galileo55

Vehicle: 2006 E350 Sedan, RWD.

I had codes P0016 and P0017 on a 2006 E350. The dealer wanted $6000 to replace the balance shaft. I bought the MB kit, took out the engine and transmission and replaced all the parts including the balance shaft, front and rear seals, o-rings, camshaft adjuster pulse wheels, anything and everything else that came in the kit. Once that was done, I had codes P0014 and P0024.

I then swapped the left and right Exhaust camshaft gears, which I thought were identical at first and must have accidentally swapped them. The P0014 and P0024 went away. However, I now have P0019.

When taking the camshaft gears out, I did not use an exact 3mm pin and the teeth got misaligned. The ring that pushes on them is so strong . To avoid damaging the teeth, I had to dismantle both gears (the ones that say "do not open") and put them back together with the correct and exact 3mm pin the second time around, which worked fine.

Could the P0019 be caused by one of the cam gears (I believe P0019 is Exhaust, Left) not being put back exactly right, even though I believe I reassembled both cam gears exactly the same way?

Alernatively, some online P0019 "possible causes" list an open circuit or not getting a signal form the VVT sensor. Could this second plug (see photo) on the wire that goes to the thermostat be the one that's supposed to go to the VVT sensor? I cannot find where it plugs into. Unfortunately, my numerous pre-disassembly photos do not show it,

Another possible reason listed for P0019 is the wrong engine oil viscosity. I have not changed the oil and filter a second time yet to put the Mobile-1 0W40 Synthetic oil in there yet. the Instructions say to drive the car with "high engine load" for 15 miles before changing the oil a second time. I'm trying to clear all codes first. While it's possible, I doubt the wrong viscosity (currently non-synthetic 0W30) is causing this P0019.

This was a big job and I hope I'm close to being done. I would really appreciate any help on this so I can wrap it up before I trade this car for nothing with the check engine light on.

Thank you

Plutoe

Find someone with DAS Xentry to test the switch, but I think that's all BS----the bad news is that it sounds like you gotta go back in again!!

211.070

The plug is not used on your engine. It has nothing at all to do with your concern. The exhaust cam adjusters are identical. You can swap them without any concerns. Did you reuse the pulse wheels when you swapped the cam adjusters? They are a one time use product.

galileo55

I changed the pulse wheels only the first time. They came with the balance shaft kit.
I reused the new pulse wheels, keeping them wehre they were (left vs right) as I swapped the gear left/right. I'll change the one giving the error code if I can figure out which position P0019 really is for sure. (I'm thinking left exhaust).

BTW, when putting the cam gears back on, I noticed the the hole in camshaft was not exactly opposite the 3mm pin that holds the gear teeth together at the bottom position as I looked at the cam gears. I had to turn both exhaust camshafts from the back. After putting up some slight resistance, they flipped to where the pin in the gear would go into the camshaft with the 3mm that holds the gear teeth together at the bottom position and all the markings aligned parallel to the center of both gears. That, together with the fact that the engine has to be turned 2 revolutions to get the pulse wheels on the cam gears to turn just once, is leading to believe that perhaps if I were now to turn the camshaft 360 degrees, perhaps that would fix the P0019!! Does this make sense? worth a try?

Also, could use confirmation as to whether P0019 is exhaust left. If not, what is P0019 for mercedes? I can't seem to find that online.

Thank you in advance for your feedback.

Plutoe

I am not going to comment on what to do because I believe that for a job of this complexity you did not spend the lousy twenty bucks and print the MB repair instructions and tests for this complex procedure.

The other problem is that you are relying on a cheap scanner to diagnose the car. You are giving us OBD codes, FYI there are four MB sub faults for the faults you want cross referenced---never the less based on a DAS Xentry diagnosis report the cross reference is a s follows

P0016----constant adjustment of intake camshaft of right bank in direction of retarded
P0017---constant adjustment of exhaust camshaft of right bank in direction of retarded
P0019---constant adjustment of exhaust camshaft of left bank in direction of advanced
P0024----incorrect position of left exhaust camshaft

Get help with folks with a serious diagnostic tester!!

211.070

More than likely you have the timing off, or you did not assemble the adjuster properly. As I stated in my previous statement: the pulse wheels are one time use. The dowel on the back side can be easily sheared off. As Plutoe stated: get a real scan tool(DAS) to work on your car if you insist on doing your own work. There are so many things that could have gone wrong with this job. Especially when you disassembled the cam adjusters.

galileo55

Thank you for your comments. I had full instructions from both alldatadiy and a good guy who shared the same info with me in full easier-to-print PDFs. Otherwise no chance of doing this job. The alldatadiy is a joke to print, one picture at a time.

I don't have advanced diagnostic tools as I don't usually do this kind of elaborate work on my cars. But saving $5000 and working 50 hours of my time, that's $100/hour. Beats going to the gym. (It's rated at 30 hours labor by an experienced mechanic with all the right tools and no rework, like I've had to do).

Anyway, after I replaced the balance shaft the mechanic wanted to change both cam gears at $660+labor+tax to fix the P0014 and P0024 thinking since I had disassembled/reassembled the gears, they were supposedly no longer usable. Well, at least the right one seems fine so far and about $1000 saved.

I'll have to double check the left exhaust timing/alignment, just in case it's a tooth off. If it's still aligned, I'll take the gear apart again and check it. May eventually have to replace the left cam gear and pulse wheel with new ones (about $525 online) and hope it's not something else after that.
I think I'll have the mechanic read the P0019 code details to see if it's something else, before I do any of the above. There's probably a good chance it's something else since I put both gears back together the same way, unless one of them is just bad to begin with.

Thank you again for your tips and your patience with my limited experience.

galileo55

Ok, So... I had some more time and got back to this car.
I again removed both Exhaust camshaft timing gear sets, took them apart again and spent quite a bit of time making sure they cannot be reassembled any other way. Put them back together the only way they can be put together and inserted them back in, triple checking the alignment marks to make sure they're 100% parallel and matching per instructions.

I still got these codes:
P0014(0059): Continuous camshaft adjustment (Right): Incorrect position of the exhaust camshaft
P0024(0063): Continuous camshaft adjustment (Left): Incorrect position of the exhaust camshaft

I then changed the temporary engine oil to Mobil-1 Fully Synthetic 0-W40 (European Spec for MB, BMW, Audi), cleared the codes and drove the car at high RPM for about 10 minutes around the neighborhood. The VVT apparently works on oil pressure that moves the internal parts of the adjuster gears through holes in the assembly. Pushing the car to high RPMs this time seems to have made a difference in that the codes changed without taking the wheels apart in between.

The P0014,P0024 went away and I get one code for the LEFT side only now:
P0019 (1201 or 1203) Constant adjustment of exhaust camshaft of LEFT cylinder bank in direction 'Advanced'.
P0019 (1202 or 1204) Constant adjustment of exhaust camshaft of LEFT cylinder bank in direction 'Retarded'.

Next, thinking about:
1) Buy a brand new LEFT Exhaust Gear ($550) and pulse wheel and change them. I'm concerned I would still get the same code after that.

2) Take it to a dealer, pay them a $140 diagnostics fee, have them give me same codes above P0019 (1201, 1202,1203 and/or 1204)
a) Best case: They could tell me it's something else like a bad wiring harness, plug or similar (unlikely)
b) Worst case: They'll want to replace both exhaust gears for over $2,000 ($660 list price per wheel plus labor)


The pulse wheel pin did not sheer off. Everything done by the book, following instructions one by one. I had a second set of eyes on the last rework so we believe everything is done 100% accurately. I'm not one to give up easily but as you can imagine, I'm close to taking it to a dealer to fix it no matter what the cost.

One last try here:

- Can anyone shed some light on the difference between "Constant" and "Continuous" adjustment?
- Any suggestions for additional DIY steps from here?


Thank you in advance.
http://s985.photobucket.com/user/jsj...ry/2006%20E350

galileo55

Quick update for completeness:
I had to buy brand new left and right Exhaust camshaft adjusters and voila: problem solved.
Cost about $1000 for both adjusters, online. Did it myself so no labor cost.