CDI cranks but doesn't start
 

2005 E320 CDI
Been having an issue with an intermittent no crank, no start condition. Dealer tells me I need a new ECU.
Today, I thought I would clean up all the fuses in the engine bay and driver compartment LHS fuses, just to see if my condition would improve.
The engine bay fuses were quite oxidized, the driver compartment fuses not overly oxidized,
I cleaned up every fuse as well as all the relays, including the starter relay, none of the fuses were blown, so I reinstalled them.
I didn't disconnect the secondary battery or the primary when cleaning the fuses / relays.
I took them out one by one, cleaned the contacts and reinstalled in the same position, including the relays.
When starting the car, I now get the starter cranking, but the engine will not start. It will keep cranking until I turn the key off in switch.
What the heck did I do? It doesn't make sense that just by cleaning the contacts on the fuses and relays the engine now won't run.
Did I blow a relay by pulling them out one by one with battery still hooked up?
Then I disconnected both batteries, waited about 15 mins to see if I could do a reset and then tried to start again.
But I still get the starter cranking, but engine will not start.
I have an MBII reader, reading the following codes.
P0202, P0205, P0201, injector circuit open on cylinder 1, 2, and 5,
P2146 fuel injector group A supply voltage circuit open and
P2149 fuel injector group B supply voltage circuit open.

What can I do to get the car to start? Beyond frustrated.
Thanks,

Going to try and clear the codes to see if this will correct my issue.

Cannot clear the codes from my MBII.
Now what? Help.

Called up head mechanic at dealer, he suggested that before pulling relays and fuses to remove negative battery cable and then clean them.
Also suggested to go over the fuse diagram and make sure that I put the proper fuses in the correct position.
It appears that one 25 A fuse I put into a different slot.
I think it was 25A fuse 57 that I inserted into slot 60,
After battery was hooked up, the car started.
But I still have the intermittent no crank, no start issue, and the recommended fix is a new or repaired ECU.
Will investigate a repair vs new ECU from dealer.
Has anyone ever used a repaired ECU and is it wise to repair an ECU.

It must be ECU season. My 2005 E320 CDI is also suffering from crank, no start. It's already had the central gateway replaced due to water damage and ran fine for a month after that before the crank no start started to occur. My indy diagnosed an ECU fault through Autologix flagging the ECU with a trouble code "P2386-008 Replace component N3/9 (CDI control unit). Internal fault". Did your mechanic get a similar code showing an ECU fault when the car was scanned?

I sent my ECU off for a rebuild up to XeMODeX in Canada, they are unable to get the unit to fault on the bench and recommended a clone/swap to another unit. We're trying to source one now, however seems my particular part number (A 648 150 09 79) is a bit of a rare bird. Anyone out there have a surplus ECU with this part number they'd like to move out?

Thanks
Eric

Hi Eric, the fuse issue above is not part of my main issue, its just that I was cleaning some fuses and put one back in the wrong position, which caused my crank but no start issue.
Once I put the fuse in the correct position I was back to my initial no crank, no start condition.

My main issue is an intermittent no crank, no start. The dealer looked at it back in December and said I need a new ECU, but along with that, a revised EGR compatible with new ECU.
The dealer told me that there was a change from 05 to 06 EGR valve, the new ECU would be the 06 version necessitating a new EGR valve.
Dealer found codes P2311 and P2312 when they were able to duplicate the issue back in December. They tried to update the software in the ECU, but it would not work, I guess in effect telling them the ECU was faulty. They also checked all the pins, and grounds in front SAM, but all checked OK.

Sometimes the car starts every time, other times I need to cycle the key a number of times and then the car will start.
When it doesn't crank nor start I will get an ESP and ABS dash message, but they disappear once the engine starts.

Your say your issue is a crank, but no start?

I also thought of Xemodex as I had a Volvo instrument cluster which I got repaired there years ago. I contacted them, but they said they have limited testing capability for the CDI, so I didn't proceed with them.
I investigated some US sources, but so far the expense is pretty high, especially with fedex there and back, and duty and taxes to get it back to Canada.
Although they say the issue can be repaired, if it is damaged beyond repair, they will replace with another ECU from another vehicle, tested and repaired, but programmed to my car, plug and play.

I haven't ruled out going stateside yet, as they have more CDI's in circulation and hence more used ECU's available in the event that mine is not repairable, but going to check other Canadian sources first.

I estimated the costs for shipping two ways along with duty and taxes and its about 1750 CAN, including the ECU, which is still about half of what the dealer here would charge me. (Bear in mind with the deaIer, I will have a new ECU along with a revised EGR valve).

No news yet as to which way I'm going, but by the end of the week, I will decide. If I can't get a Canadian source, then stateside I go.

https://www.renntechmercedes.com/ind...-464-tq-detail

My car set that code a couple times while I was dealing with battery parasitic drain issues but not been back since those issues resolved. Car has always started up with every crank so far. RennTech is located in south Florida (close to you?) & who I will turn to when/if time comes for replacement.

That's interesting, I had parasitic drain issues as well which finally went away. We had to do a rear SAM on the car due to water intrusion in the trunk, apparently it was infiltrating through the coax penetration from the glass-mount GPS/Teleaid antenna. Two shops worked on it in my area, the first shop (that shall remain anonymous) did a really poor job, couldn't properly code the rear SAM they replaced, broke two grounds in the process and just shoved it out the door. My second guy revisited the first shop's work, repaired what he could and replaced a bad battery control module in the trunk, re-coded everything correctly and recommended the ECU be repaired or changed out. Now that you mention the parasitic drain issue on your car set a transient ECU fault code, this is starting to make me wonder a bit. Can't really do much more right now without ruling out the ECU however, I've heard anecdotally of these faults going both ways.

Things that make you go "Hmmmm.....". Oh, see you sold your CDI off!

Thanks
Eric

I did sell my original white 2005 but quickly discovered all the pitfalls of owning/operating om642 engine shoe-horned into a ML suv so sold that & bought another blue 2005. The ML developed an intermittent no crank/no start condition like OP's issues that would not set any codes in DAS which turned out to be a faulty key-fob failing the EIS/ESZ handshake when turned to position 3. At that time, I only had 1 key-fob that came with vehicle when I bought it so got duped by stealership into replacing the EIS. After searching thru here & BW, I added programming a 2nd key-fob to repair bill which increased price by $400 but paid off to do because that combo cranked/started like new again but funny (not funny) how my original key-fob still failed w/ replaced EIS intermittently. That was a $1200 lesson I won't soon forget & really grinds my gears about certain repair shops in central FL. DAS/Xentry only registered a quick anomoly in EIS telemetry of actual values datastream when key-fob was cycled. To untrained eye it happens too quick to know what is missing but briefly during start/crank key-fob & EIS are communicating but if not start/crank aborts by interrupting circuit 15 which I guess is drive authorization (key/ignition switch handshake) so car would sometimes crank for 1 second then cut out but then crank continuously next cycle but not start then not crank/start at all next cycle then crank/start as it's supposed to next cycle so very tricky to diagnose w/o 2nd key-fob present to test. The EIS is a very common failure point in MLs apparently similar to their turbo actuators with entire failure boiling down to 3 tiny solder points that can't handle heat cycles so can't be ruled out w/o 2nd key fob to eliminate it as suspect. I'm not sure about failure rate of E class EIS, hopefully not a countdown like SBC.

Interestingly enough, I also have the teleaid malfunction on the dash which has been there for over a year,
You say the water travels down the coax cable and into the rear SAM?
Just yesterday, a battery message popped up with convenience features disabled, drive to workshop, but today its not there.
Could this be the BCM, or is this a rear SAM issue.
Can the rear SAM and the BCM be rebuilt / reprogrammed as well?