New owner of A180 cdi w169 with couple of prob's

[Nikola0803]

Hey everyone! New guy here on the forum. And sorry for my English, since it's not my native language.

Before i continue i did take the car to MB specialist and retail service here, and they did whole car diagnostics and check. It was all positive apart from Glow Plugs, moisture in break fluid and that's it.

Well i bought used A180 CDI 2007 last week with only 107km's ( real, checked everywhere i could ) and i'm really happy with it, BUT, there are couple of small issues that i'm experiencing.

First of i noticed sometimes in 1st and 2nd gear above 2200 rpm, sometimes it kind of cuts of throttle for part of a second and continues to accelerate. This doesn't happen all the time, but in 15-20 starts from the 1st gear it happens. What can it be? No error's apart from 'constant' error on all 4 Glow Plugs.

Another thing is some weird nose when it's really cold and outside temperature is below 0 Celsius. It's head until engine is heated up and it disappears as soon as you barely touch the throttle.
It is in the left engine bay side i think, i don't know how to describe it, but i think it's maybe coming from spanners and V belt. I first noticed it when i turned on fog lights ( yes, you read that correctly ), turning them off made the noise go away, but couple of days later when temp's got below 0 it came back when car is cold, so i suppose it's belt and spanners because of alternator or something...

And last one which freaked me out a bit. I was driving on highway when it showed me a message stating i should decrease the amount of oil. Same time that day driving trough the city it started beeping and red screen came on saying i need to turn the engine off, i don't have any oil left?! I did it, started the car again with no errors, OBD 2 phone diagnostics showed nothing, and board computer displayed correct amount of oil. Day after, again error with too much oil, and after a day no oil at all.... strange huh? I suppose faulty oil sensor but i may be wrong.



Other than that, car runs great, consumption is great, drives and accelerates great. No whistling turbo sounds or anything like that.

 

[wongl]

I suppose faulty oil sensor but i may be wrong.

Yes most likely a faulty oil sensor - I occasionally get the too much oil warning signal but the oil level is perfect - I suppose I could drop the oil level to between min and max.

The bad news is that, according to my trusty indie, changing the oil sensor is a 'drop' the engine job on the W169 as the oil sensor is too long to be fitted with the engine in situ.

 

[Nikola0803]

Hmm, i suppose that changing V belt and spanner's is also 'drop' the engine job as well?

 

[Ted]

Nikola0803, your English is a lot better than a lot of people who have it as a first language.
Your first problem sounds like a faulty MAF (mass airflow sensor) to me. Can’t be 100% but that is similar to the issue I had with mine. it may be worth doing some searches and seeing if you think this may be the problem.
the other issue absolutely sounds like an alternator issue - first thing just after you have started your alternator is under extra load, also the foglights will draw more load. You might help to replicate/isolate this by putting main beam, heated window, seat heaters on to put the alternator under extra load. It might be worth checking the v belt tension or the clutch on the alternator pulley if it has one.

 

[Nikola0803]

How can i get to the belt and check alternator? Should i take the undertray ( or what ever the name is ) under the car/engine?

 

[Nikola0803]

Hmm, these are last errors that i checked from my phone and obd2 reader. Not shure if it reads all of the codes, but it seems to have these.

 

[MercedesDriver]

How can i get to the belt and check alternator? Should i take the undertray ( or what ever the name is ) under the car/engine?

According to this image of OM640 it should be possible to check it by taking off the undertray.

 

[Nikola0803]

I actually think i found the culprit. When i turned my car last night i turned everything off, including Ventilation, Radio, absolutely everything. The next morning i turned the car on, and i didnt hear anything. I was bit stunned, than i started turning the electrical components on, and until ventilation nothing made change in the sound. After i turned on ventilation, couple of seconds after the noise came on, i turned it off, after about 5-10 seconds it stopped. It's not the ac, just the ventilation, so i suppose something FAN related, maybe something broke on the fan or anytthing else inside might be broken and making noise.

Altough something strange is happening, when i turn it on and i stop, turn the fan off, i think the RPM drops for arround 100rpm, which is strange because it's not aircon.

 

[MercedesDriver]

Altough something strange is happening, when i turn it on and i stop, turn the fan off, i think the RPM drops for arround 100rpm, which is strange because it's not aircon.

Does it happens only when the engine is cold?

 

[Nikola0803]

I think so. After 30 mins of riding it disappears, so i think that there's maybe something wrong with the fun, until its hot enough for it to be flexible or something.

 

[MercedesDriver]

Check the battery.

 

[Nikola0803]

From dyno test it shows correct ammount of power, no fluctuations. it's sitting outsite and starts ( apart from glow plugs ) great.

 

[MercedesDriver]

My thinking was if it's happening only when cold, that the battery is not on full capacity and the alternator works hard to start the engine and all other systems you have left switched on and to charge the battery at the same time. That's why after 30 minutes of driving everything seams fine, the battery should be charged at that time.

 

[Nikola0803]

Hmm maybe i didn't write it correctly. I taught that the alternator was bad, or at least it's spanner/roller. But, when i turned everything electrical on, there was no noise, noise started just after turning on the cabin fan/ventilation.


If i turn of everything and turn the fan on, noise come's back on. Same with all other electrical stuff, they dont change anything, just the ventilation fan.

 

[MercedesDriver]

In that case you'll have to check the fan, it might be something got stuck. Maybe @GLK knows how to get to it.

 

[Nikola0803]

I'm checking the net, i just got the car back from small service. They said 'its big issue' and has to be checked as soon as possible. From what they told my brother i'm 100% certain that they didn't even look at it...

 

[MercedesDriver]

You're still under 30 posts so can't send DM but can you write your email here.

 

[GLK]

I wish I knew more about mechanical side of things (automotive mechanics that is) ...
My A200 had a starter motor problem two and a half years ago - took it to Terry Gates who fitted a new replacement OEM unit - that's about as close as I got to this kind of stuff, I'm afraid - engine oil / filter and brake pads changing notwithstanding.

Now, if Nikola wants to mess about with lights, ICE, cameras etc - I'd be happy to share

 

[Nikola0803]

nikolazivkovic0803 AT gmail DOT com

 

[Nikola0803]

I wish I knew more about mechanical side of things (automotive mechanics that is) ...
My A200 had a starter motor problem two and a half years ago - took it to Terry Gates who fitted a new replacement OEM unit - that's about as close as I got to this kind of stuff, I'm afraid - engine oil / filter and brake pads changing notwithstanding.

Now, if Nikola wants to mess about with lights, ICE, cameras etc - I'd be happy to share

Of course i want to That's a silly question haha. I'm planning on installing reverse camera for the 'future' mrs, and multimedia. Im looking at other options on what to do next after that.