HELP!!! A140 Engine Diagnostic

[gstewar1]

Hi Guys,

Kinda new to this so bear with me.

We currently have a 2002 A140 Elegance LWB 63000miles. Last february the SRS light and Engine Management light came on. We stuck it into our local independant MB specialist with all the correct error code equipment And diagnosed a seat sensor fault in the passanger seat for the air bag and Camshaft sensor fault. Both of which were replaced and problem solved. However the following week the engine light came back on and has been on since. The car has been back 4 times and the guy says the car is fine it is a software problem and he doesnt have the software to correct it. So we took it to a MB Dealer who managed to get the light off for a while but it is on again.

It also started driving really badly, misfiring, no power etc we had the engine coil replaced which helped alot but it is still not entirely right.

Also sometimes when we get the car out of the garage in the morning you start it and leave it to idle the revs drop and then stalls.

Is there anything else it could be? e.g. exhaust or Air Sensor

Cheers

 

[BlackC55]

Air mass 100%.

It is the engine control moule.

BBA-reman can repair it.

 

[Dieselman]

ditto.

But sit down when you ask the price..

 

[BlackC55]

I have a good man that does it for me also. Pm for Special price!!

 

[gstewar1]

Cheers,

Must admit dont know what an air mass sensor is but i just called a main dealership for a quote which came in at £1100 and that is with the discount for having a more than five year old car!

Going to call round a few independant places tomorrow, to see what they say.

once again thanks for the help!!

 

[R/T.E49]

Try these guys, they are GREAT!
www.carelect.demon.co.uk

Never had a problem and they can always help.

 

[gstewar1]

UPDATE! Any ideas?

I have decided to stick the car in for a full MB dealer diagnostic check. They have come back to me and said that there are four codes on it. All indicate rich running, i.e. rich running idle, rich mid range etc. I asked if it could be the Air Mass and they said they wouldnt know until they did further investigation, like changing bits on the car etc, sounded all a wee bit funny to me but anyways, does this change anything or is it still probably the air mass?

Cheers

 

[grober]

Unfortunately the MAS and ECU are in one unit hence the high cost of replacement. On the bigger cars they are 2 separate units. theres a detailed explanation on Arthur Rowes (Lofty) excellent A class site. http://www.aclassinfo.co.uk/mypage.38.htm Might be worth trying to clean your MAS elements with a suitable solvent

 

[BlackC55]

I have decided to stick the car in for a full MB dealer diagnostic check. They have come back to me and said that there are four codes on it. All indicate rich running, i.e. rich running idle, rich mid range etc. I asked if it could be the Air Mass and they said they wouldnt know until they did further investigation, like changing bits on the car etc, sounded all a wee bit funny to me but anyways, does this change anything or is it still probably the air mass?

Cheers

They are trying to squeeze more money out of you for diag.

What are the codes?

 

[gstewar1]

the codes are as follows:-

P0170-005
P0170-003

and then one for the central locking B1101-002 but i am not worried about those.

any ideas???

 

[gstewar1]

MB Dealer

Went and picked the car up from the MB dealer last night. The thing was worse than when it went in. It was driving ok-ish before and then when it came out it wouldnt top 15 mph going up a slight hill in second gear. No idea what they did!!! After a few high revs it seemed to sort itself out but now it is misfiring a wee bit.

 

[BlackC55]

Is it just those two codes in the ECM?

They point to a possible Llambda problem also.

My money is still on the air mass though.

 

[gstewar1]

Yeh they are the only two but they are duplicated for some reason.

Would a lambda problem cause it to run the way it is running? i thought they were in the exhaust.

Cheers

 

[Dieselman]

The Lambda is an indication of mixture strength. It may be the Lambda sensor faulty or the mixture is out.
I suspec the latter, which leads back to the MAF again.

 

[jaymanek]

Hi All,

Need some advice..

Same issue on an A140..

The customer called me saying the car was misfiring and so he brought the car back in mid december...
Put the car on our Launch and it came up with MAF sensor..

After almost feinting when i heard the price of a combined unit (almost half of how much the entire car was sold for) I contacted http://www.ecuexchange.biz/?t=t3

With the Xmas holidays, They only started looking at it last week. They rang me and said yep we can fix this... but then next day they called again and said its beyond repair and i would be charged £50+vat for the pleasure of them looking at it... They could not give me a good reason as to why it was beyond repair apart from that it was "dead"!

Anyway, not satisfied i spoke to
http://www.peacockandpurvey.co.uk/mercedes_a_class_ecu_and_air_f.html

They asked me to put it back on the car and read the coded again. This time it said P0170... i.e lambda which then relates back to MAF.

I explained this to them..

i sent on Thursday and they rang me on Friday lunchtime.
They said that ECU Testing had messed about with it so much that they werent sure if it would work at all (a capacitor on the board had been replaced) and that the MAF sensor was broken in two...

They asked me if i wanted them to procede with the repair... so i said the symptoms are still of the MAF so yes please repair it...

They were to charge me a trade rate of £195 +Vat + delivery...

Got the unit back today, my card has been debited with £304.21.
So i will be on the phone to them on Monday.

To add though, the unit is still not repaired and the car is still coughing and spluttering...

Any ideas on where to go next? Should i just spend the £1100 on a new unit or do you think the second repair just wasnt done properly? It does say on the receipt that the MAF repair is guranteed for 2 years.

They were closed today so couldnt speak to them but i think they may just say "we told you the ECU might have been ruined"....

I need to get this sorted as the customer is getting impatient, its been over a month and although they have a loan car they want their car back!

 

[television]

How about this one

http://www.injectioncorrection.co.uk/index.php?id=models&manufacturer=Mercedes

 

[jaymanek]

i did contact them Malcolm following your post on another thread but all i got was a funny call centre who kept putting me through to a line that never got answered the three times i tried..

The thing is i dont want to keep spending £200-250 sending it to different places if it really is messed and cant be fixed..

wondered if its worth me getting upset with the company i sent it to last?

 

[television]

i did contact them Malcolm following your post on another thread but all i got was a funny call centre who kept putting me through to a line that never got answered the three times i tried..

The thing is i dont want to keep spending £200-250 sending it to different places if it really is messed and cant be fixed..

wondered if its worth me getting upset with the company i sent it to last?

Yes the motor trade is still full of rip off merchants, I would get so nasty If this happened to me, threaten them with the small claims court it cost nothing to do

 

[Dieselman]

Jay
I'd be tempted to run spend the full value for a replacement and if it fixes it get a refund for the repair as it clearly isn't right.

I would've thought you sold the cars with an aftermarket warranty rather than underwrite it yourself.

Good show on your part though. You will probably gain a very loyal customer from this.

 

[jaymanek]

well i sell cars with after market warranties if the customer is far away, anyone in a 50 mile radius i stick to my own warranty as its far easier all around just to deal with it yourself...
Warranty companies are fine, but its usually easier all around if problems are just dealt with quickly rather than having to wait for assessors to approve the claim etc..

Im going to run the car on monday and see if its still coming up with P0170 or not..
Would it still come up with this code if it was the ECU and not the MAF?