat damage.  Still only pulling 8.something volts on the heater circuit.  That tells me that there's one of three things going on:

1. There is a break in the wire somewhere between the CDI Control Unit (N3/9) and the front of the engine
2. There is a problem with the connector at N3/9
3. The CDI control unit itself is faulty

Of course the CDI control unit is buried under a bunch of engine bay covers, and I don't have time right now to pull all that off and backprobe that connector to check it.  I could probably put another ground in place and add a relay because the 8v would probably be enough to energize a relay and then I'd have a good ground, making the heater work just fine while also retaining the CDI unit's control over the heater.  The more I think about it, the more I think that might be a good move - it will clear that code and when they replace the CDI unit it'll rule that in or out as the problem, but it shouldn't prevent them from doing the work.

That leaves just the EGR and the DPF full of soot codes to worry about.   The EGR is also a replaced part so we might be able to get away with that.  I almost might be able to figure out how to tune it out.  I'm getting Xentry installed on my shop laptop now so that I can try to force a regen cycle in the DPF to try to clear that up.  Although, maybe I just let that be. 

In any event, I've got my last chance dance:  Sept 19th, she goes back to the dealer and let's hope against hope that the 2nd time is the charm.

Best of luck!  We are pulling for you!

yupididit said:

This thread stresses me out lol

Word!   I feel like a sportsball fan watching their team go into the final part of the game at a disadvantage... I want to see a win!

Just spoke to the service writer at M-B dealer. He says all parts are now in stock and they will get somebody working on the Emissions Update next week. Hope to have it done next Friday.

The only part of the previous statement that has a better than even chance of being true is "all parts are at dealer".

Re:O2 sensor heater issue. I have no MB specific knowledge, but I know that Subarus run the heater ground wire of 4-wire sensors back to the ECM. There's a low value resistor (.1 ohm?)  in the ECM between "heater ground" and "actual ground." The ECM measures the voltage drop across that resistor and uses that to determine how much current is flowing in the O2 sensor heater circuit.  So, if the MB works roughly the same way, the relay trick may not satisfy the computer codes-wise- although the o2 sensor probably will perform much better if it is being heated as intended. 

  Good luck- this has been quite a saga. We're all pulling for you! 

Crazy. Keep it up WAE! 

Hoping for some good news.....

In reply to FJ40Jim :

Were they able to get it all squared away for you?  Exciting times!

Tomorrow is the big day.  I have not had any time to go and pull things apart to be able to backprobe pin 77 on the CDI Control Unit, but you're right - even if I give it a good ground at the O2 sensor connector, the ECU still won't know that because it's not sensing it at the sensor, so whatever break is in the line will still trip the code.  I'm going to make an attempt to take one last look at it tonight.

Something else that I've noticed is that this stupid thing just marks its territory everywhere.  I was hoping that putting all new seals in would get it to stop dribbling oil everywhere, but no such luck.  I know for a fact that the oil drain plug is drippy, but I don't know if that's enough to cause the amount of oil that I seem to get.  I'm going to change the oil and put a new plug and washer in to see if I can at least get that to stop and while I have that undertray off I'll look around to see if I can find where oil might be coming from.  It wouldn't surprise me to find out that the pan is leaking again.

I can say, though, that with the MAF sensors unplugged, it is driving absolutely fantastically.  It pulls really strong and I have to remind myself that it's almost 3 tons of metal.  So far there's no smoke out the back end and no funny smells or noises after about 1,100 miles.  It could use new brakes - I think sitting for 4 years just got a little too much corrosion on the rotors so there's a little bit of light whomp-whomp-whomp when braking hard.  There's also something loose in the front end that rattles, but it was doing that before.  It's on my list of things to investigate.

Keep your fingers crossed this week.  I drop it off at 0830 on Monday morning and if everything goes right, they'll be done by the end of the week. 

I hope. 

I really hope...

No loaners were available this time, but at least I get a cup of coffee out of the deal?

In reply to wae :

Why does the Mercedes dealership look like a store at Kenwood Mall?

I haven't read the whole thread, but have you hooked the car up to xentry and done a scan? 

These cars will act weird sometimes if they have a code stored even if it isn't an active problem.

eastsideTim said:

In reply to wae :

Why does the Mercedes dealership look like a store at Kenwood Mall?

Do I need to answer that?  Hehehe

These are not my people.  I realized that the first time I went in there 5 years ago for parts.

iammclovin804 said:

I haven't read the whole thread, but have you hooked the car up to xentry and done a scan? 

 

These cars will act weird sometimes if they have a code stored even if it isn't an active problem.

I have, yeah.  I get the same codes as with the MBII, but better detail.

What I really need to do is figure out how to use vedinamo or whatever it is

Fingers crossed for you. 

Got a call from the service advisor this morning.  They're starting to look at the car, which is good, but he's got concerns because there are some "wrong bolts" in places.  And, of course, it's freaking leaking oil like crazy still.  The oil leak I know about - it's something that I just haven't had time to go investigate since I wanted to take care of this first, but if they can charge me a little labor time to tell me where it's leaking, then that'll be money well-spent.  He started off asking me to come down and take a look and chat about what hardware they might need to replace, but before I could respond to that he offered that he could just have them set a not-to-exceed dollar-amount buffer and go to work, so I took that option.  He also wanted to quote me to replace the oil cooler itself, so I told him to send that over and I'd look at it.  I think it's about a $300MSRP for the part, plus new seals and bolts, plus a little labor.  I'm a little unclear, however, on how the oil cooler itself would need to be replaced - I get the seals for sure, but those are done.  I'll have to do some research on the cooler, though.

Closing the loop on the oil cooler, apparently they have been known to warp which causes them to leak and when you have an oil cooler leak you don't know if it was just the seals or the unit itself.  And since you have about 16 hours of labor to get to the oil cooler, they will recommend replacing it "while you're in there" to save on the labor.  As best as I could tell, there was no leak from the oil cooler previously so if it's still not leaking, we're just going to leave it alone for now.

But another day and another call...  They've determined that the oil is leaking from the oil filter housing.  I've told them to go ahead and replace that just to get it out of my hair.  They also said that it appears that something got ingested into the turbo at some point and all of the fins on the impeller are damaged.  It looks like the MSRP on a turbo from Mercedes is about $4,300 so I'm not going to have them do that.  I may see if I can run out to Bessler's this weekend, though, and grab the turbo off that E350 that should still be out there.  That would be more like $60.

That may have something to do with how there were no bolts connecting the exhaust pipe to the body of the turbo when I bought the thing.

9:19.

11:06...

4:08 

The right manifold comes with a new M72/2 motor.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Yeah, that looks way more familiar than I'd like...

Struck out on the turbo at the junkyard.  It would only turn with a fairly significant amount of force applied.

Looks like my options are now around $600-$700 for a used OEM, $1500 for a new Garrett (which is OEM), or a new cartridge for around $300.

In reply to wae :

If you can find a vehical with the right turbo around Columbus I will be happy to go pull it for you.

In reply to Aaron_King :

I greatly appreciate that!  Unfortunately, I don't see any yards anywhere within a couple hundred miles of me (that list inventory online) that have any BlueTec OM642s in them.  It sounds like putting a new cartridge in the existing turbo isn't tremendously difficult.  It's about $300 for a Mahle cartridge and about $75 for the gasket/hardware kit to put the turbo back on, so not the end of the world.

I did just get the call that they're finished with it, though.  So I'm going to go pick it up and see about getting all the paperwork submitted for the settlement tonight.

You have pics of the damage? If it's just a little damage on the leading edge of the compressor, just run it as is. 

In reply to Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) :

I was told that they have pictures.  When I had it apart, I didn't exactly inspect it, but I would have thought I would have seen that kind of damage just in casual handling.  Of course, I suppose it's possible that something got in there in the last 1000 miles.  Or some dumbass (who bears a striking resemblence to me, the handsome, if mildly slow, fellow!) left a screw somewhere it wasn't supposed to be.