A month ago fumes started to enter the cabin of my V220 CDI. I have taken it to our local garage twice to fix the problem. Each time the garage claimed to have 'fixed it', and I have gotten poorer and the fumes have gotten worse.
Now I want to see whether it is the dreaded injector leak problem - but I have never worked on a Merc or a diesel engine......
The fumes are visible with the engine compartment open and appear to come from the left handside of the plastic cover (don't know what the technical name for it is). The question is how do I remove the cover - is it simply a matter of disconnecting the air inlet pipe on top (screws marked 1), the star bolts on top (marked 3) and a couple at the sides (marked 2)?
Is the plastic cover just a simple cover, or is it something more special?
And, what is that narrow pipe that runs over the top of it?
Will I be able to see the injectors underneath - and possibly the leak?
Many thanks for any help,
Christof
Yup. it's quite easy to get off. You will need some hex sockets to remove the bolts though.
Remove the air inlet pipe.
Then start on the cover. There are bolts at the rear of teh cover also quite far back with can be fiddly to get to.
Once you remove the main cover, you will see a black flat plastic cover with a hose coming out of the top of it. Quite obvious to see.
The pipe under this cover works loose and is a pain in the arse to refit. When you take the cover and pipe off, remove the pipe from said crap cover and throw it away. At this point you will now be able to see your injector heads.
Spray some WD40 or similar directly into seats of the injectors and start the engine. You will see if any are leaking or if all are sound. Worth trying just for peace of mind and a quick squirt of fluid.
Make sure you have no black gunk carbon byuild up on the head of the injectors. If you have, it's a horrid cleaning job for you.
Reassemble once happy but leave that plastic cover with the pipe off out. Mines been off ages now with no problems and makes for putting the pipe onto the outlet much easier. (you'll understand when you see it)
I am going to do this job too, to replace heater/glow plug. Thanks for advice.
Do you need to get any gaskets or seals, I'd rather get them in advance if needed.
Thanks again
Grav
Can't say as I needed any. IIRC there could have been a rubber o ring type washer on the plastic manifold but none of mine were damaged or worn. I was tempted to blank the EGR valve off mind....Then promptly forgot.
Oh one other thing on mine, when I tried to remove the plastic plate underneath it fouled on some parts which were bolted to the bulkhead. Just unbolt them and lift them out of the way rather than disconnect a load of other stuff.
I didn't get any fault codes either when stripping mine down or rebuilding it.
OK, many thanks for the encouragement! I took off the big pipe (from the air filter) and undid all the bolts I could find, including a few hidden ones round the back of the cover. The top cover came off nicely. But, it revealed a load of black tar. I presume the four large holes visible at the front come from the engine block and are meant to provide a pathway for 'leaking' fumes to be recycled back into the engine. The two lefthand ones were covered in dry carbon. The two on the right had a lot of black sludgy tar in them (see picture) - is this normal? The metal bit on the right (see second image)- which I presume allow the spilt fumes back into the air intake was full of black tar. I tried to clean it out, but I think I may just have completely blocked it since the fumes are now worse than ever. I didn't take the cover off to look at the injectors - there did not seem to be much point since I am fairly sure this mass of tar must have something to do with my problem.
The question is what to do next. Should I strip it down again and take that metal valve (did you call it the EVR) off and try and clean it out thoroughly? Any ideas?
Greetings,
Christof
That metal part is yoru EGR valve. All mine were caked in soft black tar too. I cleaned them all out with some powerful degreasant/cleaner we have at work.
Might be worth trying petrol or something equally powerful and a toothbrush/flexi brush for down the manifold.
Personally for the sake of another 10 minutes I WOULD take the plastic cover off just to check yoru injectors haven't 'chuffed' a load of unused diesel out and that is baked onto the head. This would cause fumes as it bakes the unused fuel onto the injector heads. NOT good! It is a pain in the backside to clean off and mega messy! Don't wait till it's too late to do them if you are so far into a stripdown.
Great! I think I can take the EGR valve off and clean it. Also, cleaning the cover I have removed wouldn't be too difficult. But, what about the manifold that is still attached to the engine? If I try and clean that won't I free lots of grime that will then get sucked into the engine? Is that OK?
I have reassembled everything, because I need the car early tomorrow morning. I have now noticed that it goes into 'limp' or safe mode when I try and accelerate away....I don't know whether I have caused that to happen - any ideas?
I've never had mine go into limp mode fortunately.
If you try to clean the lower manifold it would drop crap into the engine i'd guess. Maybe a powerful vac whilst scraping some off? Just don't let your mrs see you using the dyson to remove dirty carbon build up. They tend not to like it.
christof, your problem is probably 99% certain to be a leaking injector seal. it's a tough job but for the sake of your health and your cylinder head, i'd recommend getting it sorted ASAP. the longer you drive the vehicle, the more gunk is deposited - until you get into a situation where the injectors are completely welded to the head. you'll also be down on compression in one or more cylinders, thus shagging your MPG.
to get at the injectors, you need to take the black cover off the head, as mr lee has already pointed out.
the 'gunk' is raw exhaust gas and partially burned diesel. this stuff gets into the mucosal membrane of your lungs and can cause all sorts of nastyness. I was lucky to get away with headaches - but it wasn't funny driving down motorways with both windows down in december!
this is one of the main achilles heels of the vito - there are loads of threads on here to help you out if you decide to tackle the job yourself. be aware that a lot of garages (merc included) are aware of this issue, and will use it as an excuse to empty your wallet.
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