Fault codes on W211 E280 - Help Please

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Wayhey! I was right, the inlet port shut off motor was the cause of all the problems!

I got the parts from Merc on Tuesday but could not get a garage to fit it till next week. So I swallowed a brave pill and cracked out the spanners! I was hoping to get the motor out without having to remove too much but after an hour of fiddling on Tuesday afternoon it became obvious that the turbo was going to have to be removed (again!) to change the motor over. Yesterday morning taking a big breath (and several more brave pills!) I set about removing the turbo and several swearing sessions later the turbo was off. Got access to the motor but the clips that hold it the the arms that go to the inlet ports were so brittle they snapped when I removed them from the old one.

As sods law would have it although the replacement clips were only £3.48 the stealers in Colchester didn't have any so after a 40 mile round trip to the stealers in Ipswich I set about refitting everything (refitting the clips was a mare and several more swearing sessions and a kicking the wall session took place!) but eventually at 7pm last night the car was back in one piece.

Fingers crossed I turned the key and all was well in the world of my E. Cancelled the engine management light (which hasn't returned since) and went for a test drive. My god, my car must have been sick the whole time I have owned it (4 and a bit months) it's never been this fast and it's soooooo smooth, even the gear changes are smoother!

Sorry for the essay but I am one happy camper.

One thing I would say is if you own a car with the same engine as mine it would be very worth your while pulling the inlet pipe for the turbo off (it's only 3 jubilee clips, 2 plugs and pulling out a breather pipe to get it off) and check for oil seeping out on to the wires and the plastic box under the wires. If your is wet I would recommend you clean up what you can get to and change the big orange rubber seal in the inlet pipe (it just pulls out and the new one pushes in) and the end of the breather pipe which you pulled out (you just take the plug off and pull it out of the black pipe and push the new one in). Reassemble and you will probably find like I did that where the orange seals push in and over they are a lot tighter. This will stop any oil leak and hopefully save you from having the same problem as me. It's a simple job to do, the tools required are.......a flat head screwdriver....... that's it! The new parts from the stealers are just over £30.

Any one who is local and no good with spanners, if you'd like me to check yours for you I would be happy to do it (I'm not a mechanic but as you can probably see I do know a bit). This is a common problem and I'm damned if I'm gonna let Merc screw anyone else over.

Dave
 
Wayhey! I was right, the inlet port shut off motor was the cause of all the problems!

I got the parts from Merc on Tuesday but could not get a garage to fit it till next week. So I swallowed a brave pill and cracked out the spanners! I was hoping to get the motor out without having to remove too much but after an hour of fiddling on Tuesday afternoon it became obvious that the turbo was going to have to be removed (again!) to change the motor over. Yesterday morning taking a big breath (and several more brave pills!) I set about removing the turbo and several swearing sessions later the turbo was off. Got access to the motor but the clips that hold it the the arms that go to the inlet ports were so brittle they snapped when I removed them from the old one.

As sods law would have it although the replacement clips were only £3.48 the stealers in Colchester didn't have any so after a 40 mile round trip to the stealers in Ipswich I set about refitting everything (refitting the clips was a mare and several more swearing sessions and a kicking the wall session took place!) but eventually at 7pm last night the car was back in one piece.

Fingers crossed I turned the key and all was well in the world of my E. Cancelled the engine management light (which hasn't returned since) and went for a test drive. My god, my car must have been sick the whole time I have owned it (4 and a bit months) it's never been this fast and it's soooooo smooth, even the gear changes are smoother!

Sorry for the essay but I am one happy camper.

One thing I would say is if you own a car with the same engine as mine it would be very worth your while pulling the inlet pipe for the turbo off (it's only 3 jubilee clips, 2 plugs and pulling out a breather pipe to get it off) and check for oil seeping out on to the wires and the plastic box under the wires. If your is wet I would recommend you clean up what you can get to and change the big orange rubber seal in the inlet pipe (it just pulls out and the new one pushes in) and the end of the breather pipe which you pulled out (you just take the plug off and pull it out of the black pipe and push the new one in). Reassemble and you will probably find like I did that where the orange seals push in and over they are a lot tighter. This will stop any oil leak and hopefully save you from having the same problem as me. It's a simple job to do, the tools required are.......a flat head screwdriver....... that's it! The new parts from the stealers are just over £30.

Any one who is local and no good with spanners, if you'd like me to check yours for you I would be happy to do it (I'm not a mechanic but as you can probably see I do know a bit). This is a common problem and I'm damned if I'm gonna let Merc screw anyone else over.

Dave

Glad you got it sorted , with you new found knolage you should be able to help others along the way, and UPYOURS MERCEDES STEALERS
 
Thanks for the post Dave - it has been very informative.

As it happens, I have exactly the same issue with my C200 CDI Estate (limp mode activates a few seconds after start-up, error code P2015, 3000 RPM limit etc).

I'll follow your recommendations above regarding the turbo and let you know the results .

PeteA
 
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Have you got a list of what parts you needed? I am going to have this done as soon as I get the car back.
 
Wayhey! I was right, the inlet port shut off motor was the cause of all the problems!

I got the parts from Merc on Tuesday but could not get a garage to fit it till next week. So I swallowed a brave pill and cracked out the spanners! I was hoping to get the motor out without having to remove too much but after an hour of fiddling on Tuesday afternoon it became obvious that the turbo was going to have to be removed (again!) to change the motor over. Yesterday morning taking a big breath (and several more brave pills!) I set about removing the turbo and several swearing sessions later the turbo was off. Got access to the motor but the clips that hold it the the arms that go to the inlet ports were so brittle they snapped when I removed them from the old one.

As sods law would have it although the replacement clips were only £3.48 the stealers in Colchester didn't have any so after a 40 mile round trip to the stealers in Ipswich I set about refitting everything (refitting the clips was a mare and several more swearing sessions and a kicking the wall session took place!) but eventually at 7pm last night the car was back in one piece.

Fingers crossed I turned the key and all was well in the world of my E. Cancelled the engine management light (which hasn't returned since) and went for a test drive. My god, my car must have been sick the whole time I have owned it (4 and a bit months) it's never been this fast and it's soooooo smooth, even the gear changes are smoother!

Sorry for the essay but I am one happy camper.

One thing I would say is if you own a car with the same engine as mine it would be very worth your while pulling the inlet pipe for the turbo off (it's only 3 jubilee clips, 2 plugs and pulling out a breather pipe to get it off) and check for oil seeping out on to the wires and the plastic box under the wires. If your is wet I would recommend you clean up what you can get to and change the big orange rubber seal in the inlet pipe (it just pulls out and the new one pushes in) and the end of the breather pipe which you pulled out (you just take the plug off and pull it out of the black pipe and push the new one in). Reassemble and you will probably find like I did that where the orange seals push in and over they are a lot tighter. This will stop any oil leak and hopefully save you from having the same problem as me. It's a simple job to do, the tools required are.......a flat head screwdriver....... that's it! The new parts from the stealers are just over £30.

Any one who is local and no good with spanners, if you'd like me to check yours for you I would be happy to do it (I'm not a mechanic but as you can probably see I do know a bit). This is a common problem and I'm damned if I'm gonna let Merc screw anyone else over.

Dave

ahem...

sunny harwich here! yes please!

... could pay you in pints... :)

... or a nando's lunch :thumb:
 
Thanks to Dave's hints I had a look at the turbo and the rotor impeller bearing seems to be on the way out as there is a fair amount of slack and occasionally locks up.

Any ideas where to get a new/replacement turbo for a 2004 (June) C200 CDI Estate?

PeteA
 
I've just read this and can't believe a dealer didn't pick up on intake motor immediately, I only had to read your first post to know it was the intake motor.

Sorry I've been away otherwise I would have put you straight ages ago.

These are the most common failure on that engine I can't think of anything else that goes regularly on these.

P.s. The glow plug control unit is not in the passenger compartment!
 
Absolutely brilliant and well informed thread , I have a W211 E270 cdi 2003 model and I have a similar problem but a different engine.Sometimes when I put my foot down to overtake the car drives smoothly but without the usual kick down in power and will just slowly increase in acceleration , it will then drive fine but will only respond to the accelerator pedal slowly.Occasionally the engine light will come on during this problem.I can drive the car no probs and the auto gear changes are smooth but the acceleration is gradual will reach 70 etc eventually, but you would not try to overtake or pull out quickly ...Had it on a star via the AA but the engine light had gone off by the time I got to plug it in and it showed car to have no fault codes.If I turn the engine off then on the problem goes away and acceleration is smooth and fast.

I have read the forums and gather for most people it is a throttle sensor or a tear in the turbo pipe .Will get it on a star at an indie to be sure.

BUT GREAT THREAD.
 
Thanks, ever need another turbo and Essex Turbos will recon the whole thing for £485 plus VAT, better than £1800 odd quid for a new one!

They had to do my brother-in-laws turbo twice, the first one was faulty, but we only found out once fully fitted. It took two lots of removal/fitting (labour) + seals costs. No sign of any compensation etc, but they did admit to the fault and replaced the original reconditioned unit.

Guess, its the same if you go to EuroCarParts, the unit is only as good as the person who reconditioned it.
 
I've just read this and can't believe a dealer didn't pick up on intake motor immediately, I only had to read your first post to know it was the intake motor.

Sorry I've been away otherwise I would have put you straight ages ago.

These are the most common failure on that engine I can't think of anything else that goes regularly on these.

P.s. The glow plug control unit is not in the passenger compartment!


Very true, intake motor is very common. Also Turbo positioners go wrong, glow plugs, blocked air filters, stretched timing chains, etc etc
 
Well people, I now have error codes on a random basis! I always have p2015, on a relatively regular basis p0670 joins the party and once in a while p0244 joins in for fun as well!

I know the car is lying about p0244 cause the turbo's been off tested, given a clean bill of health and refitted. The glow plug control module has also been tested so I'm pretty sure it's lying about p0670 as well!

I'm still trying to track down more info on p2015 but there's a lot of conflicting information online so I phoned the guy at the stealers I got the car from and he's gonna have a word with his merc techs on Tuesday.

I'm starting to think the route to go is to leak off test the injectors and if no faults are found to start changing sensors one at a time!

Any other suggestions are obviously very welcome.

Dave



hi, i have been having very similar problems. p2015 inlet manifold runner position sensor soleniod. on further inspection found with inlet manifolds removed, butterflies heavily coated and not free moving leading to worn and broken plastic linkages. apparently these linkages are not available they come with the manifolds at £280+ each.(so i have been told from 3 different mb dealers). also slight oil leak from turbo pipe which is directly above the runner soleniod wiring plug possibly also causing problems. I have cleaned the manifolds and effected a repair to the linkages will be fitting a new solenoid (which mb dont have on the shelf) with all new gaskets hopefully tuesday after waiting a week for them.
 
With the inlet shut off motor fault, the turbo does not boost, the car is very very slow. Its the common fault on these
 
I have a theory, would using v-power diesel ( because its cleaner burning, no black smoke when putting foot down ) help in stopping egr's, turbo's and manifolds etc getting blocked up' or am i way off line and it wouldn't make a jot of difference?
 
Engine Monitoring Light- Get You Home, Same problem

Many thanks for this thread .
Myy 55 plate E280 suddenly went in to get you home mode and then about an hour later the engine monitoring light came on.
My local garage (Excellent place by the way- Dave Goddard Motor Engineers, Thetford- highly recommended) found the problem straight away, and as per this thread the issue is the input motor.

I'm just waiting for the bits to come in and they will do the work.
I thought I would say how informative this thread was, as it explains so well the issue.
:thumb:
 
Great thread indeed! I've seen a few of these snags, just shows how rubbish the dealers are! Some of them really don't care about actually satisfying customers needs, just flogging their Techs with bonus schemes........and taking mega cash from Mercedes owners!
 
For everybody's information , if the port shutoff motor get contaminated with oil it can cause one of the engine ecu term 87 fuses to blow. This causes an engine in limp home and when faults are read is comes up with a port shutoff , turbo wastegate actuator and egr positioner fault.
 
Mattyo said:
Great thread indeed! I've seen a few of these snags, just shows how rubbish the dealers are! Some of them really don't care about actually satisfying customers needs, just flogging their Techs with bonus schemes........and taking mega cash from Mercedes owners!

This is a bit harsh. You are tarring all dealers with the same brush. It's obvious that you have a agenda as you are a part share in a "specialist".
 
I do but not in that geographical area so not relevant really. No agenda, just general comment. Certainly not all dealers, I did say "some of them". I bet that dealers workshop will have had some decent guys that could have diagnosed that if they were given the time. It's the nature of the main dealer business framework that causes issues sometimes, not the quality of the Techs on the job.

No over-harsh comment or offence intended.....
 
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I am sorry for going off thread but I get a bit fed up with the dealers seen as the villain all the time. We are sometimes the last port of call for a lot of people for whatever reason with everyone and their dog having looked at a fault on a car before us. I am not saying that dealers are perfect because they're not, but they don't deserve all the negative comments.
 

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