Please help I am stranded
 

My 300D has been giving me lots of problems recently. It will not start when the engine is warm. I replaced the glow plugs and the starter and that did not fix the problem, it just put a rather large dent in my wallet. As I was driving out of my Indy's shop I drove to the very first stop of the afternoon and I turned off the car. Well, it would not start again, so I got a ride. Then I returned 4 hours later to check it and pull the battery so I could charge it overnight, WELL IT FIRED UP ON THE FIRST TRY. What the ????

I do not understand it and I do not want to take it back to the shop to drop another hundred or two on this problem.

The alternator seems to be charging the battery fine.
I have changed the fuel filters.
The glow plugs are hot.
I have checked for air leak in the fuel system.

Please help me, I need my MB on the road.
Zack Smith

if you just had it at the shop take it back and demand they fix it right.

Yeah I might try that but the problem is that I was convinced that it was the starter and so that is all that he did.

Does anyone have any ideas what it might be?

x2 any decent shop has a warranty on their repairs. Take it back and politely express your frustration and ask that they "make it right".

the only thing i can think of is that your tank went has clogged and is creating a vacuum.

are you running a single tank wvo system?

huh,
that is a very good idea.
I will check that first off tomorrow..
Any other things to check??

yes I am running a single tank wvo system and I have some weird wax growth in the tank that grows in the summers.
that just might be the problem.

Perhaps supplying some more background would help. Why is it that you were convinced it was the starter? What symptoms were you experiencing that made you belive your starter was bad?

You say the car won't start. Will the engine crank?

More specifs leading up to the problem and more specifics about exactly is happening when you are turning the key. Thanks.

When I turn the key and the engine is warm it will turn and turn and turn but it will not catch and start to run.

So the engine is actually turning it just sounds as though it is not turning fast enough.

I thought that it was the starter b/c last time my starter went out it did this exact same thing that that was the culprit.

Okay, so when this problem started getting bad I needed to give it some gas for it to start. So not it will not start at all unless I press the gas pedal down then it catches just fine, when it is cold.

I have a vague recollection of your previous thread on this topic. Have you tried priming the bejesus out of it when it won't start? What was the result? Have you tried using an alternate fuel supply in a bottle under the hood when it won't start to rule out a fuel supply problem upstream of the engine compartment? Have you tested the glow plugs when it won't start to confirm they are getting 12 volts and have proper resistance?

I can only wonder what that WVO is doing to the poor engine.

I'll bet if you were running diesel, like is intended....you'd not be having any of these issues.

Ooops, I missed the post about a single tank WVO system. I consider my troubleshooting tips inapplicable.

Just a quick is the manual cut off lever coming up. When my dad held it down he pushed it in toward the injectors and it was hanging up. I just had to bend it back to the correct position.

I have pumped the primer a lot and it does not help this problem. I can try to pump it until my hand bruises next time.

I have not put the alternate fuel supply in the engine bay and tried that in quite a while. That is a good idea.

OK, so I wait for it not to start and then I will check to see if the gp's are getting current.

Good, Great Help Guys',
Zack

why not try running it on the fuel it was intended to run on?

did you de-water your VO? My guess is your IP is about to fail

I have noticed lately a lot of these problem posts are related to people running WVO

EDIT-Perhaps we should have a subforum for WVO related problems, as the troubleshooting for an engine run on diesel as opposed to WVO is quite different.

This is pertinent information that should have been included in the first post. Take the troubleshooting advice that others have offered, but honestly, if you have "some weird wax growth in the tank" I would be much more suspicious of that than your poor starter.

If you are not brewing biodiesel (and doing it properly), you should just expect these types of problems.

X2. That's why I decided my troubleshooting tips were inapplicable. Too many stories of people using WVO running into no-start conditions when their IP is failing. I have no idea how a person would test to see if their IP was on the brink from running WVO. I seem to recall some comments about the viscosity of the fuel when cold overcoming the poor performance of the IP and warm thin fuel pushing the IP over the brink.

that would make sense considering how the pump operates.

diesel #2 all the way

sometimes one if its really cold

I might have missed it but I did not see any mention of how old the battery is.

I have fallen prey to the 'the battery's fine' because over time, the battery gets weaker. Eventually, it might spin it over, but not fast enough to fire. If it always cranks when the battery is fully charged, I might suspect a weak battery.

If you continually drive the same car, you will not notice the gradual slow down of the cranking speed, then suddenly, one day it won't fire.

My guess is either water got into the pump or the seals are gummed up with WVO residue. This could cause intermettent problems as the OP has described. I cannot see how letting viscous VO sit in the crevices of the IP can not be blamed for at least part of this problem. It would be useful to see if the OP uses some sort of blend or just pours a bunch of waste oil into the tank. Either way there are several key pieces of information missing to make an educated postulate about what exactly is going on here.

Fuel-filler cap.
 

Try removing the cap next time this happens. Or just try removing it when you shut the car off. If you hear an inrush of air, well, the vent is probably clogged.

Does this only happen when the tank is full? Worse when full? empty? The problem is almost certainly fuel related. Maybe when something gets warm under the hood, it loses its seal and allows air to enter the system. The car runs fine until the point when you turn it off and then it will not restart???

Jay.

x2. This is a diesel engine. Not a garbage disposal. Stop using that garbage fuel, that's the first and foremost problem I see here. So many perfectly good diesel MB's have been destroyed by this horrible wvo crap.

X2 on this - I was thinking the same and then the info about the WVO came out and that put the kibosh on the discussion . . . it just adds to many unkowns, that 's why I say take the advice offered but don't ignore the WVO problems that are going to appear.

This just happened to the wagon last month.

I think the best advice is to try running diesel from a jug under the hood. Make sure to prime all the WVO out of the lines first. I think I would crack each injector hard line one by one until diesel came out.

Have you done a compression check recently?

Wow.
I woke up this morning to reading many posts that resemble my father after I would come home late after drinking a few beers.

Guys, I want to thank you who gave me the sounds advice and I am going to the car right now to try to fix it. Really, thanks, I think that it might be the vent, hopefully.

I will not address the near aggressive remarks by some of you and you are right, there should be a side of the forum dedicated to WVO related problems and conversions.

Cheers,
Zack Smith

Zack,

You will almost always get more positive than negative responses here. But, you should see if from the perspective of all of the people who take the time to write out responses to help someone else. These people are pulling info from their own experience to help out someone they don't even know. All things being equal (i.e. we are all working with the same design in mind), then this would be fine; however, I have seen too many post that go on for pages of possible diagnoses for a problem, only to have the original poster eventually come around to letting everyone know that he/she is running "X" modification (which usually involves WVO). If you modify the original design of the car, then that modification necessarily becomes suspect when the system it involves fails. Are there people here who will flat out ignore your post if they see WVO in it? Yes, but there are others here would be happy to offer advice. By not adding that information up front you are doing your self a disservice for two reasons: 1) you are not likely to get the help you probably need and 2) your thread will get choked up with negative responses once you finally reveal that you are running the single tank WVO system with something strange growing in the tank.

I don't think you personally were trying to be deceitful - but I often wonder about other WVO folks who come in looking for help and just happen to forget that they added a variety of modifications to their car and are operating it on an unapproved fuel. It would sort of be like me asking everyone for their thoughts on why I experience so much wind noise at high speeds, letting a bunch of people offer their thoughts and scratch their heads at my problem, and then eventually get around to telling them that I modified my car by removing the doors because I don’t like having to open and close them every time I want to go somewhere.

Anyway, if you want to run a single-tank WVO system, that is up to you, but let people know so that those who have no experience or disagree with that set up can just move on to the next thread.

Good luck with your problem.

PS. I still think you should make sure your battery isn't on its way out before tearing other things apart.

Make sure no WVO is in the system when you use the alternative fuel supply and that you use diesel. It is possible that the single tank system has trashed your ip.

Since the car was designed to run on Diesel fuel, running a cold concoction of vegetable oil and whatever else, is not going to help the IP have a long life.....my bet is that it is internally plugged or damaged from running such a system.

if WVO is the problem, why is it cranking smoothly after it cools down? IP tolerances tighten up as it gets cold? HMM.
slow cranking is usually one thing, lack of volts to the starter. either inspect the cables and VERYFY they are clean and tight on both ends of both cables. or have the battery totally tested out with a REALLY good test kit. one that will put on actually 500amps or so and verify the battery's full voltage output for sustained cranking.
that said, unless the motor is REALLY cranking slow, if there is sufficient compression, it should fire.
when was the last time your valves were adjusted?
have you ever tested your compression?
if it's low, you might want to soak the pistons in some MMO or DIESEL PURGE overnight with the glow plugs out and spin the motor over in the morning before putting the plugs back in.
see if it helps the starting situation.

If you do this, you'll be amazed at how nasty the liquid will be that comes out. Please post some photos if you do this!! Motors that have been run long-term on WVO are so horribly disgusting on the inside, combustion chambers all caked up with layers of burnt crap, valves and piston rings clogged with crap, it's *really* nasty.

I would try running it on some diesel or better yet may be some keroseen and may be get the injector pump checked prefessionaly or you could remove the metal fuel lines and crank the engine and see if fuel is welling in, could the injectors be blocked? is the intake manifold blocked make make sure the engine is getting air, remove the air filter tubing that fits onto the intake manifold (big rubber tube that conects the filter with it) then try having the tank filled with keroseen only, bleed the system and try push starting it down a verry hill serface but be safe and all glow plugs extreemly loose? might want to check that

but I'm no professional what do you guys think
PS: I did'nt check the spelling sorry

Jeremy Brett

The injection pump could be weak and this would be the reason behind the starting problems. I think heat-soak is at play here, your IP is not creating enough pressure at cranking speeds, thats why when the motor is cold the motor starts up.

Thanks Guy's for your help.
Tankowner, you are right about me not telling about WVO and the crap in the tank. I think that it is the culprit here.
I am going to change my signature, I forgot how to do it can someone please remind me.

Well, I went to the car this morning and I took off the fuel cap and stuffed a shirt in the filler; it started right up, then I drove it around 5-10 minutes and got it hot, cut it off and it fired right up again, on, off, on, off several more times and it started fine each time.

I cracked open each injector and all 5 were spitting fuel out.

I decided to continue to drive me girlfriends car due to the fact that if her car is in the Panera Bread parking lot and I am broken down around town then it will put us both out.

We will see what happens tonight when I go back to the car and go home.