Mercedes Sprinter Turbo Cut out

[Dayy64]

Hi there,
I have recently bought a 2001 mercedes Deisel Sprinter motor home. I have a problem that is costing me heaps with the service agent trying to fix it. Out of the blue the turbo will cut out- leaving the camper incapable of going at more then 50km an hour. They have cleared the on board computor of errors-replaced a pressure switch, and rewired the turbo; now $1200 later it is still happening. Sometimes it wont cut out for around 500km and other times it will cut out a couple of times in a 50km trip. Turning the ignition off and on will rectify the problem until the next time. If some one has any ideas I would be really grateful. Cheers.

[Max Girth]

uh, send to Roger Macie?

[pre-set]

Ours (sat truck) blew the engine at 55,000. The Fox affil. Sprinter blew theirs at 56,000.

Ours has also had constant electrical issues, a blown rear end, tranny issues (boy, that sounds funny huh? blown rear and trannys?), and a cracked intercooler line that allowed half the trubo boost to escape before ever hitting the intake manifold.


Sprinters fukking suck.

[cameradog]

At my last tv job we had a Sprinter sat truck. The turbo died with less than 5000 miles on it, on the way to New Orleans. We limped through Mississippi at 45 mph. When we got it into the shop in NO, the guy had five others in there ahead of us and told us it would probably be three weeks before he even got a look at it. Our equipment supervisor somehow managed to talk him into pushing it to the front of the line.

Apparently it's a common problem. Some little part in there breaks, and a sensor tells the computer the boost pressure is low. Then the computer goes into "limp home" mode to protect the turbo. The thing would actually still run if it weren't for the computer interfering.

Stupid piece of junk also would cut off the cruise control whenever we turned the lights on. The thing was delivered with a misaligned door that wouldn't close properly. We also kept blowing out the little donut tires. Total piece o' sh*t.

[Sportsguy]

C'mon guys, let it out.

How do you really feel?

[The Toplens]

Hi Dayy

We had a Sprinter SNG truck at the BBC that used to do the exact same thing.

Like Cameradog has said, it goes into "limp mode" so you can get home. Our truck did it for 6 or 7 months and the Mercedes dealer kept resetting the fault and the truck would be fine for a week or two.

It happened again while we were in another city and we couldn't be bothered waiting 4 hours for the recovery truck to come again so we "limped" into a local Mercedes dealer who fixed the problem once and for all. The guy told us that once the fault has been reset the diagnostics computer HAS to be purged, otherwise the computer thinks the truck hasn't been repaired and will keep going into limp!!! It worked for our truck and ran fine for the next 150,000kms.

Maybe worth suggesting this to your dealer??

[cameradog]

I'm reminded of a photo originally posted by Toplens some time ago.

The way I figure it, the only GOOD Sprinter...

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a120/thetoplens/truck.jpg

... is a DEAD Sprinter.

I forgot about the dash lights. On our Sprinter, when you pressed the brake, the dash lights would come on. I was told by a service tech that it was designed that way. I can't for the life of me figure out why the dash lights would be wired to the brake.

On a previous thread, somebody mentioned that the FedEx drivers in his town had mentioned other weird electrical anomalies, like turning on the windshield wipers and having the radio mysteriously change stations.

Junk.

[A Step Above Productions]

Got to ask... anyone hurt in that roll over?

[cameradog]

Got to ask... anyone hurt in that roll over?

I wouldn't call that a rollover. It's more like a fallover.

I'm surprised there aren't more pictures of Sprinter live trucks falling over. All it takes is a puff of wind.

[The Toplens]

Tee hee, forgot about that pic Cameradog!!

No one was hurt in the mishap!!

[Ecks76]

Right when I started at my current shop, our fairly-new Sprinter started having many issues... transmission, electrical, engine, etc... The driver and passenger seats both became separated from the frams and when you stopped, the seat would slide forward. Quite dangerous if you ask me... The thing has never been right, in fact, many of us avoid this van if we can help it... It seems to be running better as of late though, but who knows how long that will last... ;) Needless to say our new truck we're getting next month is NOT a Sprinter!

[Test Pattern]

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii138/Kovach0891/Crapstar.jpg
http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii138/Kovach0891/WhenNewsBreaks-1.jpg

[Todio]

Looks like that tow truck is doing a number on the van's front bumper...

[amp]

Wow. Now I don't feel so bad about our 10 year old Ford F-350 live truck.

[Tom Servo]

geez. We had a sprinter at my last shop that I thought was bad. Some of you guys had it even worse.

Weirdest thing mine did was the day the crankshaft pulley fell out while another 'tog was parking it. I've been working on cars since I got my drivers license, and I've never seen a crankshaft pulley fall out.

So a few weeks later I'm bitching about it to a guy from the competition who also drove one, and he tells me "oh yeah, ours did that too."

little later i'm at a big news story, a sprinter rolls up from a far away station. Just out of morbid curiosity I asked. Sure enough. Theirs dropped out on 'em too.

Someone should tell Mercedes that a very important part of the crank shaft pulley is the crank shaft pulley bolt.

[Deaf and Blind]

Build standards on sprinters is way down on what it used to be.
I had a long wheel base sprinter at Heathrow, it was a good few years old then and this was in like 1989 but it had 250,000+ miles on the clock would always go first turn of the key most of the panels were damaged but it was a ultra reliable machine.
It's probably still going now that damn thing was tough these new ones are a bit light weight in comparison it would seem.