Trevor Simpson

Hi MB friends! New to MB world. So I just purchased my 12th used MB. I have pretty decent knowledge about cars and particularly Mercedes. At least I thought so until now. I was in the car business for 15 years and still buy my own cars at the dealer only auctions. I purchased this 2010 R350 Bluetec a couple of weeks ago with 114k on it. The condition report at the auction posted check engine light and gave 2 codes related to DPF filter failed to complete regen and said (power loss). So I went and drove the car and it drove great. Oil showed it was recently changed so that was a good sign. I racked it up to the dumb auction inspector doesn't know that diesels just feel different and a dpf failed to complete regen code if driven short distances isn't that uncommon So I bought it. I drove it 50 miles and it drove great. It was for my wife so I took it straight to the bodyshop to have the bumper painted and a small dent in quarter panel fixed. It was there for a few days and when I picked it up idle was normal. As soon as I pulled out of the driveway the turbo suddenly sounded 10 times louder then normal. It sounded like a blower on an offshore boat. I immediately pulled over (pouring rain) so I looked around under the hood thinking some kind of hose or air pipe may have popped off. This is my first diesel so my knowledge is limited on this thing. I thought as long as I watched engine temp and no oil pressure lights on, I can make it to my buddy's shop a few miles away. Power quickly got worse, I thought maybe it was in limp mode. As it got slower and slower it just died. Wife was following and said just a little blue smoke came from exhaust when it died. While waiting for tow truck I watched oil start to pool on ground under right front of engine. I couldn't investigate because I was barely off the busy road in an unsafe spot. Towed to buddy's shop, he scanned it and found a crank pos sensor code which was odd. He said dipstick had pushed half way out and that's probably where the oil came from. Couldn't get it to start. He sent it to a benz indy he works with and that guy says he doesn't want anything to do with it now. Everyone seems afraid of this thing. I have been driving Mercedes exclusively for over 15 years and never had a problem like this. I know about sludge reports, intake problems and dpf issues, all stuff I was willing to tackle. This thing was running great initially. Any ideas? In retrospect, I think I probably killed the turbo. But I am afraid it's a result of a bigger issue.

Micah / AF1 Rac

Trevor Simpson

Micah, thank you! Pardon my ignorance on this thing, what's making all the excess crankcase pressure to push oil out of the dipstick tube?

Micah / AF1 Rac

kajtek1

From what I read all the Hell broke loose when you left the car with body shop?
Would that make you thinking?
Did they remove bumper for painting? If so, they might mess up intercooler hoses. Those hoses connect using snap-on rings and small careless will have them blown away.
You should read more about those OM642 engines. At your mileage the engine might be due for intake flaps cleaning and oil leak might be common oil cooler seals.
So look for disconnected charging hoses, wash the engine and observe for where the oil is coming from.

Micah / AF1 Rac

Trevor Simpson

Believe me I thought about that. I happened to go by midweek while they were working on it and everything was masked off. There was absolutely no bumper damage to repair it was just pitted from bugs and such. I didn't see any evidence or reason they would pull the bumper but I can't help but wonder if they did something. My buddy's shop tested fuel pressure and it was good, we smelled for gasoline thinking maybe they made that mistake but no evidence of gasoline in the diesel fuel. My buddy's biggest concern about the diagnose is the increased crankcase pressure. Engine was already really clean and no evidence of any leaks (another reason I felt good about buying it). The intake manifold and flaps were something I was planning out of the gate along with a possible delete kit. It just went from running awesome to dead so quickly. I haven't seen the car in over a week as I have been trying to stay out of their way. But I need to get involved now it seems.

Micah / AF1 Rac

Trevor Simpson

I live in Southern California where we have more Mercedes driving around then in Germany and there are several really reputable independents that refuse to even touch this thing. This is insane. I can't even find anyone to work on it!

kajtek1

Don't recall any MB taxi in Lake Elsinore area
Mercedes cars sold in California and Mercedes diesels are different animals. From what I remember, the last MB diesel sold new in CA was in 1993, so your Bluetec in not California car?
I can understand that with small number of such customers and complexity of Bluetec, shop owners don't want to touch them.
My late friend had European car shop in Pasadena and he had bachelor's degree in mathematics. Still even decade ago he was attending at least annual seminars to learn new technology. How many indies want to do that?
Coming back to the issue, what the body shop says about blown hoses possibility?

Micah / AF1 Rac

Trevor Simpson

Update: Finally found an indy shop to work on it. They diagnosed the problem, turbo failed. They say the impeller is just laying inside the housing. They said the crankcase pressure was from the exhaust outlet on the turbo being blocked by some piece of the turbo laying in there, so all the exhaust was feeding back into the engine causing the crazy pressure. They said they did a compression and leakdown test and all is good. They said the impeller stayed intact so no pieces went into the engine. Intercooler and pipe are full of oil. They quoted me 4600 to do the turbo and I told them no thank you lol. Has anyone removed a turbo on an R-Class? I think its harder to do than an ML/GL. It looks like half of the engine is under the dash. Can anyone advise? Thinking of doing this myself.

Micah / AF1 Rac