The W124 E250D I got recently had never missed a beat - until today .
Passed the MOT last Saturday , and between a run to Dundee and back , plus some local mileage , had covered almost 500 miles without any problems .
This afternoon , we went up to Glasgow , but on the way back - amidst torrential rain - the car just started to lose power , then spluttered to a halt .
On trying to restart , at first it would turn over but would not fire , then it would splutter without catching ; after a couple of minutes , when I kept cranking and gave it some throttle the engine sprung back into life . All went well for a couple of miles , then the same thing happened again ; as before the first few tries to restart were fruitless , then I got her going again . This time , we made it the five miles or so home .
The fuel guage showed a little over 1/4 tank remaining ; it had previously ran fine with less showing . The car has stood for three years before I got it - so I'm thinking new fuel filter is the first thing to try .
Having perused the Haynes manual ( I know my way round petrol Mercs reasonably well , but this being my first ever Diesel I must admit to being somewhat lost ) I see no mention of an electric fuel pump - so no fuel pump relay to troubleshoot ? There apparently is a mechanical lift pump and a fuel pre-filter in there somewhere ?
I can guess that , having sat for sometime , there could be water and/or some cr@p in the fuel system - so a filter change seems an obvious place to start ?
Can anyone suggest anything else to troubleshoot this problem ?
Passed the MOT last Saturday , and between a run to Dundee and back , plus some local mileage , had covered almost 500 miles without any problems .
This afternoon , we went up to Glasgow , but on the way back - amidst torrential rain - the car just started to lose power , then spluttered to a halt .
On trying to restart , at first it would turn over but would not fire , then it would splutter without catching ; after a couple of minutes , when I kept cranking and gave it some throttle the engine sprung back into life . All went well for a couple of miles , then the same thing happened again ; as before the first few tries to restart were fruitless , then I got her going again . This time , we made it the five miles or so home .
The fuel guage showed a little over 1/4 tank remaining ; it had previously ran fine with less showing . The car has stood for three years before I got it - so I'm thinking new fuel filter is the first thing to try .
Having perused the Haynes manual ( I know my way round petrol Mercs reasonably well , but this being my first ever Diesel I must admit to being somewhat lost ) I see no mention of an electric fuel pump - so no fuel pump relay to troubleshoot ? There apparently is a mechanical lift pump and a fuel pre-filter in there somewhere ?
I can guess that , having sat for sometime , there could be water and/or some cr@p in the fuel system - so a filter change seems an obvious place to start ?
Can anyone suggest anything else to troubleshoot this problem ?