Hi Steve,

The fault still exists and after taking it to 4 garages who have replaced various parts still no joy, so I decided to have a go myself. I have spend a day checking the following.

Firstly my van is a 2010 316CDI (60 Plate) which does seem to differ from the description about. According to the man at Mercs parts counter it doesn’t have a vacuum pump…

The fault is neither of the two actuators on the turbo move when the van is started and when its under load it goes into Limp Mode. No fault codes show up on the ODB scanner.

1. I mentioned before I had a tapping sound, this turned out to be low oil levels and a dirty air filter. One replaced this went away.

2. I have checked all the rubber pipes and cant find any splits.

Checked the two actuators on the turbo, if I connect the main vacuum feed from the master cylinder it will move the actuators ok.

Replaced the two vacuum actuators one at the front of the engine at the top left and one at the right hand side low down at the back. I have between 10.8v and 13v on the wires going to these actuators.

3. The ECU wires under the dash seem ok, not signs of corrosion etc.

4. The Turbo again seems of, I looked in the front and can see not scoring and no play detected either in and out or vertically can be felt by hand. Spins ok when the engine starts.

5. The pipes from the two actuators are fed by a triangular shaped reservoir on the top right of the engine. A vacuum supply is going to this but in its off and running state the actuators seem to be venting to air. Ive replaced this for a new one too.

I had the please of someone stealing the DPF, sensors and the two vacuum pips on the DPF over xmas so that all new too. Thats another story as to how they opened the bonnet and what they took. I now have two locks fitted to the exhaust and DPF….

The only bits I haven’t replaced are a valve that is fitted low down on the right hand side of the engine just behind the EGR valve. I also cant work out that is at the other end of the vacuum pip that goes from the brake master cylinder across the engine bay to the bottom of the engine on the right hand side?

I am really a bit lost now, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers

Grant

I’m happy with it, she’s running again. Here is my best advice:

1. HOT. Get the engine hot to remove the injector clamp bolt. It’s only 6mm diameter and if you have the black goo already, it has run down the threads – ALL the way down – and has locked that bolt into the threaded hole. When hot, it gets very soft, like thick marshmallow, but is hard as glass when cold, so heat it up by running it to full temp. Trust me on this, I forgot on one and broke it off. This is a pain in the a## you don’t want.

2. DON’T take the injector head off of the body if you don’t have to. I did and regretted that too. Taking it off exposes several tiny loose bits inside the valve system and without even knowing it, I lost one of them. I killed the injector doing that (I suppose it can be put back together by someone who knows how and has the right pieces, but I’m not that person.) $540 US at the dealer for a new injector.

3. Stuff a wad of paper towel or small rag down the injector hole while you are cleaning up the goo. You don’t want anything falling into there.

4. Pull the glow plug on the cylinder you are working on. While you are cleaning out the bore hole for the injector, blow compressed air INTO the glow plug hole. This will push small pieces out the injector hole as you clean it off – again, you don’t want those pieces going into the cylinder, they could end up going through the turbo – don’t want that.

5. Fish out the old copper washer with a long screwdriver and a piece of metal wire bent into a U at the end.

6. I found a long metal rod about 18mm dia (I’m guessing here) and glued a piece of sandpaper to the end and trimmed to the same diameter as the rod. I put this down the injector bore and spun it with my fingers while putting some pressure on it to clean up the sealing surface in the head for the new copper washer. Don’t forget the compressed air in the glow plug hole.

7. Get an M6x1.0 thread tap and chase out the black goo from the injector clamp bolt holes. Run it down in and out, then blow out the hole with compressed air, blow off the tap with air and do it again and again until all the goo is out.

8. Get the ceramic grease Mercedes specs. I used it for the following: To hold the new copper washer onto the injector tip for re-install; On the body of the injector to make it easier to come out next time; On the threads of the injector bracket hold-down bolt and the threads of the glow plug, both to ease the next removal.

9. There’s a spec for the torque on the hold down clamp bolt followed by another 90 degree rotation. I don’t have a torque wrench, so I did it by feel, at my own risk. Seems ok.

10. You will need new bolts, they are torque to yield type. The extra 90 degree rotation permanently stretches the neck of the bolt and they cannot be used again. Obviously new copper seals are a must, they’re really cheap. I ordered and paid for 6 from the dealer. Their distributor shipped them the package quantity of 20 and they just gave them all to me for the price of 6 (I think they were 60 cents US each)

I left off the engine cover so far and I check it every couple days. The ‘chuffing’ sound that it made when it was leaking is gone and I don’t see any signs of a leak. I’m going to do the seals on all of them one at a time when I have some spare time coming up to prevent them from developing leaks too. Now that I’ve done it, I’m not as afraid of it any longer. 233,000+ miles and still runs great.

I found the problem was a broken wire the cable bundle on drivers side top of engine was rubbing against manifold and tore through. Patched that up and turbo responsed as it should! Couldn’t see the tear under the cable at first!