All 200K Engine Owners - Please Read!

[television]

Nice one mate and I not far from you either (Andover)

If you use BlackC55 you will not have to Andover so much cash

 

[BlackC55]

If you use BlackC55 you will not have to Andover so much cash

Jesus TV.

That was terrible

 

[television]

Jesus TV.

That was terrible

With ABC on the brain, and the shocks, its taken me back to my childhood

 

[blicky_1]

Thanks guys, I like to have a few different views and it is good to hear it from a wide range of mechanics/enthusiasts, I guess even Merc technicians can have blinkers ok sometimes (at £130 per hour)...

 

[television]

Thanks guys, I like to have a few different views and it is good to hear it from a wide range of mechanics/enthusiasts, I guess even Merc technicians can have blinkers ok sometimes...

Seeing Black in action you will not go wrong, I will be driving 150 miles each way to use him

 

[blicky_1]

Seeing Black in action you will not go wrong, I will be driving 150 miles each way to use him

Problem I get is not many people want to touch the car with LPG fitted to it, everything that used to go wrong the dealers (when it was just still in warranty) blamed the LPG system and the LPG dealer blamed the Merc dealer

My technician now has been looking after the car for the last 3 yrs (since the warranty run out) with no problems on the mechanical side but on electrical I don't think he is as hot

 

[miro]

Yes we do know of this fault, though the wiring normally has to be replaced the ECU does not, oil does not harm electronic components, MB engineers change it because they are told that they must. It is oil that runs into the MAF that puts on the light when the O2 sensor is contaminated

Oil is conductive because
a) it is used in a metal engine
b) additives can be metallic

Otherwise it wouldnt follow current and get drawn into the harness in the first place. So unless you are certain, short circuits within an ECU can indeed cause damage.

A sign of a damaged ECU is usually failing cruise control.

 

[Dieselman]

Otherwise it wouldnt follow current and get drawn into the harness in the first place.

That bit doesn't follow.
The oil is being pumped under pressure from the engine and is also drawn in by capillary action.

 

[BlackC55]

It is well known on MB official documents that capillary action is the method.

Oil following current is a new one on me.

 

[television]

Oil is used in 660kV national grid transformers, ignition coils and many other things.

It is pumped out and absorbed by the harness binding. no liquid can follow current, its the other way around.

If you are say that metal particles lowers the resistance I will do a test later in the week on some faulty Panasonic Sky Boxes, these thing have 15 microprocessors and they are 1000 times more sensitive that any car ECU and run on 32volts

I will bring some used oil back from the recycling center later in the week and poor some into a working Sky box (faulty in the sense that they will not update, but working)

 

[Dieselman]

Good test Malcolm, should be interesting.

 

[Robbo]

It is well known on MB official documents that capillary action is the method.

Oil following current is a new one on me.

It will be by capillary action only.

The additives in the oil may be polarised by the magnetic fields caused by the current flowing in the wiring loom, but that isnt strong enough to cause the oil to physically move.

 

[miro]

It will be by capillary action only.

The additives in the oil may be polarised by the magnetic fields caused by the current flowing in the wiring loom, but that isnt strong enough to cause the oil to physically move.

Castrol Magnatec contains ferrites and engine oil contains metal from the engine. Whilst I agree with you I am only relating what Mercedes told me. If I was told the wrong thing then my dealership is wrong all over again.

Overall I am aware of capillary action and see how it applies in this case but I am not satisfied that is the only driving force. Hydrostatic pressure into these cross-sections at distances of 3-4 metres (in the case of transmission harness) would imply significant forces otherwise not seen in the transmission sump.

The thing that interests me more is how they claim to prevent the problem with new types of wiring. I was told there was an epoxy.

 

[miro]

Oil is used in 660kV national grid transformers, ignition coils and many other things.

It is pumped out and absorbed by the harness binding. no liquid can follow current, its the other way around.

If you are say that metal particles lowers the resistance I will do a test later in the week on some faulty Panasonic Sky Boxes, these thing have 15 microprocessors and they are 1000 times more sensitive that any car ECU and run on 32volts

I will bring some used oil back from the recycling center later in the week and poor some into a working Sky box (faulty in the sense that they will not update, but working)

There are posts indicating that cruise control fails on the ECU, fuel consumption goes up and so on. The harness does not remedy these faults.

 

[BlackC55]

There is a modified section of harness about 15cm long that attaches to the cam actuator and then to the rest of the loom.

 

[diy_dan]

Hi all,

Not sure if this has been mentioned here before....and not sure what section as its engine & electrical....

Well after 120k miles of trouble free motoring I have hit a BIG problem

Car (2001 W210 E200k) had started surging at motorway speeds 70-80mph and also surging at idle with aircon on. Engine light is also on.

This is a KNOW fault on this particular engine!!

Right now the root of the problem, camshaft magnetic sensor (at front of engine) has a manufacturing fault where on some occasions it will pass engine oil through the electrical connections of the sensor right through the engine wiring loom all around the engine bay up to the ECU if you don't catch it early enough it will flood the ECU blowing it

Fix = Complete engine wiring loom, Co2 sensor, modified camshaft sensor & a mod loom (to stop the oil passing through) and if you are unlucky (luckly not me) an engine ECU Just seen a bill for a SLK 200k at £1300 from main dealer just for engine loom and sensors inc labour (ECU was ok) ECU is about another £700 on top.

I was lucky that me and my Merc man spottted the oil at the ECU multiplug early (as he has seen this before)

Car is now in for repair (4-5 hour job) luckly parts are only around the £400 mark and labour is free

So if you have this engine type (in any model) please, please check this with your dealer, if you fit the mod loom (about £20) this will stop the oil passing up the loom.

Missing it already!!

When I read this post I had to keep checking the date to see if it was April 1st. So you are saying the camshaft sensor is wired straight into the loom? I would have thought they would have used a plug/socket arrangement somewhere. If its a magnetic sensor isnt that just a 3 legged hall effect transistor? And how does this affect the o2 sensor? hmm I think I'm in the wrong job, I might consider becoming a merc technician. You mention that the reading from the 02 was showing rich and weak I would assume you are running on lpg and you did have the lpg system checked. You didnt say what sort of lpg system you have but the fault you mention points to that not been setup properly or its out of spec. If its a 2nd generation system is it the leonardo controller with the stepper motor or the one with the manually adjuster valve? It sound to me that the bleed screw for tickover is too rich and the system is running a bit weak when you are cruising. I would stop wasting your money changing parts that doesnt need changing and get the lpg system checked out, remember the mas isnt use when you are running on lpg, if the system misses while driving it sounds like the revs pickup which is from the coil or rev counter has a loose wire

 

[diy_dan]

There are posts indicating that cruise control fails on the ECU, fuel consumption goes up and so on. The harness does not remedy these faults.

If you reread his posting you would have notice he mention lpg,

 

[BlackC55]

When I read this post I had to keep checking the date to see if it was April 1st. So you are saying the camshaft sensor is wired straight into the loom? I would have thought they would have used a plug/socket arrangement somewhere. If its a magnetic sensor isnt that just a 3 legged hall effect transistor? And how does this affect the o2 sensor? hmm I think I'm in the wrong job, I might consider becoming a merc technician. You mention that the reading from the 02 was showing rich and weak I would assume you are running on lpg and you did have the lpg system checked. You didnt say what sort of lpg system you have but the fault you mention points to that not been setup properly or its out of spec. If its a 2nd generation system is it the leonardo controller with the stepper motor or the one with the manually adjuster valve? It sound to me that the bleed screw for tickover is too rich and the system is running a bit weak when you are cruising. I would stop wasting your money changing parts that doesnt need changing and get the lpg system checked out, remember the mas isnt use when you are running on lpg, if the system misses while driving it sounds like the revs pickup which is from the coil or rev counter has a loose wire

Its not a Cam sensor its a cam actuator. An it is plugged into the loom and leaks through the plug. I have seen at least 40 cars affected by this fault.

The oil contamination reaches the o2 sensor and ruins it bringing on the warning light.

 

[diy_dan]

Yes we do know of this fault, though the wiring normally has to be replaced the ECU does not, oil does not harm electronic components, MB engineers change it because they are told that they must. It is oil that runs into the MAF that puts on the light when the O2 sensor is contaminated

Isnt the maf the airflow meter or am I thinking of something else? If it is isnt this fitted after the airfilter housing so how did the oil gets to it and cause it to contaminate the o2 sensor when the o2 sensor is normally fitted into the exhaust system?

 

[BlackC55]

Isnt the maf the airflow meter or am I thinking of something else? If it is isnt this fitted after the airfilter housing so how did the oil gets to it and cause it to contaminate the o2 sensor when the o2 sensor is normally fitted into the exhaust system?

Read what we have posted already.

The oil goes up the loom via capillary action and reaches certain components causing them to fail.

One is the air mass

Two is the o2 sensor.

The o2 sensor brings the light on.