New codes after oil change
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Junior Member
Joined: Sep 2020
Posts: 22
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Ram
New codes after oil change
2013 ML550. I normally do all the service. I was out of town and my dad wanted to help me so he changed the oil and filter. Starts the car up and tests it and we have 4 codes. I told him not to mess with it until I got back in town.
Codes are P054C, P054A, P0021 and P0014. These are all timing over advanced codes relating to cam position it appears. I pulled the sensors and found oil in 3/4 of them. One was very slight and may have been from him spilling when filling but the others definitely had oil. So I replaced the two driver side sensors and took it out for a test drive.
It drives totally normal. No odd noises. No long cranking. No trouble in general. But the 21 and 14 codes popped up again. The others are showing as permanent but not active.
Course of action? Don't say take it to a mechanic. Glad to have info from mechanically inclined folks. I'll be fixing it.
Is there a cam oil valve somewhere? Or some other part that may have randomly failed at a perfect time. I am inclined to believe it had something to do with the oil change he did.
Codes are P054C, P054A, P0021 and P0014. These are all timing over advanced codes relating to cam position it appears. I pulled the sensors and found oil in 3/4 of them. One was very slight and may have been from him spilling when filling but the others definitely had oil. So I replaced the two driver side sensors and took it out for a test drive.
It drives totally normal. No odd noises. No long cranking. No trouble in general. But the 21 and 14 codes popped up again. The others are showing as permanent but not active.
Course of action? Don't say take it to a mechanic. Glad to have info from mechanically inclined folks. I'll be fixing it.
Is there a cam oil valve somewhere? Or some other part that may have randomly failed at a perfect time. I am inclined to believe it had something to do with the oil change he did.
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Sep 2020
Posts: 22
Likes: 15
Ram
Well, spent some time messing with it this afternoon. Asked my dad if anything was odd when he did the oil change. He remembered suddenly that the oil filter he took out was not the same as the one he put in. Boom. I pulled the filter, and he had put the wrong one in. So I went and picked up the right style filter, put it in and drove it about 35 miles and all of the pending/active codes cleared. I've still got two of them stored as permanent for cold start timing, but I'm guessing those will take a number of warm up/cold start cycles to clear. So the money and time spent on the cam sensors was not necessary, but clearly, a good move since there was oil in them.
Out Of Control!!
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From: unbegrenzt
2017 GLE350 4MATIC
Well, spent some time messing with it this afternoon. Asked my dad if anything was odd when he did the oil change. He remembered suddenly that the oil filter he took out was not the same as the one he put in. Boom. I pulled the filter, and he had put the wrong one in. So I went and picked up the right style filter, put it in and drove it about 35 miles and all of the pending/active codes cleared. I've still got two of them stored as permanent for cold start timing, but I'm guessing those will take a number of warm up/cold start cycles to clear. So the money and time spent on the cam sensors was not necessary, but clearly, a good move since there was oil in them.
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Sep 2020
Posts: 22
Likes: 15
Ram
Yeah but I'm not gonna pay out $50 for the exact same filter because it was purchased at the dealer. Had I been the one to do the work myself as planned, I would have noticed the difference and gone and swapped it before it ever became a problem. There is a reason they say if you want something done right, do it yourself.
