Good evening all,

Wondering what happened the other day with my 98 E300TDT OM606 wagon. This is a grey market car.

On Wednesday I had the car at a shop to have it rust protected using Corrosion Free, a product that does not effect the rubber seals like either Rust Check or Crown does.

Drove home, had half a tank of fuel, and knowing that the temperatures were going to be dropping to -14C overnight, I figured it would be best to fill up before parking. I filled at a reputable gas station.

Thursday morning, car starts fine, no issue fires right up after the glow cycle.

Then after waiting a few minutes for the car to start warming up, I head out. I get about 1.5 KM from home and the car starts acting funny, sluggish and I turn onto a side street and the car stalls.

It took 4 attempts to get the car started but then fires up reluctantly and all appears to be good. Am able to drive to highway, no issues merging, and the car temperature shows about 60C so things are warming up nicely. I drive on the freeway just under 10 minutes when I notice that I am losing power, the car is acting very funny, then it starts to blow grey /black smoke quite heavily, and I loose speed going from 90 to barely able to keep up at 60, thankfully there is an exit very close, exit the freeway and pull into a plaza parking lot, where it stalls again. Again it took about 5 attempts to get the car started and running (seems to rev freely with no issues) however the display says BAS. After having the car idle and run fine for about 3 minutes, I turn it off, wait 2 minutes, restart no issue and no BAS error.

The car drove fine no further issues nearly 40 KM on the highway in rush hour traffic with no sign of any issues.

So what happened? Fuel gelled? some gremlin? Did the rust proofing have something to do with it or likely just coincidental?

I have not driven the car since Thursday evening so I am wondering how to proceed as it is rather unnerving to have the car behave that way on the highway!

This car is new to me, so I am still trying to sort things out, the springs have restored the suspension and I no longer have the tire rub on the bumps on the highway, although there is still some scratching which I suspect is more likely to due to the AMG skirting scraping.

I was told that the fuel filters, oil filter, transmission filter were all replaced about 5,000 KM ago, earlier this year. The car currently has 83,500 KM.

I have ordered a spare fuel to have just in case already and will pick that up on Monday. This was ordered before this all happened.

Thanks for you help in advance,

Christopher

 

Christopher,

It could be a plethora of issues; best to scan to see what saved codes, if any exist. With older vehicles of this era, you should own a decent scanner to troubleshoot any issues/ pending issues.
It could be as simple as BLS, MAF, CPS, or the brake booster, just to name a few.

 

There is no Check Engine on this car. Will any code scanner work or do I have to get a specific one?

 

No CEL does not mean there are no save error codes. For these older MBs, you need to be able to scan, read and erase at the 16pin (under the steering wheel) as well as those read at the 38pin under the hood.
Recommend an autel md802 - amazon has them - plus you'll need to find the correct 38pin adapter for this. Also recommended by other members
Cheap scanners will not be able to read, erase ALL the modules.

 

Ok, I have ordered the scanner (Autel OBDII scanner) and cables (38 Pin to 16) , scanner should arrive on Tuesday, but the cables wont arrive until sometime in January. Will I be able to at least have a peek at what happened on Tuesday or do I need both the cables and scanner before doing anything?

Thanks again,

 

Sound be able to get some reading of error codes, if any, with the 16pin connection.
Keep us posted.

 

Per my experience, the prelifted W210 will show only emission codes via OBD plug.
You will need 38-pin to read engine codes and bear in mind that this is 1st digital car, who still has mechanical fuel injection, so don't expect too much from scanning.
Reading the issue, it does look like fuel gelling, but I would replace fuel filters just in case. Any air bubbles in clear fuel tubings?
Posting in diesel section might give you more exposure.

 

Ok, I have the scanner Autel 609 scanner, and the 38 pin to 16 converter cable is on order.

Where exactly is the ODBII port supposed to be? I have looked under the steering column and in drivers foot well area can not find anything.

This IS a grey-market S210 which may be a contributing factor.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Should be under the steering wheel column just to the right or left of it.
Similar to this....

 

OK, so I looked once again, there is nothing there. It looks as if there was something attached at some point, but there is nothing.
I took a picture, sorry for the huge picture, it will not allow me to resize it on my laptop. not exactly sure why it won't allow.

Under the dash

 

Interesting. Have you checked near the center console or otherside of the dashboard underside?
Possibly then, you may have to scan at the 38 pin diagnostic port under the hood. Your scanner will need to be more advanced that allows for use of a proper 38pin adapter to read most, if not al,l of the modules for this model.
Autel MD802 as an example.

 

Unfortunately, there is no port under the the passenger side foot well either. Strange....

I will have to wait for the 38 pin cable to arrive before I can go any further. I will attempt to inquire if the scanner I bought is the right one or if I will have to change it.

I had ordered on Amazon the following scanner

Which says it is the DIY version of the 802. Not sure if I will need to change the unit then.
I will have to wait until the cable comes. When searching, it was difficult to find on that actually had decent reviews, so many said they were "fake" cables, with only 1-3 of the wires connected.

I guess I will have to wait and see what arrives...

 

It is not strange.
Only US models got OBD starting in 1996, while other country models, like your grey import took till 2004 for OBD to become standard.
Wait for 38 pins connector.
The scanner you show doesn't say MB, so let us know what it will read?

 

So the car did the same thing this morning, -9C, starts fine, let it idle for about 2 mins then leave for work. drive about 1.5 km and the car starts acting funny, like it was going to stall, quickly turn onto a side street, the car is still running (this time) but there is significant vibration throughout the car. Turn around go back home, about 1 km later just a block away from home, when reaching a red light, the car has more of the body vibration, rpms drop and the car stalls. Put the flashers on, takes 4 cranking attempts (30-40 seconds of cranking each time, wait 2 mins retry) to get the car finally running again, on the final attempt BAS showed up on the display and the car slowly came to life, but even with the accelerator down to the floor nothing higher than 500 RPM. Then after the car was running, taking foot off and re-attempting to apply pressure, RPMS would increase normally, full range. Drove home, parked the car and took my other car to work. No error other than BAS. I am still waiting for the ODBII cable to arrive...

Is there something that could be causing the car to want to turn off?

I remember on my old 95 E300D there was a valve on the fuel filter that you would have to turn to cut fuel off instead of on the older diesels the fuel shut off lever.

I do not see anything similar on this car, is this a logical way of thinking that somewhere there is a fuel shut off device that is trying to starve the car for fuel? There were no bubbles in the fuel lines when the car finally started, and the car was just turning and turning with the odd attempted sputter but just cranking?

The car was last refueled on Sunday at a large Diesel station. So I doubt that it would be fuel gelling.

I am hesitant to drive the car to work when I have to be somewhere at a specific time....

 

So the cable arrived today, and I have tried to read the codes and come up with nothing.

I could not find any codes. No error messages, and no real information/

When I goto System status
MIL- Off
Codes Found 0
Monitors N/A :8
Monitors OK :2
Monitors INC:0
Vehicle Info comes up unsupported.
Under Stored codes - none

So as far as I can tell there is nothing stored so nothing to work with.

Any suggestions?

 

Are you using the correct 38pin adapter with the Autel MD802 scanner?
Where did you order this 38pin adapter? (compatible with this scanner?)

Asking because some members order the cheapest adaptors later to find out not all 38pins are created the same

 

I ordered two different cables, one was not at all applicable, it came with the wrong format.
This is the second cable that came today

 

NOPE. Should have checked with members first before ordering. Send it back.

You need this one -

 

It does say 38-pin, so it should work, but too often item design to perform multiple function works on none.
Give it a try, but be skeptic.

 

Quick update:

So problem appears to be resolved, or at a minimum much better.

Took the car to the mechanic, thankfully we had some real nice COLD days a couple of weeks ago, as that is when the car would act up. At -15C or colder, it would start fine, start to drive and then stall. and would take several attempts (4-6 mins of cranking pausing to let starter cool down) before the the car would fire up. The mechanic went for a ride with me and it stalled for him. Turns out there were small o-rings on all of the fuel lines that were cracked. Apparently these are hard to find, and he took the parts off of a sprinter's fuel line set. Problem solved.

Now I can park the car whichever way I want in the driveway and it will start. Previously if I had the car parked nose first overnight it would be tough to start. I had the car parked for 2 weeks nose first, cranked and fired no problem.

I do still have an intermittent glow plug issue. The mechanic tested the plugs and they are all good, however I will get the glow plug light on dash at times, sometimes it will constantly go on and off, other times it will be off after starting, and sometimes it comes on and stays on. Apparently there is a wiring problem somewhere. So I will have to start to sort that out.

The other issue I have are the headlamps. Water appears to sometimes get in, the running lights barely work, (no bulb fault), the reflector on the passenger side has slipped. So I was thinking it might be time to replace them. I have Xenon HID, and online you see different places selling LED upgrades, has anyone done this and were / are they still satisfied?

Thanks,
98 E300 TDT Wagon 86,000 KM

 

Diesel,
The butyl seal around the lens cover is most likely deteriorated and has gaps along the perimeter. Pretty easy DIY job to remove the headlight assembly and then use a heat gun along the perimeter to either add butyl to the sparse sections, OR unseal and remove the entire clear cover and reseal. It's a time consuming labor of love, just so you know. I've done it on both the w210 and the w163. But once done, no more water issues, condensation, etc.

As for swapping to LED, good article here - https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/owne...dy/ar-BB110wCE

As for the bi-xenon dimming/output issue - some reading here

I had very minor issues on the PS bi-xenon reflector when I opened it up to redo the butyl seal and re-polish the clear lens. It wasnt a reflective issue, however I did notice the reflective chrome mirror finish seemed to be tarnishing along the edges.
I did not touch it. Instead, I went to the pick n pull and got myself a cheap replacement t play with. Rule #1 - DONT EVER use any mild cleaner on these reflective finishes. One wipe and the reflector I was playing with lost its mirror finish.
This was in my case scenario. Lesson learned on this test. Instead, I used ONLY a clean dry microfibre towel and only IF the reflector needed a wipe down. Nothing else.
With the scrap unit I was testing, I picked up a can of the chrome finish spray and tried this out on the smudged reflector. Not an exact finish but I would say it was sufficient to use for any future minor touch up of the reflector IF needed.