Merc loss of power

Talking to a mate of mine, who's brother inlaw as a Mercedes MH was on his way to cornwall, when there was a pop from engine lost all power, so he phoned Mercedes told them they asked where he stored the motorhome he told them on a farm, they said its a mouse nest in the air filter, he opened bonnet and the air filter had imploded in he removed it and there was the mouse nest. The pop was when the engine sucked the top of air filter in. Needed new air filter.

That takes remote diagnosis to a whole new level.

Even our very clued up members would be hard pressed to beat that!! 

Brilliant diagnosis. Reminds me of the time I called at my elderly mum's house to take her to hospital. I parked on her drive and went inside for a brew. Half an hour later we set off for hospital. A few miles down the road my car's engine started making an awful noise, I stopped and lifted the bonnet expecting to see something like a frayed fan belt thrashing around, what I didn't expect was my mum's terrified cat tangled up amongst the hoses and HT leads.... It lived to tell the tale, but with somewhat less than 9 lives left...
Al.

bikeralw wrote:Brilliant diagnosis. Reminds me of the time I called at my elderly mum's house to take her to hospital. I parked on her drive and went inside for a brew. Half an hour later we set off for hospital. A few miles down the road my car's engine started making an awful noise, I stopped and lifted the bonnet expecting to see something like a frayed fan belt thrashing around, what I didn't expect was my mum's terrified cat tangled up amongst the hoses and HT leads.... It lived to tell the tale, but with somewhat less than 9 lives left...
Al.

Was that in the early days of fitting cats Al ?

Where was the mouse ?? Don't get paranoid but they are watching you 

We recently suffered a total loss of power on our Sprinter on that awful roundabout over the river on Cumberland Road in the centre of Bristol... engine would only tick over and not rev at all. Managed to get it to crawl into a side road (outside the Asda) and waited for five hours for a suitable recovery vehicle- the first two which arrived could not shift an automatic! Double yellow lines, bus route, etc, etc. Not a good place.
5pm correct truck comes and takes us to campsite (didn't fancy a night outside Mercedes in Avonmouth!). Next morning Merc mobile bloke attended and diagnosed a faulty CDI; this being the main "brain". He could not re-set it and we were .... some time later... back on the same recovery truck (after a rather forceful conversation with the rescue service who said I'd already had one recovery on the incident).

City and West Mercedes were excellent- Kelly said just get it brought in and we'll see to it right away. Bad news was that it required a new CDI which had to be configured in Germany and sent across; it's now 4pm on a Friday, CDI would not arrive until Tuesday, at the earliest. They loaned us a Vito van into which we decanted the contents of the fridge and just about anything else which we might need back home, including two bikes. Nightmare trip up the M5/M6, as per on a Friday, home at 21:30, bottle opened at 21:32.

We got a call on the following Wednesday saying it was fixed and tested for us whenever we wanted to drive back and pick it up, so having an appointment to attend on Thursday we set off back down the M6/M5 for another Friday nightmare!

We had decided to try to salvage something of the holiday but not at  our original destinations; two nights in Somerset and return home via a night at Moorhampton in Herefordshire. Not a mile driven on any motorway on the way home; lovely trip on deserted roads thro' the Welsh Borders and Salop.

Good news- our 3-year warranty covered the eye-watering cost of a new CDI, it runs out in December. The recovery service reacted to my less than five-star rating and a cheque for £40 landed on the mat this morning.

Other makes have a "limp mode" which means the engine will not rev over about 2k rpm, this is manageable; having one which will only tick over means that an automatic will not even start to move on the slightest incline, although I'm told that if you can find a couple of chaps to push until it is just slightly rolling, it will then crawl.

I look forward to Donald Trump having a total loss of power soon, btw.

So sorry to hear about your total loss of power on the Merc. We had loss of power, went into limp mode, on our way to AS in Cotswold for more niggles to be fixed. 14 mph on a Monday morning travelling to a Peugeot dealer for it to be sorted was fun, especially with my wife following in the car and all the hooting from other drivers. It took a week to diagnose the problem with a special Peugeot technician being drafted in. Two dodgy vital sensors were finally replaced. We had only had the van for about 6 months from new. At least we were able to move the vehicle!

Pete

Pete Taylor wrote:City and West Mercedes were excellent- Kelly said just get it brought in and we'll see to it right away. 

Other makes have a "limp mode" which means the engine will not rev over about 2k rpm, this is manageable; having one which will only tick over means that an automatic will not even start to move on the slightest incline, although I'm told that if you can find a couple of chaps to push until it is just slightly rolling, it will then crawl.

I look forward to Donald Trump having a total loss of power soon, btw.

Hi Pete,
That's my local MB Dealer and I have to say that their customer service has improved a lot since Kelly has appeared on the scene - she recognizes us motor-home owners as such and treats us accordingly rather than the regular builder/delivery "white van man" which is obviously their principal source of business.
Incidentally a Sprinter motor home we hired in Australia some 10 years ago used to regularly go into limp mode (we were convinced that it was the local police radio masts which were the cause - it seemed to occur every time we passed one) but that model sprinter had sufficient power to allow us to crawl out of danger. The immediate solution was to switch off and restart and all would be fine until we passed the next mast!
As my van is now out of warranty I would be curious to know what the replacement CDI cost estimate was if you know it please?
Liam

Liam wrote:

Pete Taylor wrote:City and West Mercedes were excellent- Kelly said just get it brought in and we'll see to it right away. 

Other makes have a "limp mode" which means the engine will not rev over about 2k rpm, this is manageable; having one which will only tick over means that an automatic will not even start to move on the slightest incline, although I'm told that if you can find a couple of chaps to push until it is just slightly rolling, it will then crawl.

I look forward to Donald Trump having a total loss of power soon, btw.

Hi Pete,
That's my local MB Dealer and I have to say that their customer service has improved a lot since Kelly has appeared on the scene - she recognizes us motor-home owners as such and treats us accordingly rather than the regular builder/delivery "white van man" which is obviously their principal source of business.
Incidentally a Sprinter motor home we hired in Australia some 10 years ago used to regularly go into limp mode (we were convinced that it was the local police radio masts which were the cause - it seemed to occur every time we passed one) but that model sprinter had sufficient power to allow us to crawl out of danger. The immediate solution was to switch off and restart and all would be fine until we passed the next mast!
As my van is now out of warranty I would be curious to know what the replacement CDI cost estimate was if you know it please?
Liam

Liam,
Kelly told me it was "well over £1000"....

Pete.

Pete Taylor wrote:

Pete.

Thanks Pete,
Ouch! - will just have to hope it never goes wrong whilst I own it!!
Liam

Liam wrote:

Pete Taylor wrote:

Pete.

Thanks Pete,
Ouch! - will just have to hope it never goes wrong whilst I own it!!
Liam

Indeed- as an olde-skule Engineer I'm a big fan of having a lot of little things doing a single job each, rather than a few big things doing thousands of jobs.