I am new to common rail. I know VW TDI ALH engines and PD but not these fancy electronic piezo injectors.

My 2007 E320 OM642 kept getting harder and harder to start. I changed the fuel filter and found some water in it and the codes also showed water in fuel. Changing the filter didn't really change much.
I still had problems with the car not wanting to start. This went on for about 6 months. "keep in mind" I don't use this car much. I am shocked if I put more than 3000 miles on it a year. Maybe 1000. It is not uncommon for the car to sit a month in between starting. I have a European hitch on it and use it more like a pickup than a car.

It has sat for about a year now and won't start at all. It will stumble a little and smoke but not run. I checked the fuel filter again and there was water again.! I had only put maybe 500 miles since the last fuel filter. I was an idiot. I should of not just changed the filter but purged the entire fuel system. I rebuild injectors for VW ALH engines. Two-stage pop.. so I decided to tear these down. The insides of the injector bodies looked ok. No rust. There was no rust on any of the fittings or connections to the common rail. I didn't see signs of water damage at all. However, the nozzle's spray patterns were awful. Using a can of carb cleaner to see the pattern half would not spray at all, Two out of one hole, and one out of three holes. I did an ultrasonic clean-up and tested again and I had a nice clean pattern on all nozzles. I could not pop-test these. I use a mechanical hand pump to pop VW injectors. That would not work on these. so the extent of my testing was the nozzle and carb cleaner.

I put them back together in the exact same order in the exact same bodies and in the exact same holes. Now the car won't even stumble or try to start. I can use starting fluid and get it to run but it is running off starting fluid only. I bled the system like I do a VW by losing all the injector bolts until they all leaked diesel then tightened it back up. I tried several times no start. Then I cracked the line from the common rail pump and it didn't spray any harder than with just the lift pump running during starting. So I pulled a injector out of the hole and aimed it in the air and tightened it back up. Started again and watched for a spray pattern.... Nothing. no fuel noting. That would explain my "no start problem"

so... Do I have a purge issue on the common rail? Air trapped somewhere? Or do I have a common rail pump that is bad? These are the fault codes before I pulled the injectors to begin with. RIght now the car does not start so I really don't get any codes. I cleared everything.

 

I just wanted to let everyone know I found the problem. It was the control valves in the injectors.
The car is purring like a kitten now.