Hi guys, you folks have helped me out several times over the years and I'm asking for your help again on a very frustrating problem I am having. The engine will die after idling anywhere from 15-30 minutes. I have replaced the crankshaft sensor with a new OEM (from Mercedes dealer) and the car ran great for 3 weeks then died again on the freeway. The car will not restart unless it sits for several hours to cool down, then it will restart. I had it towed to a Mercedes repair shop and this is what they have done.

" (1) Check engine light illuminated. Scanned for faults in ME and found the following: P1615:Control module voltage. P1330: Starter control. Both faults were current with engine running and do not change state when engine stalls. (2) Checked for drive authorization. Drive authorization present when engine stalls and no drive authorization faults current or stored. (3) Tested power input to ME and battery voltage is always present even when engine stalls. Checked resistance of ME grounds, all good. (4) Performed visual check of ME connector, wiring harness and crank sensor connector. No problems found. Double checked installation of crank sensor, no problems found.(5) replaced crank sensor to rule out faulty replacement part. (6) Installed new K40 relay. (7) Installed new fuel shut-off valve. (8) Removed all ME and sensor grounds, cleaned and reinstalled. (9) Checked power supply to fuel actuator on injection pump while engine stalled and power supply always maintains battery voltage.
Unable to find root cause of engine intermittent stalling at this time"

They sent me an invoice for $1365.44 and told me to make arrangements to have my car removed from their property!

when it does not want to start, do you see the RPM needle move up at all from 0 while cranking?

I will take a look at that when I get the car back home. What would it mean if the needle does move up from 0 while cranking, or does not move?

Sounds more like it is fuel related. Change the fuel filters. When changing filters, do it with a full fuel tank and the front of car point down hill from fuel tank.

I did change filters just the way you described and that did not solve the problem either, It's very frustrating. I don't what else to look for at this point.

When you don't even want to answer the questions we ask you, then how would anybody be able to help you

Where are you Haken?

No, RPM needle stays at 0 while cranking.

No, the RPM needle stays at 0 while cranking.

Hi Packerfan, did you make any headway on the issue? I think I am in a similar situation to you on my 99 e300d. I am having an intermittent no start issue , or rather start and immediately stall. When it starts it runs and drives great. When it stalls, it will crank, and actually start, begin to shudder, and then stall after 2 or 3 seconds. During this brief time that the engine starts, both 1. the starter stays engaged, and 2. the RPM needle doesn't register any rpm. I can think by the sound I should see at least 500-1000 rpm. I need to confirm, but I think the sov is not actuating at this time as well. But when it runs, I can turn the key and hear the preglow and sov relays click. I've done all the O-rings with Teflon, as well as installed an aux electrical fuel pump, filter change etc. So I don't think air in the fuel is an issue. I am getting no CEL codes either. So I am wondering if there is something causing the ecm to intermittently not see RPM on crank and start up? And would that cause the ecm to disable the sov at that time? thanks in advance.

Given the age and intermittent nature of the issue, I would suspect a short to ground somewhere in the harnesses. These are difficult to find, especially if temperature related expansion is what leads to the short.

Given that, and in general if this is a keeper, it may be a good opportunity to insulate all harnesses and wiring that runs on, over, near the engine and chassis in the engine bay. Pay attention to any areas with a high heat load, near exhaust etc. And the component connectors.

If that doesn't solve it, you could also have fractured/weak solder connections in some of the key relays or ECU. Usually these will be at the pins to the board where the harness plugs into. There are many videos on how to both here and youtube.

It's a lengthy process to sort out, but at least in going thru the process you can also eliminate potential sources in the process.

Good luck

Thank you sir. I will do as you suggest. Sometimes I think it could heat related because the engine will run for 15-30 minutes before it dies and will not restart until it sits for a few hours to cool down. Other times it will run just fine for 2-3 weeks without issue and poof...the problem is back again.

It's almost certainly some sort of electrical issue. Could be in the wiring harness, ECU or the injection pump itself. The fact that it can run for 2-3 weeks is a huge problem for diagnosis - it's a show-stopper for anyone but the most die-hard OM606 enthusiast.

The diesel injection system used on the OM606 turbo is the last of the in-line injection pumps that can trace its roots and basic operating principles all the way back to the 1930's and 1940's. However it also has the unfortunate 'feature' or 'evoluiton' where the pump rack is under direct computer control and supervision. If the computer isn't involved the car is inoperable.

As such it kind of has the worst of both worlds, you have to have computers in the process to run the car BUT you still have all the disadvantages of the early IDI engines, prechambers, only one injection event per combustion event, relatively imprecise timing, inability to alter fueling for each injector ect, ect that the later CDI engines nicely provide for a huge bump in power, refinement and economy.

The shop in Milwaukee is doing exactly what should be done, its certainly telling the the Mercedes dealer doesn't want to touch it.

The only plausible path I can see to providing a fix is to find another E300D that runs correctly and start swapping (one at a time) wiring harnesses, ECU and then the actual IDI injection pump. I'm not 100% sure of cars of this vintage but the ECU swap might also involve the EIS key and the steering column lock.

You could certainly disassemble things and look for cold solder joints or fractures in circuit boards and wires in the harness but this is, to say the least, a needle-in-the-haystack kind of task and if the issue is actually a problem related to a capacitor or a transistor that drives the rack position motor you'll never find it with a visual inspection. At least with the needle-in-a-haystack metaphor there is a needle to be found with a visual inspection of the haystack.

If you're paying a competent professional mechanic to do this sort of work you're going to exceed the value of the car in about 3 days. It would all have to be time and materials work with no guarantee of success.

Sorry..... but that's all I've got.

If you decide to throw in the towel there is one other thing you should be aware of - the OM606 turbo is a very popular engine for engine swap projects. It can be easily retrofitted with a fully mechanical pump from and OM603 and make huge HP. There are aftermarket companies that provide tuning, performance upgrades and transmission adaptors and its very much in demand. Not sure what they're selling for but I see lower mileage examples frequently listed for 3-4K dollars. Someone that was going to swap a mechanical pump wouldn't care if the current computer controlled system was flakey. Don't sell the car for trade-in value if you decide to move on.

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98 Dodge-Cummins pickup (137K)
13 GLK250 (157k)
06 E320CDI (341K)
16 C300 (89K)
82 300GD Gelaendewagen (54K)

Tim- good info-
wts-- Couldn't packerfan swap in Mechanical pump and some nifty updated ECU to go with it as a fix??? I assume this would eliminate a few things that could be causing his stalling?

Would the above swap interface with EIS/Steering lock??? Curious cuz I own a couple of nice w210 TDs.... and sure would like to know solutions.

You certainly could swap the IDI pump for a purely OM603 mechanical pump, it would not interface with the EIS lock at all.

Such a modification would obviate the entire IDI ECU and remove all engine specific information from the CAN. This would have totally unpredictable effects on all other systems that interface with the engine like the 722.6 transmission and the ABS and ESP systems. I have no idea how such a setup would work or even if it would work at all. In addition the 'CHECK ENGINE' light would be permanently on - many states now to OBD checks as part of the emissions checks - the deletion of the ECU driving the injection pump would be an instant fail.

There is no magic ECU that could be substituted - to build one would be an epic task.

__________________
98 Dodge-Cummins pickup (137K)
13 GLK250 (157k)
06 E320CDI (341K)
16 C300 (89K)
82 300GD Gelaendewagen (54K)