C5DRVR

My 2005 e320 cdi stumbles for about 10 seconds when cold. After it is warm it runs great. I also get an occasional ticking sound either warm or cold. Are the glow plugs or injectors going? I have about 210,000 miles. When I had it at the dealer for an inspection sticker they said they did not notice anything wrong- no codes. Any insight or expected $ repair costs would be appreciated. It is time to find a good independent mechanic.

ImInPA

it is possible that a glow plug may not be firing or weakly firing. Diesels really do not like the cold though.

harkgar

How cold can it get in Texas? Toronto is now hovering around zero degree Centigrade and my 2006 CDi is running great without any ticking noise. Canadian diesel is winterized at this time of year.

listerone

Last January I took my BMW diesel up to central Quebec and one night the temp dropped to -31F.Don't know what that is in celsius but it's DARN cold.I filled it with locally blended Shell diesel the night before and it started like a champ the next morning...no fuel additives,no block heater,no battery charger,no garage.

I must say that given everything I had read about diesels in cold weather I was *very* pleasantly surprised.Stunned,in fact.

Green E-300 DT

A Bad Glow Plug is what I suspect.
And like you, I need a good independent mechanic here in Southern California.
Does anyone know of such a person?

Question is: What did it do when it was really hot down there this past summer? Did it act the same
way then when it was first started up early in the AM when it might be 80 degrees F. or warmer?

So it sounds to me that one or more glow plugs is no doing its' job and after starting on the other cylinders,
compression builds and that is what is getting that cylinder with the bad glow plug going.

As long as it is starting, is the way it runs for the first few seconds hurting anything?
The answer to that will have to be fielded by someone with more understanding than 'yours-truly'. Sorry.



D

brbhan

You say your car stumbles........ You do not say the engine stumbles or runs rough.

Try this: Immediately after starting cold car, run the gear shift through its indents - with foot on brake. This spreads around the tranny fluid, warms it up and makes the shifts smoother when relatively cold. Obviously, I am working on the hunch that 'the car' drives rough the first minute or so.

Assuming cylinder compression is within spec and all glows are functional, I'd go the extra mile and invest in the tranny dip stick which is sold as a 'tool'. Then, ensure you adjust fluid level to spec when 'HOT'. Ignore the COLD spec. Last fact is buried in the shop manual. CDI tranny is extremely sensitive to fluid level vagrancies, I have found. I, even check the dealer's work on this and oil level, when I return home after service.

Ticking sound: Using the recommended oil? Eh? Eh?

Plutoe

It's been over a month--------any solution or progress??

Green E-300 DT

Dying to know what you discovered?

I still think it was a bad or failing glow plug.

My '99 did that for thousands of miles and was still doing it when I got rid of it.
Did not seem to hurt anything, as it only ran rough for a few seconds.



Derrel

C5DRVR

Sorry I have been gone awhile. I had a dealer check it out and they did not find any codes nor could offer any helpful suggestions. Since it has warmed up weather wise it there are days where it does not do it at all. I suspect I have a failing intermittent glow plug. I appreciate all the responses.

Plutoe

There could also be an issue with "post glowing"----not doing and or not doing for the designed length of time!!

C5DRVR

My car finally set a check engine light after a start where the engine stumbled upon start up. I took it to the dealer and they found the #6 glow plug had failed. I had all 6 replaced and all is well. The posts suggesting the glow plugs were going bad were correct. I appreciate all the suggestions. I am at 218,000 miles.

Green E-300 DT

Wonder why it is, at least in our cases, that the first failed glow plug is the number six cylinders' glow plug.
The same thing happened to mine recently, but the engine never ran rough at all.
'Course, it is warmer here especially in the garage in the mornings in September/October in Southern California.
I can pull the wires off any glow plugs and it will start right up and run smoothly right away!

Not having deep pockets, I replaced only the number six glow plug and I did it myself and saved plenty
I will wager. Finally, I installed a 'BERU' brand glow plug and got fully educated on the differences
between the factory installed Beru brand and the incorrect Bosch Glow Plug that one
of the aftermarket suppliers sent me.
Had to fight like the devil to get them to take it back and refund the money to my CC.

Not to pry, but how much did the dealer charge you for the six glow plugs and the service installation?

Perhaps of interest, I just had a factory rebuilt water pump (from Germany) installed at an independent MBZ
shop. I bought the pump from the dealer at 20 percent off (paid $116) and the installation labor was $255.
I wonder what the entire job would have run had I simply gone straight to the dealer and had them
do it without get the parts at discount? The car was eight years old, having been assembled in
November 2004 and had only 132K miles. The bearing was perfect; Only the seal was failing.
It had run over 5K miles with the leaking getting slowly worse.
The car made a R/T from Southern California to WPG, Manitoba and back with a slight leak
and I did not even know the seal was failing! And at really high speeds also by the hour.

Cannot say enough about these fine machines. I will keep it forever.
I wonder if I can keep in running well for another 23 years until I reach 100 years old?
By then, the car would have over 700K miles on the odometer!



DHG

Plutoe

The diesel engine is built to last. Good Luck!

C5DRVR

I paid $581 for the replacement of all 6 glow plugs. I looked back at my receipt for my water pump replacement. It was new with a thermostat and system flush. That was $890. I know I could save money at an indie and have seriously considered it but honestly my service advisor and dealer have always done a great job for me. They do know know me pretty well as I had a 2003 SL500 that racked up $15,000 against an aftermarket extended warranty over 4 years. That car was fun to drive but a nightmare to maintain.

2slowcdi

I just replaced the #6 glow plug a few weeks ago , at the dealer the glow plug was $50 each I got a extra just incase.

Green E-300 DT

My friend, you must get your parts some other place besides that Stealership.

You can go 'online' and order them for a little as $26 each (plus shipping of course).
For $100, you could have gotten three and paid the postage and still had money left over for dinner.
Seems to me that your dealership is really sticking it to you and W/O using any KY either.
$50 is, simply put, TOO MUCH.

My dealers' regular 'no-discount' or list price is $32. He sold me one for $26 plus tax.
I go to them most all of the time because I like the parts man and the dealership is reasonable
and IF he does not have what I need, he happily orders it and has it within one day only.
i e . . . A rebuilt water pump that I just had installed . . . paid only $117 instead of well over $200 for a new one.

There is more than only one MBZ parts place that you can order from online.

I would not go to that stealership again for anything unless it was an emergency.

Good luck.



DHG

2slowcdi

You are right about the price on the glow plugs , it was a few days before Thanksgiving and I was going on a small 1300 mile trip so off to the dealer.
One dealer wanted $75 each the other $50 so I did save a little money if you look at it that way.
I have found oil cheaper at the dealer the Mobil One M 5w40

Green E-300 DT

My dealer is charging me $6.65 per container for the recommended Mobil 1 5W-40 M Formula
while Pep Boys is charging $10.99 each, a really big difference!
The dealer is still making money though. My independant place told me they pay about $5.50 for the same oil.
You know that Pep Boys can get it for less than that because they buy in bigger lots.

Unless it was really cold, couldn't you have waited to replace that one bad # 6?
When mine went bad, all I had was a CEL. It started up and ran smoothly.
'Course, the temperature in the garage was above 60 degrees F.

When I had my '99, it lost first one and then another, and it would start on four cylinders and it took a
little while, but the other two with bad plugs would get running after a few seconds from compression.

Speaking of dynoes, did you by chance run yours prior to 'tuning' it?
Wondering because I want to know what I might gain by 'tuning' mine?
Maybe I should simply leave well enough alone?
It runs so good now, but being an old hotrodder, I always want more don't you know?

We dynoed mine last Saturday, and I was completely surprised. See below.

It bettered all the others (All VWs) done including one more or less full race older Passat.
His has a really flat torque curve and would blow my door off 'cause
it is a manual six-speed and it much lighter than the Benz.
Speaking of, have you weighed yours? I have not done ours yet, but will soon.
This was at a regular TDI (Freds) gathering they have every fall.
I still meet with these people as before, I had a 2010 Jetta Sportwagan.

Give me your landline and we will 'chat' at your convience of course.

Regards,



DHG

2slowcdi

Its funny how TDI'ers move on to CDI's.
I had a 03 TDI that i picked up new and had for about 200K milles it was still a good drivetrain when I let it go but the rest of the car was not in as good of shape the head liner was coming down clear coat was coming off and the heated seat was on the 3rd VW redo at no cost.
I had different injectors , larger turbo , UpSolute intercooler , UpSolute tune , VR6 clutch & light flywheel and so on.
The best thing was the software that I got to work on the car "Vag-Com".

The frist thing I did was get with the UpSolute dealer that had done my TDI and get him to do my CDI , the only thing I would have have liked to have been done would have to have the limiter taken off but it did not go away.

With everything I had done on my TDI I was surprised just how my CDI runs much faster.

It looks like everything cost more here in Dallas as Pep Boys gets $12.49 a Qt for the Mobil Formula M 5w40.

Green E-300 DT

Maybe Pep Boys is up to that figure now? Will check.
Cannot afford to go there with my Social Insecurity income.

Take care, and hold it under 100 mph.

What do you mean by "to have the limiter taken off"?
As in 128 mph to end or whatever?



DHG

2slowcdi

Everthing stops at 130 Mph on mine.
I have a few friends that do SCCA cars and I have been able to have my CDI on a track with a long straight away and found that from 80 mph it took 15 seconds to 130 mph.

On my TDI I had SSR wheels 16x7.5 with 225x55-16's on it and have the same size tires on my CDI.

Green E-300 DT

So you would like to have your speed-limiter removed. Should really be no problem.

I used Upsolute in 2002, but there are many better tuners around today.
I will not use Upsolute for anything because the local programer was not there
when I drove 80 miles R/T for an appointment to him to tune my '99 E-300 DT.
He could not be bothered to call me or even e-mail me when he found it more
important to help a friend move because of a fire in the local mountains.
Nothing wrong with helping someone in an emergency, but when you have a customer coming, the
least he should have done would be to give me the courtesy to let me know, wouldn't you think.
I wasted fuel and time and therefore I will never do business with them again.

Shortly, I will be changing tires because I think my Michelins are getting noisey. I have some
Continental 215-65X16s that were on my 2010 Jetta that are low rolling resistance
(LRR) with only 4K miles on them that I will try IF they are not to big.
Not only will it be geared up a little, but it should get a little better fuel economy.
They are 'T' rated, so I do not need to be going much over 100 mph, and that's fast enough to
get a fat ticket here in the Golden State. Those tires are also lighter which will help.

Had mine at the drags. An 1/8 mile track, it did 72 mph in 10 seconds flat. The 60 ft. time was 2.00 seconds
That means the CDI stock is faster than my '95 Impala SS was before I got crazy and made
it a full house machine. I figure for my stock CDI, perhaps high 14s at better
than 90 mph in the quarter IF there were one around here.

Take care; Watch your speed. No tickets from pushing your hotrod to hard.
80 to 130 mph in 15 seconds in pretty good for a 3.222 liter diesel.

Wonder if we'd gain anything by taking the mufflers off?



DHG

Green E-300 DT

Most likely 128 MPH in the computer. Dam fast time for that 80 to 130 (indicated ) though.

Under your signature: Drives: 2006 E320 CDI 235 hp 420 ft tq

Where and how did you get these figures?
Were those figures supplied to you by your Upsolute dealer-installer or did you run your car yourself on a dyno?



DHG