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Vito 638 help needed heavy vibration

Dedge86

New Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2019
Messages
17
Location
Nottingham
Car
CLK 230k w208
A quick intro..

Drove perfectly but struggled to start cold. Eventually struggled to start when warm also until it refused to start.. during this time it still ran perfectly.

Changed all hoses and o rings (including for seal), filter, (2nd hand) pump, injector leak off clips and hoses and battery.

It started perfectly however over 2.5k engine would cut straight off and EDC light would come on...

Fitted refurbished pump, did the belt whilst I was there and fitted new driveshaft...

Went for a test drive.. starts on the button everytime, no bubbles in lines BUT heavy vibration at idle, also weirdly when I'm turning at low speeds like my steering rack is knackered and EDC light is constant and glow plug light sometimes stays on other times acts normal..

I've now replaced bottom mount, can't change the top one because it's nla and it's still doing it so I'm doubtful it's the mount.

I know it could be injectors but they don't look very old and the engine is really clean with not a hint of black death.

Any ideas? Although it struggled to start it ran perfectly before I started replacing parts

Could glow plugs cause heavy vibration?
Are crankshafts common issues on these?

It's been off the road for 3 weeks and I use it for work so I'm at my wits end tbh.

Cheers
 
Manual or auto?
If manual is it the same clutch in / out?

No glow plugs wouldn't cause excessive vibrations.

By drive shaft I expect you mean prop shaft?

I would suspect injector/s. A leak off test would be a reasonable starting place, although excessive leak off would cause a difficult start.

But really getting it on star would be a good route to go.
Checking for smooth running,
compression test,
good sync between crank and camshafts.
 
It's an auto.
No driveshaft mate, it's fwd.
Yeah just makes it difficult getting it to somewhere with it having such bad vibrations. I changed crank and camshaft sensors too.
 
You can make up a simple leak off kit with pound clear plastic pop bottles and some plastic pipe.
I made one years back for a C320.

It might hi lite one bad injector.

But tbh you've already put a fair bit of effort in replacing bits, a Star session might've save much of that.
But I understand the difficulty.

For from comprehensive but the free Torque app on an Android device, fed by a BT EML327 in the OBD port can see some useful info, and some simple fault codes.
iCarsoft do a reasonable scanner, a bit more expensive, but also more useful as a diagnostics kit.
 
I've got a creator 502 that works perfectly on my c32 but won't read my Vito.

I think leak off might be my best bet just to give me a better indication on if any injectors are leaking more.

It's just with it starting so easily and the fact the vibration has only started happening since I did the driveshaft, belt and pump I was leaning towards more mounts and maybe even crank pulley but it could just be another mad coincidence as everytime I seem to sort one problem another rears it's head. In all the years of owning and working on cars I've never came across anything like it tbh lol
 
Crank pulley (harmonic balancer) is a possible. But I would expect that to be progressive rather than appearing from nowhere one day.

You might try removing the aux belt, then run the engine to see if it's still vibrating.
You can check all the rotating stuff for free movement then.
If your belt tensioner is shot that could be a cause of vibes, Your having released tension it may not be applying tension freely again.
I would expect that you would see the belt bouncing in that case though.

But yeh, even the later 639's seem to be attention hungry. I'm replacing my oxygen sensor, when the new one arrives. Consumption has risen by 15 / 20% and I have less severe tick over vibes. There's always something.
 
Yeah worth having a go with the belt, no bounce but the tensioner did seem to have a bit of movement vertical. It's just with the EDC light now on I've got a feeling it's more fuel related.

Gone over most other things now so hopefully it's something simple.

Tbf apart from the long cranks first thing it's been a great van but as the starting got progressively worse it's like one thing after another... sort out the starting issue and then another one occurs...

Cheers
 
it's been a great van..
Fwiw I loved my old 638, great to drive. :thumb:
Can't help with this issue though, mine ran perfectly until the day I sold her.
Sadly she had to go, after I discovered that her main substructure (whilst appearing perfect from a general inspection) was rotting from the inside out.
 
Yeah they're great vans tbf. Love the old stool van look. It's solid bar a bit of rust on the bottom of the doors and a professional outer sill repair that needs painting. Plan is to make it mint but with needing it for work this has thrown a spanner in the works if she doesn't start behaving as I'll need to get something else. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.

With the EDC light staying o and the vibration calming down with revs I really need to get it hooked up to xentry.
 

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