Hello everyone,
We have a 05 greatwest sprinter rv van with l-5 and 11,000 miles, second owner.
First off, I am NOT a mechanic, it might take a couple tries, but I normally figure it out. We thought a small 500 mile trip for first outing would be good and on the way home, 150 to go, we get engine light, near by auto store read the code p2199.
They didn't have the temp sensor, it was running but under power, we drove it home just fine. Got on the pc and found these great site, seems I'm not the only one this is happening too. One member said it is a easy fix and travels with extras,
sounded like a great idea, no one carries these guys in stock and most can't even order one. Found a site online,I'm going to order two, they only had one and didn't know when they would be getting more. It's been two months and they are still out, but I got one!! and in it goes.
Off we go one trip two, going rving for 5 weeks in SW of USofA with a code reader, get Phoenix,AZ ,1200 miles, code goes off, wow its p2199,
I don't have spare, found Benz dealer, don't have it and maybe in a couple days, call every auto parts, know one has it, some have no clue. I was near a Checker auto parts, stopped in, young kid was putting 25% into looking for it and was giving up, but a female worker there said let me look, she was on the phone, calling here and there, and hot dam she found one, yes only ONE and I waited 3 hours for that part. She knew a good mechanic down the block and said I should see him as I waited, thanks I'll do that.
Told the mechanic about code, showed him my first temp sensor, His Snap on showed same code, put ohm meter on sensor, he said it should read 5 ohms, it was at 0 ohms, took out sensor in van, it was 0 ohms too. He said on gas engines will run just fine with a bad temp sensor, but did not know why desiel motors ran, but lost power. I said thanks for info, he said no charge, I said lunch is on me and handed over 20 bucks and waited for my part.
If you look at the pic hkpierce put on here, you will see a lite film of oil, that oil shorts out the temp sensor, my bad sensor all look like that one pictured. So why do they get oil on them????? and no my oil is not over filled.
I got my NEW temp sensor and there was no way in hell I was going to just replace the bad one with no spare one and 4 more weeks to go on our trip. So this is what I did, I left the bad sensor in its spot in the tube, but I unplugged the wires to it, I then plugged the wires in the new sensor and I tie strapped in front of the battery. Guess what?? I drove it 7000 miles, up and down mountains, snow and rain, and it ran GREAT, avg.22-23.5 mpg to boot.
I am not changing a thing!!! We love this Sprinter RV!!
But still want to know why oil gets on the temp sensor, sorry for the live story on our rv LOL