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Bruce[_4_]

On Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:54:10 -0400, wrote:

On Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:48:02 +0700, Bruce
wrote:

On Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:28:49 -0400, wrote:

On Tue, 23 Mar 2010 08:15:27 +0700, Bruce
wrote:

On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:06:17 -0400, wrote:

On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:20:11 +0700, Bruce
wrote:

On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:02:05 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

Dr. Diesel, Foley Engines, and me...

Spoiler: this will be long, due to the convoluted path it takes, along with
documentation of what happened. This won't be pretty, including a couple of
frank language instances - and before any raving fans get out, and sharpen,
their swords, the documentation is clear, below...

I read your tale of woe and frankly it is nearly unbelievable, oh yes,
I believe that you went through all the trials and tribulation but
perhaps it should be entitled "Innocents Abroad".

Out of curiosity, why do you think you need spare injectors? Out of
all the diesels I've worked on I can only remember changing one
injector, and I'm not even sure that one was bad,

We have two 300D Mercedes. At one point we were driving across the
country and we couldn't get the car to start even with a jump. We
stopped in Charleston SC, and the Mercedes place said 3 out of the 4
of them were bad.

To be frank I doubt that, or at least your description of the event.
You are implying that 3 out of 4 injectors were so bad that the engine
wouldn't start? And you drove it into the Mercedes place? If 3 of 4
injectors were so bad that they had to be changed the engine would
have been shaking and rattling so bad that it is doubtful that you
could have driven it.

Are you sure that you aren't talking about the glow plugs? A far more
likely source of the "engine won't start" syndrome.

You are right - it was glow plugs. But we didn't drive to the
Mercedes place - we had to get it towed. It was in January and really
cold and nasty. Bob was really sick and couldn't sleep because of
coughing. We were staying on the AFB and they said that a tow truck
couldn't come on the base - that we'd have to go to the gate and meet
them which was about a mile from where we were. Finally we had the
idea of renting a car from Enterprise (there was one right on the
base) and they came over to get him, and he then met the tow truck at
the gate and followed him to the dealership.

Glow plugs always have been a problem and most auto makers have
several different models that can be used in the same engine. Too low
a resistance means that the plugs get hot quickly but burn out faster
while higher resistance means that they heat slower but last longer.

The time we had trouble when we were in Memphis (it was the vacuum
system or something - the car just had no power) we did drive it over.
That Mercedes place wasn't as good. They took the doors apart and
said they couldn't get the parts and finally Bob told them to put it
together and give it back. He then went to an Autozone and got the
part for about 85 cents, and took the door back apart and fixed it
himself in the parking lot of the motel.

Vacuum system? Doors? Was the center lock operated by a vacuum system?
And where did they get it? most diesels don't have much vacuum, or
actually don't have a throttle valve to restrict air flow.
Cheers,

When the vacuum system on those cars was screwed up, the door locks
and trunk lock didn't work - windows - nothing on the car would work.
The vacuum system ran a lot of things on the car. On my car, if it
sits for very long, I can only open the door with a key and none of
the other doors or the trunk unlock like they are supposed to until
after the engine is turned on and running.

Out of curiosity what kind of car do you have?

The original problem was a fuel restriction which kept the engine from
developing any power. We dropped the car off and told them that.

A very common reason for a diesel to not develop full power.

When we called the Mercedes place later, they said that the two left
door locks were leaking (which we kind of knew) and they would have to
replace them. By the next day they fixed the two window actuators
which were leaking vacuum and had tested it and found more leaks and
couldn't get the parts in less than 2 days, which would be Friday. Bob
was annoyed because he didn't think that the vacuum system was the
problem, he thought it was a fuel delivery problem. The next day the
advisor called about 10. Bob asked if they had changed the fuel
filter, and they had not. So he told them to do that.

To be honest I have never worked on a Mercedes car, but does it have a
"throttle valve"? The truck engines certainly don't. If a diesel
doesn't have a throttle valve, or other restriction in the intake
manifold the pressure in the manifold is only slightly below
atmospheric unlike a gasoline engine. In fact diesel powered vehicles
that use a vacuum booster on the brakes have a vacuum pump, usually on
the rear of the alternator, to power the brakes

When we got to the dealership, he took it on a test drive, and we
decided just to take it as it was - they had changed one fuel filter,
but said they didn't have the other one - citing the fact that the car
was 20 years old. The car door locks no longer worked, and it was
shifting hard, and the engine wouldn't turn off. After we put gas in
the rental and turned in it, Bob drove back to the Lodge - the
acceleration is fine now. He bought the filter that the advisor said
they didn't have at AutoZone for $3.00

I can understand a dealer not having a filter for a 20 year old
engine, as the dealer is normally committed to using only factory
recommended parts while the "parts dealer" is obviously not restricted
to any such agreement.

After he ate lunch, and read his repair manual, he went out and looked
at the car and figured out that the connector between the car door
lock buttons and the actuator that they had fixed was missing. So he
connected the two with a wire tie and voila, the engine now shuts off
without having to turn it off from under the hood.

You seem to be talking abut four separate problems. Engine starting,
engine power, door locks and engine stopping. None of which has
anything to do with the other, except that the shutdown system might
have been actuated by vacuum.

The engine starting problem apparently caused by the faulty glow
plugs.
The engine low power by dirty fuel filters.
Vacuum system by something but not the engine..

Note:As I said I have never worked on a Mercedes Diesel car and so
googled it. According to what I read the diesel source, since the
1960's, is a mechanical vacuum pump driven from the Injection pump and
therefore vacuum, or lack there of, really has no relationship to the
engine, except that the engine drives the pump.

Engine stopping - diesel engines are shut off by closing a fuel valve.
This shutoff may well have been operated by vacuum.

Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)

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