Tom:

If the solenoid/transducer is fine, then check the vacuum supply. The factory procedure is to insert a Y connector and a gauge. With engine idling, the spec is greater than 700 mbar.

It could be that a vacuum line is broken (I hope).

 

Logically this does not make sense but i will check vacuum reading. If i have a vacuum problem the cel should be on very quickly wouldn't it? Not after driving for many miles before the cel is back on

 

If car problems were always permanent (not intermittent), then it would have been much easier to diagnose everything. Most codes are not set right away, but after a few testing cycles by design or we would see CEL left and right.

It is your decision as what to do. All I am giving you is the two most probable causes, faulty transducer or vacuum supply.

 

Okay this is what i found in compare with the 98 that i have. Both cars excellent vacuum well exceed 30 inches of Hg. On the 98 I accelerate up and down and observe the wastegate linkage movement. I have it move in and out with acceleration up and down. Engine off linkage extends far out position. ON the 99 same procedure I don't see much movement as the 99, rod still extends far out position with engine off.

I shutted off them motor and move the wastegate rod linkage with hand and it is not sticky but still it is not moving in and out as much as on the 98 with speed up and down.

I do not have the overall picture of the whole system in my head so i can't think intelligently which is at fault. You said there is transducer and vacuum. What parts comprise of transducer? If the actuator is not sticky why isn't it move in and out as it should with engine speed up and down. I am not sure how does the computer knows when there is excess boost to regulate the wastegate movement?

 

Your code (P0243) is pointing to the "boost pressure control vacuum transducer." (I think you called this part the solenoid.) This thing acts as a vacuum regulator. There are two vacuum hoses on it. The input is from the vacuum pump and the output is to the "boost pressure control vacuum unit" (110/10 in the picture below). The transducer receives signals from the engine control unit and then outputs the right amount of vacuum to the boost pressure control vacuum unit.

The boost pressure control vacuum unit is then connected to the linkage and flap to control the opening of the wastegate.

You said you tested vacuum and it was OK. I assumed you tested from the vacuum pump? Since you also verified that your boost pressure control vacuum transducer was working (swapped from a working a car), then that leaves the boost pressure control vacuum unit as the most probable cause if the linkages are OK. However, it is still possible that there is not enough vacuum to port e (in pic) so even a working vacuum unit cannot move the linkage enough. So if you want to completely rule out the transducer and everything else before that, you need to test vacuum at the hose connecting to point e.

 

I am going to take a picture since it is worth a thousand words. I verified vacuum at the solenoid since that is the end of the source so as to rule out other things in between. It has very high vacuum over 30 inches of Hg as a matter of fact. I am going to read again of what you wrote since on my first read I got the impression there are three components but my car only has two components. The solenoid (transducer) assembly with three hoses hook up and electrical plug. The other one is the wastegate with the vacuum actuator for the valve.

I compared against the good one 98 and like i described earlier the actuator rod moved in and out with throttle change. However on the 99 I didn't see much movement and if it did it certainly didn't move as much and as fast as the 98.

What sense the boost for the computer to know to regulate the vacuum to the wastegate valve? I understood the mechanic of how the turbo and waste gate work what i still don't understand is how does the computer knows when there is excess turbo boost to send signal to the solenoid to regulate the vacuum to the wastegate valve?

 

I did not say three components, only the transducer and the vacuum unit. I am using Mercedes names to avoid confusion.

The vacuum test needs to be after the transducer, i.e., between the transducer and the vacuum unit.

The signal for the control unit is the boost pressure sensor. That could be a cause as well. The sensor is outside the intake and is connected with a hose. If that hose is leaking, then bad signal can also cause the control unit to send bad signals to the transducer.

 

sticky wastegate



Ok Lou I found it! Comparing against with the 98 i found the 99 wastegate to be sticky. That is i have a hard time moving the rod in and out comparing with the 98 and swapping the solenoid did not work and the 98 has no code as such. Apparently the code is not accurate pointing to the solenoid when it is a wastegate itself. Close enough at least in that vincinity for me to start probing!

The next question is do i have to remove the turbo to fix the sticky waste gate or can i do it on the vehicle?

 

The systems can only report/store data based on electrical signals. In this case, the boost pressure sensor is calling for a certain value that is associated with certain opening in the wastegate, the control module told the transducer to create certain vacuum to the vacuum unit. However, (due to the sticking wastergate), the boost pressure did not get to that value so the system thinks the transducer is faulty (that is the only part in that chain of events that has an electrical connection).

About the wastegate, that is why I referred you to Olivier because he has adjusted it. He gave you the link in the other thread. Also try to lube all the linkage pivot points with hydraulic oil (ATF, steering fluid, etc).

Try that first.

 

Olivier sent some kind of link and i recollected it was just adjustment not cleaning sticking valve. Not a whole lot to lube from the outside but i will try that first if no luck then i am going to take the turbo apart to free the sticky waste gate and give me a chance to view the inside of the exhaust to see how clean it is sine i ran this car for 9 months on biodiesel. Hmm come to think of it if it has no carbon sooth since running on biodiesel why is it sticky? More likely i am going to pull the turbo out to mess with the wastegate and i am curious to see the exhause inside anyway.

 

Hi Tom,
It was just adjusting the waste gate a bit, you are right, nothing with sticky or carbon.
I am just wondering, is it the waste gate that is sticky or it is the rubber in the vaccum that as gone off?
Perhaps try to take off the engine mount heatshield and go underneath to see if you could take the rod out and move freely? Just remember to mark where the rod was.
Is that make any sense? Or not at all?
Olivier

 

Hi Olivier,

Oh it made sense of what you are saying as i understood what you were talking about. I applied vacuum to the diaphagram and the rod moved all right but kind of sluggish. I tried to move with my finger on the rod and it is hard to move and it certainly was not released quickly when i let go of the vacuum. Just the opposite of the 98 E300Td which was freely easily moved with finger and with vacuum applied it moved in and quickly release with vacuum off. Some thing is sticky i need to get under the car to examine the rod linkage closer and worst case scenario i have to remove the turbo to free the wastegate. Wish me luck without the need to remove the turbo

 

Those are some great pictures Tom. Thank you for the sharing. I think the venting is going to a wee filter, just in case to prevent anything to goes in.
Bio is good indeed. I'm on veg here, working well.
Tom, could you take a picture of this pipe:
There is a rubber hose going from the intake to the sensor
As I cannot picture it in my head yet.
Thank you.
Well done and fingers crossed
Olivier

 

Yes, Olivier is right that the vent is to keep the air going into the transducer clean. There is even a little filter. When no boost is called, the vacuum unit is filled with (filtered) atmospheric air from this vent line.

 

Olivier:

See that rubber hose on the white plastic tie. (photo from peachparts)

 

Hi Loubapache,
I know this fellow, it got turbo written on the wee black connection and it goes near the EGR. This is the boost sensor then.
Thank you so much.
Olivier
I don't think mine got a white pipe tho?

 

I don't think mine got a white pipe tho?

That could be for some emission stuff that your African registered car does not have.

 

They obviously don't need that in Gana...
Here is a picture of mine. Simple, only one pipe
Would that be that all Tom's bother might be the wee pipe or connection to the EGR simply been blocked??? Therefore no responce from the sensor?

 

Could be but he has confirmed that he cannot move the linkage/flap by hand smoothly.

If that, it is probably not "no response" from the sensor but incorrect reading (boost pressure) from the sensor.

 

Ok I presume this is the boost sensor picture hose line that you are trying to show here correct?

So 3 lines at the solenoid: 1 is input vacuum, 1 is output vacuum to the actuator, 1 is the vent line going to some kind filter at the end. Correct Bo?

 

Correct on both. The vent line is necessary because sometimes the flap is open (no or little boost) so there should be no vacuum at the vacuum unit.

 

This must be from the crankcasse breather. See there.
the crankcase breather redirected? - PeachParts Mercedes ShopForum

Oh, a clogged air filter will suck more from the breather too, don't remember if its said there?

 

Olivier,

What is your logic of chasing somewhere else with a sticky wastegate flapper on hand? I doubt it is anywhere else but the sticky flapper. I shall to find out soon when i get a chance to put the turbo back.

Did you run on SVO or biodiesel for your car?

 

I was replying about this:
""By the way i asked about some oils at the turbo fresh air side and and the downdraft tube input to the air cooler"".
I thought you were wondering where the oil was coming from inside the intercooler?
Sorry if I missunderstood, this reply had nothing to do with the sticky wastegate.
I run on WVO filtered down to 1 micron by gravity and 15% dino.
Olivier

 

Ah you are doing SVO with diesel mixing. Not quite 100% biofuel! Why aren't you doing 100% biodiesel and get rid off the dino diesel completely?

I do B100% biodiesel that i make myself.

 

I run on waste vegetable oil as I don't like chemicals involve in the process of doing bio and I don't have the space/ facilities to have a reactor.
The way I am set up is really simple and easy. I just pour the oil ( in the communal backyard), good oil, not too fatty, into my filter socks and it just filter itself by gravity. The end result is a clean waste vegetable oil. No electricity or chemicals involved and no glycerine to get rid off. This suit me better.
I put 12% dino as its getting cold, summer time its 10%.
Hope you get sorted soon.
Olivier

 

Hmm sounds tempting. Your way is definitely cheaper and simpler than making biodiesel. How long have you run this way on your 97 E300 TD?
Isn't that kind of thick to have the oil runs through the car that way ? 10-15% of dino fuel is kind of low ratio doesn't it?

Say when i took the turbo out it was tempting to adjust the flapper to get more oomps out of the engine but i did not dare to do yet. How did you adjust yours again? i might attempt adjusting it again as i sure like more oomps out of the Benz

 

This is my oil factory. As you see its raining too... I would love a shed, but hey, beggers cannot be too demanding. Its a wee better now as I put some plank to hide the drums. Better for the neighbours anyway.
Its a wee thick but 15% does the trick on really cold day, oh, 1% acetone too, just to help breaking the oil tension or something like that.
Some put 10% RUG, I don't as I modified the car and now the filter is too hot for thew RUG and I get air lock... Not good. Dino is fine.
Yuo must have the link somewhere about the flap. I move it about 1 bolt thickness away from the clamp. The bolt thickeness is one of those that hold the rod in place, 3/5 mm? I beleive it worked foe me, some might not think so tho?
Great info about bio and WVO here.
vegetableoildiesel.co.uk - Powered by XMB
All the best.
Olivier
Oil for fuel :thumbsup:

 

Well your oil factory is prettier than mine and i am in the garage too. Biodiesel making is messy business no matter how clean you are! Not much too it on your end doesn't it just drum and filtering. Now i forgot to ask you this. Your car is converted isn't it? I doubt you can run on SVO even with dino fuel mixing I know that you can do either SVO or biodiesel but not SVO without modifying the car with tank, heater, control, hoses and all that.

I built mine around the Appleseed plant and decided to add supply and storage tanks afterward after getting tired of doing it one by one. I recently added a transfer pump which was the same pump as the circulation pump so i would have a back up in case the main one fails. I use this pump to transfer biodiesel to my portable gas station. That is the 99 E300TD which recently gave me the CEL on the wastegate solenoid. All fixed and ran well now! I also have a 12V portable pump in case i need to fuel biodiesel when i am away from home.

Say i drove the car back and it was almost 80 miles driven without ECL back on. Sticky wastegate it was. Thank you again to Bo and Olivier for helping me to diagnose the cause.

 

Good production line, Olivier. :thumbsup:

It reminds me of my childhood home . . .

 

Thank you.
You can come anytime to remind you your childhood.
Humm, where you already into diesel/ mecanic as a toddler

 

Hi Tom,
This is a real factory you got there yoo. Many cubbies and of good oil. Messy indeed. I am OK now, but when I started I had troubles with spellings, this ain't no good when you share the space with the "hood" like me...
Only MOD on the car are:
Viscious fan OFF
RAD Bloqued
IP advance 3 ish degres ( visual as I had the tool but mees with...)
That's it.
Picture of the tool and the rad blocqued

 

Interesting, no add on equipment for SVO? Now you arouse my curiosity as this definitely cuts down the cost further and save me time. I think i am going to do one run test with svo mixing with dino diesel. I don't understand why blocking the fan areas, IP advance (don't even know that is possible), and what is viscious fan? You have the 97 E300TD right? close enough with my 98,99 E300TD.

Yep that is what i meant by tired of doing one by one. Those oil jugs were gone now as i now dump the oil into the drum once i collect it. Sure beat doing one by one as i did before. Another benefit is i have gravity doing the work and my pick up tube is U shape so i am not sucking out craps and debris when i am ready to run the processor.
Not quite happy yet with this set up I still have to mess with the methoxide mixer. For now still two 5 gallons jugs and manual mixing. I work on this next to simplify my biodiesel making process.

 

Oh, those car don't need any mod to run on veg mixed, over 15% is all they need the way they are.
But the IP advance does help a bit

 

I'll send you more later, now ts getting late here.
But there is few, your car is the same as mine I think as my 97 arrived in the state in 98.
Below my filters provider. They last 6 month with good oil, I am not talking about fatty oil, just liquid oil
18" FILTER BAGS,BIO DIESEL,VEG OIL,W.V.O , 3 BAG SET on eBay (end time 22-Oct-09 08:31:16 BST)
Taking the viscious fan off kept the oil filter hotter, good when you are on oil.
Blocking the rad, well, to be cheap, this increase mileage as keeping the draught away from getting under the hood, even if the oil id free... And keep the engine hotter, the E300 TD is over cooled.
Keep the engine hotter is better for any engine and ever more for a diesel that run on oil
Rad blind experiment - MBClub UK Forums
I am not on SVO, I am on WVO, svo is just fresh out of the supermarket, wvo need to be filtered as its a waste from the chippies ( I hope I am correct...)
For the filters I put 1X 10 microns inside 1x 5 microns inside 1X 1 micron. Gravity does the rest, a bit like the bags under my eyes now
Night night.
Olivier

 

Man with your set up on my car it will never restart. I currently have a hot starting problem on a hot day with ac usage. The only way to fix for me now is to pop the hood after a long hot drive on a hot day or else i have to sit on my butt waiting for it to cool down to restart. I might experiment one time on svo mix with dino diesel but i certainly won't block the cooling front area like yours. No thank you i don't want to walk home:crybaby2:

In the USA we call SVO stands for Straight Veggie Oil and it refers to non processed used veggie oil. No body in the right mind would use clean new oil to run the diesel car. That defeats the purpose of reuse, reduce, recycle.

 

Hi Tom,
They used strait clean oil in France before it was banned as they were made illegal ( tax purpose), in Spain they do the same too as oil is cheap, no point bothering yourself with a filtration system when you can get it strait out of the bottle.
There are few in the UK that use clean fresh oil as well some for ecology some for saving, its about 70 pence a litre now compare to 1,06 for dino. Not sure about the saving there as oil is 10% less effective, then the gain is minimal...
Not everybody do it for recycling, some do it just to be cheaper.
I do it myself to cut the cost also this keep me busy and I found it interesting, I like the recycling I do everyday too, something that is suppose to go into a landfield is use to power my car.
Hot starting problem, I am pretty sure there were others with that. Did you look and ask any quetions around about it?
Did you look at the tank strainer by any chance? Those are a pain to remove but you might be surprise on what you'll find in there. I cut mine out about a month ago as for the second time it was blocked, but this was due to some fibers from my filters going into the fuel. I brushed the filter from some fat trying to get as much as I can from them but this created fluff and I never really paid any attention but it was getting into the oil. EEK! All OK now as I got new filters and I won't brush them again.

 

In the USA nobody does the clean SVO as far as i know and the level of awareness is much lower than on the other side of the ocean. Heck i am a used car dealer currently and i sold many VW Jetta TDI with a bonus of making biodiesel for free and none of my customer is making it. YOu see human is a habitual creature and we tend to go the usual way that is familiar and easy. Diesel is $3/gallon in California right now wait until it gets to $5/gallon their habit will change. Nothing changes quicker than our pocketbook. I find it hard to believe that in Europe they actually use clean veggie oil to run cars
For your part using wvo is an admire task and i give you credit for that. Anything to get away from dino fuel is the way to go. We as the world has the technology to develop and use alternative fuel but facing the uphill battle with the oil cartels with their fat pocket of money. All they want is to continue rolling in money selling dirty dino fuel without concern for the environment. Our environment is in peril as we all know it. For me making my own fuel gave me a good feeling of pointing my finger at the gas station, those oil cartels and a satisfaction that i am doing something good to recycle oils that are thown away into clean fuel that provide my transportation. It can't get any better than that.

The hot starting problem i have is due to air in fuel line during hot condition. I can see air in it after a hot run. It is not filter in tank or anything else. Remember i am using biodiesel not straight oil like you do. Much thinner substance that is! The only way to cure this to replace all fuel lines around the pump with new one that has new 0 rings on their end. It had been beaten to death on this subject by other members on this forum and i was being criticized by others not replacing the lines instead of fooling with doing only Viton o rings. Guess what it did not work after spending my time, money, effort doing the Viton o rings and i was tired monkeying with it so for now i just pop the hood after long hot run. Surprisingly the car starts easily everytime.
Airlock issue that is the culprit of this problem as i have figured out.

 

Hi Tom, I don't want to go through all the topic to find oud, then easier/ quicker to ask. Did you ever looked at the tank srainer? I am not talking about " it should be right", did you had a look properly, like taking it out?
Olivier

 

Not sure where is your logic going but NO i never look at the strainer in tank and didn't even know there was one there. Cold is fine only hot day with ac usage i have hard starting problem but pop up the hood then i can start it easily. I have an air lock probem. What does the strainer have anything to do with the airlock. I am not following your logic?

 

If the strainer is blocked. the IP is still sucking as much as it can but as there is no much delivery through the strainer, it sucks air from the tank breather or any little teeny leak you may have.
I had the same bother with bubbles, changed all clear pipes/ rubber pipes/ Orings/ filter... All I could think off, still bubbly.
One day the car got fueled starved, I had to run it on the return to get me home. Next to the mecanic and the strainer was totally blocked.
Why don't you have a look at it.
This is my logic
Pictures from old clog VS new tank strainer W210 - PeachParts Mercedes ShopForum

 

I am joining the thread with 0243 code coming intermediately.
Good info with usual chatting
Couldn't help to notice that Tom is storing barrows of fuel next to water heater with open flame.

 

Where d6 you see the open flame? Why would it be barrow of fuel with biodiesel and used veggie oil? What are you criticizing about here i don't understand